It's been a long while since my last post. I think that may be because I haven't done anything so exciting that it should be documented, but the reason for that probably is I'm finally settling into a routine here. When I walk outside, I am still baffled by how beautiful is here, but it's starting to be a ritual. Everyday I rediscover that I am in Ireland when I step out the front door. Now that it's been cleared up why I haven't written on here in a while, I'll do a recap of my life from the past few weeks...
I've decided that I don't really like Galway City that much anymore. It's always a hustle and bustle there, there's no time to just relax and there's always way too many people. It may be because we can only go on Saturdays, but I think that it seems busy all of the time because the city is so dense, kind of like Dublin. When we went to Galway the other week it was to get some essentials that we can't really get in Ballyvaghan. So the whole time we were running around the city, didn't get a chance to sit at all, which probably didn't help the situation. I was really glad to come back to a quieter place. Last week on Thursday a few of us headed to Ennis (like Tennis but without the 't') which is a city in the middle of Clare. It's not as busy as Galway which is nice, and it just seemed like my kind of place more than Galway. Ennis is the perfect sized city. We got there a little bit late, so most of the shops were closed, but we got to go to the €2 Store and an art supplies store, which is like sending a child into a candy shop. I wanted to buy a lot of the supplies, but I didn't, only bought a couple of things, and everyone should be proud. HA! After that we all kind of split up and went to find a place to eat. After walking for about a half hour maybe less we found a somewhat cheap sitdown restaurant. They had burgers, and all four of us got one. We're a little deprived of burgers here, not too many places serve them. After we all were stuffed we went grocery shopping and came back home.
On Friday of last week we had Irish Studies and we went around to a couple of ecclesiastical sights. All very nice places, and as the day went on it got nicer and nicer. The sun started to peak through the clouds and soon the clouds dissappeared all together. When we got back home, I decided that I wanted to go down to the ocean seeing as I hadn't actually been down there since we had been here. Laura, one of my housemates, let me borrow her bike and I went for a ride. I found this really amazing spot, called the Bird Hide, where there are all these small trails through a small patch of woods and some grass butting up against the water. I went and sat on the rocks next to the water for a long while, I needed the alone time. Living in a house with 11 other people is not a good environment for a quiet life. I then rode out about a mile out of town to a small beach and walked around for a bit. Once I got back to the house we all sat around for a bit. Once night rolled around we headed into town because there was a Welsch music festival going on. Every year the weekend after Valentine's Day, a large group of musicians come into Ballyvaughan to play music in the local pubs. The music was great. The next morning it was another really nice day so I headed into town at about 11 to go sit on the pier. I sat there for about and hour and a half just watching the tide come in. After that I picked up some groceries and looked in some of the shops that had opened for the weekend. The town was so busy. I have yet to see it that busy. People were all around, there was no place in town to have a quiet moment. However, I didn't really mind it so much. The town is finally getting some life. The rest of the day was rather uneventful and we went to listen to the music again that night after a great dinner at the seafood restaurant in town, Monk's. On Sunday I decided that it was going to be my day to do whatever I wanted, and what I wanted was to sit around all day in my pajamas doing absolutly nothing. Once night rolled around I got a bit of cabin fever, but made it through. This week was the beginning of the midsemester critiques (or tutorials as they call them here). I'm pretty confounded that it's already midsemester. It doesn't feel like we've been here for that long, and it's odd that schools halfway over...I don't know what to think of that right now. Maybe I'll have some reflection later.
The sun's just come out, I think I may head down to the water.
No comments:
Post a Comment