Guinness Hearing Aids (Dublin Excursion)

So, I know this is WAY overdue and for that I apologize. In order to keep it from getting any more overdue, I'm just going to jump in then:

A street in Dublin.

Our excursion to Dublin began before the sun rose on January 13, 2011. For the first little bit of the trip, I just watched the countryside fly by. In the pre-dawn darkness, it was almost like being back in Oregon. The famous low stone walls were the only reminder that I was in Ireland. After just a little while, I ended up falling asleep. I woke up again to our stop at a gas station. We all got out to use the bathroom and look around. Some people bought breakfast food in the attached store. It was probably the biggest and nicest gas station store I've ever been in. I only looked around though.

Back on the bus, I looked out the window and listened to my headphones until we were coming into Dublin itself. Then I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the city through the bus windows.

The first place we were going was listed on our itinerary as the GAA. I had no clue what that was and so I was really confused when we pulled up outside of a big building that had Ulster Bank and Guinness ads on it.

The entrance to Croke Park

We got off the bus and went inside. It pretty quickly became obvious we were at Croke Park, which is probably the most famous stadium in Ireland. It's there that traditional GAA (or Gaelic
Athletic Association) games are played, like hurling and gaelic football. Other events go on there too, but those are what it's known for. We got to spend a little while exploring the museum inside the stadium before our tour was due to start. The exhibits are mostly about the history of traditional Irish sports and the GAA. Basically, Irish sports, like their culture in general, were disappearing because Ireland had been occupied (first by the Vikings, then the Normans and finally the English) for so long. The GAA was started to keep them from disappearing completely.

One of the "magic" blue curtains

The first part of our tour was watching a video. It showed what hurling and gaelic football actually look like when played. It was so cool! Most of you know, I'm not much of one for sports, watching or playing. But this was so neat! They both looked super exciting. I really want to see a game in Croke Park now. Hopefully I'll get the chance before I have go back to the US. If not, then it's just another reason to come back.

Our guide and what might be the
 Muhammad Ali Tunnel someday.

Our guide took us around the stadium. We started by going down underneath the stadium. There we learned about all sorts of things like the magic blue curtains that are used to keep the tour buses separated so the teams never see their opponents until they're all on the field. We saw a tunnel that Muhammad Ali has used to enter the stadium twice. Apparently, the second time he came back he requested the same tunnel and he was all upset when he got down there to find that there wasn't a plaque or anything up in his honor. I don't envy the person that had to tell him that the Irish only put statues and plaques up for dead people. Although when he does die, he very well might get a plaque or something.

Galway's jerseys

We went into one of the dressing rooms. They had the official county jerseys of all the teams hung up on the walls with the ones who won last year's national tournaments above the others. There we learned that Croke Park is a neutral stadium. It's home to no team and so all the dressing rooms are exactly the same. Then the guide let us look around and take pictures with the jerseys. I got a picture of me with one of the Galway jerseys. Turns out that Galway is the only county that has a different jersey for hurling and gaelic football. I'm not sure which I had my picture taken with though. It was also neat to see that London and New York had jerseys up too. Apparently there are big enough Irish populations in both places to merit teams of their own. After the dressing room we stopped off in a practice room and then headed out to the pitch itself.

We weren't allowed to walk on the field but we stood on the edge. We also sat in several different locations around the pitch. The place where the cup is awarded to the champions was easily visible and our guide told us that acceptance speeches are supposed to be in Irish. Unfortunately most people can't speak enough Irish to give even half a speech in it so they'll say a token few words and give the rest in English. One year a coach was determined that his team was going to win and when they did, his team captain was going to give a real speech in Irish. Problem was, the guy didn't speak any Irish. So the coach wrote out the speech in Irish phonetically and coached the captain on how to say it. Lo and behold his team did win the championship that year. The captain went up to the podium to make his speech, the papers were all there for and whoosh! A gust of wind blew them away. Moral of the story: always use blue tape.

We went up and around, stopped to look at the view of Dublin, which is fantastic by the by, and went into a corporate box. It wasn't as fancy as it could have been nor was it as cushy as I remember the ones in the Seahawks Stadium being, but it was still pretty nice. An interesting note about gaelic football and hurling: both are amateur sports. No one plays them professionally and none of the athletes get paid. While we were in the corporate box our guide told us this great story about a one of the guys who won the national championships a few years back. He was from a county that hadn't won in a while so it was a big deal. He went home and spent some time with his family and just kind of enjoyed things for a bit. When he went back to work at the bank, you would've expected him to be greeted like a hero, except for the fact that he actually worked in the county he helped beat. Oops...

After that the tour was pretty much over and we went back to the museum. I finished wandering through it and then got some food at the little attached cafe. Our whole group got back on the bus and we left for our next stop: The Guinness Storehouse.

The zoo animal Guinness mascots

The Guinness Storehouse is a built on what used to be a Guinness Brewery at St James' Gate. The building that's there now is seven stories and is shaped like a giant pint glass. Inside is a museum all about Guinness. It's self guided so you can go as fast or as slow as you like. The bottom floors are all about how Guinness is made. As you get higher you get into how Guinness was made the first time and the Guinness family legacy. There are exhibits about its distribution in Ireland and around the world. Included in your ticket into the museum is a free pint. The fourth floor is your first chance to take advantage of that generous offer. There you can learn to pour your own pint. (I took a picture of the directions and kept wandering) I think my favorite part might have been the exhibits about Guinness paraphernalia. It seems like Guinness has been advertised on everything at some point or another: from tiny harps to posters of Irish celebrities to playing cards to tiny toy cars. The most famous Guinness mascots are zoo animals like the toucan, turtle and bear.

 

The Gravity Bar

Finally I got to the top floor, the Gravity Bar. I didn't have a lot of time so I went straight over and got my free pint. A kindly stranger took a picture of me with it. As I looked out over Dublin I really did try to drink it, but it just didn't taste good. The foam on top, or head, is just awful and the Guinness isn't that much better. I only ended up managing to drink about a fifth of it before I had to run back down seven flights of stairs. I sprinted through the store and got in line to buy my stuff. I made it so I was only a couple of minutes late, but in the end it may have been a good thing I didn't drink my whole pint. Can you imagine running down seven flights of stairs with that much alcohol in your stomach?

