I can hardly believe that I have actually been in Galway for 2 weeks!! Time has gone by so quickly. I was finally bale to register for classes, but who knows if I'll actually get those classes. The classes I registered for are the Development of the Castle in Medieval Europe, Celtic Mythology, Religion, and Folklore, Literature of the American SOuth and Gothic Literature, and Ancient Celtic Myths. I'm finally starting to feel comforatble here now that I am slowly, but surely, getting my bearings. My Literature of the American SOuth class is going to be really interesting. It was so funny to hear the teacher explain what states made up the south and talk about the Civil War, plantations, southern belles, and "Mammy." In my castles class, we actually get to go on a field trip to see a castle!! I'm really pumped for that!
The people in my group and I have made friends with the Irish kids in our apartment. They are absolutely hilarious! We made them mac'n cheese last night because they don't have it over here. They were all kind of hesitant at first, but they all said they liked it. We then spent the rest of the night talking about the differences between America and Ireland. We talked about ouor schooling (their public schools are all boy and all girl schools, they take a year off during high school to work or travel, they don't raeally have homework or tests, just one big essay at the end that counts as 100% of your grade), we talked about how they call fries chips and chips crisps, and the spell aluminum, aluminium, the Irish go out during the week because they all go home on the weekends. We even talked about how things are taxed and how we tip and they don't. It's still hard to adjust to them driving on the other side of the road. I don't know which way to look when I'm crossing the street, haha! When they go grocery shopping, they only buy things they need for the week, because things don't lasst as long as tehy do at home. So it's reaally hard to have to keep going to the store every week. It was really interesting with all the differences we came up with!
Last week, I was talking with some Irish people and they asked me where I was from. When I said Alabama, one of them asked me if I played the banjo!!! It took me a good while to stop laughing.
On Saturday, we went to the market and got crepes and then made our way down to Galway Bay. It was so pretty! The beach is so rocky, I don't even think I saw sand. There were tons of seagulls flying around and there were also lots of swans floating around!! We waked out to the point and when we got there, there was double rainbow! My first Irish rainbow.
On Sunday, we went on a tour the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. We had called the tour company the day before and they said they would pick us up at 9:10 at our apartments. SO, at 9:10 we're waiting outside and a man pulls up in a van and he ushers us over to his van and assks us if here for the tour. We say yes and he tells us to get on. Meanwhile, a bigger bus had pulled up. He starts taking up our money without telling us a price and I'm trying to ask him what tour this was because I thought we might be on the wrong one. The man just takes our money and starts driving awaay. The other tour bus driver called the girl who made the reservations, and told us we needed to get off and this guy was a scam. So, we tell him to stop the van and he doesn't !! We keep assking him to stop and he won't. We all stand up and are yelling at him to stop and asking for our money back. He kept asking us why and what's the difference and we kept telling him this wasn't the tour we wanted. Luckily, another big bus pulls in and blocks this guy in. he starts to doing 3 point turns and still won't let us off! Another girl and I were trying to open the door and we couldn't. One girl was finally bale to yank the money from his hands nad he fianlly stops the van. He had to get out and go around the van to let us out. We couldn't get out from the inside!! We all run off the bus and go up to the big bus and the guy asks if we're ok and he says that he was the one who called. We all thanked him and got on the correct bus. It wouldn't have been bad if had just scammed us, but it was the fact that he wouldn't stop when we were all yeaalling at him to. Once we were on the right bus, we made our way to the Cliffs. We left at 9:30 in the morning and we back by 6 at night. ALong the way, we stopped at Dunguaire Castle, Corcomroe Abbey, Ballyban Fairy FOrt, Gleninsheen Wedge Tomb, Poulnabrone Dolmen, Kilfenora Cathedral and Crosses, the Cliffs of Moher, and the area called the Burren. Our tour guide was amazing! As we were driving to eacch place he would give us a little history about each place and then he would stop and let us out to look around. We even stoppped to pet some horses on the side of the road! For lunch, we stoppped in a town called Doolin and ate a pub. One of the girls has relatives who live in that city and she went up and asked the bartender if she knew her relative. Turns out, the relative she was asking about was her mother!! It was crazy! When we made it to the Cliffs, it was gorgeous outside! Our guide told us to be careful and that we could go past the walled off areaa if we wanted, but ot be careful because people had been blown off the cliffs before. The wind was SO SO SO strong, it was very easy to see how that happened. We decided we would go a little past the walled off area and I'm glad I did. The view was amzaing! We all took a picture of us laying near the edge. It was so cool! We then made our way back to Galway. The guide stopped in the Burren and we got out so we could see the sun set on the Atlantic. It was beautiful! All of the beaches here are very very rocky. The castle we went to was so neat! We were able to walk all around it and peak inside through the holes in the wall. Pictures will be coming soon!
Next weekend, we have our first API excursion. We're going to East Co. Clare. I'm so excited!!
The weather is finally warm (compared to the freezing ice from last week!) It's finally in the mid 40's and we haven't had too much rain. Knock on wood! It's been so nice out.
That's all I can remember for now, but I miss you all!!