The End

     Well, its over.
          Classes, I mean.
               But not final examinations.
                     Though, I'm nearly done with two of mine.

     Enough of the gloating. Yes, the Irish college semester at Galway is now over. We go for 3 months, have two weeks off for Easter and spring break, a "study week" and then finals. Unlike most American universities, examinations are spread out over a month, instead of packed in to one week. As an english major, many of my classes assign a final essay instead of a test, so in that respect, I'm used to my final schedule.
     My last class finished at noon today, and I turned in my first final right after class to the department secretary. The paper I am currently working on is for my Seminar, and is due online at 6pm on Friday. I actually enjoy writing it. I was able to pick from a list of 6 questions, and have had a month or so to work on it. I guess the only down side is this: there's no excuse for not doing well! I have another essay due on 8th April, and 2 mini-essays due 24th April. My two in-class finals are essay questions as well, and I will have 2 hours to answer the prompts.

The school doesn't believe in making students "guess"

 

     I know exactly what is expected of me, and know what I need to study. For now though, I'm planning to focus on my essay. I'll deal with studying later in April, after our spring break trip to Scotland. YAY!

     Last weekend I went on a field trip with my sister's "Castles" archaeology class . . . along with another friend going to NUIG . . . and her friends that were visiting from the US over break. The professor was talking to them and was slightly surprised that there were two girls on his trip who didn't even go to school there!

     To be fair, he said his students were welcome to invite guests, provided they pay the 20 euro fee.

 

That 20 euro was well spent

 

     We visited 5 sites that day, and most of them were not open to the public. Pallas Castle was our first site and our bus driver (who knows the country very well) didn't even know it was there. A locked grate covered the entrance to the castle which keeps idiot tourists from straying in and falling off the tower top, or ruining the well-preserved buildings. Luckily, the professor (a licensed archaeologist, no less) has a key for many off-limit national monuments. WAY more legit than Nicolas Cage. The photo below is Pallas from the bawn (grassy courtyard out front).

     On the right side of the photo is the tower house, which we went inside. Up, up, the spiral staircase we go until we reached to top floor and were able to venture outside on the battlement, which is where the picture below was taken:

 

     There, you can see the gatehouse and to the left, a little plaque about the castle. The next site was a Elizabethan-era-style-bla-bla-bla castle. It's up for renovations, so not nearly as cool. Much more touristy . . . once the curator opens it to the public in a few more months.

     Then we had a 2 hour long lunch (the professor knew the owner of the pub we all had lunch at - that was pretty sweet. Food was great too!)

     We went to a monastery next. Pope John Paul II (I think) preached there. Also, the largest Celtic crosses can be found at Ciran's Monastic site. So yeah.

      The best part (aside from Pallas) was the professor ushering us along to a broken down ruin of a castle that looked like it was about to collapse. At any second.

 

     We had to circumvent one fence, then crawl under barbed wire of a second fence to get to the ditch at the bottom of the castle. All teacher-approved. From experience, I can tell you that the defensive structure is superb. Climbing almost verticaly out of a ditch to try and storm a stone castle? No thanks. The hill in the picture is significantly taller and steeper than it looks. You can hide almost the whole army in the ditch in front of it, though.

     Pays to have awesome (and legit) professors with keys and disregard for barbed fences. That is, he didn't let the wires stop us - he DID hold them up so we wouldn't scratch ourselves.

     College isn't for everyone. Study abroad isn't for everyone. But I know without a doubt the experiences I've had in college and in Ireland would have been impossible without pursuing higher education and having a grand sense of adventure.

     This will not be my last post in Ireland - I still have so much to look forward to! It is simply The End to weekly classes and waking up at 8am for my 9am class in a freezing lecture hall after a 20min walk. Oh, things to celebrate!

 

♥C

 



St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, what could be a bigger party than St. Patrick's Day in Ireland?

A lot of things, actually. But lets go back to the beginning of the week . . .

 

The Boyfriend is in town! Yay! And what was the first thing he did while on break in Ireland?

Go to class with me. I'm pretty sure he made a facebook post about that. 

 

     He even took notes on a handout we got in class on Thursday - so studious. I realized (after a confused email from my mom back in February) that my Valentines date and "relationship status" may be unclear to some of you. Long and short of it is: I've known him since 7th grade and it took him until I left the country for 5 months to make a move. He got here on March 10th, our 2-month anniversary. It's a silly story. I tell it at parties.

     After classes, I showed him the local sites and gave him the students' tour of Galway: where we go, how we get there, our favorite pubs, nice walks, the really really REALLY good doughnuts we get on Saturdays and generally what it meant to be going to school as a student in Ireland.
     Including skipping the occasional day of class to go on a tour and take some lovely pictures of the Irish countryside. My sister and I have already taken a trip to Connemara, but this time around we took a different tour that included other stops. The first one was a Friary, which was much bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. Below is a picture of one of the towers. It was surprisingly difficult to find a picture without any one in it.

