My mission while in Ireland is to get a picture worthy of getting on TV for the Blazers "Wear in the World" competition. Here's my first attempt!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Photos from our hike at The Burren - one of Ireland's national parks known for it's limestone deposits.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Getting Settled
Hi Everyone!
Haven't updated the blog in a little while, so here's the latest updates of my adventures abroad.
Things are finally beginning to settle down and are beginning to become routine.
Here's some highlights from the past week or so:
-I registered with the Garda (police) here so I am officially, and legally, a temporary Irish citizen. I have a nice ID card with a very flattering picture, and got my passport officially stamped. Yay!!
-Amanda and I (my roommate and friend from Linfield) have taken up cooking as our new hobby! Since our fridge is so tiny here, we have to go to the store or market at least every other day, if not every day. With all our free time, we decided we should start honing our cooking skills. We've done pretty good so far, made some homemade macaroni and cheese (they don't have any boxed mac and cheese anywhere in Ireland!), fettucini, chicken, tomato-basil pasta, lots of variations of potatoes, etc. We're not half bad. Our other roommates are really enjoying our new hobby as well.
-We joined the mountaineering club!! Which means - we get to go on hikes every Sunday to incredible places that we wouldn't be able to see by ourselves. The mountaineering club has a bus, and we pay 8 Euro, and then get to take the bus to our destination, hike with tour guides, and then stop at the pub on the way home.
Last Sunday, we went to The Burren - it was unbelievable. The Burren is one of the national parks of Ireland, known for it's rock deposits. The weather was cold, but sunny with no rain, and our hike was stunning! The mountaineering club is pretty serious, so we had to buy some hiking boots and waterproof pants. Although we're definitely not setting any new fashion trends here, the hike was great. I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon of The Burren.
-I made my first official clothing purchase in Ireland from a little store on Shop Street (one of the main streets in downtown Galway). It was a wool sweater. I wore it today for the first time, and although I've been walking around vaguely smelling like a lamb, today is the first day I haven't been cold so I'd say it was a success, despite the sheep aroma.
-We're going to Dublin this weekend! We are taking the bus tomorrow morning early (I don't have class Friday) and then staying in a hostel for the night, and coming back late Saturday night. Should be exciting!
-Otherwise, I'm enjoying the local markets and streets, the doughnut man who has a stand on the street, the live traditional music that can be found anywhere and everywhere, the people, the pubs, my classes, and the slower pace of life in Galway. I spend most of my time going to class, walking, wandering aimlessly (or at least it feels aimless) exploring the town, and reading. Next week, I will start volunteering at a local homework club in an elementary school, so I am anxious and excited to begin!
I'm getting more accustomed to the accents everyday, and I can almost understand everything most people say if they don't talk super fast. I'm enjoying the food, but I am missing some of the overprocessed American foods like refried beans, vinagrette salad dressing, and macaroni and cheese - all staples of my college diet last semester.
Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all!
Haven't updated the blog in a little while, so here's the latest updates of my adventures abroad.
Things are finally beginning to settle down and are beginning to become routine.
Here's some highlights from the past week or so:
-I registered with the Garda (police) here so I am officially, and legally, a temporary Irish citizen. I have a nice ID card with a very flattering picture, and got my passport officially stamped. Yay!!
-Amanda and I (my roommate and friend from Linfield) have taken up cooking as our new hobby! Since our fridge is so tiny here, we have to go to the store or market at least every other day, if not every day. With all our free time, we decided we should start honing our cooking skills. We've done pretty good so far, made some homemade macaroni and cheese (they don't have any boxed mac and cheese anywhere in Ireland!), fettucini, chicken, tomato-basil pasta, lots of variations of potatoes, etc. We're not half bad. Our other roommates are really enjoying our new hobby as well.
-We joined the mountaineering club!! Which means - we get to go on hikes every Sunday to incredible places that we wouldn't be able to see by ourselves. The mountaineering club has a bus, and we pay 8 Euro, and then get to take the bus to our destination, hike with tour guides, and then stop at the pub on the way home.
Last Sunday, we went to The Burren - it was unbelievable. The Burren is one of the national parks of Ireland, known for it's rock deposits. The weather was cold, but sunny with no rain, and our hike was stunning! The mountaineering club is pretty serious, so we had to buy some hiking boots and waterproof pants. Although we're definitely not setting any new fashion trends here, the hike was great. I'll try to get some pictures up sometime soon of The Burren.
