86 instant communication

Now that we are far far away from our cellphones, constant internet access and the liking we have to use these ancient things called phones inside of hotel rooms and remembering our friends room numbers in order to make those calls. Crazy right? We all literally have a piece of paper that details the room numbers. Today was a free day for us, meaning we could do whatever we liked. Last night after dinner we decided that we would met for breakfast at 10 a.m. and decide what we would like to do for the day. At 10 a.m. all were there except for the boys, so we decided that we would eat breakfast and then met again at noon to go explore. At noon, we were all there and headed to The National Museum. The museum was actually not as impressive as I thought it would be. It was more replicas than I had imagined. I'm still awaiting the book of Kells from Trinity College. Isa and I managed to find Starbucks, and although I'm not the biggest coffee person it was definitely good to enjoy a vanilla latte! We decided to split up because people wanted to do different things. So again we all made plans (ahead of time- what a concept!) to meet in the lobby at 7 p.m. for dinner. I, and three other girls, headed to the shops! We had seen a store with a sign that read 75% off on shoes, so of course that was our ideal first destination.

Not exactly the way things worked out. We got hungry and saw a sign that read "Take out sandwiches 2.95." This was from the same place that we had lunch yesterday (the panera of Ireland). I think it has become my favorite place to eat. I've kinda gotten tired of the fish and chips and irish stew. So these sandwiches are a nice change. I enjoyed a delicious spicy chicken and spinach sandwich :). After eating, we stumbled across a store called Penny's (absolutely not to be confused with JC Penny's from home). The first thing that caught my eye was bathing suits for FIVE EUROS! WHATTT??!?!?! Obviously, I was sold. This store is the best thing ever created in the world. Okay obviously not the world. I like to think that even shopping here is a cultural experience. While I've been walking the streets I tend to admire and pay close attention to how people interact and to how they dress as well. The clothing in this department store says a lot of the youth culture (and it says a lot in cheap numbers!). I had high hopes of finding heels because some were as cheap as 5 euros, but unfortunately they didn't have my size. I ended up spending a total of 30 dollars (24 Euros) on my purchases. And anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE spending money when I am getting greattttt deals (yes, I know I sound like my dad). Now, I should stop sounding selfish. I also did a bit of souvenir shopping for the wonderful people who made this trip possible (even though they told me not to). But I don't care! :D

My end of the day consisted of skyping with Chaz, Rox and Eddie! Yup, Eddie beat you to it mom! =P Then we went to eat at SuperMac- take a guess? Yup, something similar to a McDonalds but better bc it has baked potatoes and pizza. Not that I missed the crappy American fast food, but we all wanted something cheap and quick to eat.
As for this bloody cold of mine. Tonight I took my 3rd of 5 pills and I'm still very congested but I don't have a sore throat anymore so that is good. However, two girls are starting to get a sore throat. It's probably my fault and I feel bad. :(

The weather here as been above and beyond anything that any of us could have asked for. We were told that it would be rainy and overcast the entire time. Our raincoats and boots are probably collecting dusk in our luggages (good thing!). Today I even wore shorts with stockings underneath them and it felt great. My grandparents told me that when they came here years ago they too had beautiful weather. So I secretly thought I would have their same luck. Obviously it is the luck of the irish ;).

Tomorrow I have class at 8 a.m. and then we have a bus tour of Dublin. I just really don't know how much I love Dublin. Galway I LOVE. It's ironic because I love Galway for all the reasons that I hate Gainesville, haha. I love the small city feeling and the warmth of the people. Dublin just doesn't make me feel like I'm in Ireland. Maybe tomorrow's tour will change but my mind. As of now, my hear remains in Galway.<3

PS- I havn't figured out how to upload pictures onto this blog just yet. :(

Irish lies and long bus rides

So if there's one immediate thing I've picked up on it is the lies that the Irish love to tell. When we went on the walking tour of Galway, our guide (who I'm still convinced is a leprechaun) told about 8 stories that were immediately followed by "and there's not a bit of truth to dat." We're constantly being told our bus rides will be about an hour when in reality they take like 2 hours. Maybe their running on Cuban time? Hah.

We took a 3 hour bus ride yesterday to the Cliffs of Moher- indeed pure beauty.