     This tour (our bus driver was named Mike) focused a lot on The Quiet Man tradition, so we stopped in the town where much of it was filmed and found this jewel of a cafe: the Hungry Monk.

     The city of Cong has a beautiful river through it, and since its the first day of spring tomorrow, the rivers and lakes are in the process of being stocked. It made me want to grab my pole and tackle, but apparently the licenses to fish are crazy expensive. Some find it annoyingly contradictory that I enjoy fishing but hate eating fish. I just say, "hey - more for you, what's there to complain about?" or similar words to that effect.  

     At the end of the day, our bus driver Mike reminded us that Galway has an annual parade and that the theme was Irish heritage from the 14 tribes to the multicultural nation it is now. He also told us to look for him if we planned to attend - he'll be in the first row playing the trombone. And he was:

The circus was in town that week too (I think they might still be around until the 24th . . . ) so we saw horses, lamas, mini-horses, performers and clowns represented.

The parade had large trucks with open platforms (like the one to the left) where people would dance, play music and in one case, gave martial arts demonstrations. In this picture, you can see three boys on top of a building watching the parade. Couldn't decide if I should be impressed by their cleverness, or worried for their recklessness.

On St. Patrick's Day, Americans "more Irish than the Irish themselves" it seems. The majority of pubs were crowded by tourists first and the  tourists had the most flamboyant clothing - green tights, face paint, and large hats. If you weren't a tourist, and you were dressed like this, you were probably 10 years old or younger. My Irish roommates went home for the weekend and went out only that evening. But, I heard a story the next night from my friends about a guy who tripped and was so far gone he couldn't even get up until his wife found him and helped.
     A few of us wanted to spend the whole day in Dublin, but we didn't have enough interest to go as a large group, so stayed for the local parade. It was a good choice, I think, even though the general population didn't go out until after all the Americans left the pubs for the evening. I think it comes down to reality vs commercialized actuality. Reality is - its a bank holiday on Monday to go with the celebrations on Sunday, and a day to "be Irish" if you want. Yes, the day can be as commercial as people think it is, with the parades and good beer (er, I mean cheer), but its a celebration like any other. Huge spectrum, I guess.
      I realize it may be a bit pointless for me to avoid using names as much as possible, because most people who read this know everyone anyway, but I like to think I make an effort to keep identities private. I suppose I could just call everyone by there name but the semester is almost over, so why bother? We only have another 1 1/2 weeks left of class and . . .

What's that? Yes. Yes, classes here in Ireland end on March 28th.

     My calendar, however, becomes fuller by the day. This past week went by incredibly quick. Already it's Tuesday again and I know this week will go by equally fast. The cliche phrase "a picture is worth a 1000 words" is adequate in the sense that pictures record memories and catalogue the days. Writing does, too but for my purposes here, I'd like to note that all of the pictures I post on this blog are courtesy of my sister - all credit goes to her.
     Only 8 weeks left. The home sickness is starting to get to me a bit. It was hard saying "bye" to my boyfriend on Monday, and its slightly alarming that class is almost over, too. But, things to look forward to?

Spring break in Scotland.





♥C



Aran Islands

     Sorry for the delay in posting this next section. It's been a busy weekend, which I'm only now taking a breather from. Last week, I attempted to move my blog "due date" to Saturday but here I am again blogging on a Tuesday, so maybe its meant to be.
     On Saturday we went to the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland. To date, its been one of my favorite days while abroad. The weather (always a hot topic) was impressively nice out, too. If I had to choose between nice weather during the weekend trip to Kerry or Inishmore, I'd go with Inishmore.
     The largest of the three islands, Inishmore, is known best for its tourism and wool industries. You have to take a ferry to get out to the islands, unless you're able and willing to take an aerial tour (which looks really cool, but given my aversion to flights and bank account, makes it implausible) So, bundled up and expecting cold wet weather, we boarded the ferry only to realize the nice weather in Galway was going to follow us to the Islands.

     At which point we were advised to rent a bike.

    I had mixed feelings about biking around all day, but couldn't see any major hills we'd have to go up. There was a total of 14 of us from the college, so we were able to get a group rate on the bikes. So far, so good. My roommate had mentioned she didn't know how to ride a bike, and there was a discussion about just walking around and seeing what we could on foot.

     Then, we saw a tandem bike.

     We went and both got a ticket for the bike rentals, and were told we could choose any bike we wanted. The tandem bikes were locked up. And when I say "bikes" I mean the one adult, and the adult-child tandem bike. We were willing to pay a bit extra for the tandem, but were told that they weren't renting out any tandem bikes for the groups. We could only rent one if someone couldn't ride. We fit the bill.

