Last weekend Dublin, this weekend...

... Limerick. Since my birthday I've been continuing on the path of figuring out my lifestyle here. I've joined choir, and I'm in the musical, The Wedding Singer. Both are enjoyable so far, but it's very early days. One thing that is noticably different is the speed at which things happen here. Back home, if we were in a rehearsal for a musical, the music director would be on the ball, and if people were talking they would get yelled at or eventually thrown out. But here, everytime there's a lull - everyone starts talking, and it makes things move so, so very slowly. Anyone who knows me well knows that I get very frustrated by things like that, especially if it means having to go over one, one measure harmony about 5 times before everyone gets it. BUT, hopefully as time goes on, things will pick up and people will get more serious. Anyway, I doubt any of you really care about any of that, so I'll stop rambling.

Last weekend, I went to Dublin with my two American friends Elizabeth and Maryrose. It's been one of my favorite weekends so far. We stayed in the same hostel I stayed in during orientation, The Abbey Court Hostel. However, this time we stayed in a 12 person room. There were 6 bunk beds, and we were the only girls.Suffice it to say it was a bizarre experience. The guys were all very friendly... but, still. Anyway, we went to the Guinness factory and I had about 6 sips of a pint of Guinness! Which is a big deal, because I hate anything and everything that has to do with beer. We went on the hop on hop off bus and saw some sights, and then we went back to the hostel to get ready and went on a pub crawl! It was called the Leprechaun Pub Crawl, and you paid 10 euro and then got a free shot at every pub and a reduced price drink. We ended up meeting up with my friend Jen from GW who's studying at Trinity, my friend Catie from Arcadia doing a program in Dublin, and my friend Paul, the garda that we also met during orientation.

I went home the next day to deal with immigration stuff. To make a long story short, I got to immigration at 630 in the morning, and I was out of there at 1230 in the afternoon. I was not a happy camper. Since then, this week has gone pretty smoothly. A bunch of rehearsals, and then last night we went to Cuba for a foam party which was way more enjoyable than it would sound. I've been to foam parties where you're just in a pit of foam and that's disgusting, but they would sporadically make foam fly out at you for a few minutes and then it would stop, so it wasn't as gross. I went with my 2 of my roomies and their friend Colin, and then I ended up seeing my friend Kim there and hung out with her for a while, and then ran into Elizabeth and Maryrose and their friends... so it was a really great night with most of my favorite people in Galway :)

Today I've got 4 classes, and I'm done at 3 pm. Then I'm going home to pack and have some food and then I'm off to Limerick until Sunday! I'm going to stay with my friends from the Arcadia program who came to Galway for my birthday. I can't wait to see them and to see what Limerick has to offer!

I'll try and get better at this updating thing... I promise! Miss and love everyone to peices!

Thank you Galway...

... for an incredible birthday. I'm twenty years old! I celebrated last night and tonight by going to the Quays, my favorite pub, and then tonight we also went to Cuba and Coyote. Last night was incredible, and tonight was very fun too... but a little weirder. The irish get very drunk and very bizarre, but nonetheless it was a very enjoyable experience. I plan on celebrating tomorrow night... I think I'm entitled to a birthday weekend! It's been rainy, but the vibrant city more than makes up for it. Tomorrow I plan on going into the city for the market with the limerick ladies for lunch, and then showing them some cute shops. More later!

Sorry for the delayed updating...

I just got back from a homestay in Tuam, and it's been a crazy week. I've been spending the past week getting accustomed to my life in Galway, and then this weekend was spent in a small city about 25 minutes outside of Galway.

The homestay was very enjoyable... I spent it with another girl from Arcadia and we were placed with a family who had 3 kids and a dog. They were all sweet and we spent the time sleeping, eating, watching tv and movies, and hanging out with the family. We walked around the city with other people from Arcadia, as well. Tuam was charming, but far smaller than Galway, and I'm very happy to be back here.

We're going out tonight to celebrate being back, but for now I'm going to relax and enjoy being back in my room here. My roommates seem to have moved in, but none of them are here now... hopefully I'll get to talk to them at some point tonight.

I definitely miss my friends and family, but I'm still having a great time here. I'm just waiting to meet those people that I instantly click with... I really hope it happens soon. Till then, I'll be enjoying the city and the life I have here at the moment.

I've discovered my new favorite thing about Galway...

... is the Saturday and Sunday market. It literally has everything! It's off shop street and has fruits, vegetables, indian food, vegetarian food, bread, clothes, jewelry, etc... It's amazing. Yesterday I walked into town with Emily and we went through the market and then sat and looked at the river. It was beautiful and sunny and pretty breathtaking. Then I came home and cleaned up a bit and then I went out with Chrissy and Emily to The Quay pub which is my favorite pub so far. It has three floors, and the floor we were on played amazing music and was just a really great time. We met up with a bunch of Arcadia people there and it was one girls 21st birthday, so that was quite enjoyable. Then we ate at supermacs and then walked home!

I really, really love it here, and we haven't had one day of rain yet! I know our luck will soon run out, but I'm definitely enjoying it while it lasts.

Finally done with orientation...

... and I'm absolutely exhausted. We've had to listen to so many speakers, and now that we're done I think we're all excited to get to relax. Let's see... two nights ago we went out in the city center and it was lots of fun. It's not as crowded as it will be because the semester hasn't started, but there were still a good amount of people out and about. We went to King's Head pub first, and then ended up wandering around and club promoters would tell us about deals. We went to a club called dignity, and then another place called cuba... and then we went back home.

We had to be up at 9am the next day, so it was a struggle but we made it... since then though I've been feeling very under the weather. Headache, cough, nausea, no appetite... so yesterday I slept from 1pm-7pm and then 8pm-3am and then 3am-830am when I had to get up. I feel better now, but I still have a bit of a sore throat and a headache... and every once and a while I get really bad stomach pains. I'm hoping it's just my body being angry at me for doing too much after already being jet lagged and tired. I'm going to take a nap now and then see how I feel when I wake up to determine whether or not I'll be going out tonight. I feel like its important for me to be social so I get to know people... I don't want a repeat of my freshman year at GW.

All in all, it's been a great few days... Now I'm just anxious for the semester to start and for everything to fall into place with my courses.

All moved in to my house in Galway...

... despite my key card not working. It's so aggravating and the people at gort don't know how to fix it... whatever. Just means security will have to let me in early this morning when I get back from being out! haHA if I'm annoyed, you'll be annoyed, gort na coiribe! Anyway, I'm exhausted and about to get ready to go out tonight, so I'll do a better update later. I love my house and my room, and just had a lovely home cooked meal at megan and jillian's.

More later!