The past few weeks have been crazy, and adjusting to Galway has become a full-time job. Even though stepping outside my comfort zone to learn as much as I can is exhausting sometimes, I’ve been having so much more fun than I could have ever expected.  It hit me at some point last week that four months here is just not going to be enough time, and I’m already not looking forward to leaving.

On Sunday, September 16, my roommate Jess and I woke up early and traveled by bus to the annual oyster festival in Clarenbridge (or Clarinbridge, depending on who you ask). We ate some oysters, had a couple beers, watched a rubber ducky race in the stream next to the festival grounds, and listened to a band called The Amazing Apples (not only were they very good, but they were also very cute!) After missing two buses (the first because we were so mesmerized by the band that we didn’t want to leave, the second because we didn’t realize you have to waive the bus down/jump in front of it to get the driver to stop) we finally got back to Galway and met up with our friends for dinner at the King’s Head.

On Wednesday, the 19^th, I was sitting in a lecture and suddenly realized I had missed my appointment to register at the Immigration Office. I attempted to walk there after I got out of college, but had a really hard time finding it with the directions given to me by the International Students Office. After walking up and down the same road several times and asking a hotel receptionist (who had a mix between and Asian and an Irish accent, which I absolutely could not understand), I finally hailed a cab to take me there. By the time I finally got there, however, they had been closed for fifteen minutes. I went back on Friday morning at 9am with my friend Monica, and sat there for three hours until I finally registered. The Immigration Office was a strange place – there was a mix between foreign students, immigrants from the Middle East, and screaming children waiting in the lobby. Between that and what I thought was strep throat coming on, I was convinced I had been sent to hell.

Thursday the 27^th was my new favorite holiday – Arthur Guinness/Sir Arthur’s Day! Since I don’t have classes – or “college” as the Irish students say – I had all day to prepare. My roommate Jess has come to realize a fact that those closest to me know – that I will literally take all day to get ready if you let me! Once Jessica got back from class and we were both ready, we went in to town with Kaja and Jenna to the King’s Head. We held up our pints of Guinness at 5:59 and cheered for Arthur Guinness… On the 30^th of September, Jessica and I went with our Irish roommates and their friends to watch the tie-breaking match of the All Ireland hurling finals at the King’s Head. Unfortunately, Galway lost. However, I have come to really enjoy watching hurling (even if I still don’t really understand it!)

On Saturday, the 6^th of October, I went with my study abroad group, CEA, to the Aran Islands. More specifically, we went to the island of Inis Mor, where we hired bicycles and traveled across the island to Dun Aengus. Dun Aengus is a fort that is over a thousand years old. We had amazing weather, so we soaked up the sun and took lots of pictures.

I’ve had some really telling moments about the weather in Ireland in my time here. There have been multiple days that I would be getting ready for class and I looked out the window. It would be sunny, so I would put on a sweater, jeans, and boots. When I go to walk to the front door, it would be pouring rain. So I’ll go back upstairs and put on my rain jacket, rain boots, and got my umbrella. When I walk back out the front door, it had completely stopped raining and the sun was shining bright. So I’ve learned that I really need to be prepared for any kind of weather, and I always bring my rain jacket with me.

At this current moment, I am packing as much as I can in to my tiny little backpack and getting ready to spend the next six days in Italy with three of my friends! I have to take a taxi in to town in less than an hour, and I still have to paint my nails!

"Shop Street" in Galway City

Oysters and beer at the Clarenbridge Oyster Festival

Cheers to Arthur!

