Pink is now a flavor

         OH HEY ALL I finally decided to update, mostly because my life is just oh so exciting…ish. The girls had a bake night over at Katie and Rafa’s on Thursday, which was so fun! Rafa and I made my favorite dense chocolate cake, Claire made cookies, Katie made lemon bars, and Alyssa made Rice Krispie Treats…with PINK MARSHMALLOWS. And they totally taste pink too, I swear. For my recipe we were supposed to use a double boiler, but obvs these school kitchens don’t have them so we MacGyvered one out of a frying pan and pot of water. Epic win. Everything turned out great and we totally stuffed ourselves beyond reason. I did skip practice for it, though also my knee hurt, and I def felt guilty after…damn this Bowdoin guilt! Luckily the game Tuesday was cancelled, because I wasn’t going to go anyway. We would leave at 12, and I would be missing 2 classes, one of which only meets on Tuesday. This near the end of the semester I just don’t want to be so behind. Not fun times. On that note, I have 2 essays due: one on Tuesday and one on Friday. However, I’m missing Thursday and Friday to fly to London, so essentially that last essay is due Wednesday. Fml. In true college fashion I’ve just been watching TV, partially because the essays are hard to think about cause we haven’t actually learned a lot of stuff, and partially cause I love Jersey Shore now. I can’t help it…please don’t judge me too hard. It’s like a train wreck—I just can’t look away!!

         Friday Rafa and I went shopping, finally, and I got working earbuds woooooooooooot so now I don’t only hear half of songs. Also I bought lots of food noms, including more pasta and chicken to put in the pasta. I’m regressing to my beginning-food choices. Om nom nom. But I did make mashed potatoes and chicken last week, and I bought more so I could make it again except this time I have peas too! I heart peas in mashed potatoes.

         Saturday was my archaeology field trip! Another early wakeup…I’m always so tired and, yes, I know I stay up late, but I still think 8am is freaking early. First we saw the Labbacallee Wedge Tomb, which is one of the biggest wedge tombs in Ireland. It is, indeed, shaped like a wedge both in profile and aerial views, with the wide entrance always facing west. Pictures are up, but the largest capstone weighs 10 tonnes, and may have been brought from several kilometers away! Those Neolithic peoples were ballers. Anyway, the bones of an elderly woman (in her 40s…ahahaha how does that make you guys feel, parental units) were buried in the most sacred, eastern chamber, which is rare and indicates that she was of some importance. Interesting fact: ‘Labbacallee’ roughly translates to ‘grave of the wise woman’ or ‘grave of the witch.’ The best part is that the area known as Labbacallee wasn’t named until 14^th century or so, while the wedge tomb was built in the Late Neolithic (2800 BC or so). There must have been some sort of oral tradition handed down that influenced the naming of the town, since there’s no way that’s a coincidence. Then we went to Glanworth Castle, which was pretty cool. On a hill, good views. It did start raining and it was really windy, but other than that pretty nice. We went to a little coffee shop in Cashel where I got hot chocolate with pink marshmallows. Idk why Ireland loves pink marshmallows so much…weird. Then we walked to the Rock of Cashel, which is a huge site on top of a hill surrounded by cliffs looking out over the farmlands. It’s really beautiful, actually. It was the seat of power for the old Irish kings before the Anglo-Normans came in shifted power. Then it was a monastery given to the Church by, bear with me, Muircheartach Ua Briain (mur-tak o’brian…roughly) in 1101 and there’s a huge Gothic Cathedral built later in the 13^th century. There’s also this little chapel, Cormac’s Chapel, with lots of frescos on the walls and ceiling which are very very rare to find in a church in Ireland. Anyway, we explored, it rained, I slept on the way home.

         I went over to watch a comedy dance show with Claire, Susan, Alyssa, and Alyssa’s bf Brian (who ALSO knows Sarah Brokaw…hi Sarah!) after I passed out for a bit at home. It’s for Red Nose Day, where Comic Relief raises money for various causes. This program was basically comics doing parody dances, and some of them were hilarious. This one 60 yr old comedienne, Lulu, did ‘Soulja Boy,’ complete with dance moves. Amazing. Then Noel Fielding did ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush. Has anyone seen that music vid? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4 It’s quite odd, and Noel actually did this version of it, with the red dress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs&feature=player_embedded . Trust me, watch them. Also donate money!! It’s a good cause and the people who participate are HILARIOUS. Do iiiiiiiiiit.

Slán go fóill!

"One minute you got three girls in the jacuzzi, the next minute somebody's in jail."

