Brenna's Ireland: Guess who's coming to dinner?

Life in Ireland has started to become more routine. We finally registered for our classes and this is what I ended up signing up for:

1. Studies in Ancient Imagination- This is the class I talked about before that studies the art and architecture of the Roman world that was used for propaganda purposes for the empire.

2. Two Ireland's in the 20th Century- This Ireland discusses the split between Northern Ireland and the Republic of the South and how it came to be divided. It is very interesting and I believe it is good history to know about Ireland since it is such a big part of their identity as s country. The professor for this class seems like a very nice man but has the hardest time getting out his words. He often stutters and says "um" constantly, which is pretty distracting. Especially on some afternoons when I am really tired from my day. I have high hopes for this class and have already learned a lot.

3. Celtic Mythology, Religion & Folklore- This was the last class I chose between a few choices. The title pretty much describes it but it goes deep into the the old Irish traditions and folklore elements that make up for a lot of the traditions and practices in Ireland today. This class is difficult because I can't even pronounce let alone say most of the Gaelic words! It is a very hard language to pick up on and while the material isn't the difficult, reading the articles and remembering the words will be a challenge for me.

4. Topics in Continental Philosophy- This is the first Philosophy class I have ever taken and my only seminar class at NUIG. Seminar classes only have about 20 students in the class and you have discussions and more active learning. The lectures are the classes of 100-200 students in a theater and the professor just lectures the whole time. This class studies the phenomenology (study of the senses) and how it pertains to art and the beauty and meaning of art. It is a very interesting class and my professor is just a crack up. He is an older bald man that makes jokes and talks so fast that sometimes spit flies out of his mouth. He has the best accent...it sounds just like the really old Decepticon that they bring back to life but has switched sides to the Autobots and are helping them in the second Transformers movie. That makes me sound very nerdy but it is best way to describe it if you have seen the movie! The class is two hours long 5-7:00 on Thursdays but Quinn is in the class with me so I have someone to walk back with when it is dark.

5. Irish Art from the Early Iron Age to the 8th Century AD- This class hasn't started yet, it will start on Feb. 15th and only goes until the end of March! I am really excited to start this class because we are studying some great pieces of Irish Art including the Book of Kells! So excited...I will let you all know how it goes once it gets underway.

Many of my roommates and I have been getting involved in sports clubs and societies on campus. The two that I have decided to pursue are the Mountaineering sports club and the dance society for Irish Dancing! About all of the Linfield group is in the mountaineering club and they hike a different mountain every Sunday for only 8 euro, just for the bus fee. This is how we have gotten to see the beautiful country of Ireland and how I have gotten all of these beautiful pictures. It is a great group of people who go! Mostly international students attend the Sunday hikes so we get to meet people from all over the world. I have only had one session of Irish Dancing, and let me tell you, it is A LOT harder than it looks. It costs 2 euro a class but I figure if I just don't buy a coffee every week that can be my dancing money! Now I am just a tea addict that I make at our apt. It is funny that I drink tea so much now, it's so European of me ha ha. Anyways, the first session was so much fun! Our instructor was a doll, she was very good and had some major hops! You have to jump high in Irish Dancing, she told us it looks better the higher you can get up. So I put that old high school basketball vertical jump to good use and tried my best to hop up as high as I could! It wasn't too bad to pick up on the moves but once it was sped up and I tried to do it with the music I forgot it all and just started skipping around the room :) She did compliment me on my steps though and said I was doing an excellent job! I was pretty excited. We learned two dance steps and we will be going over them this Thursday...hopefully I can remember them!

I have also signed up to volunteer at an after school homework club at a local primary school near my apartment complex. This Tuesday I met with the lady in charge of it and she explained expectations and what this program tries to aim for with these kids. It's a program to promote continued education throughout school so there will be fewer drop outs. Most of the children have a hard time getting there work done so we have a snack time at the beginning, then they get their homework done, we check it off when it is all correct and then we get to have free time to play a game! I am so excited to get more involved with the Galway community and give back to this beautiful city! Plus I am a sucker for little kids, let alone little kids who have adorable Irish accents! Ahh I can't wait to start next Tuesday! I will let you guys know how it goes.