Kilmainham Gaol

Our last stop of the day was Kilmainham Gaol. This was another place I didn't really know anything about before I got there. Kilmainham Gaol is historically significant for a number of reasons. It's where people were put during the Famine. It was actually better to be inside the Gaol than out on the streets because at least inside you were guaranteed food. It's also where political prisoners, like those involved in the 1916 Rebellion were held and executed. I stood where people like Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera, and Countess Markievicz stood. It was more than a little surreal. It was especially eerie to see where some of them had been executed. Our guide was really good, but unfortunately I don't remember any of the particular stories he told us. All I can say is that you really need to see Kilmainham Gaol for yourself. It's an amazing piece of living history.

The hostel we were staying in was called Kinlay House. I shared a room with Minn and Angela. After we all dropped our things off, all of the girls decided to go out to get food. We ended up at an overpriced Mexican place. The food was only okay. After that we went looking for a pub. We ended up in a little smoky place that had really good desserts (I didn't try one, but I have it on good authority). I stayed for a little while and watched everyone else drink before deciding to head back to the hostel. That was pretty much the end of my night. I was going to see if I could find some Irish dancing to go to, but there wasn't any that was anywhere near enough.

The St George stained glass window from Christ Church

The next morning I got up and tried to make the shower work. We were apparently on the other end of the building from the water heater, so a little sign posted in our bathroom said to leave the water running until it got warm. Well, you know how in some public bathrooms they have those sinks where you push down on the  handle and water comes out for as long as the handle stays down? Our shower was like that. There is no way to leave a shower like that running. Which means that I took an icy cold shower. Unfortunately I wasn't destined to warm up at all that day either. The first thing we did was take a walking tour of Dublin. We started at Trinity College and made our way around downtown Dublin. Our guide, Donal, was adorable and obviously very passionate about what he was telling us. He made the tour fun and interesting. What made it less fun and interesting, was the fact that it was cold, windy and half-way raining on us. It wasn't actually coming down consistently, but neither was it misting. It would just send a couple drops your way whenever it was most inconvenient or uncomfortable. After the walking tour we all went into Christ Church, a huge Protestant church right near our hostel. It was really pretty. I spent a long time wandering around inside and taking pictures. I found my favorite single piece of stained glass ever in there: a window with St George and his dragon that had really nice detail. It was really cold in the upper part of the church though so it was kind of a relief to go down into the crypts. I know crypts have a reputation for being chilly and drafty, but these were actually a lot warmer and friendlier feeling than the upper part of the church. I wandered around down there until I got too hungry.

My authentic Irish food. It's beef in a
Guinness sauce underneath a pastry
with some chips. It was yummy. 

I went to the Temple Bar district and found a restaurant (The Shack) that served authentic Irish food. I ate there and then kept wandering. I was kind of waiting to hear from Wendy or someone about going to see the Book of Kells. I never did hear anything (turns out it was a cell phone or network glitch) so a little before the Book of Kells was due to close I took myself off to see it. It was really cool and I did manage to see the Book itself, but I got kicked out of the library above it so they could close. Oh well. I'll go back eventually. Maybe I'll even get to see a different page of the Book of Kells.

I went back to the hostel and started getting ready for the play. We were all going to see Jane Eyre at the Gate that night. I thought it was a pretty good show, but then I kind of liked Jane Eyre as a book and they did a really good adaptation. I was pleased. Rita and Wendy were less impressed, but I'm still not sure if it was because of the acting or because of the story in general. After the play, I went back to the hostel and just hung out until I went to bed.

The next morning we got up early and I took another icy cold shower. We all piled back onto the bus and headed to Newgrange. Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb that was on my list of things to see well before I got to Ireland. We went in the Visitor's Centre first. It's quite large and there's a lot of information there. After a little while we walked out to another small bus and from there we were driven out to where Newgrange actually is. A guide took us into the tomb itself and told us what little they think they know about everything in there. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which was really disappointing, but it was still magical and surreal to actually be there. It's another thing you all should go see for yourself. After the quick tour inside we were given 15 minutes to wander around and take pictures outside the tomb. It wasn't very much, but apparently it was a lot better than we would have gotten were we there during high tourist season.

Newgrange

Back in the Visitor's Centre, we all got some lunch. On my way out I put my name in the drawing for a chance to be at Newgrange during the next winter solstice (you should really look Newgrange up if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's really cool). I hope I get it. We all got back on our bus and I settled in for a nap.

When I woke up again we were almost to Clonmacnoise. I had never heard of Clonmacnoise before I came to Ireland, but it's probably my favorite thing (though by a very narrow margin) we did on any of our excursions. Clonmacnoise is a monastic site that was founded on an important crossroads. It was quite rich at one point. There are several churches (apparently they didn't used to expand their buildings, they just built more), some high crosses and a graveyard. There are ruins of a Norman castle right nearby and two big towers on the river side of the site. The weather was beautiful when we got there. The sun was out and the sky was a bright blue with just a few fluffy white clouds. It was still rather cold, but then it was January so that was to be expected it. We watched a quick and cheesy video and then we got to go outside and wander around. It was wonderful. I can't really describe why I liked it so much except to say that it was what I needed right then.

Part of Clonmacnoise

The Old Woman's Chapel or Teampall na gCailleach

Another really cool thing is that there's a nun's chapel nearby. I don't think any of us really understood that it wasn't within the bounds of the main site. Rita wanted to see it though so she asked the lady manning the desk and got directions. She happened to walk past me on her way to go find it and so I got to tag along. We did end up finding it and I took a whole bunch of pictures for her. It's probably a bit petty, but regardless, it was still cool to get to be one of two people in our group to see the Teampall na gCailleach.

Once Rita and I got back, I managed to take a few more pictures and then I ran out of time and space (again! I forgot to take an extra memory card with me, a mistake I did not repeat) on my camera. I got back on the bus and we all headed back to Galway as the sun set.