         Well, where to start?! Quite a bit has happened since my last blog post, mostly cause I keep not wanting to write about it haha. Well first of all, we went to the Cliffs of Moher on Sunday with Paddywagon tours which was amazing! We stopped at a bunch of places, like the Burren (crazy-awesome rocks on the shore) and Poulnabroune (a portal tomb that’s 6000 years old). It was great cause the tour brought us to sooooo many different places and told us lots of random facts as we passed. We saw mini horses! They were so cuuuuuuute…sadly we couldn’t bring it with us in the van. We saw St. Brigid’s Well, which is a natural spring that people have turned into a shrine, leaving pictures and poems and prayers. It was really really pretty, actually…it was inside this little cave and the water was flowing out from the rock, and there was a hole in the roof where the sun shone through. The weather started out BEAUTIFUL, like 50ºF at 7am, which is when we started walking to the meeting site. We did end up taking a cab, which is good cause it was kinda hard to find; actually, the cabby didn’t know where we were going either so he dropped us off near this huge church and gave us vague directions (which turned out to be wrong haha). We did find it, eventually. The bus was supposed to leave at 8, but when we got there we found that on Sundays they leave at 9. BOOOOOOOO. So we sat there for like 1.5 hours waiting and chatting. Nbd. Once we got to the Cliffs a storm rolled in but somehow the rain and epic fog and insane amounts of wind made it better. There’s a castle that we passed that they refitted and made into a Medieval Times-like thing with knights jousting and noms. Obvs I have to go—I love reenactment schtuff!! We got back at like 9 totally exhausted and I ended up watching Jersey Shore for the rest of the night haha.

         Speaking of Jersey Shore, I am officially addicted. I’m a little ashamed of myself, but it is hilarious, I must say. As Rafa can attest, I have become very emotionally attached to some of the characters and their situations. We drank wine last night and started writing our papers but ended up watching multiple episodes and yelling about the characters lol. Good thing the papers are due Tuesday, so I’m so safe. I am a classy person, fo sho. I finished the 3^rd season first (to see Snookie get arrested EL OH EL), then went back to the 1^st (JWoww punched Mike…epic win), and am now on the 2^nd (I just want Sammi and Ronnie to stop being on the show). Quite a life I live.

Slán go fóill!

RAG week, aka drunk-people-give-money week

         So as many of you know, this week is Raise and Give Week (called RAG Week) where, essentially, the student body raises money for charity while being drunk all. The. Time. Seriously, I went to my 4pm class and people were already wasted. I have 2 tests this week and am also sick so no worries family, I’m not one of those people. Also I don’t think I can be drunk for an entire week! Or even every night for a week. That’s just too much for me haha. I did go out Tuesday night after training with Rafa and Katie (sorry for ditching you on Skype, James!!), though we missed the 11pm cheap entry into the toga party. Though apparently everything gets really packed at about 10:30 so we may not have gotten in anyway. We sipped wine (cheap AND effective) and chatted in their apartment for a while before decided to head back to An Brog. Funny side note: apparently brog means “shoe” but is a feminine noun so in reality it should read An Bhrog, pronounced “ahn vrohg.” My Irish teacher told us we should go up to one of the bouncers and tell them that, though I don’t think I actually will…they’re huge! Anyway, we headed there and found ourselves in the front bar that apparently no one goes to, cause it was almost empty. We were hanging around with our pints when a couple girls asked us to watch their drinks, and told us we could sit at their booth, which is basically like the best gift ever in a pub. They never really came back, so we started talking to the people next to us, specifically the trashed girl who was drawing on herself with a glowstick and then accidentally threw it at us haha. The girls challenged us to an arm wrestling contest, which was hilarious. These girls were tiny, especially compared to me and Rafa. Obvs we beat them, though they were hilarious about it. They found it especially awesome that Rafa lives in an apartment with her family…they seriously were obsessed with that fact. Also, everyone was appalled that in America you can’t drink until you’re 21. That is just a crime against nature, apparently. Then Rafa and competed and I totally won, juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust sayin’. Yee-ah. The pub played the weirdest collection of music—Jackson Five, random other oldies, and Backstreet Boys. We danced for a bit and sang loudly to ‘Valerie’ before going to, where else, Tasty Kebab. Garlic cheesey chips are all I need at the end of the night, fo serious.

         Woke up Wednesday still ill, no better, no worse. Finally did laundry, though my sheets came out with weird black spots on them. Odd. W/e they’re clean and I don’t ask many questions lol. Thursday the bus left for our match against NUIG (National University of Ireland at Galway) at 9:30, and I was still coughing up a storm. However, with 20 people on the team everyone plays and I started cause there aren’t many locks. I was hoping that they’d notice I was dying and maybe take pity on me haha. Finally got to Galway, warmed up, played ‘Gaelic rugby’ aka something similar to Gaelic football (look it up, guys) but with a rugby ball. At this point I was rather sure I could not make it a whole game, but I totes was starting at least. It ended up being really really fun! Despite my lack of breath, I did okay and even got the ball this time haha. We ended up winning 10-0, which means we qualify for playoffs!!! Wooooooooooooooooooohoo!! One of the girls, Ali, scored a try, which was extra awesome cause it was her bday. Also, the pitch was right next to a lake and a freaking CASTLE. Only in Ireland… I got taken out about 10 min into the 2^nd half and got a chance to breathe. There were so many penalties ahhhhh! The ref was kind of a jerk, actually, and didn’t really call the game well for either team. He missed a bunch of possible penalties, and didn’t keep the scrum safe really.

         The bus ride back was absolutely insane. Like totally, completely crazy, especially since it was Ali’s birthday. Most of the girls had some sort of booze in cans, and as they finished a can they’d tape their new one to the old one, creating a giant staff. However had the most at the end got mad respect. We sang a lot too, mostly pop songs. Orlagh went around and we all said a word and someone would start singing a song with that word in it. Weirdest part was that the Irish girls kept singing church songs, like Ave Maria and such. So funny! We did have to stop like 5 times for them to go to the bathroom. I do love the girls on the team, though I def don’t know them super well, but they still include me which is great. I did not go out, but instead showered and went to bed like right away, well, after eating my delicious mashed potatoes. Well, I am covered in bruises and going to watch more Jersey Shore cause it’s my new guilty pleasure haha.

