Another Life Update

Hi All:

Been a little while since I've updated the blog. Nothing extraordinarily exciting to report about my life these days. School is in full swing, and I actually completed my first academic endeavor in nearly two months: yes I successfully wrote my first research paper in Ireland since I've arrived. Clearly, I've been spending the majority of my time on academia over here. Not.

Actually, I have been spending my time reading books, walking, shopping, walking, napping, walking and catching up on every episode of Friends ever made. We have approximately 10 channels on our "cable" TV, and Friends is on at least three times a day, every single day. Weekends are no exception. Three or four episodes play in the morning, early evening, and late evening.

Here's the highlights of Ireland of February so far:

1) We are finally getting our travel plans all figured out! We booked our roommate trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium for early March. We will have almost four full days to explore two new countries! Amanda and I will also be visiting Spain and Portugal in April during our Easter break. Brenna and I will most likely be visiting France. And then, when my cousin, my mom and my brother come visit, we will see France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Greece. Can't wait!

2) Amanda and I visited the Cliffs of Moher. Unbeknownst to us when we signed up, the tour was an entire day. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible! It rained the entire day, and we were soaked. We smelled like wet dogs when we got back to our apartment.  Our bus driver was awkward and despite his best efforts, humorless. Although, during one of our very random stops at a local family farm, we did see a calf that had been born only two hours prior to our arrival, so that was exciting.

Also, for any of you who have seen the movie Leap Year, at one point they have to stop driving and wait for cows to cross the road. Beware: that actually DOES happen in Ireland. Who knew? During our tour, our bus was stopped for a good few minutes waiting for the lovely cows to slowly cross the road.

Despite the poor weather and even worse tour guide, the Cliffs were phenomenal! Because it was raining, it was a bit foggy, and the cliffs had an almost mystical look. Breathtaking, really.

3) I've been volunteering at a homework club at a local elementary school one day a week. The kids are always fascinated that we're American. They say we sound just like the people on TV do. They laugh at the words we use that are different from them, and they ask us every single time about Sylvester Stallone (aka Rocky Balboa) and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is a very apparent obsession with these two American movie stars. Of all the famous people in America, why the little boys in Ireland are so stuck on  Rocky and "Arnie" (as they affectionately call him) is completely beyond me.

Nonetheless, it has started becoming almost a game. Everytime I go in, they ask me about Rocky or Arnie, and everyday I make up a new story and see how much they believe. One week I told them I dated Arnie, another time I told the boys I babysat Rocky's dog, another time I told them I was Rocky's neighbor, and every week Arnie and I went out to dinner. Just another average day in the life of Audrey Germer, no big deal. Eventually, they catch on that I might not be telling the complete truth, and then I tell them they should focus more of their attention on their homework instead of Rocky and Arnold, and we all move on with our lives.

Yet another obsession of the elementary school aged boys is, of course, Michael Jackson. They know every song. Even better, though, they can dance like MJ! This one kid actually jumped out of his seat to demonstrate said dance moves. And he was good! He did the signature MJ spin/dance move, and he moon walked about half the length of the classroom. Never a dull day in homework club.

4) I'm finally getting the hang of the differences between here and home. Just some really random stuff I've noticed:

-EVERY female in Ireland wears boots - almost nobody except international students wear tennis shoes or flats or VANS or any other type of shoe.

-The girls here wear high heels whenever they go out to pubs or clubs. Unfortunately, since most of the streets downtown are cobblestone, their heels get stuck in the ridges when they're walking, making their walking look almost like constant stumbling. Hence, they are often nicknamed "baby deer" since they stumble along as they walk, just like baby deer do.

- No female here wears any type of jean besides skinny jeans. Literally every single girl that wears jeans has on skinny jeans and either ankle boots or knee high boots, or heels. And yes, wearing heels to class is not uncommon at all.

- There is no macaroni and cheese to be found anywhere in Ireland. I have now checked just about every single grocery store in Galway. Also, there is no pre-made cookie dough. And, nobody in Ireland eats peanut butter or sugar cookies. Most Irish kids have never eaten a peanut butter and jelly in sandwich in their lives (I'm not sure how they've survived without this college student diet staple either) or tasted a sugar cookie.

-Cars do NOT yield to pedestrians.

- Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister are the coolest brands here. And it's the most conspicuous, bright colors with big white stitching on the shirts declaring the brand that are popular. It's apparently a sign of status if you can afford these brands because you have to buy them online and ship them to Ireland from the States, as there are no branches of either of these stores anywhere in Ireland.  Totally different from America, where most people over the age of 15 start to move away from these brands.

5) Just some new vocab I've learned while I've been here:

- students say "rubber" instead of eraser - the kids at homework club actually had no idea what I was talking about the first time I said eraser

- almost everybody here says "hiya" or "hallo" instead of "hi" or "hello"

- everybody says "you are all very welcome" whenever they meet you or greet you - it took me a long time to realize this was not in response to somebody saying thank you, they just mean "welcome"

- not many people say thank you - they say thanks a million

- people say thanks wayyy more here than in America. Whenever you visit a store, even just the grocery store, the sales people say thanks at least four times while you're checking out.

-instead of "check marks" people say "ticks" - as in, they make a list of things to do, and when they have completed a task, they say that they can "give myself a tick" and then they check off that task

-"Craic" is the cool word in Ireland - it means fun, or a good time, but is used in many different ways. People might say "what's the craic?" when they see you (aka what's up?), or "that's good craic" (aka that's great fun), or say "we are having a craic" (aka we are having fun, or having a great time)

-nobody says line, instead, they say que. As in, "get in que" or "que up"

That's all for now, dinner's almost ready. Miss you all!