I'm leaving for London!

Ok, so I finished the paper this morning at 3:46. Went to school, printed it and my tickets off.

Last minute online checking... gotta throw my stuff into my backpack and make a run for the bus station.

so excited!
I'll have new stories soon.

My first test

So yesterday was probably my first day of hard core work. I had three classes with an hour break in between each and spent each hour in the library reading for one of the classes. After going through three books on desk reserve, you can only check one out at a time, I finally got my last book on reserve and came home.

I spent the rest of the day reading for one class, cooking beans, and studying for the test I had today.

Can I just say cooking those beans really reaffirms the fact that smell is the best sense tied to memory? The smell of the pinto beans cooking made me feel like I was in Memo and Pepo's kitchen, standing next to Pepo as he told me some story (possibly a new one, possibly one I've heard a hundred of times) while cooking beans in the pressure cooker. Definitely an enjoyable slow cooked meal. Although, I do know for next time to use more liquid so I have more caldo to enjoy later.

I got to Skype with my nieces which was very fun! And then I went back to studying more. The studying, even if a little last minute, was worth every hour and minute! I went into today to Cooperation and Conflict and I'm pretty sure I aced that test!

Back at 'home' I saw that Irene got a package from home. She is allergic to gluten and gluten-free products are more expensive here. I guess in Italy she can get them for free at the hospital. So her mom sent her a HUGE box full of breads, cookies, all tons of great Italian stuff. Irene is a doll and on my desk I found some Italian candies. One is "Galatine" a very yummy milky, almost candy, and the other is "Pocket Coffee" and I actually like it despite my so-so feelings towards coffee. Hmm, help me think of an American goodie to have Rachel bring in the suitcase full of food to me that I might be able to share with Irene... I can't think of anything.

And now, after buying my bus ticket online from Galway to Shannon airport and looking at maybe buying my train ticket from London to Cambridge, I approach the time in which I need to start working on that paper due tomorrow. Yet all I can think about is how I'm going to London and I get to see Ellen soon!

Croagh Patrick

Friday: the marathon was long, but fun. The "free food" was a bit of a joke. 3 pizzas for all of those people, I got a slice and was lucky!

Sat: lunch at the market= delicious bean curry! I love Indian food, although not sure how authentic that was... either way, I love Indian food. Then a lot of me blowing off hw, skype and watching an action-flick.

Sun: Croagh Patrick with the Mountaineering Club! This is actually the trip that made me decide I wanted to join. Ever since I hear that people made pilgrimages to St. Patrick's Mountain where a church stood at the top, I told myself I would go there, and now I have!

The bus ride there was a looong one. Mandy and I opted for the short walk, glad we did as always. This was was different. For one, there was a trail. Two, it was a very rocky trail at some parts. Not big huge rocks of limestone like The Burren, but rather loads of smaller ones, making for a bit of a slippery climb at times. Pat and Anne, our friends from the first hike joined us. (I'm a fan of those two). We had a fun bunch of people, but the going was really steep and a lot of it was you just at it on your own. The walk up took a good two hours, two very steep hours. It was interesting because you had people coming down the mountain, encouraging you along the way: children, older adults, people with dogs, completely different than our other treks.

Luck was truly at our side because when we made it to the top the clouds went away and we had the most spectacular view of the bay, beyond the bay, the fields and it was breathtaking! Oh it made the struggle worthwhile for sure! I can't even really describe how beautiful the scenery was. On the bay, not only did you have a lovely blue next to the stunning green of the fields, but there were tons of little islands popping up all throughout the bay. At the top there was a church, no idea how they managed to build that up there (poor donkeys and other labor animals, I'm sure). And we saw St. Patrick's tomb, can't remember if it is his legit tomb or just "his tomb."

The descent down was completed in half the time, although coming down the steep rocky part was slow going for me--I'm overly cautious. Not only did I visit Croagh Patrick, but I also saw the famous Famine Memorial. It was so eerie. Just thinking about how Ireland's population decreased by 3 million during that time, oh, it was just sort of heartbreaking to visit. It also kind of pissed me off when three of the boys from our group started climbing on it. I'm not even Irish and I know not to desecrate the Famine Memorial! Boys...
We followed up the hike with a pub visit like always. We caught the tail end of a rugby match, Ireland vs Italy, in which Ireland dominated, yay!

After an exhausting day I enjoyed my flat 30 minute walk home in my tennis shoes (nothing feels as good as taking off those boots after a hike!). Now I'm uploading pictures, looking at train costs from London King's Cross to Cambridge and bidding farewell to Stonehenge for now---it's just not going to work in our short three day London tour. The way I see it, I'm not dead yet, don't plan on dying soon, and that means there are more days in my life left for seeing it. And I will, just not next weekend. ; )

It's Friday the 13th, good thing I'm not superstitious

So I've had some luck with the Africa research, although most of it continues to point to the negative. How hard it is to find some evidence saying that the natural resource depletion in Africa is not all due to Africans, but that the western world is one of the primary reasons that said resources are extracted at such high rates? Well, evidently it's harder than I thought.

Nothing terribly exciting. I've mostly been researching, unsuccessfully. Today however, I'm really excited to take a 12 hr break. That's right, I'm a nerd and there is a Lord of the Rings marathon today at college with free food and a free t-shirt for those who survive it. I'm totally getting a free t-shirt.

