Hi all!
I seriously fail at updating. I just don't think anything has really happened here that anyone would want to hear about. I've met all of my housemates (obviously) at this point, and all seven of them are Irish, and freshmen. It's a rather interesting dynamic in the house. Seven of us get along really well and apparently there's one "weird one," but I guess you can't win them all. They call Mardi Gras "Pancake Tuesday" here and shockingly eat massive quantities of pancakes (without maple syrup :-\)
One of the first weekends I was here I went to Galway, which was GORGEOUS, with a bunch of the other American study abroad students. We went to the shop that originally created the Claddagh rings, and just about all of us bought ourselves one (including me). It was just way too cool to pass up, so that will be my main souvenir from this trip. We went to the Burren the next day and climbed around on this guy's farm and saw the extremely green stereotypical Irish countryside. I LOVED IT. Then we went on to the Cliffs of Moher. It was really touristy, and you couldn't really get all that close to the cliffs, but it was still really pretty. I would put up my pictures from this, but I forgot my card reader for my camera so I'm currently in the process of looking for a replacement one here.
Last weekend I went hiking in Glendalough with the Outdoor Pursuits club. The hike itself was incredible. I would call it a mini-Inca Trail hike. We walked up these stairs for like an hour, and then we started just randomly climbing off the trail up the hills. The view from the top was great, and we went all the way around the lake up in the hills. Of course, being the incredibly graceful person that I am, I fell and twisted my ankle a little bit on the way back down the hills. My ankle is fine, but I haven't been doing anything all that intense this week in order to let it heal.
I also joined the archery club here, and I really like it. I had forgotten how much fun I used to have going out with mom to shoot. The people in the club are really nice too, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on my feet so I can train some more, and go back to the gym :-\.
I think that's about it for now. I'll try to update more than once a month. Oops.
This is another shot of Glendalough, right along the lake.
These are the Cliffs of Moher and I'm pretty sure I have a picture that looks very similar to this.
This is the Burren, not exactly where I was in it, but bascially like this with the stone the on the top of the hills, and a while bunch of farms down below.
This is the main shopping street in Galway, which is really pretty and really busy.