The beach at Inis Mor

Dun Aengus

The view from inside Dun Aengus :)

Jessica, Gretchen, Monica and I at the Skeff Bar

The group of girls from my study abroad program (CEA) at Coyote's

Gretchen, Jessica and I at the nightclub Carbon

Monica, Jessica and I at the King's Head

I've had a pretty busy first week in Galway - classes started, we got to know our Irish roommates, and I got to know Galway a little better. After I finished my post last Monday, Jessica, Jenna, Kaja and I met up with our friend Gretchen at a bar called The Front Door, where we had a few drinks before we moved on to the night club Carbon. From there, we stopped shortly at the club Karma, where we ran in to our Irish roommates. Jessica and I were determined to walk home, but we got ourselves lost pretty quickly and had to call a taxi. Tuesday was spent recovering from Monday night and finding out where our next set of classes were.

On Wednesday, we prepared for a house party that our roommates were throwing and got to know some of the shopping centers around or apartment complex. The house party that we got was more than we had expected; there ended up being at least 70 people in our house, somebody broke our kitchen table and security had to come to break up the party. However, our Irish housemates could not have been nicer, and we had a great night out with them on the town. We went to Coyote's (one of our favorite spots) where they play great music and have really cheap drinks. That night, we found out how different Irish boys  are from American boys. Irish boys are incredibly forward and pushy, and our roommates told us that you can't be afraid to "give 'em a slap" if they deserve it (which my friend Jenna ended up having to do). Overall though, it was a very fun night.

I got to video chat with Shaunna, my roommate from the States on Thursday. It was great to see her face and here about life back at Montclair. On Friday, our weekend began. Jessica and I went out with our friend Monica to the King's Head, where we met up with Gretchen. There was great band playing there that night who played my favorite song - Galway Girl :) We met a group of guys from Missouri, who we now refer to as "The Bro Tanks" because they were such typical American guys who were all wearing tank tops  (which they ended up having to cover up because men aren't allowed to dress like that in bars and clubs here.) We also met a couple nice guys from Dublin, and the entire group of us moved on to our favorite place - Coyotoe's. Since all the students go home on the weekends, we had Coyote's mostly to ourselves.

On Saturday night, Jessica, Monica, Gretchen and I met up at the Skeff Bar for a girls night, where I had a delicious and beautiful mojito. We moved on to a bar with an outdoor area called O'Connell's, but it was too cold so we left quickly. We ran in to our friends from Dublin that we met from the night before and all decided to try a new nightclub called The Bentley. After a long weekend of excessive drinking, you would think I'd spend Sunday relaxing and getting ready for classes... that didn't happen. Monica and I met up with two of the guys from Dublin (Paul and Greg) to watch the hurling match at the King's Head. Galway was playing Kilkenny in the finals (a huge deal for all the natives of Galway) but the match ended in a tie.

I spent all day in class on Monday, and woke up early again this morning for class. After getting back to my apartment from campus, I met up with Jenna, Kaja, and Jess and got to finally walk around Eyre Square and Galway City in the daylight (and sober!) We stopped at the King's Head (my favorite watering hole now) to have some soup and an American beer in honor of September 11th. It's gotten a bit chilly over the past couple days, but hopefully it will warm up tomorrow or this weekend so I won't freeze to death when I go out with no jacket on like the Irish girls (I'm trying very hard to fit in with them!)

My lovely mojito from the Skeff Bar (the picture doesn't do it justice,  I swear!)

Coors Lights, Budweisers, and the Malt House Seafood Chowder at the King's Head

Galway Girl live from the King's Head!!!

So, I had a pretty eventful weekend. On Friday night, me, Jessica, and our friends Jenna and Kaja went on a pub crawl up in Eyre Square. We started off at The Skeff Bar, visited three other bars, and ended the night at a club called Karma. We had a lot of fun meeting people from all over the world and managed to even make a couple new friends - like the pub crawl guide, Gretchen. After we recovered from the night before, we went out again on Saturday. We met up with Gretchen at Hole In The Wall Bar, and then went to a night club called Carbon. Jessica, Kaja and I were shocked at how differently Irish girls dress at night clubs compared to American girls. We eventually made it back to our dorm, where I introduced Jess to my famous grilled cheese sandwiches. All the Irish students moved in to the dorm complex yesterday, so there were a lot of house parties going on last night. Jessica and I have all girl roommates, but Kaja and Jenna have all boys roommates (which is still so weird to me). We hung out at their dorm last night, but made it early to bed because classes began this morning.