However, the fact that we were told we couldn't talk on the bus bc we were too loud was annoying and the fact that we were told it'd be a 2 hour trip (there and back). This morning we headed off to Dublin. We stopped in a small town to eat lunch, were I had a sandwich that would be the equivalent to a panera sandwich back home. Once we arrived in Dublin, it was obvious. It is such a different place from Galway. Galway is a small town, and everyone was really nice. You could walk the majority of the town in about 10 to 20 minutes. The people socialized with us and when they asked where our next destination was, they warned us not to go into Dublin. And now I know why.

Dublin is a huge city, picture like a mini NYC. Galway is so much more natural and pure than the city life here. As we were waiting at a light, a local spit right on our bus, looked up at my friend and smiled at her. Obviously, they hate Americans. I may be judging way too early but who knows. Tomorrow we are planning on shopping and exploring the city. :)

Irish Lingo

HELLO Dia duit

HOW ARE YOU? Cen chaoi a bhfuiul tu?

TEA Tae

THANK YOU Go raibh maith agat

YOU ARE WELCOME Ta failte romhat

PLEASE Mas e do thoil e

CHEERS! Slainte!

GOOD LUCK Go n-eiri leat

TAKE CARE Tabhair aire

Classes

I had my first day of classes in this morning. My first class was culture. And pretty much we compared and contrasted the lifestyle of the Aran Island (that has a total of about 800 people) to Irish cities and to America. We decided upon Americans being more private, preferring more attractive people, having media influences, not tolerating anger well and being more fearful than those people of the European countries. My next class was happiness. We were asked these four questions:

What is happiness?

How do you know if you're happy?

How important is happiness?

What makes you happy?

I believe that happiness cannot be defined. Essentially, it is an emotion of content. Happiness is the now and shouldn't be compared to the then or what could have been and what was. It is a choice. One chooses to look upon the negative aspects of their life or to look at the positive ones. With that said, one of the best ways to experience happiness is to experience negative situations and emotions and allow them to take their natural course. It is then when people learn to grow and to fully appreciate what the are happy for. When dealing with the struggle of a negative situation one chooses to allow all of the negative in and take over or to overcome it. Happiness reflects off of people, and when one is happy the surrounding people can feel the warmth of the emotion. Although it is shallow, happiness can be determined by comparison, specifically to the self. Self reflection is a positive motivator. When one self reflects one can determine the level of happiness or lack of and decide what needs to change or not change. This can then determine how happy one actually is. Happiness, I believe, is essential to a healthy life. Without it, not only do you jeopardize personal life but also those around you. Happiness derives from what makes a person happy. Naturally, what makes humans happy is shelter, food, water and human connections. Love and friendships are two of the strongest driving forces behind happiness. I also firmly believe that what makes a person happy can be determined by their self esteem, having people be proud of them and acknowledge their choices, self thought and reflection, positive energy and a bright surrounding.

I intend on posting my favorites quotes from my textbook. But for now, I am off to the Cliffs of Moher.

Aran Islands

This morning I enjoyed a breakfast that consisted of sunny side up eggs, mixed with hams and a tomato. I was fully energized for the deep excursion that awaited me. I started out on an hour bus ride to a port, where I then transferred onto a ship that would take me on another hour ride to the Aran Islands- a place that I was soon to find out I would fall in love with. Once we reached the port we were all put into a total of 3 vans and taken up the island. Then we climbed a trail to the top and atlas! BEAUTY! I seriously do not have the words to describe how magnificent this view was. Ireland is by far one of the prettiest places I have ever seen in my life. (Of course Hawaii hold my heart). It's drive me insane to not be able to put into words what my little insignificant eye can see. If my family were to know the risk I put my life into today, they would drop dead. I laid down right over the cliffs on the Aran Islands. Not only was I able to capture beautiful pictures but I was able to soak up the ocean water. The view of the endless ocean and utterly open space is breath taking. My mind ultimately wonders and has absolutely no other happy place.

Right now I am currently blogging from a bar in Galway. The deal is, buy a drink and get the password for free wifi. Definitely good marketing. I have class tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. then at noon we are off to the Cliffs of Moher.

