An té a bhíónn siúlach, bíonn scéalach

"Those who travel have stories to tell," says the old Irish proverb. You're welcome for that Irish lesson. Well as you all know, I certainly have my stories to tell. Now, I have two weeks worth of stories to tell. So strap in suckers, cause it's gonna be quite the ride.

Okay, in order for me to remember my past two weeks, I have to look through my pictures (surprise surprise I know).

First of all, I have the best parents ever. My mom heard my plea for pumpkin. She sent me a lovely package of it. 4 large cans and 2 plain cans, to be exact. It's one of the best gifts I have received thus far. It was thrilling- I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down a few times. I also began to bake things from it almost immediately (okay, not immediately. I started last Thursday night. Close enough). I made pumpkin spice cookies, and for Jessie, gluten-free pumpkin spice cream cheese filled cupcakes.

Pumpkin. BAKE ALL THE THINGS! 

I don't think anything terribly significant happened two weeks ago during the school week. Choir practice went really well, still loving it. I auditioned for another singing group and made it (yay!!) I also gave a presentation in my most difficult class- Negotiating Identities. It is a class all about the Irish culture and the thoughts about how much the cultural movement has impacted the literature of the 19th and 20th century. I have no idea what's going on most of the time because I don't have the history of Ireland engraved in me. It's amazing though to hear these students and teachers really discuss their identity, their culture, everything. They are becoming good friends of mine. Anyways, I had to give a presentation on "anything relating to the topic of the class". Now you wanna talk about difficult- it's like finding applesauce in Ireland. It turns out, my teacher loved it. It was all about storytelling and the ancient art of the Gaelic language. I did it on Peig Sayers, a famous Irish storyteller. I may have butchered the language during the presentation, but other than that I did pretty well. Hearing her tell me this week that she bragged about it to someone was wonderful. I also discussed my essay topic with her and she said it sounded brilliant. The essay topic, my dear readers, is this: "Write an essay on the significance of cultural nationalism in the Irish literary and language revivals of the late 18th and early 20th centuries." Yeah, you try picking a topic on that. So, lots of studying and reading to do/catch up on. That essay is due Wednesday. From here till then, I will be glued to the library. After that, I will probably be in a pub relaxing. Or baking. Either way, I will be relaxed after Wednesday.

Last Thursday, I also got to enjoy a cafe break between classes with adorable coffee and gingerbread cookies. It's a nice life.

Thursday night my roomies and I watched "Taken". We also stayed up talking until about 2:30am and bonding. It was wonderful, and then I proceeded to stay up until 4am. When I had to catch a train at 6:15am. Best idea? Prolly not. Worth it? Yep. I love them. I have no idea what I'm going to do without them in America.


So we went to Belfast last weekend. Belfast is absolutely beautiful- I almost wish I had studied at Queen's University in Belfast. The campus is stunning!

I could see myself here! 

Queen's University, Belfast.

The Botanical Gardens, part of Queen's University, Belfast

But then, I wouldn't have met my wonderful roomies, or my ISA group, so I'm good. We also expanded our ISA family this week by 3 wonderful people: Brett, Lauren, and Danielle. Yes, we now have 3 Danielles in our group. It's a blast. I'm not gonna lie, at first I was nervous about meeting 3 more people, but they are awesome. After a long trip up to Belfast, we went to St. George's market. It's a giant flea market of sorts. Great food and crafts there. It's like an indoor version of our street market here, which means it is just as adorable and fun.

St. George's Market

So cute! 

Delicious Indian food 

Easily one of the coolest booths I've ever seen.

Afterwards, we took a six hour walking tour of Belfast. Meaning, we saw the inside of quite a few pubs all over the city. Even stopped in at one place and got free drinks! Although, we never went back like we promised we would.... we have a bit of a guilt complex about that one. We also saw a panoramic view of the city from a mall, a lot of churches, and some stellar monuments and a botanical garden. By the way, Belfast has the most amazing collection of murals I have ever seen. Basically a lot of ground in a little time. That all happened Friday. Friday night we went pubbin' and then we were up bright and early for a magnificent bus tour of West Belfast and the coast.

Pumpkin Spice Latte- finally! 