This past weekend we all took it easy and stuck around Galway. I invited my friend Sara and her roommates over to our apartment on Friday for some spaghetti and with the hike Sunday morning we planned for a relaxing Saturday night to just unwind from the week and get to bed early for the hike. We got an email from the international office saying that Rick Steve's son was doing a presentation on travel tips and his new tour business on Friday afternoon. We all know how much I love Rick Steve's, I mean he did get all us through Dublin, so Emily, Anders and I decided to attend the presentation on Friday afternoon. We showed up and there was only about 8 people who showed up. He took us through a slide show of pictures and videos from his travels and gave us some great trips about traveling around while studying abroad. He also told us stories when his dad drug his family and him around the country to write books or record his show on PBS. Andy Steves was only 23 and had a lot of great information for our age group particularly. He seemed like a great, down to earth regular guy. At the end of the presentation, he was asking some of us where some good places were to go out in Galway. He was only in Galway for the night but wanted to experience the night life in this city. He was also writing his own travel book and needed to start getting some good tips on the third largest city in Ireland. Anders leaned over to Emily and told her that we should invite him over for spaghetti tonight since we were already having guests over. Emily thought it was a great idea but was a little too nervous to ask him. She asked me if it was a good idea and I told her that it was and she should ask him. Cute little Emily got too nervous and I could tell she wasn't going to do it. After realizing that both Emily and Anders weren't going to ask him, I decided I would go right ahead and I asked him if he wanted to come over for some spaghetti and to meet the rest of our roommates and friends. Andy was very excited about this and accepted very quickly. We told him where we lived and that the spaghetti would be ready at 7:30. We rushed out of their to get to the store and stock up on some more food and ran home to tell our other roommates that Andy Steves was coming to dinner! We were all pretty excited and I was joking that I should have him sign his dad's book. It was funny because he made reference to his dad's book and how it was meant for an "older" crowd and that the night life section sucks ha ha. Andy just explained that his dad's book didn't have the cheapest places to stay for the night and his pubs were a little outdated for our generation. Little did Andy know, I had my Rick Steves book in my backpack the whole time he was making his presentation. Andy arrived a little late and of course we start making jokes like, "There's no way he could have gotten lost, he is Rick Steves' son for goodness sake lol." Those were flying out all night. Dinner turned out very well and we all sat around our living room sipping on wine and Andy was telling us some great stories from his travels. I even got him to laugh really hard when I told him what a lifesaver his dad's book was in Dublin for us. After awhile we decided to introduce Andy to Galway night life, but not before I busted out his dad's book and had him sign it. Guess what it said... Happy Travels, Andy Steves :) We went to a new place we hadn't been to yet called Tis Coili. It was a great place, pretty crowded but that was normal for a Friday night. We were told that there would be some great trad music (traditional Irish music) there but there wasn't any when we got there. Apparently they were only taking a break and the deeper we got into the pub we found the window sill area where the four men were playing. Some how Emily, Cate, Andy and I snagged a front row seat and were able to sit, talk to the locals and sip our pint. I tried a new one, a stout not as strong as Guinness called Murphy's. It wasn't bad. The pub had all of these old pictures on the wall from the years past and people who have been in this pub. It seemed like this one has been around for a LONG time. During one of their breaks we got into a conversation with the guitarist who was decided to go back to school at NUIG. He was an older to middle aged man and he told us he was waiting for his babe to get there :) They are so cute!!! A while later in walks this middle aged blonde women who got herself a pint and came to sit next to us. He gave us a nod to let us know that was his babe! They were very nice, but around 1 or so they were done playing and the pub was closing up. None of us were ready to end our night just quite yet so we went to this other popular place we had heard of called The Front Door. It was so packed that we had to wait in line to get in! The DJ played mostly older American music, which was fun because I actually knew the words to most of them so Cate, I and Anders would rock out to it. We got separated from Emily and Andy for awhile then reunited for a little dance party near the bar! At around 2 the pub was closing up so we left The Front Door. We were all pretty hungry and decided to go to Charcoal Grill. I am not sure If I have discussed in my blog the significance of Charcoal Grill so if I have I apologize if I am repeating myself. This is a place recommended to us highly from our friends Liam and Frank (the blinger and bringer lol) It is a Turkish restaurant/fast food place that is pretty much open all night I believe. When the pubs have kicked everybody out to close up, all of the college kids flock for some late night food at The Charcoal Grill. We were told there were three in Galway but the one on cross street was the original and best one! My first time going I was told to get the Doner burger with cheese (student special, only 2 euro, great deal!) It is a lamb burger and I asked for everything that consisted of some ranch/garlic sauce and some random veggies. It was SOOO good and definitely hits the spot. Another popular item in the Taco Fries which is exactly as it sounds, really good fries with taco meat and melted cheese on top. Those are great too! If you go to Linfield, the Charcoal Grill is the equivalent to Muchas in McMinnville lol, just like that! Anyways, we went there because Andy needed to experience it for himself and he said he was pretty hungry. After waiting in line for a awhile I got my doner burger with cheese special and we all enjoyed our late night meal. After that we began our long (about 15 min) walk back to Cuirt Na Coiribe! The next day was the market so we all ate breakfast and headed to the market. I went straight for the donut stand to get a fresh donut and have a good chat with the donut man. I was so bummed when he wasn't there! But the produce men were there and I stocked up on fruits and vegetables! The old men called me love, peered in my big bad and said that'll be 9.25 euro but just give me 9. Uh how I love the old Irish men and their adorable charm. There were more stands at the market today and lots of great crafts to look at and good food stands. That night we all just made dinner and I caught up on some reading!

