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