I forget who exactly said it, but at some point after the Guinness Storehouse someone was talking about beer goggles and another person in our group jokingly said that Guinness gave you hearing aids instead. I thought it was a really entertaining phrase so I wrote it down and saved it for the title of this post. ^_^

Also, one other thing. I mentioned last time that I would upload my pictures on the internet so that anyone who wanted to could see all of them and not just the ones I post here or on facebook. I've been working on that, but it's kind of a problem because none of the free sites give me enough storage for all of my pictures. So  a large portion of my pictures from Galway are all I can offer you right now. I'm working on getting the rest of the Galway ones up another site but I honestly don't know what I'll do about the excursions. Any ways, here's what I've got so far: https://picasaweb.google.com/101144792375307557663/Galway#

"Strictly no parking-- as opposed to leniently no parking?"

On my third day in Galway we had orientation at NUIG. Juice boxes and folders with more information in them were waiting for us on our chairs. A parade of people talked to us, everyone from one of the Vice Presidents of the school, to a couple of Garda sergeants, to those in charge of the students clubs and societies (which are abbreviated socs, pronounced 'socks'). About half an hour into the thing, a guy came in and sat in the empty seat next to me. He asked me what he'd missed and I explained. Turned out his name was Ryan and he was to become my first real friend in Galway. It took from around 9 until 11:45 or so, if I remember correctly. There was a coupon in our folders for the College Bar and so pretty much everyone trouped over there. The College Bar really is a bar, but it's also a place to eat. There's sandwiches and soup and pizza or there's whatever they're serving in the Carvery. The Carvery line was a lot shorter and so I went through that. I got beef, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes and milk for 5 Euros. After orientation I wandered around campus some and found the banks. I went in the All Ireland Bank (AIB) to see their application and find out how many fees were associated with their student accounts. Then I went to the on-campus branch of Bank of Ireland and looked at their app. I liked Bank of Ireland (BOI) better so I signed up with them. I got a laser card, which is a debit card and they said it'd get to me in a week. That ended up being a problem, but for the moment, I was just happy to have it set up. I wandered off campus and spent some more time exploring. I got a phone. And when it started getting dark I headed back to my apartment.

My Irish apartment-mate had come back early for just a night and so I got to meet her (she was going to Berlin with the Art Soc until Sunday). She offered me a cup of tea and we sat down to talk. The first thing I found out is that she makes a good cup of tea. She actually managed to make it taste good. Apparently the secret is no sugar, but plenty of milk. Her name is Lauren Dooley and she's a first year. She lived with two girls from New York the semester before this one. She's studying history, French, classics and English right now, but will concentrate on French and English next year. (They pick two courses of study here) We seemed to hit it off pretty quick and we ended up watching Cool Runnings together (she hadn't seen it and it's been years for me). "Ya dead mon?" is now a running joke and we want to get a Jamaican flag for the apartment.

The next day I went back to school and listened to professors from different departments tell us about the classes we're allowed to take and how to get into them. Afterwards I spent a while wandering around campus collecting time tables for the classes from the departments I was interested in. Eventually I went back to the Quad and snuck around inside. I came back out and found Lindsay, Lauren, Minn and Angela waiting to take the campus tour. I joined them and we all followed one of the guys in charge or the Student Union around while he told us about the different buildings. Ryan happened to be in the same tour group and he talked to me for a bit. We got separated as the group moved to another thing to look at and I got distracted collecting people's phone numbers. Eventually most of the Willamette girls left the tour, so I found Ryan again and we talked some more. After the tour was over, Ryan was hungry so we headed back towards the restaurants on campus. Unfortunately none of them were serving food anymore. We wandered downtown, looking for somewhere to eat and didn't have any luck. In the end we went to Scotty's Steakhouse, which is really close to Gort na Coiribe.

I spent Saturday just kind of hanging out in the apartment relaxing because it was nasty outside and I hadn't just spent a day doing nothing in ages.

On Sunday I wandered around with Ryan for a while and then we met up with the rest of my group to have dinner at the Petersen's. It was a lot of fun. We had mac and cheese and smoked salmon and crackers and fancy cheese and whiskey and Bulmer's (an Irish cider) and soda. I tried Bulmer's and the whiskey but both were really icky. Lucky for me, Ryan was happy to drink the rest of them. Emily made cookies that were really yummy. Around 9 pm, we all headed out. I wanted to help clean up, but they assured me they didn't need it.

Ryan and I went to Corrib Village (where he lives. It's closer to campus than Gort na Coiribe, more expensive and also where even more insane partying goes on) to see if any of his roommates had shown up yet. We ran into a girl going into another apartment where a couple of his roommates were. She invited us in and so we met a bunch more Irish students. It was vaguely uncomfortable because a bunch of them were drinking and one guy was smoking. They were friendly though.

After that, the exact sequence of events gets a bit muddled. Lauren got back late Sunday. We all met Rita at 10 am on Monday. Then we started trying out classes. Putting together a schedule was a fun game because we aren't allowed to pick any classes that start before 11 am and we can't have any on Fridays either. This is because Professor Petersen's class, Irish Pilgrimage: Ancient, Medieval and Modern goes from 9:30 to 11 every Tuesday and Thursday and our Irish Life and Culture class goes from 9 to 11 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays are off limits because we have several weekends excursions that often start on Friday mornings. The first one I tried was Development of the Castle in Medieval Europe. It's an archeology class and I've never taken one of those before, but it was nice to have the professor immediately acknowledge that he had a lot of visiting students and that he knew most of us weren't archeology majors. The next class I tried was Medieval Drama later that day. It was supposed to start at 5 so I showed up at least 5 minutes early. There weren't very many people there. We waited... and waited... and waited some more. The professor never showed. I had heard that happened sometimes and so eventually I just packed up and left. The next day I went to the castle class again (from here on out, it's Clastle, as it was eventually nicknamed by Lindsay) and tried one more time for Medieval Drama. This time the professor and a lot more students showed up. The class itself sounded fairly interesting, but what really convinced me to stay was that the class would be putting on one of the plays at the end of the semester. I'm looking forward to that and hoping I can be in it. On Wednesday I tried (you'll notice a pattern here) Medieval History: 5th to the 9th Century. I like the professor for this class. He's got a wonderful dry sense of humor. Without changing expression or tone of voice he will slip in these little comments that, if you're paying attention, are hilarious. On Thursday I tried out Celtic Civilization: 'A Field of Gods and Men'. The main problem with this class was that half of it was on Friday.