     We decided it might be a good idea to practice in the parking lot, before going out on the road. I'm in the front, in charge of steering and balance, and my partner was the "power house" later in the day when we needed an extra push to get up a hill. 
     It worked out surprisingly well, aside from a few close encounters, until we got the hang of it. Because the bike was an older model, the frame is heavier than the single bikes, and the positioning of seat and handles meant i was leaning forward more than everyone else in out group. This translates as: going downhill, we were a juggernaut, but if we had to stop, we HAD to do so at the top of a hill. It took more energy to get that bike started forward than it did cycling uphill. The one time we had to push it was up a steep muddy incline, and everyone quickly passed us.
     At the end of the day, I was complemented on my graceful dismount in front of the rental building, and upon finding out we were Americans, was called a cowboy. Close enough.
      We stopped for breaks and photo-stops throughout the day, which included petting a pair of donkeys after my sister called them over to the wall. She also petted a cow at one point, I think. Halfway through the day we spent some time on the beach, drawing pictures in the sand, picking up sea shells, and enjoying the sun as much as one can in the middle of March.

 

The photo above was taken just a few minutes after our large group photo, and front & center is me with my with my jeans rolled up, strangely off balance looking at sea shells on the sand. The beach was the warmest I felt outside so far in Ireland. The nice weather was somewhat short-lived. Although still nice enough to not need a jacket, by the time we reached Oun Aonghasa (an old Celtic fort), the chilly weather was returning.

     The second highest point on the Island, the hike up to Oun Aonghasa gave us a break from riding the bikes, which was sorely needed. From the fort, you can look out west, and know that the next land mass you'd encounter (if you were lucky enough to make it across the ocean) is Newfoundland.

 

     

     Above is Oun Aonghasa, the stone fort atop the hill. We saw a few more sites, and some early Irish churches, but this stone fort was the most impressive. Eventually, we made it back into town. The clouds covered the sun, and I think most of us left the island with a warm woolen hat or scarf of some sort. Gorgeous day.

    

     The cherry on top though? My boyfriend was able to catch his flight out of the country despite the blizzard, and I had a message waiting when I got back that he'd be here the next morning.

     Perfect day.

 

♥C

Tripping over Skeletons

     Those of you who are my Facebook friends may have heard about the skeletal remains found during the construction of a pedestrian ramp on my way to class. The current count is at least 6 skeletons, some nails, and I heard a rumor about pottery.
     For the sake of clarity, I did not trip any over important archaeological remains (though my sister twisted her ankle while walking around town today). For the most part, I just wondered:

A.) what on earth are they building? 

B.) why did they stop construction?

 

     A.) The city of Galway is building a pedestrian/bike ramp connecting  Quincentenary Bridge and Dyke Road. Which is what I guessed originally, since the concrete pile of stone was too small to be a road (and would be a nightmare, given the traffic along Quincentenary Bridge already). I considered a skateboard park too, but it didn't make any sense given the location and demographics. But, once I determined what they were actually building, they stopped.

     Figures.

     B.) I was rather annoyed when they halted construction. I'd been having issues with rock-dust flying under my contact lenses and any reason for them not finishing the project sooner was not okay with me. Then people started digging in the dirt. And it started looking like an archaeological site. The scientists looked like construction workers with their hard hats and neon jackets, instead of stuffy professors in tweed (or Indians Jones), which added to my initial confusion. Then rumors started flying that they found bones. first one, then four, then six. Then it was pottery and coffin nails.

     There are a few theories on who was buried at this site. Terryland Castle sits between the site and the river, and may be connected to the exhumed burials.

Terryland Castle, 17th century

Above is a photo (courtesy my sister) of Terryland Castle. In the distance is the north side of NUIG's campus, then the river, the "castle" ruins and the dirt path students currently use to get to the bridge. About where this photo was taken is where the ramp and subsequent dig will take place in about a month . . .

 

 Again, the same castle, just from a different direction. To the far right of this photo is where the site bones will eventually be uncovered.

     Here are some fun facts surrounding the castle, and possible interpretation for the bones, courtesy of Galway Independent, from the article, "Skeletons discovered during city works" by Marie Madden:

• Terryland Castle was garrisoned during the rebellion of 1641
• Terryland Castle was garrisoned during the Cromwellian Wars in 1652
• A joint force of Irish and French troops defended the outworks of the Castle against the approaching Williamite Army in 1691

Madden finishes her article by summing up, "There is speculation that the burials might relate to one of the 17th century wars mentioned above or that they form part of a private burial ground for the owners of the Castle and estate. More details will emerge as the excavation proceeds and finds will be published as soon as possible."

    

     My next publication may not be as exciting as Madden's, but it will surely be eventful. This upcoming week I have a trip to the Aran Islands, and Sunday the 10th my boyfriend is coming out to visit.  

     Yeah, you read that correctly. It's a long story (6 years in the making, to be exact) and by chance, his plane arrives in Dublin on our 2 month anniversary. My roommate has a friend coming to visit the Thursday before St.Patrick's Day too, and her sister and possibly her cousin are coming out the week after.

     I think it's safe to say, March will be a busy month between showing the country to our friends, and our upcoming finals beginning mid-April. Looking forward to it!

 

♥C