Slán go fóill!

Belfast Adventures: Saturday

And now for the conclusion of the Belfast extravaganza…

         Saturday we got up soooo early again cause our bus got the early Black Taxi Tour at 9:00 :-( However, we totally slept in a little cause our freaking wake-up call came late—at 8:30 instead of 7:45. Oy. But we totally made it, if barely. Our taxi driver was this guy named Pat who had a mullet and who introduced himself with ‘I’m gay so you can’t ask me for my number’ haha. New favorite person ever. The Black Taxi tour drives around the city and basically gives an overview of The Troubles. Basically West Belfast is divided into two sections—the Protestant side and the Catholic side, and the two do not mix. First was the Protestant side, where we saw lots of murals relating to the Protestant domination of the Catholics. Most of them glorify those who hurt the Catholics in some way, like Oliver Cromwell. According to Pat, the neighborhood has their own sort of citizen police force, where everything is dealt with ‘in-house,’ if you will. So it’s very very safe, unless you break their laws. One mural is of King William III, the English king who defeated King James II and began the process of bringing Protestantism into Ireland. He’s on his horse, which has its two front legs in the air. Fun fact: a painting of a king on a horse can have three different meanings. If the horse has both front legs in the air, both king and horse survived the battle; one leg means the king died and the horse survived; both legs on the ground means both horse and king died in battle. Most people have heard of the IRA, which is essentially the terrorist group associated with the Catholics; the Protestants have the UFF, the Ulster Freedom Fighters. There was a big painting of him on the side of a building with a gun, and it was painted in such a way that his eyes and his gun followed you no matter where you walked (see pictures in album for proof). Then we went to see the Peace Wall, which stretches for 3.5 miles, dividing the Catholic and Protestant sections. The highest point is 45ft tall, and the wall was built by the English soldier in a very short amount of time when they came into Ireland to try and ‘help’ quiet the unrest. It still stands today, as tensions are still there. However, now it is called the Peace Wall and people have signed it everywhere, including Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama. Yet the Catholic houses have fences on the back of their house as they are about 10 feet from the wall and Protestants still throw things over to try and hit them, like bottles and rocks. While 86% of random Irish people sampled said that they should tear down the wall, 92% of those who lived in West Belfast said it should stay up, so it probably won’t come down for a few more decades, when the next generation has grown up. There are gates dividing the city that are closed by the army at about 6pm every night and don’t reopen until the next day, since there were still murders up until 2004. There is one gate, called Checkpoint Charlie, that is automatic but is monitored by the soliders 24/7. On the Catholic side, we saw the memorial garden to all of the people killed during The Troubles, and even more recently, both soldiers and innocents who happened to be outside at the wrong time. It is said that The Troubles truly began when the Protestants crossed over to try and burn down an important Catholic monastery that has stood for hundreds of years, and when the Catholics left their homes to defend it (and succeeded), the Protestants turned on their empty homes instead. Thus, the symbol of the Catholics is the phoenix, as they rose from the ashes of their destroyed houses to continue the fight, whether for good or not. They were the minority (the Protestant/British government finagled the borders of Northern Ireland to give a Protestant majority in all voting matters) and were persecuted by Protestant Irish and British alike. The current Catholic political party is Sinn Fein, which is often associated with the IRA, as it was created by their members. On a happier note, we got to take a picture with Pat at the very end so I will always remember his awesome mullet.

         After the tour we dropped some stuff at the hotel and started walking to the Ulster Museum, by Queens University, as it was free and apparently really cool. Despite Alyssa falling behind several times to take pictures of everything she saw (she truly has a problem haha) we did make it there, though first we checked out the Botanical Garden. It was a gorgeous day (sunny, no rain) so the greenhouse containing lots of lovely and colorful flowers was even more beautiful than if it’d been raining. I have pix of that too! The Ulster museum had some interesting exhibits, including gold from the Spanish ship Girona that sank off the coast of Ireland way back when (actually, right by Dunluce Castle, who then acquired 3 cannons from the wreck). There was also an exhibit about rocks, and they had fluorescent ones! Seriously awesome…I want glowy rocks now.

         For lunch we went to a pub called The Globe, which had a deal that for 5 pounds we got a meal and a pint. And it was a damn good hamburger, if I do say so myself. We actually came in in the middle of a Manchester United vs Manchester City football (soccer) game, and oh em gee it was so intense. I think I’m a Man U fan now, though honestly that may change since I don’t really care about football haha. The bar was obvs a Man U fan base cause when they won (with an epic goal) everyone was ecstatic. I had never seen the City Hall so we all went back there; btw it looks like a palace. We wandered inside and accidentally crashed people taking wedding photos haha but luckily we weren’t too in the way so we took our pix and left. The bride was super tan though (unnaturally so), which I guess goes with how I now picture Ireland. The grounds were open so we went and took pix of them too…everything was so pretty, I would totally live there. Reminded me of the Spanish palace, actually. We backtracked to a tiny cupcake shop where I got a disappointing milkshake, but we did run into Danielle and some other people from IFSA. I met a girl who goes to a school near me (ah I can’t remember the name!) who is the President of her rugby club! We exchanged numbers so perhaps we’ll play each other next spring… it was about 4:30 and we were totally exhausted so we went home to watch the Six Nations instead of going to a pub. Scotland totally should have crushed Wales, but dude Wales beat them so badly! Princess Anne was totally there too. Lolz at royalty.