The way the beginning of the semester works in Ireland is that students have a two week trial period to figure out what classes they would like to take, and then registration is at the end of the two weeks. I made it to my first three classes this morning - barely. I feel like a Freshman in college again because I don't know where any of the buildings or classrooms are. However, Jess and I did find a Starbucks in the student center, which was a nice reminder of home. It just so happened to work out that I will only be taking classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I'm going to see if I can get involved with volunteering or clubs to fill out the rest of my week.

Tonight is apparently a big night to go out for students, so Jessica and I are ordering Chinese food for delivery and getting ready to go out tonight!

Our first homemade dinner - pasta with tomatoes, eggplant, and chicken cutlets.

TK Maxx - not TJ Maxx?

My first Guinness!

Don't know if I've ever been so happy to see a Starbucks...

"But it's also true that the person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing. All we know about the future is that it will be different. But perhaps what we fear is that it will be the same. So we must celebrate the changes." - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

So my first two days were not what I was expecting them to be. My flight left around 7pm NJ time and landed in Shannon at around 2am NJ time (6am Ireland time). I sat in the airport with my CEA advisor (Brian) for 5 more hours, waiting for the rest of the students in my program to fly in. By the time we got on the bus headed towards Galway, I was absolutely exhausted. My roommate did not arrive the same day I did, so I spent my first day shopping for necessities (sheets, blankets, towels, etc.) on my own.

Thankfully, on Wednesday morning, my roommate Jessica made it in to Galway and to our dorm room just in time for our first orientation. We walked with Brian and the rest of the students in our program to campus and in to town for brunch. Jessica and I stopped on our way back to our dorm at this supermarket-kind-of-thing, where we bought pay-as-you-go phones and our first 6 packs of beer. The weather had improved from the steady rain that morning, so we walked in to Galway City for dinner and ate at this beautiful restaurant/wine bar. I had  sea bass, veggies, and potatoes, and Jess had seafood linguine. After a cup of coffee and dessert, we walked around a little bit and found a cute little pub with outdoor seating, where I introduced Jessica to Smithwick's. We had two pints each, and then walked home.

This morning, we woke up entirely too early (around 8am) to get ready for our second orientation. Besides being absolutely tiny, the shower is actually pretty nice. Even though this orientation was long, most of the speakers were actually pretty funny - one Gaelic Professor even got the entire room to sing along with him (in Gaelic) to this Irish rebel song. We made our first trip to The College Bar after orientation ended, then walked back to the dorms. Jessica and I made another trip to Dunne's (the shopping center across the street from my dorm) to get stuff for our kitchen (her second trip, my fourth - I swear, everyone at Dunne's  is going to know me by name by the end of this trip). After a short nap, we got ready and went to the restaurant in the dorm complex (Scotty's) with two girls in our program. We met up with the rest of the group after, and went down to Salthill to see traditional Irish song & dance, which was absolutely amazing. I'm getting ready for bed now, since I have to be up early again tomorrow to register for classes. Jessica, Jenna, Kaja and I are planning on going on a pub crawl tomorrow night :)

Our first rainbow spotting!

Desset & coffe the first night out at the restaurant/wine bar.

The College Bar!

My view as I walk to class everyday - the River Corrib :)

So much to do, so little time. I remember telling people a few months ago, "I want to leave for Galway right now!" But, as my 7:30pm flight tomorrow night gets closer and closer, I'm stuck wondering where the summer went. I'm not completely packed, I haven't checked everything off my To Do list, and I haven't been able to say goodbye to everyone I wanted. However, my last day in Jersey was spent exactly the way I wanted - eating great food and drinking beer with my family & friends. As nervous as I am for tomorrow, I couldn't be more excited for my trip to begin.