-I made my first official clothing purchase in Ireland from a little store on Shop Street (one of the main streets in downtown Galway). It was a wool sweater. I wore it today for the first time, and although I've been walking around vaguely smelling like a lamb, today is the first day I haven't been cold so I'd say it was a success, despite the sheep aroma.
-We're going to Dublin this weekend! We are taking the bus tomorrow morning early (I don't have class Friday) and then staying in a hostel for the night, and coming back late Saturday night. Should be exciting!
-Otherwise, I'm enjoying the local markets and streets, the doughnut man who has a stand on the street, the live traditional music that can be found anywhere and everywhere, the people, the pubs, my classes, and the slower pace of life in Galway. I spend most of my time going to class, walking, wandering aimlessly (or at least it feels aimless) exploring the town, and reading. Next week, I will start volunteering at a local homework club in an elementary school, so I am anxious and excited to begin!
I'm getting more accustomed to the accents everyday, and I can almost understand everything most people say if they don't talk super fast. I'm enjoying the food, but I am missing some of the overprocessed American foods like refried beans, vinagrette salad dressing, and macaroni and cheese - all staples of my college diet last semester.
Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Galway Girl
After a few days of being in Galway, I think I'm finally starting to believe I'm going to be living here for the next five months!
We had our first couple days of orientation - still seems odd to be referred to as international students, but the campus of NUI Galway is gorgeous, and there are many interesting classes available to us, so I think this will be quite an exceptional semester - academically of course.
Although, the social scene in Galway seems great too. Last night, we went out for the first time to visit a few pubs....they're everywhere. We went to two, and both had live music. I experienced my first request to show my ID, and purchased my first drink at a bar (legally) ever! I had a Bulmer's - which tastes like cider - and then a hot whiskey - which is sort of like tea with hot water, lemon and cloves but instead of a tea bag, you have a shot or two of whiskey. Both were pretty delicious.
Speaking of delicious, Amanda and I did a little exploring today, and stumbled upon some delightful foods! I'm pretty sure the majority of my money will be spent on food over the next five months. The good news: I can't think of a better way to spend my money. We found the Farmer's market we originally set out to find, and bought a crepe at the small stand. My crepe was just the crepe and nutella - perfect. Then, after walking around for a little while, we stumbled upon a tiny bakery called The Oven Door (which came highly recommended) and bought a scone to try. Also delicious. Although, my favorite purchase of the day had to be a chocolate croissant (I bought three actually). Yummm.
But enough about the food - this isn't supposed to be the food diary of Audrey Germer. During our exploring today, we got lost a few times (okay more than a few), but found some great places along the way. We found the place of the original Claddagh ring (the ring that originated in Ireland with the two hands holding a heart with a crown), and read a little bit about it's history. We also saw some excellent streets for shopping that we will be revisiting soon, some more interesting restaurants and pubs, the Spanish arch, a beautiful cathedral, and the Galway bay.
Hopefully the more we wander aimlessly around, the more we might continue to stumble on some gems like the ones we found today.
We had our first couple days of orientation - still seems odd to be referred to as international students, but the campus of NUI Galway is gorgeous, and there are many interesting classes available to us, so I think this will be quite an exceptional semester - academically of course.
Although, the social scene in Galway seems great too. Last night, we went out for the first time to visit a few pubs....they're everywhere. We went to two, and both had live music. I experienced my first request to show my ID, and purchased my first drink at a bar (legally) ever! I had a Bulmer's - which tastes like cider - and then a hot whiskey - which is sort of like tea with hot water, lemon and cloves but instead of a tea bag, you have a shot or two of whiskey. Both were pretty delicious.
Speaking of delicious, Amanda and I did a little exploring today, and stumbled upon some delightful foods! I'm pretty sure the majority of my money will be spent on food over the next five months. The good news: I can't think of a better way to spend my money. We found the Farmer's market we originally set out to find, and bought a crepe at the small stand. My crepe was just the crepe and nutella - perfect. Then, after walking around for a little while, we stumbled upon a tiny bakery called The Oven Door (which came highly recommended) and bought a scone to try. Also delicious. Although, my favorite purchase of the day had to be a chocolate croissant (I bought three actually). Yummm.