See, how classes work here is kind of odd. There are two hours of class a week (sometimes plus another hour of tutorial). They are almost never both in the same place though. For example, my first hour of Clastle (Monday) is in the D'Arcy Thompson lecture hall. The second hour (Tuesday) is in IT 125. A lot of them are also at different times. Medieval Drama goes from 5 to 6 pm on Mondays and 3 to 4 on Tuesdays. It's strange. The problem with the Celtic Civ class, which was one I really wanted to take because it's all about mythology, is that one of the hours was on a Friday. I talked to the professor after the first class, because realistically it's about five Fridays I'd be missing out of twelve, and he said that it had been done before even with all the missed classes. I also wanted to sign up for an English seminar which is a smaller specialty type class. All of the classes I had been in so far were big lecture type classes (hence the lecture halls). The seminars though are little classes like we have at Willamette and more interactive. There were several I wanted to take but firstly, you can only take one seminar per term and secondly, only one of the ones I wanted really fit into my schedule. It was going to be on Spenser's The Faerie Queen. I got in, but Professor Petersen recommended I not take all of the classes and so I ended up just keeping Clastle, Medieval Drama and Medieval History because all of those fit into my schedule and I had liked them so far.

That weekend we left for Dublin, which I'll tell you all about in another post. Once we came back our Irish Life and Culture class. I didn't understand how this class worked until it started. There are actually 4 hours a week. On Monday we have Irish Literature in English with Professor Kirry O'Brien. Immediately after that we   have Irish History with Professor Mary Clancy. On Wednesday we have Sociology with Professor Marilyn Moylan and then Irish Literature in Irish (translated) with Professor Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh (her first name is pronounced Alva). All four of these classes are mostly focused on modern Ireland (aka Ireland after 1900 for the most part). I was kind of disappointed by this, particularly for the history class (I wanted to do ancient Irish history), but as it turns out that one's my least favorite any ways. 


In and around going to classes I mostly explore, do laundry, eat, clean, do homework, upload pictures, take Irish dance lessons (not the kind I do at home, more like Riverdance type stuff) and explore. I've been meaning to go explore more bars and pubs but because of money and not really having people to go with or an interest in drinking, I haven't really done any of that. I do set dancing, which is kind of like the Irish dancing I do at home, on Tuesdays in Monroe's but that's one of the only bars and pubs I've been in. I've looked around in some stores. I've seen the outsides of plenty of places. I've tried out a couple of restaurants and several grocery stores. I found out that laundry prices are outrageous here. It's 10 Euros for two washer and two dryer tokens. I rented a bike and have ridden it around a bit. The group has done things together like a potluck and going to a hurling match. We've also done things in smaller groups. I bought my first ever alcoholic beverage, a Mixed Fruit Kopparberg (it's a cider) and drank all of it even though it was only good (aka, it tasted like juice) for the first third. It didn't do anything all that interesting to me either, it just made my head feel hot for 20 minutes or so. I've only been to one céili here so far because they're only once a month.

Besides that girl, Bridget, I met one my first day, I made friends with an American guy named Ryan Fitzgerald. We hung out a lot more at the beginning of the term. He's the one who made the comment on the No Parking sign that's the title of this post. We haven't seen much of each other recently though. Lauren, my apartment-mate is also my friend. I haven't seen a lot of her either recently. I made another Irish friend and his name is David Crowe. We met at the first Irish Dance lesson. He was tapping his feet around at the lesson during a pause and I asked him if he did sean nós (yet another kind of Irish dancing I don't know how to do yet) or tap. It turns out he's a set dancer and what he was doing is called battering. Technically I am a ceili dancer, but we do sets and the basic steps (minus the battering) are the same in both types. He was the first person my age I'd met who did any kind of traditional Irish Dancing (not the leap-y Riverdance kind that is) and so we got to talking and now we're friends. I've met other Irish people through Lauren and David and more Americans through various means, but there aren't really any others I'd count among my friends just yet. 


And that's mostly what I do when I'm in Galway. Anybody have any specific questions they want answered?

New Country, New You (part 2)

I started walking up Headford Road and just kept going. I found the Town Hall Theatre by accident. I also found a really neat store called Enchanted Vintage Clothing that really is all vintage women's clothing. It's all very expensive, but I like to stick my head in there sometimes and just look. Eventually I did actually find Shop Street. It's the main center of "town," or downtown as we would call it, Galway. It's a walking only street that's lined by shops with little alleys branching off of it. There's all kinds of stuff on Shop Street, everything from bakeries to pubs to McDonald's to clothing stores to a thrift store to tourist trap-type shops. It's really fun to wander up and down it which is all I did for a little while. I was looking for the bank or Carphone Warehouse or somewhere to eat. I found Carphone Warehouse first. I went it and looked around. This one did have a bigger selection so maybe that would help. They were also kind of busy so I eavesdropped on the sales guy that was helping a couple of American girls. The girls were asking questions I needed answers to as well like where was the best place to get cheap groceries and where to go out to eat. I only kind of caught the answer to the question about grocery stores. Turns out he meant Aldi and Lidl. I had explored Aldi earlier, and I had seen Lidl.

After it became apparent that they were going to be busy for a while I decided it was okay to go eat. I wandered a little further down Shop Street and saw some musicians playing while standing on top of poles. A little farther on I encountered Griffin's Bakery. It made me smile so I went in. I was thinking maybe I'd get a roll and some coffee or something, but they took me upstairs and gave me a table and a menu. I ended up ordering the 'mini Irish' which is the smaller version of an Irish breakfast. It was a pot of tea, which at that point I had yet to figure out how to make palatable (I'm not really a tea person), a sausage, potatoes, beans, a fried tomato, toast, a rasher and an egg. I ate all of it. Even the sausage. Not only was I hungry, but it was good. The sausage was better than any restaurant one I've had. Still not my favorite though. The rasher is, for those who don't know, kind of like bacon. It's usually a wider piece of meat, but not any thicker and it's floppier. They don't do crispy rashers here. The egg was over easy or medium. The fried tomato was interesting, it would never have occurred to me that people would eat that. It's not like it was breaded, it had just been tossed in a hot skillet. It doesn't do much to the inside, it mostly just made it warm and caused the skin to bubble in an icky way. The bean reminded me really strongly of Bush's baked beans, which I really like. The taste was a bit different in an undefinable way, but other than that, they're pretty much the same.