         We went to another pub for dinner, one with the same 5 pound deal as lunch. Also quite good. We had great laughs…for some reason we’re all very random yet crack each other up. Apparently I am the only one who’s taken stupid dares over the years and was mocked for that haha. Not my fault…I couldn’t refuse! That woulda been shameful fo sho. After dinner we decided to try and find the glowy globe thing that we’d seen the night before, but ended up getting lost. On our way back, totally by accident, we found it—Victoria Square, a huge shopping mall. Poor Alyssa is lactose intolerant but totally had a milkshake and shared chocolate cake with me, so she went home. Hmmm sound familiar? *coughalliecough* Then we (Claire, Susan, and I) went to The Crown, the oldest pub in Northern Ireland. Because it’s called The Crown, no Catholics would go there, until they put a crown on the floor of the entrance so people could wipe their feet on it as they came in haha. There were a lot of drunk old people, including an old guy holding his DOG in the pub. One guy came over to us and was asking us where we were from, and kept talking about this pub a couple doors over that was really good. But every time he was about to leave he’d start repeating himself haha…though I def couldn’t understand him half the time anyway. We did talk to someone about our age for a while—he lives in Belfast and was waiting for his friends so we were chatting about the differences between Ireland and the US. It was really funny because him and the drunk old guy kept making fun of how I talk with my hands a lot, and we laughed at how he uses ‘craic’ all the time. Good times though. Finally we went back home since we were leaving early (again!) for Cork the next morning. I did end up getting sick…damn my lack of sleep. But overall I really loved Belfast, though not quite as much as I love Cork :-)

Slán go fóill!

Belfast Adventures: Thursday and Friday

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey all this is a long post so get ready…

         So Belfast was a total win! Spectacular views on the 6 hour bus ride…there’s just so much green and farmland in Ireland. Crazy that the stereotypes are really all true. Also there were so many ruins! Archaeology class must be getting to me cause I was naming the things as we passed—hillfort, portal tomb, etc. Oh school. Our bus driver seemed to be a tour guide as well because he kept pointing out famous sights and telling us random facts along the way. We passed the field where part of “Braveheart” was filmed; apparently it’s near an army base and some of the soldiers were cast as extras in the big fight scene. I believe it was the first battle against the English, where the Scots won. We also passed Hillsborough, where the first peace treaty of the Troubles was signed. I’m sure everyone has at least heard of the conflict in Northern Ireland between the Catholics (Nationalists) and the Protestants (Loyalists). The Protestants were incorporated into Ireland by the English by Cromwell in an attempt to eliminate/severely reduce the Catholic religion. Thus, the remaining Catholics were discriminated against for hundreds of years, leading to the beginnings of unrest. I’ll talk more about the Troubles in my later posts describing the Black Taxi Tour, but suffice it to say those 3 decades were violent times, and even now much tension remains between the two groups, especially in West Belfast. We did hear about the Cork plane crash on the radio as we drove, which was rather disconcerting because the plane was flying from Belfast to Cork. 6 people died and 6 more were seriously injured as the plane attempted to land for the third time in heavy fog. Really sad story, and one that was always in the back of our minds as we explored Belfast.

         We got to our hotel at about 6, and were told that dinner was at 7:00, though they really meant 7:30. Lemme just say, we got down to the food area and just stood and stared for 30 min before we could go in. SO HUNGRY. But dinner was fantastic (or I was just really hungry) and we all stuffed ourselves. Alyssa, always the child, played with her food more than eating it, and also made a whipped cream heart with her dessert. I approve. We got Bailey’s cheesecake which was oh so delish. I roomed with Claire, which made for some awesome times since we both love British TV. We found this show called ‘Mock the Week’ which is essentially a ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ mixed with ‘The Daily Show.’ Zomg so funny. They randomly select a topic and then do some stand-up comedy about it; we were both near tears by the end from laughing so hard.

         Next morning we were up early for our 8am departure to various sights that are apparently rather far. Those who know me know I’m not a breakfast person, but since it was free (and I love free things) I got up a little bit earlier to sample the fine cuisine Ireland had to offer. In one word: bread. I ate so much bread! They had a lot of meat products and some unidentifiable other things, but I love bread (and pastries!) so I went with the rolls and croissants. They were so good I even stole a bunch for the bus ride later…gotta have snacks, I always say. Now let me just address the issue of Northern Irish accents right now: they are effing hard to understand. They sound a bit Scottish, actually, but with something else mixed in. And I thought Cork accents were hard! The woman giving us the tour sometimes had to repeat herself as we stared at her blankly haha. Unfortunately the other peoples we met talked a lot faster and never repeated themselves, so I went with the time-tested ‘smile and nod’ response. Maybe a bit of a laugh if I felt so inclined.

