Brenna's Ireland: Discovering what a good craic Ireland is!

Today is the first week of classes! This week is all about trying different classes out and we actually register for them on January 20th. I have some pretty interesting classes in mind and will post my final schedule when I decide which ones will be the most interesting. I can't believe we have been here for five days already! They have gone by so fast and I must say we had a pretty good first weekend in Galway! The days go by fast and we have done a lot in these five days so I will try and catch everybody up!

Our first night in Galway we went out to a restaurant called McSwiggins and ordered ourselves our first pint of Guinness (for only 3 euro). We met our new roommate Quinn who goes to school at USC. He is really great and gets along with our group really well! It was a early night because we had orientation the next morning.

Orientation was a really great way to start out our trip! Everyone was so welcoming and they all had so much personality. They really emphasized the importance of experiencing the rich social life that Galway has to offer. I am now in the proccess of choosing classes and I also plan to do volunteer work in the community to get to know the locals better. They offer many sports clubs here as well and I am between sailing, fencing or archery! They also have a lot of cool societies to join as well. It was at orientation when we learned what it meant when the Irish used the word "craic" in their sentences. It was always used like "have a good craic." One Irish student translated it as "the best possible Irish fun you can ever have, but you can only experience it in Ireland, particularly Galway." I would say that's a pretty good description! My school is really pretty as well. Some really old buildings but some really modern looking buildings as well. That Thursday night as a group we decided to walk to downtown Galway to see the night life. Shop Street was really cool and full of lots of great shops to check out. We ended up at a bar called Taffes where we struck up a conversation with two older Irish men that gave us great tips about what to do in Galway and things. There was a fire and traditional Irish music being played by older men. It was a great place to hold conversation and have a pint!

We had orientation again on Friday and that night my roommates and I made a really good dinner! The best part of Friday night was at a pub called Crane. We had heard there was really good live traditional Irish music (trad) that played every night upstairs so we headed there. It was about a 7 person band of older people playing all sorts of instruments and it sounded like the Irish music you hear in movies. The other pubs we checked out were good but the live music mostly played American music covers like The Eagles and such and we wanted to hear the Irish music. Crane had some great people and we ran into some other international students from the states we had met at orientation. One of our Linfield students plays the fiddle and actually went over and started playing with them! It was great and they just welcomed her in like it was nothing. When they got done with one of their songs one of the older guys clinked his glass and got the pub to be completely silent (and there was quite a bit of people in the pub) and this random women sitting at a table started singing this Irish song that was breathtakingly beautiful! It sent shivers up my spine it was so pretty. Only in Ireland would that happen!

Saturday was the day that I got to experience the Saturday market for the first time. Down near St. Nicholas church they have a little strip with markets. They sell lots of good food, items but the best of all was the donut man. I had heard these donuts were good so I went up and told the man that I heard his donuts were pretty good. The old Irish man says, "oh dear, you mush be thinking of a different donut shop, because these here donuts are excellent!" The whole time he was cooking up my donut he was asking me questions and chatting with me. I just got the plain sugar one and it was exactly what he had said...Excellent! I told him I would see him next Saturday. I also got great deals on produce at the produce tent and the man simply looked in my bag and said "that will be 7.25 euro but then smiles and said, just give me 7 euro dear." The hot dog man even gave me a special flower napkin since it was my first sausage dog from him. I have come to absolutely love the old Irish men, they are so friendly and take the time to ask you how are you and are truly interested in showing kindness towards you! I haven't made friends yet with an Irish girl. I hear they don't take to American girls so much because they are convinces they are there to steal their boyfriends. Well good thing I've got one back home so it has become my roommates and I's mission to become friends with an Irish girl! Funny thing about the girls here, a lot of them are blonde! And many of them are tan, from a bottle apparently. I was thinking I would come here and fit in with my super light skin and they are faking it over here in Ireland too! The Saturday market was great and I am looking forward to it next Saturday!

Emily, Cate and I started Sunday off by attending church service at the Galway Cathedral. This was the most beautiful church I have ever attended service in. I was blown away by the old architecture and the engravings and sculptures and drawings on the walls and ceilings. They had a choir in the back that was raised on the second story that sounded like they were playing a CD it was so good and there was an organ for the music. There were four sets of pews surrounding the middle in a cross-like formation and the middle part was on a raised marble section. The service was really good and I really enjoyed the message. I plan to make attend service here every Sunday. I may go check out some other churches but I have a hard time believing anything will be better than this one. I have included some pictures below. But they definitely do not give its beauty justice.

I have done some walking around Galway a bit and taken some pictures of the town. There is so much life and culture every where you go and I feel like there is so much more I can see. My 21st birthday is this Sunday so my Linfield group (+Quinn) are trying to figure out something fun to do. I have met a girl named Sara who I met through my doctor actually that has already attended Galway for a semester. We met up with her and her friends on Saturday and both of our groups have become pretty good friends. She told me that they make a big deal out of people turning 21 here and she asked if she could throw me a party! I don't really know if we are going to do that. I was thinking more going out to dinner then heading out to some pubs for the night but who knows what my roommates have up their sleeves. We are also trying to plan a day trip on Saturday to go something in Ireland. Maybe the Cliffs of Moher. It does't really feel like my 21st or my birthday since I won't be with my friends and family to celebrate it but I do have a feeling that this birthday is Ireland will be one that I will never forget!

We will continue to "shop" for classes this week to see which ones we like and I will have my final schedule after this week. I will post my classes when I have figured them out. I will post some more pictures as I take them. So far, Galway has proven to be a great craic!