Any ways, I ate my food, paid and kept wandering down Shop Street. I found the bank (Bank of Ireland) and went inside. Apparently the place to open a new account was on the first floor. That's the floor I thought I was on, but the sign was pointing up. I only found out later that the ground floor is the one you enter on and then the first floor is always what we would call the second floor. It's rather confusing. The lady behind the new accounts desk gave me some paperwork and told me to go to the bank on the NUIG campus because they'd be better equipped to help me. I went back to Carphone Warehouse and got in line. I explained what I wanted to one of the guys and he gave me a couple of phone models and sent me up the street to check with another guy to see if they would work. See, cell phones are really complicated and to make a lot of technical stuff simple, you can't use a cell phone out of the country you buy it in without changing some programming. Here it's called unlocking, in the US it's called jailbreaking and it's not entirely legal. So, this guy's shop was supposed to be near the joke shop that was a couple doors up. I didn't know near could mean above so I wandered around for a bit, getting frustrated and then I noticed a small sign about cell phones near a stairway. I went up and finally found the place on the second (third to Americans) floor. I checked the model numbers with the guy and he said he could break the first one.

It was just about 3 when I left the cell phone breaker guy's shop. I had promised myself I would head back at 3 because the whole group was supposed to meet outside reception at 3:30 to walk over to the school. I started to head back towards the school, but I didn't take the exact same route back I took getting to Shop Street and so, as happens a lot, I got lost. I came out of some unfamiliar streets by a TK Maxx which made me laugh out loud. Dunno why the name is different, but inside it's exactly like a TJ Maxx. I decided to do a quick walk through because after one night I knew I'd need more than a duvet and a sheet. It is cold here. I found a nice and decently sized Columbia blanket, bought it and left. All of that took a while though because the check out line was quite long. I hurried out of the store and kept going in the general direction of Gort na Coiribe. Pretty soon, I was walking up a much steeper hill than I remembered walking down. I knew I was off to the side of Gort na Coiribe, but that was it. Eventually I found my way down the hill and ended up near the Galway Shopping Center. Unfortunately, it was after 3:30 at that point. Back at Gort na Coiribe, I was still trying to decide what to do when I was hailed by the group. They hadn't left yet even though it was 3:50 or so. I ran inside, dropped my hangers and we left for the school. Rita O'Donoghue was our guide. She's fantastic. She was really nice about me being late too.

The school, National University of Ireland, Galway, is about a 20 minute walk from Gort na Coiribe. We walked through campus to get to the Quadrangle which is probably the most famous building. It's old and castle-esque. I think it's 17th century or something like that. Apparently students don't have classes in there anymore, but it's still really cool to look at. We went in one end and met Maeve Cuffe and Fiona Dwyer who organize our program from this end. This was also the first time we officially met Professor Petersen's family. Her daughter, Emily, her son, Aaron, and her husband, Matt. Everyone was very nice. There was a dinner waiting for us. It was chicken and mushrooms and rice and a roll and our choice of beers or water. All of us opted for water as the beers were all American. It was kind of them to try and make us feel at home, but those who actually drink didn't come to Ireland for American alcohol. We ate our dinners and got a packet of information that included our student ID cards. Dessert was cheesecake and fruit. All of it was really yummy. While we ate we shared some travel stories. At some point during the whole thing it came out that Brian's bags had been lost by the airlines. People were talking about letting him borrow stuff and someone mentioned (since he's the only boy in our group) loaning him dresses as a joke. Someone else quipped back something along the lines of, "Ha, yeah, new country, new you." Hence the title of my posts (although I don't mean it quite the same way).

It wasn't that late but it was already fully dark. The sun rises really late and sets early here. Rita walked everyone home because we hadn't wandered in the dark yet. We walked to the Petersen's apartment first and then she took us most of the way back to Gort na Coiribe. I ran over to Curry's and bought the hair dryer I had been looking at. I don't remember what time it was when I got back, but I fell asleep pretty soon after.

And there you have the second half of my first day in Ireland. Now I'm more than a month in and so I'm thinking I'll try to do one post to get you all caught up and then try to update more regularly and less painfully detailed.

Also, fair warning, the internet at Gort na Coiribe is really slow and not very consistent, so I'll upload pictures to this post when I get the chance (probably at the school on Monday because their internet is at least a little better). On the pictures note, as a lot of you've probably seen, a lot of my pictures are on facebook. Not all of them are though and for those of you who want to see everything I'm working on making an online album. Once I've finished, I'll put a link here and on facebook.

New Country, New You (pt 1)

I woke up at 5 am on my second day in Ireland to find the light still on. I got up and turned it off and then went back to sleep. I woke up again around 8:30 am and decided to get up. It was still dark outside and it was really cold. I fiddled with the heaters, of which there are about 5, each of them with a different operating system, and the water heater, again with a different system. I was going to go explore, get a cell phone and open a bank account. The problem was that I didn't know where to go to do these things. I spent a couple hours dithering at my computer and reading the student info book about the apartment. I had to reset all the heaters because I'd messed them up. They're not terribly effective unfortunately. Unlike American heaters they don't blow hot air, they raidate warmth. So, if you're sitting about two feet away, you'll feel it, but any farther and it's as if it's not on. The water heater is also really weird. It only heats water from about 4am to 8am and that's all the apartment has for the day. There's a boost dial that can heat up more water for up to two hours, but it's supposedly realy expensive to use. And while I'm on the subject of technical stuff, the internet at Gort na Coiribe is all wired, but it's still very slow and not reliable. It was okay the first couple days because it was only some of the international students, but as more people have arrived it's slowed to a crawl. Some days my computer can't even find the networks even though the cable is plugged in. It's a pain. There's supposed to be something I reconfigure on my laptop to make it like Irish internet better, but I can't find whatever it is so it's a toss up whether or not I'll actually have internet. Any ways, back to my second morning: I was still trying to find places I was going to need to go when my roommate showed up. See, I live in a three person apartment. There's a room with a single bed in it and a room with two beds in it. The single room is the Irish girl's room (she was here last semester so she gets to keep her room). I was assigned to the double room. Since I got there first, I got to pick which bed and desk I wanted. I picked the ones closer to the window, which is probably the colder area, but I wanted to be able to look out the window from my desk. There's one bathroom we all share, a semi-equipped kitchen, a living room and dining room combination and a closet where the water heater lives. (I'll photograph all of this eventually) So, I knew it was likely I'd be living with a girl who's part of my particular program, but I didn't know who. All of the students on my program, but one, are from Willamette because it's technically WU's program. The girl who isn't from Willamette is my roommate. Her name is Jamie Mullett and she's from Kentucky. Her school, Bellarmine, has a partnership with Willamette so she got attached to our group. She's nice. : ) 

The view out my window

Embarrassed at being caught in my pajamas, I decided it was probably time to go out and see what I could find, my internet research having yielded nothing useful. By 11:30 I was leaving the apartment. I was going to get food, but I wanted to save my money until I had opened a bank account (just in case there was a minimum amount needed to open one) and had a cell phone.