         We stopped in Larne for a bathroom break, and the guide, Deidre, told us that the Scottish coast is only about 15 miles away, and if it weren’t so foggy we could see it clearly. After a long, long drive we arrived at the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, which is this tiny little bridge over a 30m drop into the ocean below. Fishermen used to use it to go over to the island to fish, though then it only had one railing so they could trail their catch over the edge on the other side. Too freaky. It was only about 20ft long and thankfully not too windy, but I foolishly looked down and from then on every step was a bit unnerving. Especially since some FOOLS decided that shaking the bridge was a good idea. If I ever find out whose idea that was defenestration will occur. The waves were HUGE though since we were right on the Atlantic Ocean and it was cloudy so the whole view was slightly foreboding. The entire coastline is these huge cliffs that loom over the water…think ‘Harry Potter 6’ when Harry and Dumbledore are going into the cave. There was also an island that looked like Chateau d’If, for all those who’ve seen ‘The Count of Monte Cristo.’ We ate (correction: stuffed ourselves) at the Ramada Inn in some small town that seemed completely empty…a little creepy actually. Again we got apple pie! Seems to be a thing here. Though, Mom, it wasn’t as good as yours :-) We explored the

         Next we headed to Dunluce Castle, where the MacDonnell clan lived. It’s on the edge of a cliff (that apparently erodes really easily) that is only accessible by a tiny strip of rock that leads from the mainland to the cliff. Apparently it was never taken, until the English brought their cannons. The North wall of the kitchen fell into the ocean in the 17^th century, leading to the construction of a house on the mainland connected to the castle because the lady of the house hated the ocean. The best part was that there’s a cave underneath the castle where a boat could be stored in case they needed to escape to Scotland. They call it the ‘mermaid cave,’ which just sounds so awesome but sadly we couldn’t go check it out. Something about ‘waves taking us out to sea’…pssht so not cool. Next was Giant’s Causeway, which is a bunch of basalt pillars that I swear to god look like stacked biscuits. The legend goes that Finn MacCool, a giant from Ireland, went to fight his rival from Scotland (Belladonna or something like that, but manlier…) by creating and walking across the Giant’s Causeway, but turned around before he got there. The Scottish giant ran after him but Finn MacCool got to his house first and told his wife what was going on. She put him in a baby cradle and wrapped him up, so when the Scot came he saw the baby, said ‘Well if that’s the kid I don’t wanna meet the father,’ and ran back to Scotland, leaving the Giant’s Causeway behind. The waves here were HUGE…like fo serious a kid from my group almost got taken out haha. I kept trying to be a waterbender but it didn’t really work out sadly. I DID buy a bodhrán, though it’s a mini one, and even though I have no idea how to play it so I’ve basically just been hitting it and having fun.

         We went back home and changed since we were all wet and cold, and rested a bit before heading back out. Just a note: Bowdoin still sends me all the damn class emails so I have like 30 new emails every day that totally don’t apply to me. And some of them look fun! I really just wanna go back for PostSecret at least. We eventually got up the energy to go out and I realized I had to finally exchange my Euros for Pounds boooooo. I refused to do it at the hotel desk cause the rate was terrible, so Alyssa and I decided to go to the big shopping mall then meet our peoples at the restaurant. We wandered in the rain and kinda got lost even though Alyssa totally knew where she was going haha but ended up finding a Bank of Ireland atm!! This was like the best present ever since I got a good rate and didn’t have to pay an atm fee. I know, this is super geeky, but every pound counts here so pssht. Claire really wanted to go to The Washington Bar, which is an American-style bar that serves ‘real hamburgers’ and had a live guitarist playing ‘American music’ like Johnny Cash and such. I got steak and a ballin’ strawberry daiquiri…it was nice to have not-beer for a change cause I’ve grown to like it but nothing beats strawberries. Then Claire took us to one of her many true loves, The Garrick, which is a pub that has beers from all around the world. It’s really cute, actually, and the Belfast ale was good. All of the pubs we went to had the news about Egypt on…go Egypt! After we went back and watched Braveheart until we fell asleep. Good times, all. More days to come in the next post!

Slán go fóill!

Remind me to read more Cornish literature...

         I just want to share with you all a quote from the myth of ‘Tristan and Yseut’ (or ‘Tristan and Isolde’, for those not familiar with Welsh spelling). Tristan is going to save Yseut from giving an oath that she’d never slept with Tristan (oh boy, what a huge lie!) and all his friends are giving him gifts and money and such. The text describes the amount of things that he gets with the genius phrase:

“A man might be a pimp for seven years and not be able to get such booty!”

Conclusion: Cornwall is the coolest place ever.

Slán go fóill!

Fried rice represents all that is good in this world

         Tomorrow morning I leave for Belfast, so I thought I’d get up a post before so that the next one will be all Belfast, all the time. I am missing some classes but I’ve talked to the profs already—it’s apparently very alright for visiting students to miss class for a field trip or something. They do keep telling us that we’re here to learn, but also stress how important it is to explore Ireland (and Europe). All of the IFSA groups are going to Belfast so I’ll get to meet kids in school in Dublin, Galway, etc…wherever there are other schools. Should be fun…yaaaaay friends!!

         Tonight we went out to dinner to Wagamamas to celebrate Katie’s birthday. 21 yay!! It was really fun, and omg the noodles are still incredibly good. After, we went back to her and Rafa’s apartment to have chocolate cake and ice cream, my favorite combination ever.

