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!!

It's hard to believe I've been here for 6 days!! The days have flown by! This week we had a bunch of International student orientations. I didn't reaalize how many Anericans were studying abroad here, there are a ton! I feel like a freshman in college again...I have no clue where anything is and I don't know how things work. During these orientaions, they told us about registering for classes and about clubs and societies on campus. They also gave us a tour of the campus. The campus is fairly small but the buildings are a more modern than I thought they would be. I was thinking more along the lines of Harry Potter, haha! But, there is one really reaally old building on campus that loooks like I thought it should. Registering for classes here is different than at home. Nothing is online. We have to get timetables from each department that have the times all of the classes for that department. So, I had to go to 5 different departments just find out the times. This week, we can go to as many classes as we want and try them out to see if we like them. Then on Monday the 18th, we officially register for classes. I'm slowly starting to figure out my way around the city. The city is cool because you have the old downtown city center, but then as you get away from downtown, there are more shopping centers, malls, grocery stores, electronic stores, and movie theaters. It's pretty easy to find what I need.
Galway is still very, very icy! It's actually nspowing as I write this!! I was walking down a hill the other day and completely busted. I figured it was only a matter of time before that happened to me! The walk to the university is about 20 minutes from my apartment, but the scenery along the way makes the walk better. Everyone here is so nice and so helpful! It kinda reminds me of home in the way people interact and the pace of life. All of the kids in my group from Massachussettes, New Hampshire, and Vermont cannnot believe how nice people are here. They all keep commenting on how people back at home are never this friendly, haha! Someitmes if we're all walking somewhere, they'll ask me how I'm handling the cold and they call me Alabama when they do it. They also said that I have a nice accent, that it's not that annoying country accent haha! And they all laugh when I say y'all but at the same time they say they want to say it because it's so much easier to say!
The people in Galway say that they have not had a winter this cold since 1963 and that they don't know how to handle this kind of cold! I totally understand how they feel!!
I did stay up until 5:30 in the morning on Thursday to watch the championship game and I'm so glad I did, Roll Tide!! The kids all laughed at me when I told them what I was doing haha!
I think once I get my classes figured oout and get in a routine, I'll feel more comfortable and the time will fly by! I'm still loving Galway every day and it's still weird to think I'm finally here. I love you and miss you all!!

Well, I finally made it to Galway!! I left New Orleans on the 4th at 9:30 and landed in Newark, NJ around 1:30. I had a 5 hour layover so I went ahead and went to my gate. I had to change gates, but no big deal. I did, however, have to sit in an airport 5 hours and just sit there and people watch because I couldn't get the internet to work. It was loads of fun. As is got closer to my departure, more and more college age kids began to fill up my gate. As it turns out, the majority of them were going to Galway. It was nice to fianlly have people to talk to, haha! Luckily, I met one other girl who was doing the same program as me, API, and it was nice to have someone to go through customs and immigration wiith! We left Newark at 7:30 and landed in Shannon, Ireland at around 7, we were supposed to land closer to 6:45. Once we got through customs and got our bags, we were supposed to wait in the arrivals area for our a lady holding an API sign and we were supposed to leave around noon. So, once we got through with everything, the other girl and I, went to freshen up and get soehting to eat since we thought we had plenty of time. As we were sitting and waitimg, we noticed one group of people leave around 7:30, but wew didn't think anyhting of it, since we were supposed to leave at 12. SO we kept waiting and waiting for more people to walk out of the baggage area and noone came. We kept waiting and waiting for someone to walk in with an API sign, but noone did. It got to be 11 and we still had not seen anyone! Luckily, the other girl had a cell phone and we were able to call the lady who wsa supposed to pick us up. Turns out that group we saw was our group leaving! She said that someone had emailed and said our flight was iced in and was delayed, so they left without us and we did not seen an API sign when tey walked by. So, we had to find a bus to Galway by ourselves and make our way to Galway alone. We of cousre had NO idea where we going! But, we found a bus to Galway and made the 2 hour drive there. When we got off, we had to call the lady again and she told us we ha to take a cab to our apartments. Well, we both are livinng at different places, so we had to separate. Around, 2:30, I fianlly made it to my apartment but had no way of getting in because you needed a code an noone was in the office to help me. Luckily, a girl who happened to also be in API, and she let me in showed me where my apartment was. Now, I am all settled in and have taken a shower and feel SO much better. I am exhausted though, because I hardly got any sleep on the plane.
Despite the stress of being left, the ride to Galway was AMAZING!! It is a stereotypical as you think. It is so, so, so green with rolling hills and shrubs, rocks, and wooden fences fencing in pastures that have sheep, cows, and horses grazing in them. All of the houses have such character. It also flurried a little during the drive!! That was exciting haha! Galway has a bunch a cute little shops and appears to be a fairly busy city. The bay is really rocky and some of it was frozen. I haven't seen the universirty yet, but we have a meeting tonight and have a tour tomorrow.
Our apartment is nice but very European small haha!! So far, all of my roomates seem to be very nice!
I'll post pictures of my room and apartment and the city later!
Miss you all!!

So, this is my blog while I'm in Ireland for the semester. I hope this will be a good way for me to keep everyone updated on my trip. I leave January 5th and will arrive in Ireland January 6th. I'll be home May 15th. I'm so excited and can't wait to be there!