One of the arches into Gort na Coiribe. My apartment is on the ground floor on the other side of the staircase near the car.

Looking towards Cuirt na Coiribe (more expensive apartments) and Dun na Coiribe (townhouses). This is also the way to the school, although I didn't know that when I took this. It may look lovely and warm, but it wasn't. I was wearing a wool coat, a hat, gloves and a scarf to stay warm.

The Dunnes that's right across the street from Gort na Coiribe. That's where I got my bedding and towel.

Since I had kind of already seen what was in the immediate area around Dunnes and in the Galway Shopping Center, I decided to investigate the stores across the street from the Galway Shopping Center, starting with Curry's.

Outside Curry's

Inside Curry's #1

Inside Curry's #2

So basically Curry's equals Best Buy. It's the same sort of idea. Mostly electronics and some music, movies and video games. I found a hair dryer there for 13 Euros that looked like it might not just fry my hair and I made a mental note to come back and get it later (I didn't want to carry it with me while I explored).


Next door was Aldi.

The outside of Aldi (obviously)

Inside Aldi

Also inside Aldi.

Aldi is a gorcery store for the most part. There's also, as you can see in the picture directly above there are these metal things set up in teh middle of the shop where they put random other stuff. There's everything from clothes to rain boots to speakers and CD players to toys and cookware. All of the random stuff is much cheaper here than it would be elsewhere but it's a gamble what'll be there. And I don't know how good the quality is either...

After Aldi, I went in Woodie's just out of curiosity.

The inside of Woodie's

Woodie's was kind of an odd experience for me. It smelled, in part, like Home Depot, which smells like boredom. But it also smelled like other things. And there were tea sets and aprons and other more houseware-ish things for sale there. For example, this was the first and only place I found pants hangers at all like the ones I'm used to. I couldn't find more than the one pack so I got those. The lady I bought them from was kind of hard to understand when I asked her if there were more, so I just left it at that.

Harry Corry is a designer furniture/bedding/towel place as far as I can tell. I wandered through really fast looking for an extra blanket, but I didn't have any luck so I kept going down the line.

Smyth's, a toy store

The Mickey and Minnie section!

The next place I went in was Smyth's. I was so pleased to see and old fashioned toy store with blocks and books and games and stuffed animals. They're a dying breed in the US and more's the pity. I liked the Disney section a lot. Didn't buy anything here though.

The movie theatre!

The movie theatre is also in this complex. I didn't go in it, but I took a picture to help me remember where it was. I was at once disappointed and kind of pleased that it was pretty much all American movies. I mean, there are a bunch I wanted to see and didn't get to, but at the same time, it would've been cool to see Irish movies you couldn't see in the U.S.

I went back across the street to the Galway Shopping Center, thinking of heading to the Car Phone Warehouse to get a cell phone. On the way there I explored the shops at the end farther from me that I hadn't looked at the night before. I found a Subway attached to an arcade.

DDR!

I found a DDR machine! I was ecstatic so I stopped to play a round. Didn't do too bad for not having played in months. Now I've played DDR in three different countries (US, Japan and Ireland)!! I'm ridiculously proud of myself for that.   

Spongebob paintings on the wall of the arcade. ^_^

A butcher shop

Inside the Galway Shopping Center I decided to wander around now that the stores were actually open. I took a picture of the butchers because you see them a lot here, but you don't really in the U.S. anymore and I thought it was interesting. I went in and out of the bookstore, Eason's and some of the other places before I went in Car Phone Warehouse. I explained to the guy behind the counter what I wanted and he said some stuff too fast for me to follow (in my defense his accent was kind of thick) about going to town because they couldn't help me there. So I wandered around some more and finally went in an outdoor wear shop and asked the man for directions to get into town. He was really nice about it. He could tell I was American. He went to NUIG too and so we talked about Gort na Coiribe for a bit and then he gave me directions.

I think I'm going to have to cut this day into two posts. I think blogger doesn't like this many pictures in one post... Sorry it's taking me so long to put stuff up. I know I'm way behind. The internet was broken for a couple days and then I was out in Connemara learning Irish all weekend and I've got school during the days... Any ways just bear with me and know that I'm working on it.

Quickie

No, I am not still on my first day. I'm actually on day 14 now.

Yes, I am very behind. I promise I will get stuff up as I have time. The next couple will probably be mostly pictures with little bits of narration in between them. For now though, I need to go read like the wind and go to bed. I have to get up early and go register with the Garda (police).

Oh yeah! Before I forget. My address is:
Shannon Brown
120 Gort na Coiribe
Headford Road
Galway, Ireland

My cell phone here is 353 834 236 091. I can receive incoming calls from wherever for free. Just please be aware that I am 8 hours ahead of you (if you're on the west coast that is) and that I can NOT return your call if I miss it. Don't leave me a phone number to call back, leave me an e-mail address, okay? I can text some too, but international texts are really expensive, so save that for emergencies.

Okay, going to read now. 'Night!

First Day

It felt like my first day in Galway really started after that shower. The shower is a tiny, tiny stall with barely any room to move around and the drain doesn't work very well (I need to go report it and ask for maintenance people to come but thanks to the short hours at reception I haven't had the chance). I had to use an extra shirt to dry off because I didn't have a towel yet. None of that mattered because it felt so nice to be clean. I was not very long out before someone knocked on the door to my apartment. I thought it might be my roommate so I ran to open the door. Turns out it was an American girl, but not my roommate. Her name was Bridget and she had also just arrived. She didn't like her apartment and so she'd asked if anyone else had arrived yet so she could see if they were all like hers and the people in reception directed her to me. I let her in and showed her around. She said my apartment wasn't like hers at all. We walked over to her apartment and as she pulled the front door closed behind us the inside handle came off. The floors really were sticky and the downstairs was missing a seat completely. I could see why she was upset. After that she decided to go talk to reception and see if she could get moved. I went back to my apartment and worked on unpacking some more.

