Arrival and Sleep Deprival

Wewh. What a whirlwind. I've officially been in Galway for 4 days, but so much has been happening it feels like longer. I won't go into the details of journey to Ireland except that the 8 hour layover in Heathrow was pretty rough. But Erika and I felt a lot better after navigating the Irish airport and getting to our hotel in Shannon for the night. When we woke up and tried to take the shuttle/bus from the hotel to the airport we learned a lesson on the Irish sense of time. Mainly- that it's very loose. The motto is 'when God made time, he made plenty of it'. Our bus was an hour and 25 min late (which is common) when we decided to just take a taxi. From there we found a separate bus (on time) to Galway. From there we caught a taxi to our student accommodations-> and here I am. :)

A note about our Taxi driver: After Erika and I were wandering around trying to find the bathroom we ran into a very nice Garda. He chatted with us (and pointed me in the right direction). He thought we were very nice so he went out onto the street to find a good taxi driver for us (one that wouldn't rip us off because we're American). Our taxi driver was the nicest man you could have imagined. The Irish really are so welcoming and friendly it's surprising/humbling. When the taxi driver dropped me off he wrote down a list of places I should go to buy my bedding cheaply and where to get a phone, ect. We ended up chatting for a little about pubs I should go to and places I should see (as if he had all the time in the world). He wouldn't leave until he made sure I found out the correct place to check in. He was a very kind little old man, but I think that's just the typical Irish-way.

Housing: I'm staying at Cuirt na Coiribe, and it's very nice. My room is small but our kitchen is fully stocked with couches, a tv, tables, lamps, pots and pans, glasses, utensils, ect. so I'm not complaining. I have 3 other roommates. One guy from Germany, a girl from Holland, and another fellow American girl. I went out with my two foreign roommates to a couple of pubs last night, and made dinner with them. I want to get to know my American roommate more, but she has been spending all of her time with the group she came with. At this point I wish I had come with a group too. Everyone in them seem very well-adjusted to everything and knowledgeable on what's actually going on. I am completely befuddled by the Irish-class-reregistration system. It also would be nice to have build-in friends that you could use as a security blanket. But, I think in the long run I'll be glad I was on my own.

Pubs: I am in love with downtown Galway. I just want to wander the streets and sit down with the street musicians. I keep thinking I'll be able to adventure on my own but then it get's cloudy and rainy and I loose my zest. But I think I'll just have to get over that (pretty sure it's going to constantly rain for the next 4 months). I'm going on a tour of Galway tomorrow- hopefully that will help me to not get lost as frequently. So far I've seen a full football game at O'Malley's pub and had my first Guinness. The locals were awesome to watch with. They would yell and moan and applaud at the screen, it made the atmosphere really fun. I've wandered the streets at night with friends and people-watched. I've been into several different pubs, including The King's Head and The Quays. So far I'm really liking it. I can't wait for classes to start and to start making lots of friends and to actually start to know my way around the city. That's about it for now.

 

My first half-pint of Guinness!

:)