New awesome place: Café Depeche. I’ve heard about this from multiple people but had never been there myself, so after Archaeology last week I went over to hang out until my Irish class at 16:00. I got a hot chocolate, and it came in this amazing glass that looked far too pretty to eat. (Rebecca took a picture which I’ll post as soon as she posts hers.) And it was so good! One day when I have money I’ll go back haha.

We booked our flight to London and our hostel there, which is so so so exciting for me…I’m like a real person, planning vacations and such. We did failblog pretty hard, though, since we booked our flight out for 6:30 in the MORNING instead of in the EVENING. Well, that just means we get a whole extra day in London! We’ll be there from March 3-7, leaving early Monday morning and getting back to Cork at 7:30am, just in time for my Archaeology class haha. We’re staying in a hostel righti n the middle of London for about 70 euro total for all 4 nights, which is rather good compared to most of the prices. There’s internet too so I’ll be able to go on my iPod to update ye, since I won’t be bringing my computer. From what I hear it’s rather expensive there, but IFSA has lots of tips for cheap food; it seems that I’ll be eating Vietnamese food a lot there, which I’m totally ok with!

I did keep my promise- pictures are now in order and captioned, for your viewing pleasure. So exciting! Ask Jeff—I was up really late captioning them because I couldn’t sleep until I’d finished haha. Thank goodness for 14:00 classes…love ‘em.

My fried rice! Arborio rice (cooked before), onions, red peppers, egg, and soy sauce.
I don't remember how much of each is in there...I really just threw stuff together haha.

Tonight we went out to dinner to Wagamamas to celebrate Katie’s 21^st birthday. It was really fun, though we didn’t have enough people to use my coupon so I just decided to eat when I got home. After, we went back to her and Rafa’s apartment to have chocolate cake and ice cream, my favorite combination ever. We ended up buying a caramel ice cream cake to precede the chocolate cake…what a fantastic idea. When I got home I was craving fried rice so obvs I made some—check it out above. I eyeballed everything and didn’t use a recipe, and it actually came out quite good. I’m eating it now…om nom nom nom. Well, off to pack for tomorrow!

Slán go fóill!

“Just to be sure, slap yourself with a chicken cutlet.”

         “In Ireland if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes.” Going along with my weather-themed titles, here’s a quote by Some Person that pretty much sums up Ireland. It was cloudy but nice today for a couple hours, then cloudy and rainy, then windy and clear, then windy and rainy. And yesterday it was beautiful…until night fell. I just don’t even try anymore.

         Some of you might notice the awesomeness my profile now contains (other than the fantastic blog posts, of course)—I added a bunch of stuff to the side, including a map of Co. Cork and links to other peoples blogs. Yaaay customization!

         Monday night we went to see céilí music again at the pub An Spailpín Fánac. Fun fact: that translates to “The Wandering Migratory Farm Laborer,” or “The Wandering Scamp.” Personally I prefer the former haha. They again brought out free food, including chips, sausages, and white pudding. I, being somewhat brave and also weak of will, yielded to my friends’ encouragement to try the white pudding, which turns out is basically fried fat. Tastes like gravy, but I couldn’t get over the fact I was eating FRIED FAT. Luckily it was small and I convinced other peoples to eat some of it for me. I have to admit, I wish I had been able to take a music class here because it just sounds so cool! But by the time I figured out the biochem debacle, all of the classes I wanted to take were full.

         I finally hung out with my roommates this weekend! The Quinnipiac ones (Sarah, Jenna, and Alyssa), actually. I really do like them a lot and wish we had classes or something together. But we were just talking over dinner on Sunday, complaining about the rain and such. They’re pretty hilarious, especially since the three of them were already friends so they play off each other rather well. They’re heading to London this weekend and I’m off to Belfast which means Jessie will have the apartment to herself this weekend. Should be fun for her haha. Actually, that reminds me…I need to pack…eek!

         Rugby practice today in the rain again, though this time it was windy beyond belief. It’s funny how even the natives complain about the rain constantly even though it’s like this, well, pretty much all the time. I enjoy it though since I have people to complain with and I’m not just that whiny American. The girls are going up to Dublin for the women’s Six Nations match—Ireland vs. France, I believe. Sadly I can’t go, though I’ll be in Belfast so I’m not actually complaining. Next Thursday we have another match against Galway…I have no idea if we’re supposed to win or not. Apparently UCC is division 1 here (that means they’re pretty good) so we’re probably playing good teams. However, we were supposed to lose our last match and we upset so I guess I should toss expectations out the window haha.

         I added more pictures (that I stole from people) to my album if you want to look. I also promise I’ll do captions one of these days, at least to tell you what something is.

         I learned how to tell more time in Irish today. So if you’re saying “It’s 4 o’clock” you’ll just say Tá sé a ceathair a chlog but if you want to say “It’s 4:20” you would say Tá sé a fiche tar éis a ceathair (tah shay ah feh-he tair aysh ah cah-hair). That literally translates to “It is twenty after four,” since tar éis means after. The great thing about times is that basically you just substitute numbers and the rest of the sentence remains the same. For something like 4:45 you’d say Tá sé a ceáthrú chun a cúig (tah shay ah ca-her-roo huun ah coo-ig), as chun means before. And there’s your lesson for today.