Alcohol...

About a half hour or so later Bridget came back over and we went across the street to Dunnes to get food and look at bedding. Dunnes is kind of like a small Fred Meyers. They have food and clothes and shoes and some houseware type stuff. We were both really hungry so we just picked pre-packaged sandwiches and juice and sat down on a bench in the store to eat. Then we wandered upstairs and looked at the pillows and sheets and towels. We were going to go to another store, but Bridget wanted to get her housing situation figured out before she bought bedding, so we came back. I went back to unpacking and eventually finished getting everything put away. I waited for a couple hours and then I started to get hungry and worried that I wouldn't get the stuff I needed that night. I waited until just before 6 pm and then I took off on my own.

More alcohol...

Still more...

And more. I've never seen so much alcohol in a grocery store-like place. I was going to take more pictures in Dunnes, but Bridget and I were REALLY hungry and we got distracted looking for something edible.

I walked over towards Dunnes and decided to explore off to the left first. There was a place called N17 Euronics (yes, just like the movie rating) and so I went in there looking for a hairdryer. I found short Cat-5 cables for 5 Euros (I brought my super long one just in case and with all of it coiled on my desk there's no room for anything else) and some hairdryers but they seemed kind of expensive. I wandered through the whole store and then they told me there was 5 minutes to close. It was only 6pm. I bought my Cat-5 cable and went on my way. I went out to the Galway Shopping Center, a little farther on down Headford road, the street that goes by Gort na Coiribe. I was looking for Penney's and I found it, but it was closed. I stuck my head in Car Phone Warehouse, but they were closing too. Tesco is the only 24 hour store nearby and they are mostly groceries but some other stuff too. As the shopping center shut down for the night I wandered around feeling lost and kind of lonely. I went over to Supermac's, and got a hamburger, fries and a drink. I thought it would be like McDonald's and I recognized the name from an ad I'd heard in the taxi earlier that day. I sat down to eat my food and it didn't taste at all like McDonald's, it was worse.

My food from Supermac's. It looks benign enough, right?

When I left Supermac's, it started raining. It's not a long walk, but alone, in a foreign country, when it is dark, very very cold and now wet, it was kind of miserable. I went in Dunnes and wandered around, trying to find sheets and a pillow that I liked. I picked out a fluffy white towel (they didn't have a blue bath towel, only white or yellow), a good pillow, a duvet (because they don't really do comforters or quilts so much here apparently), a duvet cover that came with a pillow case (they're blue and white striped) and blue sheets. I also picked up a Mickey Mouse pajama shirt, which even though I didn't need it, still made me feel a little better.

My Mickey pajama shirt. I'm wearing it right now. : D

I walked back to the apartment and started putting my bed together. I put on my Mickey Mouse t-shirt and pajama pants and then a sweatshirt and my panda hat too because it was really cold. It was about 8:30 when I laid down just to try out my bed...

For Sharon

It was a 6 hour flight. I had orange juice when the lady first came around. I watched all three NCIS: Las Vegas episodes (it's quite good for a spin off. I'm pleased) and ate some Oreos and fell asleep before they came round again. They were offering dinner that time, but I declined. I wasn't hungry and airplane food is icky. I slept on and off for most of the flight. I didn't have breakfast on the plane either, though they offered that too. As we got closer, I woke up and looked out the window. It was pitch black because we were still over the ocean. Later I heard some girls saying how scary it was to look out and only see black, but I thought it was nice. Then we dropped into some clouds and everything was gray and foggy looking for a couple minutes. Underneath the clouds there still wasn't much to see. There were scattered lights, but no huge lit up areas like even the smallest US cities. It looked like there were streamers of tulle attached to the plane wings and I immediately thought of Sharon. I watched them for a while, because there wasn't much else to look at and then we were landing. It was bumpier landing than I'd had so far.

On the ground, I put my wool coat, my hat and my scarf all back on. We had landed about 15 minutes late, I think (we were supposed to get in at 6:45 am, and it was at least 7). It took a while to get off the plane. The airport was absolutely empty when we got into it. We had to go down at least four escalators to get to customs. There was a long line, or queue as it would be called here, in front of the two elderly men who were there to let us into the country. They had everyone who wasn't a student go through first. There were at least 70 (maybe more, maybe less, I'm awful at estimating numbers of people) of us left. Professor Petersen and her family waited a little longer, but after 45 minutes of so they decided to skip up the line. Professor Petersen stopped to tell me that she'd try to keep the cab driver from leaving. I don't know what took so long but I waited over two hours in line to get through customs. All I could see was that the men were looking at papers and taking pictures and typing on their computers. Finally, there were 15 or so people in front of me. Another flight had just landed and the line behind us had gotten really long. One of the men let everyone from the EU go through. All the other people had to wait behind us though and I wasn't last in line. Some decision seemed to be made because all of a sudden, the line started moving a lot faster. I got up to the window and I gave the man my letter and my passport. He asked if I had proof of insurance and of finance. I gave him my insurance card and told him I was going to open an Irish bank account. In a monotone voice he told me I had to have proof of finance 30 days from right then. I said okay and he gestured me through. I scrambled to get all my stuff and get out of the way. I went to get my checked bags and walked through customs. A bored looking man gestured me through a green gateway (meaning I didn't have anything to declare).