I tracked down a Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte and some insoles for my shoes, and then I was ready to conquer the world. We saw Belfast Castle, and then went to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the Giant's Causeway. It was a spectacular day. I have hardly ever seen so many beautiful sights in one day. That's a lie, it's like that a lot while in Ireland. I took over 600 pictures last weekend. I won't post them all, but I'll give you a good taste, don't worry. I also finally understand what my brother would complain about when it came to photography. When you're a photographer, you always get great shots of everyone else, and hardly any of you. Frustrations.

The Peace Wall dividing the Protestants and Catholics

The whole group in front of the Peace Wall

The history of Belfast is fascinating- but so full of turmoil between the Protestants and Catholics and the IRA. We saw things like the peace wall that divided the two religious sects and the Europa, the most bombed hotel in the UK. There were memorials on almost every street that commemorated innocent citizen's lives that were lost in crossfire. On top of that, there was a lot of Titanic stuff there. You all know how much I loved the story of the Titanic growing up (I was a disturbed child I know) but sadly we didn't have time to explore the museums there. Belfast is where the Titanic was built. We saw (in passing via bus) the shipyard, so that was spectacular. Oh, and as much as I loved living in Hawaii, Ireland really is the land of the rainbows. In one day alone we saw over 6 of them.

rainbow

another rainbow

Saturday night, we had dinner at a great Italian restaurant and then explored some more pubs. Then, we went to karaoke. Oh man, what a night. There were a lot of queens that night- singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Dancin' Queen, and the hen party for the lady with her "friend". I sang a few more things- interesting nights...

Sunday we explored the city a bit and then had to catch a train to peace out and head to Dublin for a "layover" until our train back home. We roamed the city for about 2 hours- saw some great shops and lots and lots of people. Also, in case you're wondering, don't try to walk from one station to the other with your luggage. It will hurt your back and take quite a while. But, it's a great way to navigate the city. And I  got a really cute new scarf out of it, so all is good. It was a long weekend. A very long weekend, but look at all we saw and did.

The Europa, the most bombed hotel in the UK

Chelsea, the master photo-bomber

Belfast City Hall 

Queen Victoria's statue in front of Belfast City Hall

Free drinks!! 

Gorgeous Church!! 

Church in Belfast. 

Love this song!!  

Murals

Muralssss... 

Murals... 

And MORE MURALS! 

And sometimes, you walk down an alley and there's a giant mural

Repping the Yeats in the murals. I love this poem.

Shenanigans in the memorial gardens  

So live your life- Giant's Causeway

Gorgeous- at Giant's Causeway 

Strong enough to hold the wall- Like a boss

Prince Albert's Clock Tower 

This is the top of the mall looking at the city

Panoramic view of the city from the mall

In front of Belfast Castle

First phone booth to play with- sadly not the Tardis, nor is it blue.... 

More cliffs!

We're just goofy sometimes. 

I take my life in strides

The Rope Bridge, Carrick-a-Rede

The view looking down just across the rope bridge. You try crossing over that on some wood and rope. 

Breathtaking. 

Hanging out on the other side of the rope bridge 

Just our normal antics

This week was same ol same ol. I spent a lot of time on campus working and studying, and some time roaming downtown. Still love it on shop street. The choir had some performances Wednesday. AKA 8 of us showed up and sang at various spots around campus. It was interesting to say the least, but we proudly did it! Wednesday night Paul's friend, Anne the Archaeologist, took us on an archeological tour of Galway. We walked down by the Spanish Arches and she pointed out to us where all the old walls of the city used to be and where there are still medieval buildings. I was in awe, mainly because they were things I had walked by every day and had always assumed they were just designed like that to keep the charm of the city. WRONG! These were still standing pieces of history, hundreds of years old. I felt pretty thick for just passing by these day after day. Isn't it funny, how much more we could see if we took the time to look?

This week I also went out to a club. Not my first time being in one here, but my first time actually going out to a club (last time I stayed for maybe 5 minutes, and said that was quite enough, thank you). This time I went out with my darling roomies and extended roomies (aka Matthew an Oisin). Matthew didn't make it to the club- he twisted his ankle off of a curb. Smoothhhh. Mary, Oisin, Roisin, and I forged ahead bravely. We went to Coyotes... wow is all I can truly say. It was a lot of fun dancing and Jenna Marbles-facing everywhere (here is the reference to that if you're wondering: excuse the language in the video, but I've perfected the face. No wonder I don't have a boyfriend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wRXa971Xw0 )

Jenna Marbles-ing it errewhere, even in Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.