         To end this rather long post, GLEE IS BACK. Fina-freaking-lly. Now that I’ve found a free site with no time limits I’ll be tuning in to watch Glee every Wednesday. I’m so happy :-D

Slán go fóill!

An epic win(d)

         First of all, a very Happy (half) Birthday to my wonderful younger sister! Hopefully Mom is still alive after the gaggle of 16 year olds she chaperoned into the city last night…you should get a medal or something for that :-P Meg, I’d send you a present but that’s a lot of work and instead I’ll bring you an awesome gift in 4 months.

Speaking of which, I’ve been here over a month! A month and 3 days, to be precise. I know it’s cliché, but time is flying by…it seems not so long ago that I was struggling with my internet and confused about where all my classes are. UCC is actually pretty small, for a huge university—the main campus is about the size of Bowdoin’s. There are a couple buildings way off campus (aka like a 20 min walk or so) but I don't have classes there so they don’t count. I’ve settled in rather well, I think: I’m getting the hang of how to shop for myself, where to take the bus to rugby practice, and how to entertain myself on weekends when there’s really not much to do. I also really like the rugby team here…they are a fantastic group of girls who are probably just as hilarious as the team back home, which is really saying something. Classes are going well, though I don’t really have as much immediate work as I did at Bowdoin. However, I do have three essays assigned already, due in a couple weeks, so I should probably begin thinking about those at some point haha. That is a huge difference here, though, because these essay due dates are set waaaaaay before the semester starts and can’t be changed. No extensions, no exceptions. When we hand them in we get a receipt that proves that we turned in the assignment, and we have to keep it just in case someone loses the paper. Kind of scary, actually. I’m surprised to say it, but Bowdoin was a lot more lax (in this area, at least). It’s different here, but I do like it. I think I’m even starting to adopt certain expressions, like “ye” and “craic.” Hopefully by the time I come back I’ll have an Irish accent :-P

So in my spare time I’ve been watching a lot of TV online, or at least trying to. A lot of my go-to sites don’t work outside the US (Hulu, SyFy, Netflix etc) which means I can’t watch some of my favorite shows. I’ve been trying to catch the end of Warehouse 13 but so far I have been unsuccessful. Luckily White Collar is on Megavideo and boy so many things have happened since I last watched! First of all, they found the guy who killed Kate (don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about…), and it’s Dresden! Or at least the guy who played Dresden in the show…I swear he’s been every evil villain in all my fav shows—Leverage, Burn Notice, now White Collar. So sad, because I liked him as Dresden, but so good because he’s a convincing villain.

         Rafa, Rebecca, and I were planning to go to a hurling match then make dinner tonight but the epic storm outside made us all think twice (aka we were weak and instead spent the day indoors). Though, I mean, the wind is blowing as hard as last night PLUS there’s rain so I feel justified in my current laziness. Thank goodness for my Nook otherwise I’d go crazy since, believe it or not, there’s only so much time I can spend on teh interwebz. I think we’ll cook tomorrow night instead so hopefully the storm will have lessened by then. Oh Ireland, you and your stereotypical weather.

        

Slán go fóill!

"May the wind be ever at your back." Oh, don't worry, it definitely was.

            I forgot to write about this! I was walking to Irish one morning, right on time and so ready to learn more about the weather. Birds tend to sit on the telephone poles and wires right over the street (can you tell what direction this story is going in??) so I don’t even notice them anymore. UNTIL I felt a plop on my head. Yeah, you guessed it—damn bird pooped on my head. Obvs I didn’t go to class but instead went home and showered very. thoroughly. I decided not to email the prof but instead tell him the next day in class cause I didn’t think he’d believe me haha. He did find it pretty funny and told me not to worry about missing class (though when we started talking about weather the next time I was a little confused lol). But lemme just say this is the THIRD FREAKING TIME a bird has pooped on my head. According to Chinese lore, that means I’m really lucky. Three times so, actually, since one bird pooping on your head just makes you lucky. Oh goodness gracious why am I so “lucky”…dislike. Someone else better get some of this damn luck.

            Rafa and I had a baguette and strawberry butter while watching “Loose Women,” a show very similar to “The View,” though I seriously question its choice of name. We didn’t have a mixer so we used a fork to mix the butter and strawberry jam, but it was so delicious anyway!! Such a freaking great idea, if I do say so myself. I used the same technique to make a chocolate milkshake last night…win! The bread and butter was a reward for finally registering with the Guarda. I got a nice little card stating I am allowed to be here until the 31^st of May, which is 3 days after I’ll be leaving, actually. Very very exciting :-)

But the walk to the station was so so so windy…no rain, just gales. After, when Rafa and I were just sitting inside we could hear it howling rather ferociously. Actually it was kinda scary. And when I walked home eventually omg I was seriously being blown around, which is almost unbelievable. I mean, I’m a pretty solid person, and this damn wind buffeted me back and forth on the sidewalk. Most kids are home already (the Irish go home on the weekends, so campus is pretty deserted), but the ones who are left keep Facebooking about how this is some of the worst wind they’ve seen in a while. Craziness.