Random: when people have to go to school they say "I'm going to college" not school or the university, but rather college. I kind of love it.

Another random, in Irish we learned how to order from the bar. Although Irish is VERY different from English and other languages in many respects, ordering from the bar isn't too hard at all. For example: Pionta Guinneass, cupán tae, cupán caifé, gloina uisce (that one is actually not whiskey but water. In Irish, ¨whiskey¨is water of life¨). That was your Irish lesson for the day, enjoy!

Gold medal for procastination

I finally got it onto my computer! Sadly though, I tried to let the video upload onto here.... 6 hours later, still no luck.

Oh it sounds like we've got some crazy and/or drunk people having fun outside. Silly Irish.

Hmm, I think I've discovered that in Ireland I have achieved whole new levels of unproductivity! Today, I woke up and worked out, finally! Not that it was much, but at least I did something... goodness I am out of shape! When I tried to take my shower, the water wouldn't get hot for quite some time... grrr. So I wasted time eating breakfast. Really, I don't get my shower. Whenever I go in at 8:15 ish, the water is hot right away. Whenever I try before or after, like today at 9, it's a no go. I think the shower is laughing at me.

I managed to procrastinate splendidly for an hour until I started working on Irish. I should study a little bit regularly, but I never do. I just look stuff over before class. Today in class we learned how to say, "my love" like I tend to at the end of sentences and how to order from the bar. No joke, "Pointa Guineass" and "cupan tae" the easiest thing so far!

After developmental Geography I made the trek back home, ate dinner, watched Scrubs, and then proceeded to procrastinate on the internet watching NCIS, finding a bunch of articles on Africa and only bookmarking them and of course facebook. I also looked at stuff to do in London and thought about maybe visiting Stonehenge. I completely forgot about Stonehenge until today... tsk on me. I don't know if it will work out this time, we'll see.

Anywho, I'm devoid of scholastic motivation and I'm sorry I couldn't get that video up.

Catching up

Hmm, let's see

Sunday: I woke up feeling, let's just say not well. My throat has felt odd ever since arriving and I woke up in one of those "I don't want to do anything but lie in bed all day" moods. The weather outside was snowy/rainy. Needless to say I decided not to go hiking. Instead I watched a movie before beginning some preliminary searching to argue Myer's article "Africa is giving nothing to anyone--apart from AIDS" article. It's really easy to find stuff on how Africa needs help and how bad stuff is there, significantly more difficult to find stuff about good things, contributions or progress being made there. I will find it though! (I have to, by Saturday when I plan on writing this assingment).

Anyways, I later hated myself just a little bit because the forecast was wrong and the weather took a turn for the better and it wound up being a sunny day. Cold, but sunny. Oh well, too late now, let's just hope for sun and no waking up feeling sick for next Sunday.

Monday nothing exciting. School, hw, and then in the evening the College Bar hosted a Ceili. They had a band playing live and some Irish students showing how to dance it. Basically it wound up being chaos, but it was fun before it became too chaotic. I wound up leaving around 11. Too many people on the dance floor to even try to dance... and some were spinning frantically and I didn't want an elbow to the face.

Today: school, bleh, searching for Africa stuff, bleh, watched NCIS yay! Ok, so I procrastinate waaay more here than I do at home. It's gonna bite me in the butt soon.

Oh yeah, we finally booked our hostel! Now we just need to figure out transportation. London/Cambridge keeps coming more and more together : )

Just a little bit further

Today I wrote my scholarship essay. Thank you to the many who helped me with all sorts of useful advice!

I also caught Mom and Dad on skype call and Rachel on skype chat, not a bad way to start off... the afternoon?

I got a text from Mandy around 3 and we met up at 4 to go exploring in search of this castle that you can see from her side of the river but that is actually on my side of the river. None of her Irish friends actually knew how to get there, so it was quite the adventure. As we walked down the road that we figured might lead over there, we asked a man entering his house if he had any idea. He told us to keep along this street until you reach a T in the road and then go left, about a mile and a half total. I think the distance was a lie.

First off, the road that we were to follow was the windiest road, lacking in a sidewalk. So we kept switching what side we were walking on depending if it was a straight part or a curvy part. We were also fighting sundown because we didn't want to risk the walk back on that road in the dark. Honestly, each corner we kept thinking, well, just one more, maybe our T and castle are around the next corner. We almost gave up at one point and then the "just a little bit further" voice kicked in again. Once we reached a ruin like archway we knew the castle had to be nearby but could not, for the life of us see it! Luckily, we did go just a little bit further and lo and behold, we found the castle! Half of the joy was in finding it.

It probably wasn't even a "castle" but it was definitely a huge estate now a ruin and overrun with ivy up the walls and hollowed out inside. It was so cool to step inside of it and feel so insignificant against the size and age of it. It's amazing that things humans make can be around for so long. It's sad when even there you find remains from other humans, like beer cans. Mandy said the world will really wind up like in Wall-E... I'll do my best to keep that from being any time soon...

Anyways, I took a looong video while in it so that way you could get the feel, but for some reason my camera is not connecting well to my computer, lame, and I only could download a couple of images. My camera, while awesome, isn't so fun when trying to upload photos to the computer, I have to turn it off and start again a couple of times. Anyways, I'll get that video up, but for now these photos will have to suffice.