my summer with the Irish: Does this blog have spell check?

If so, i can't find it. So, Mom, deal with my bad spelling. I have to time to post, but i dont have the time to go back and re-read everything i've written. That, and i really just dont care.

So...my first week here is over. It's sad, but not really because i've done SO much and had such a good time that it feels accomplishing. Firstly, I made a friend, Michelle. :) We are spending the majority of the time together but we're with the rest of the group sometimes too. I suppose the easiest way to do this, is tell you what happened each day. So here goes...
Tuesday, July 23, 2009: We arrived (did i already talk about this?). Had dinner at some place that i dont remember what the name was. It was nice, but an exhausting day because we had to hike our luggage around the entire city of Galway, literally miles. It wasnt fun.
Wednesday, July 24, 2009: Classes started and we had a "reception" for all the people here on the summer Irish Studies program. So the group and I hung out there for a little bit until we decided to head downtown to Shop Street. It was maybe 5 or 6 of us. The first pub we went to, i think was called the craine?, and it was like 5 old guys in thier 70's. In walk a bunch of American college kids and they just went crazy about trying to tell us stories and talk to us about Ireland, etc. They would overhear what we were talking about and just come in and tell us how it "really was".

There was this one guy at the bar who told me a joke. He said (in his drunkin irish accent that was very hard to understand) "Are you good with numbers, ya?" (the irish say "ya" after every sentence...its adorable) "im so-so, why"-me. "if you take two away from three how many do you have?" "one"-me. He looked perplexed, then grabs three guiness coasters off the bar and holds them out to me and repeats his question and tells me to take two away from three. "How many do you have?", as I'm standing there with two guiness coasters. Finally i get his joke and he just erupts with laughter at how he had fooled me. It was adorable. Then he looked at us four ladies standing at the bar trying to order drinks and says "not a single one of ya is prettier than the other". This is what the Irish people are like. It makes me smile :)

Long story short, we ended up going to several Pubs, and for some reason...I have absolutely no introversion to my personality here, whatsoever. Me and Michelle are meeting so many people because i just kept walking up to people and saying hi or talking to them. It's awesome! So that is how we met Suibhne (pronounced Sev-na...and i have NO idea how they pronounce that from the spelling...strange) who is Irish, and Stig who is from Denmark. I just walked up to this group of boys and asked them where we should go and they said they were heading to this club. And off to the club we went! We exchanged names so we could be friends on facebook, and the next thing ya know....

Thursday, July 25, 2009: We meet the boys with our group at what they call "The Spanish Arch". Here is a picture:

Its exactly what it looks like. A bunch of people sitting on this little grassy spot right next to the bay. Its what they do in Galway when the weather is nice. Its fun. Below is the group:

So we met these boys and ended up hanging out with them the whole night (just me and michelle, the rest of the group went elsewhere). We hung out on the grass for a long time and then went to a pub called Kings Head. Here is a picture from there!

So...yeah, thats how that night went! Oh! Isnt this the day Michael Jackson dies? If so....Suibhne was making jokes about MJ the whole time. It was hilarious! Oh x2! The "sweater" Sev is wearing isnt a sweater...its called a "jumper". He was making fun of us for that too. :)

Friday, July 26, 2009: More school....more walking, etc. Michelle and I went shopping, which is an experience in and of itself here. Thier style is so different/strange! I cant even explain it. Their shoes are hooker shoes, and the girls dress like prostitutes to go out clubbing. Its crazy. So i didnt get anything cute yet. :( Except a jacket for 10euro that is WAY cute. :) Later we met up with the boys again and hung out by the arch for a while. We bought 10eruo bottle of cheap pinot and drank it by the bay. It was super classy. We even kept the paper bag on just to make it that much more adorable. After hanging out there, we went to this place for drinks called The Front Door. Michelle and I had dinner their earlier that day and had the BEST Turkey, mashed potates, stuffing and gravy ive ever had (sorry mom). And the bartender was very pleasent to look at. So we went back there for a while. And then funny story, when it was time to leave, I somehow got separated from the group (aka abandonded lol). I was wating for Suibhne to get out of the bathroom...except he never came out! And i ended up talking to this girl Mary (irish) and her two guy friends and she insisted i share a cab home with them to my apartment. She refused to let me look around for Michelle, etc. It was funny. So i ended up back at my apartment at 2am, got my phone and call Sev and walked the 25 minutes back home to try and find them. (Mom...dont freak out. You have NO idea how safe/not bad it is here). Long story short...i found them. :) Note to self: Dont leave michelle...ever! And try not to get sucked into the irish's extreme friendliness!