Day one

May 4, 2010

The ground trembles as the engines roar, my stomach drops and my excitement increases. After flying for 10 plus years now, you would think that I am completely accustom to the whole taking off and landing part of the plane. And truth be told, I am. But there’s always that split moment where I remind myself that nothing bad is going to happen, and I will safely make to my destination. My favorite part about flying is actually the taking off and landing, haha. But anyways…. I’M IN IRELAND! It is so surreal. As we were landing, I gazed at all the greenery. It’s really real. Ireland is all green; it is exactly how people describe it. Not only is it all green but there is definitely animals roaming the green land. We went through customs and were shortly on our way from Shannon to Galway. After checking into to our adorable two bed hotel room with an amazing view of a river, we went on a walking tour of Galway. Now don’t you forget, if you ever get lost keep walking straight and make three right turns. Whatever that is suppose to mean?! Midway of the tour my body was completely giving out on me. Our guide would speak and I would appear to pay attention but my mind was elsewhere. I looked down at my watch. I had officially been awake for 22 hours; I was dead. After we were done I took a nice long nap until about 7 p.m. My dinner consisted of not just fish and chips but BAKED fish and chips. It was absolutely delicious! Now, considering that we have to be up in oh about 7 hours (from when I am writing this) we decided the smartest thing to do was to make our way to a local pub for just a few drinks, ya know nothing crazy. A group of us headed up museum street (how easy is it for us gators to remember that?) and was approached by a local promoter. She suckered us into going into a pub, where we had a good first night out. Drink specials were 2 for 5 euros, and a shot. Now as the night progressed we socialized with the locals and learned that crack apparently means fun here. Well let’s just say we weren’t too trusting on wanting to share some crack with that young chap. The locals, however, are really awesome. I have not met one person who dislikes Galway. Their saying is “I miss Galway, even when I’m still living here.” The people here are no surprise completely different, and way more nicer, than those people in Miami. The music too is slightly different. House and trance music is ALWAYS playing. But anyways, back to the pub scene. Next thing we know, a guy in our group is offered a shot of brandy by another guy. So he accepts, thinking not much of it. Bad idea. 5 minutes later this guy is dancing all over our friend… absolutely hilarious. So we finished up our drinks and made our way home. Tomorrow we will be touring the Aran Islands, it is going to be a long long day but I am very much looking forward to it.

Thank you volcanic ash, HELLO NYC!

After are arrival upon Newark, New Jersey we received an update that there was volcanic ash in the airwaves over Ireland, and therefore their airports were all shut down. AKA our connecting flight was cancelled. So what now? We sat in the airport, mind you airport with no free wi-fi, from 6:30 p.m. to about 10:0m p.m. patiently awaiting what was to be our next course of action. Long story short, we were told by our professors to find a place to sleep for the night (AIFS would reimburse us) and to meet back at the airport at 3 p.m. for our flight to Shannon at 7 p.m.

Here is where the fun starts. Isa and I have no idea what to do. Get a hotel? What? Where? With who? (We needed at least three people in the room to get reimbursed). All of a sudden we hear a group of people going to NYC. NYC? NYC! Okay.... here we come NYC! 15 of us got on coach bus, for a $25 round trip ticket, into the city. We made a rsvp with a Hampton Inn in the Soho district. Now picture this. 15 college students, with carry on bags, book bags AND 50+lbs worth of check-on baggage....... going on a subway! Oh and did I mention that it was only 3 guys? With all those stairs! Needless to say, this was one experience and a very fatiguing adventure, that I loved. By the way, if you're wondering if I was scared.... I was scared shitless. A subway at 11p.m. at night, in NYC, with tons of bags and bums just did not seem like the smartest thing to do. But it was surely a lot safer then me and Isa venturing off on our own.

We had plans to go out and enjoy the city life. But after the time that we arrived at our hotel, it was pretty late and the majority of us were pretty tired from the adventure. A hand full of us hung out in the lobby and explored the street a little bit. It was definitely a good bonding experience. Now after enjoying our complimentary breakfast, we are up and about and ready to make our transition back to the airport. This time we will not be carrying our enormous bags throughout the streets of NYC. It's taxi time for us.

I'm usually a fan of airports, people watching and the like. However, I do not want to be stuck in this airport again. I'm had my fair share of making the best out of an unfortunate situation. I'm ready for Europe!

Wish me luck :)