But enough about the food - this isn't supposed to be the food diary of Audrey Germer. During our exploring today, we got lost a few times (okay more than a few), but found some great places along the way. We found the place of the original Claddagh ring (the ring that originated in Ireland with the two hands holding a heart with a crown), and read a little bit about it's history. We also saw some excellent streets for shopping that we will be revisiting soon, some more interesting restaurants and pubs, the Spanish arch, a beautiful cathedral, and the Galway bay.
Hopefully the more we wander aimlessly around, the more we might continue to stumble on some gems like the ones we found today.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
We're Here!
We made it to Ireland!!
We officially arrived on Irish soil at 6:44 AM Ireland time (which is 8 hours ahead of Oregon time). Can't believe we are finally here!
We arrived in Shannon, which is on the West Coast of Ireland. From there, we checked in with immigration, gathered our bags, and met our bus driver, who would drive us to Galway. The bus ride was about an hour North to get to Galway, where we will be living for the next 5 months. The ride was beautiful, with lots of Irish scenery to look at. It's just like I imagined, green, green, and more green, with short rock walls everywhere!
Once we arrived in Galway, we checked in to our apartments. We live in Cuirt Na Coiribe (pronounced Court Na Korb) and moved all our stuff in. My apartment is two stories and has five bedrooms. We have three people from Linfield and two roommates from Pittsburgh. We like the apartment so far, it just has a ton of doors to every room, so it's sort of odd to hang out because everybody stays in their bedrooms and none of the doors stay open. Guess we will just get used to that.
Great news of the day: we FINALLY got our shower working yesterday! Amanda and I share a shower downstairs, and for days we could not figure out our shower. Finally, we noticed a string hanging from a switch on the ceiling. Apparently, you have to turn on the switch before you can turn anything else on. But, luckily, everything seems to be working fine now.
We have our second day of orientation today, and hopefully we are caught up on enough sleep to have the energy to go explore Galway a little bit today. Our school is about a 15 minute walk over a river to get to our school, and then I think the city center (that's what they call downtown, nobody says downtown here) is fairly close to school.
Slainte!
(that's cheers in Irish...pronounced Slancha)
We officially arrived on Irish soil at 6:44 AM Ireland time (which is 8 hours ahead of Oregon time). Can't believe we are finally here!
We arrived in Shannon, which is on the West Coast of Ireland. From there, we checked in with immigration, gathered our bags, and met our bus driver, who would drive us to Galway. The bus ride was about an hour North to get to Galway, where we will be living for the next 5 months. The ride was beautiful, with lots of Irish scenery to look at. It's just like I imagined, green, green, and more green, with short rock walls everywhere!
Once we arrived in Galway, we checked in to our apartments. We live in Cuirt Na Coiribe (pronounced Court Na Korb) and moved all our stuff in. My apartment is two stories and has five bedrooms. We have three people from Linfield and two roommates from Pittsburgh. We like the apartment so far, it just has a ton of doors to every room, so it's sort of odd to hang out because everybody stays in their bedrooms and none of the doors stay open. Guess we will just get used to that.
Great news of the day: we FINALLY got our shower working yesterday! Amanda and I share a shower downstairs, and for days we could not figure out our shower. Finally, we noticed a string hanging from a switch on the ceiling. Apparently, you have to turn on the switch before you can turn anything else on. But, luckily, everything seems to be working fine now.
We have our second day of orientation today, and hopefully we are caught up on enough sleep to have the energy to go explore Galway a little bit today. Our school is about a 15 minute walk over a river to get to our school, and then I think the city center (that's what they call downtown, nobody says downtown here) is fairly close to school.
Slainte!
(that's cheers in Irish...pronounced Slancha)
Monday, January 3, 2011
Almost Ready...
With two big suitcases, one backpack, and less than 24 hours before departure, I think I'm finally ready to begin this adventure.
At this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Galway, Ireland, where I will be spending the next 6 months. So get ready Ireland, here we come! Bring on the rain, the potatoes, and the Guinness!
At this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way to Galway, Ireland, where I will be spending the next 6 months. So get ready Ireland, here we come! Bring on the rain, the potatoes, and the Guinness!
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