Day 10, 11, and 12

OK, so here are the blogs for the last couple days...sorry it has taken me so long to get them up, between the inet not working and how tired I have been, I just haven't felt like it. But here they are, so ENJOY!


Day 10 (July 1)
Today was a really long day, or yesterday I should say. Since we had gone out the night before it was pretty hard to get up and around for our 10am class. Stupid archeology, IT'S SO BORING! So we go to class, and its a really pretty day out, but it looks like it might rain. Okay, but get this, during class these girls are sitting behind us and they start talking when class starts, and they get progressively louder and louder--they weren't even TRYING to whisper. Everyone is turning around and I can't believe that our professor didn't say anything. So finally I turned around and was like "can you stop talking please" and the girl looked so shocked and then gave me this dirty look...then proceeded to keep talking. Some of the girls here need to be smacked upside the head.

Then after class we walked home and got some lunch and rested up a bit and headed back to school for our history class at 2pm. I LOVE this class, and I could sit and listen to him talk for hours, it is all SO fascinating. Then after that class ended at 330 it was time to head over to old campus to get on the bus for our archeology field trip.

Our class got to go out to the Burren and see a couple sites a long the way. It took a little over an hour to get out there, and it was so beautiful. However, with my luck I ended up sitting right next to the girl I had told to shut up in class earlier that morning, isn't that wonderful? It was cool. We went out to Polnabrone and saw that megalithic tomb, then we went out and saw a couple others. One of them was far out in this field and we had to trek through the burren landscape, which is over grown and filled with holes, btw, but it was fun. We took some pictures, and luckily it didn't rain on us.

We didn't get back till a little after nine and so we went home and made some dinner and just chilled out for the rest of the night. We were going to go to this one pub who has dancing (traditional type dancing) but we were all tired, and it was sorta late to head out. All my room mates and i stayed up till like 1am talking though. That was fun, one of my room mates told this story about her dad and how he got a fake leg and screwed it on to a tree and then called the tree people because he had a "problematic limb" and wanted it cut down. It was seriously one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

All in all yesterday was another good day. I love Ireland.

Polnabrone Dolemn

The most beautiful IRISH rainbow ever!!! it was amazing

A court tomb that my archeology professor excavated...we had to trek through the wild irishness to get to it!

More of the rainbow...

Me in the burial tomb...hahha, its a wedge tomb

There is my professor talking about the site...he is from cali, can you tell?

Day 11: (July 2)
So, since I haven't blogged in a couple days my memory is sort of confused. On the 2nd we got up and went to archeology at 9am and we were at school till 2pm, because we had Gaelic class. Ok, this teacher is just insane...she zips through everything and expects us to catch on like we have taken a course before. We went through like three pages of material and she hasn't taught us the different pronunciations or any of the grammar that goes along with the Irish language. It really sucks because we are just going to learn these few phrases and thats it, not have a base for the language established. I bought a book that has a CD so hopefully that will help supplement the course. I can now count to 10 in gaelic though. It is quite exciting.

After we got back from school we were in desperate need of food, so we got our backpacks and bags and took a trip down to the grocery store. See, here, you have to bring your own bags to carry stuff home in, unless you want to pay like 40 cents for a plastic bag there. So we got our food and went home and then we headed off to meet our other room mate down at the bay. We were having clothes and pillow issues so we were late, so by the time we got down to the bay our roomie was no where to be found, so we went out to the lighthouse...and unknown to us, you cant go out to the lighthouse...so we walked a long way for nothing. So we decided to go and get some dinner before we headed out to the pubs. We ate at a place called Fat Tonys, it was an Italian restaurant, it was really good. We split a pizza, some ceasar salad, and bread and it was only 28 euro.

That night at the pub was alright, we sat around for a while till the music started, but the band wasn't really that great. They played a couple good songs but that was it. We started talking to these people from out of all the places...California, and we ended up hanging out with them the rest of the night. We also had our first Irish "club" experience. After the pub closed at midnight we went to this place called Bar 903, there was a live band and stuff, but no one was dancing. It was fun, but it was jam packed full of people. We stayed for about 2 hours and then headed home.

The lighthouse we couldnt go to...

See...no access

Me and another girl in the program, Kelsey, at Taffees. She is one of the nicest persons ever.

The band. We decided that it was a mother, father, son combo. hahaha

Day 12 (July 3)
Today we had no classes scheduled so we booked a day tour out to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. Connemara is just the most beautiful place ever...full of mountains and rivers and waterfalls, and little Irish houses dotting the mountainside. It is the place that everyone thinks of when they think of Ireland. We stopped a few random towns to take pictures and stuff, but the main stop was Kylemore Abbey--it was amazing. All the views from the grounds of the surrounding mountains were crazy. The abbey is now a boarding school run by the Benedictian nuns, and all I could think of was how lucky they were to be able to wake up to that view every morning. I was really tired, so after the abbey I pretty much closed my eyes and rested all the way back home. Our nice bus driver even let us off at our school so we wouldn't have to walk back to it from the city centre.

That night our school had a "4th of july" bbq for us...it was really strange. It was in the college bar and we got 2 free drinks, and had hamburgers and stuff. The cooks were calling the chicken "Seagull" and I'm pretty sure a lot of people believed them. I sort of felt like I was being mocked all night, they were played only American music, like old stuff, and the whole seagull thing. I don't know, it was strange...but it was free food and free booze! haha.

After we left there my room mate Katie and I went home and got ready to go out to the pub again. The band that we had seen the first night at Taffees was going to be back that night so we went and listened to them, they are really good. We headed back at about 1130 and took a taxi because i couldn't walk anymore!

Connemara

More prettiness

Me and my roomies sitting by the pretty waterfall...

...our driver said it was "guinness water"

SHEEEEEPPPPPP!!!!!

Kylemore Abbey

Me in front of the beautiful view

Mountains... lol

The church at Kylemore

Inside the church

More of the inside church

This is the BEST PICTURE EVER! if i do say so myself...

On the way back to galway...

Today (July 4th)
Happy Independence day my fellow Americans. Today I had class at 9 and then we went to the library to check our email since our inet STILL ISN'T WORKING! Apparently the providers server is down or something? It comes and it goes, but all I know is it better be working on july 17th when i have to register for my classes. We got home from school and had some lunch and just chilled..one of my room mates went to the cliffs of moher and me and the other two are taking naps then going to head out and eat some dinner in a few hours. It is definitely time for a slow night because i am EXHAUSTED! It is to the point where i have to WORK to keep my eyes open in class...and if i don't get some rest im going to feel crappy and not want to do anything. I especially need to rest because one of my room mates friends is coming tomorrow and we are all going to go out..so its going to be a long night, then we have to get up early to leave for the Aran Islands on Sunday morning...

So yeah...It's going to be a long weekend, but I'm still loving every minute of it.