I came out and looked around frantically for my cab driver hoping and praying he wasn't gone yet. I didn't see him in front of me and as I turned to my left a man leaning against a counter was saying, “Unless this is her. Are you looking for me?” I started to say maybe and he waved a paper at me that said my name on it. I said yes. He took me out to his cab and helped me put my bags in the back. I almost walked around to the wrong side to get in the front seat, but remembered at the last minute that the driver sits on the other side. We started driving and he was telling me how he didn't expect it to take so long and that he had been working all night and had been about to leave when I came out. I don't think he meant to make me feel bad, I think he was just talking because he was so amazed. I apologized and explained what I could see. We listened to a CD by, I think he said her name was Kylie Minogue (or something like that) for part of the way. I recognized one of the songs. Apparently she's Australian. His CD was well-loved because it kept skipping. We were quiet for long stretches while I just enjoyed looking out the window. It was gray outside so nothing got a particularly flattering light, but it was still fun to look at. The houses were cute. I noticed that his name was John Conroy. Partially because I felt bad for making him wait, because the silence was awkward and because I was genuinely curious I came up with questions to ask him. I asked him about the signs on the side of the road, the weather and the we talked about bikes. I also told him a little about what Oregon is like in comparison to Galway. He was nice about it all and seemed glad to talk to me whenever I came up with a question or a comment. His name was John Conroy. It made me smile in a wry sort of way every time we passed a business I'd see at home. I saw McDonald's, Texaco, Subway, a Best Western (or some big hotel chain like that. It might not've been that one in particular) and a movie theater with all American movies in it.

Mr Conroy took me all the way to Gort na Coiribe and even waited while I ran into the office to see if I was in the right place/if I could get a key to my apartment, which was more than he needed to do, particularly since I was two hours later than I was supposed to be (we got there at 10:45 am). The reception people were nice and helpful. They gave me a key and showed me where my apartment was. Mr Conroy helped me get my bags to the door before driving off. I dragged everything inside and went to my room. I was the first person there and my room is a double so I picked the bed and the desk by the window. I started unpacking just enough to take a shower, which was what I wanted most in the world at that point.

Not bad for my first time flying alone, eh? I made it all the way to Galway, even if it was only through pure luck at the end.

Still Alive

I'm promise I'm still alive! I just had a long day and I have to get up for oreintation tomorrow and I should've been asleep hours ago. I'll write you a nice long and interesting post tomorrow, okay? I just wanted to let you all know that I'm okay.

(I'll dedicate the first real substantive post to you, okay Sharon? You don't want this wimpy little one.)

See you tomorrow!

Newark

I made it to Newark okay. Now I know why international planes take extra time to clean. They're a lot bigger than domestic planes. Instead of three seats on one side, an aisle and three seats on the other side it was two seats by the window, an aisle, four seats, another aisle and two more seats by the opposite windows. Everyone got their own, albeit old and grainy screens. There were a couple different things to watch and games to play. You could even shop on the plane. Originally I was seated by a (I'm guessing) late middle aged woman who seemed a little not-all-there. I walked up to her and said hello and she just looked at me for a minute before she moved aside to let me into my seat. They finished boarding and there were empty seats everywhere. The lady next to me moved up to the next set of two seats and I spread out a little. I tried watching something, but got bored really quickly. I played Blackjack for a while, but that didn't entertain me for very long either. I ended up using the extra space to try and make it more comfortable to sleep.

Becase of the cleaning and people being slow about boarding, we were a little late getting in, but since I had a 7 hour layover, it wasn't a big deal. I got off the plane and headed to the gate that my boarding pass said I needed to go to. I spent a while just collapsed in a chair trying to decide if I was hungry and just letting my mind drift. It was noon and my flight didn't leave until 7:40 pm so it wasn't showing on the departure boards. I ended up getting thirsty and going in search of a Coke. I thought about getting something to eat, but I wasn't hungry. I played with my computer for a while but the wi-fi options were not promising. There was an unprotected network my computer couldn't connect to, AndroidAP and Boingo. I already knew that Boingo was a rip off after Houston. They only let me have 45 minutes for free (which is why the Houston post wasn't up yesterday when I wrote it) before they kicked me off and everything went super slow. AndroidAP worked really well for a little while but then it just disappeared. My computer couldn't find it anymore. I gave up and went to sleep. I explored a little at some point (it's all gotten jumbled in my head) but didn't find anything too interesting to look at. I found a more complete departure board and saw that there was only one flight to Shannon posted that day and it was leaving at 7:25, not 7:40 like my pass said and from C134 instead of C71. But, one of the airlines it flashed with the posting was Continental and 25, which was my flight number. After waiting a couple more hours and confirming that on other boards, I wandered out that way.



My actual gate, once it was showing my flight.



Looking back towards where I ate.

When I got to C134 the gate was still full of people waiting to go to San Francisco at 5:45. C135 shared the seating area and their flight at 5 to Orange County was way late boarding and so was San Francisco. Around 6 I talked to Griff and he told me I needed to eat something. He made me want a hamburger so I went in search of one. No luck so I settled for terriyaki chicken, steamed vegetables and rice. It was hard balancing my food and drink with my two coats and two bags and scarf. There was a pushy foreign lady who ordered after I did and jumped the line of people waiting for their food to grab one. I ended up sitting next to her and the guy in the eating area. They were kind of loud. Once I got down eating  I went back over to my gate. I found empty seats and pulled out my camera. I took a couple picture of my gate and one of my panda hat and then I settled down to start writing. I got a couple of sentences in before Professor Petersen found me. I'd been keeping my eyes open for her all day, but I was starting to wonder since I hadn't seen them yet. She sat down with me and we talked about the holidays and Bend and family and Harry Potter and where we wanted to go once we got to Europe. I like her a lot and I'm looking forward to taking her class. I'm glad she found me. It made me feel a little better to know someone else was going the same place as me.

My gate.

7 pm came and went and we still hadn't started boarding. I didn't get on the plane until 7:30, five minutes after we were supposed to have taken off. It was supposed to be a full flight so I expected to be squished into my seat. I was two rows from the back of the plane. It wasn't as big as the one I'd flown to Newark in, but the individual screens were much nicer. I sat down in the window seat because I was the first of the three in my row to get there. A little while later an elderly man (I think he was Irish, but I couldn't be sure and I never got up the guts to ask) was moved to my row in the aisle seat (apparently he had the wrong seat twice before). No one came to sit between us. Until we were actually in the air, I was sure someone was going to appear and sit there. It was nice to have the extra seat. The elderly man put his carry on under that seat instead so he could have somewhere to put his feet and I put my coats and hat and scarf into the seat so I could have my lap free. We finally took off probably around 8 pm.

My panda hat, mentioned in the Houston blog post.