            We also watched Oprah (like usual haha) and Geoffrey Canada was on! For those who don’t know, he was a Bowdoin grad who founded Harlem Children’s Zone and made the movie “Waiting For Superman.” His goal is to change the education system in American, thus the movie. I haven’t seen it personally, but it’s gotten rave reviews and from what I hear it makes its points in an extremely powerful way. Jenny, for one, was really moved by it. When I get a chance I plan to watch it, and you should too! After Rafa and I watched some more TV for a while, then got out her comp and watched “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” I’m not sure how many of you have read the book, but it’s really good, though rather disturbing at parts. The original Swedish name was “Men Who Hate Women” which is a pretty good description of the overall theme of the book—not that all men hate women, but the plot is driven by how certain men do. I highly recommend this movie as well, actually.

            New on my favorite show list: Take Me Out. Basically there are 30 women who choose between men, who come on the show and have to impress the women. The ladies then buzz out if they DON’T like the guy, and if there are any left at the end of 3 rounds the guy gets to choose. We watched an entire hour of this, and while you all may be shaking your heads, lemme tell you it is riveting television.

            I just added this nifty new thing on the upper right corner of my blog where I can link directly to the album connected to the blog! So just click on that for new pix (just added some) and it'll take you to my Picasa album. Yay technology!!

Slán go fóill!

Teased hair is so in right now

            Last night a bunch of us went to see traditional Irish music (called céilí music) at the pub An Spailpín Fánac. It was so cool! There were fiddles, flute-like things, button accordions, and bagpipes, all just playing along whatever came to mind, or so it seemed. I did not want a pint while there, so I got a milkshake at Eddie Rocket’s beforehand…such a good choice. I loooooove milkshakes. After Rafa and I went to a continuation of the birthday party from Saturday, though this time is was much more chill. We sat around for a bit then someone put on music and we began dancing. They play this game called “Dance Floor Domination” where basically people dance around and bodycheck others…it was kind of terrifying, yet funny. Luckily there were couches all around, though some people missed and did fall onto the nice, carpeted floor haha. Though the best part by far was when we were singing Katy Perry's "Firework" and someone brought out sparklers. It was so perfect and also really funny.

            I went to my first Marine Environments class today. No, worried parents, it’s not because I was skipping, just that there were only two classes before today and I signed up for the class late anyway. It only meets twice a week for two hours, which is a bit long though it is nice to get it out of the way early. It seems like it will be interesting, but the prof has this interesting way of glossing over somewhat complicated idea (like sedimentation) and explaining in depth easier ones (like water). But Rebecca is in the class and she knows her stuff so I’m sure I’ll be fine!

            I have to say, my four classes on Tuesday are a lot! Especially since I have a one-hour break in between three of them. It’s not enough time to go home, so I awkwardly loitered on campus on the public computers studying for the Disney pub quiz that was tonight. I was so excited! Finally all my years of playing Disney Scene-It would pay off! Unfortunately everyone but us got the memo that it was moved from 8pm to 9pm so we sat there through the SocMath quiz bowl but ended up having to leave before the Disney quiz started. Extremely disappointing. Though funny moment—they asked a question about which US president dropped the atomic bomb and gave the clue that he was the only president to serve more than two terms. Um…not true, I believe? But it was funny anyway.

             I've been learning lots more in Irish- I now know how to tell time (It's 10 o'clock=Tá sé a deich a chlog...pronounced "tah shay a daych a hlog"), say I'm American (Is Meiriceánach mé...pronounced "ihs merikanach may"), and how to describe people (Colin Firth is good=Tá sé go maith...pronounced "tay shay g'mah"). I'd try and explain more about it but even I'm confused so I wouldn't be very good. Sentence structure is crazy, and don't even get me started on the eclipsed form haha.

For a slight change of pace, here’s a list of facts about Ireland (and not totally stolen from Rafa!):

1)     Men here are obsessed with Adidas sweatsuits. Seriously, they have matching sets and sometimes matching bags…odd and kind of unacceptable in my view. On the other hand, women dress up all the time here. So freaking unfair.

2)     Driving is absolutely insane here…laws seem to be simply a guideline instead of a rule, for example speed limits. People will also randomly pull up on the sidewalk to park. Also pedestrians absolutely do NOT have the right of way. It’s quite dangerous to think that haha.

3)     Girls here I swear try to dress like Snookie from Jersey Shore. Rather frightening, actually.

4)     Classes seem to be kind of optional? For the Irish at least…I feel too guilty to skip any classes. Oh Bowdoin how you’ve ruined me. Also I like my classes a lot.

5)     Very popular term here is “craic,” pronounced “crack.” When I first heard the phrase “That’s good craic” aka “That’s cool” I thought it was some ridiculous phrase of a bygone era, except people use it here all the time! On that note, the Irish use “ye” instead of “you” all the time, even in writing. It’s pretty awesome.

6)     Irish soap operas are wonderful. Emmerdale is my favorite right now, and I try to watch it every day. Yes, my life is exciting.

7)     Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” is probably the most popular song here at the moment, which was unfortunate since I really didn’t like it when I came over, but luckily now I’ve grown to love it!

8)     The sun rises at like 8:30am and sets at around 5:30pm.

9)     Unlike at Bowdoin or in Brunswick, nothing is very close. Not super far, but at least a 10-20 minute walk.

10)   True to the stereotype, it will randomly rain here throughout the day. Carrying an umbrella is a must, unless one likes walking 25 minutes home in a downpour (hint: no one does).

Slán go fóill!