All in all, a great night. Then we walked over to SuperMac's (a fast food place here that has a Quiznoes, Papa Johns, and burger/ice cream place in it all at once). This is where every single drunk person goes after their club night. Chaos, I tell you. Complete and utter chaos. Some girl got on top of one of those claw machines and danced, and almost tipped the whole thing over. This is where I really don't understand the "fun" in being drunk. People falling all over each other, creating mob scenes, making dumb choices. Not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a drink here and there- just not in that much excess. So anyways- we were out till about 3 am. I then woke up at 8 am and exercised, and then had class from 11-4pm. Friday was long.

After classes on Friday, ISA had a lovely walk down to Salthill, a village of sorts right outside Galway. We walked along the seaside promenade (I felt so posh). It's a walk along the Galway Bay that is about 2km long (a little over a mile long).  We kicked the wall at the end, per tradition. It's a beautiful walk- on nice days I could totally imagine studying out there. If you come to Galway, do it. Afterwards we got to go to a pub in the Salthill area. As my friend Sam has dubbed it, it is the Cracker Barrel of pubs. It's absolutely adorable. A good night had by all.

 Saturday was market day!!! I had the best donut ever from a street vendor, and got a beautiful leather bracelet and hair clip with designs hand-copied from The Book of Kells (I mean come on, can I get any geekier than that?) We had lunch at the greatest tea shop in town called "CupanTae".

 I also did some shopping around downtown. I got myself some thermal socks and a heavy-knit green cardigan sweater, as well as my leather jacket (finally!!) Yes, it's getting cold here. As a result, I am getting a nice chest cold. The only problem is that since the only time it gets this cold in Alabama is right before Christmas, I keep expecting to see holiday stuff everywhere. I'm a bit premature on my Christmas cheer. I am definitely looking forward to the holidays, but it will be bittersweet since it means leaving.

Last night, we had our first taco night. A bunch of us chipped in and bought things to make homemade tacos, and we had a nice "family" meal that concluded with Space Jams. I loved that movie growing up, but watching it now, I want to apologize to my parents for all of those weird movies that make no sense whatsoever when older. Pure nostalgia I tell you, but full of good fun and memories. Plus the Looney Tunes are still as rockin as ever. Some people went out to the pubs last night, but I was just too tired and felt crummy. Instead I stayed in and ended up getting to skype Megan and Aubrie (my good friend and the little girl I used to babysit). My gosh she's grown up so much! I'll be real with you all, as much as I love skype, facetime, what's app, and now tango (thanks Drew), technology can't replace the people themselves. For the first time in my life I've been really homesick these past few weeks. I'm so glad to be able to talk to everyone and keep in touch, but once you hang up you realize how lonely you are without them. Now I have friends here and love hanging out with them, but it's not the same comfort as your family. Especially when your rookie/best friend from home keeps blowing up your facebook with things like this

Ashley... 

Ashley, STAHP! 

I will be ready to see everyone when Christmas time comes. I'm excited for fires back home and family traditions and of course my cooking supplies (let's face it, the holidays are the time that RULE baking). I also miss our coffee shop back home. They are having a weekly competition for people who are "Boldly Going" (the name of their shop) different places around the states and the world with their travel mugs. My parents shipped me a mug and I have been taking photos of it all over Ireland. I managed to win last week's competition, which means my parents get a lovely gift certificate for coffee :) I won't keep entering because I'm kind of traveling the world, but their Christmas present is going to be an entire album of their mug all over the world.

In front of City Hall, Belfast

At Belfast Castle

At the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

Today is my day of rest. I should go exercise, but I am flat-out exhausted and sick. Today is also the day I beast my paper. (Not due till Wednesday, I might add!) We have inspections on Tuesday and our apartment is disgusting so I know what I'll be doing Monday night. Also, this upcoming weekend I am off to Scotland with Rachel. I'm pretty stoaked about it- genealogical research and ghost tours and harry potter walking tours :D The weekend after that, we're off to France. I'm more than a little excited about that. I can't believe all of the opportunities I have coming up- which means I really much be off now. Tonight we are celebrating our tour leader, Uncle Paul as we have lovingly dubbed him, in a birthday celebration.  Until next time, where I will have Scotland adventure for you all!!