The next morning we were all up early to get to the bus to go on the hike! We were the first ones there and it is good we cam early because the bus filled up so fast that they had to turn people away! I was feeling great, well rested and ready for the trip. This bus ride was a little longer than the one to the Burren and as soon as we hit the curvy roads I started becoming nauseous. Next thing I knew, I was getting out my large zip lock and was throwing up! I couldn't believe I got sick again. I guess now I know the last time wasn't from the alcohol it was just the car sickness! This time there were no holes in the bag, thank goodness, so I discretely yaked in my little corner and sealed up the bag and instantly felt better! Finally the ride was over and the hike was upon us. Emily has motion sickness pills that I am definitely going to take before the next bus ride. I have never been that prone to car sickness before but I guess these Irish roads just get me. We were hiking the North Bens in Northwest Galway in town called Connemara, very close to Co. Mayo. You could actually see the river that acted as a dividing line. This hike was absolutely beautiful. There was no rain but it was very cold and the temperature dropped the higher in elevation we went. To the point that all of the water that we hiked past was frozen. At the time that we stopped for lunch, it was so windy and cold that I couldn't even get my fingers to open my orange! It was pretty dreadful for a little bit there, my hands felt like they were going to fall off. So I busted out my snow gloves after lunch and warmed them right up. When we got over one of the mountains we wrapped around the other mountain and it brought us right over the Kylemore Abbey. We had the best view of the little valley down below. It was incredible and actually reminded me a lot of the valley in Oregon. It made me miss home a little bit! I couldn't get over how gorgeous the view was were seeing. Then we came across a statue of Jesus that overlooked that land that the Abbey was on. The Abbey looked just like a giant castle but the difference is that an Abbey is usually built for religious rather than militaristic reasons. This Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 by nuns who fled Belgium in WWI. Before it was turned into an Abbey it was built as a castle and private home for an English man who dedicated it to his wife before her sudden death. There was a lot of other history to it that the leaders of the hike told us about. At one time it was also a prestigious school that wealthy families sent their children. The hike took us on this random path that dumped us right next to the Abbey and we avoided having to pay the 2 euro to get on the grounds. We had to wait for the other group so Emily and I went exploring. We looked over some talk bushes and found a statue of the Virgin Mary. Further down we found and old Gothic church. We wanted to go in but we heard music being played inside...we crept closer to find it completely empty and random church music playing. It was beautiful! The lake that the Abbey was on was also pretty incredible, very calm and made for a great reflection of the Abbey. I will let the pictures do most of the describing of the view and the Abbey. I feel like I can't use my own words to give it justice! On our way home, we stopped at a pub where we just chatted and warmed up indoors. I was so tired and slept all of the way back on the bus! Good thing so I didn't get sick again! The walk back home from school where the bus dropped us off was very long but it was nice to get back to our warm apartment and make ourselves a nice dinner together! Then it was off to bed and getting ready for the week ahead. This Friday we are going to Cork for the night so that will be a great adventure. We hear Cork is a great county with lots to do and I am looking forward to it. I already have my Rick Steves book out marking some good attractions to see. All of my roommates and I have also signed up to attend the Arts Ball. Each educational department at our school throws a huge ball to welcome new years and celebrate their department. It is huge here! Almost like their prom! There is a formal dinner then a great dance afterwards. It is supposed to be a great craic! And a really popular Irish group from Limerick called The Rubber Bandits that sings the famous song "Horse Outside" will be performing. I will put the link below so you guys can check out the video promo. Now all I need is to borrow some heels from some of my Irish friends and I am set. I only brought two dresses, and I think I will wear my cream Audrey dress with the black belt and hopefully I can find some heels to match. The ball is on February 16th and I will take lots of pictures of the night! We are all really looking forward to it! Look for that blog entry soon!

Arts ball video promo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNdB2jme90&feature=youtu.be&a

Andy Steve's (Rick Steve's son)

Picture of the guys and some random little guy who joined in the picture. That is my glove holding up the Guinness glass Emily found on the street lol. It was a good night!