Week 8: More Galway fun and Cork City

Hello my dears :)

This past week has been amazing! Sorry for the delay in posts, but I hope to make up for it!

This week began with even more baking success! The roommates are obsessed with cupcakes/muffins so I bought a cupcake tin, ironically when I went out shopping to get away from my testosterone controlled apartment.  Then Nathan and Eric agreed to buy the ingredients if I baked the cupcakes so they got chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes with strawberry frosting.  Quite delicious if I do say so myself.

Our senior design project is chugging right along.  Nathan and I are working on the finite element modelling in ABAQUS, and ran in to a couple bumps in the road with a stolen hard drive and losing all of our papers for our material values.  But we now have 3 (woo!) working models, one overly simplified one that's pretty much a cylinder, one that's a simplified arm, and another that's a simplified lower leg.  Matt and Eric are working hard on the experiments as well, mostly they're just having to wait for things to be shipped however.  We do have a very simplified human arm model, which is a latex glove filled with sand and tied off with one of my hair ties.  It was hanging out in our kitchen for a while and all our friends asked if we were doing Halloween decorations.

Tissue engineering has been an interesting class so far as well. We actually had lab this past week (seems to be doing an every other week sort of thing because it was cancelled again today).  We were in two groups, I was in the 7 person group and Matt in the 8 person group.  We plated our cells and divided them and then put them in hydrogels.  I've never done hydrogels before so I thought it was really interesting.  We also ran in to some problems with counting our cells so we didn't dilute them any when we counted them.  I've never looked at an undiluted sample before, there were so many little cells! It was crazy to count them!

Thursday night was Suit Up night at a club in Galway that was hosted by the Engineering and Law Societies on campus.  So we bought tickets at a reduced price and Thursday night Matt, Nathan, and I went.  It was a lot of fun, and I'm really learning how going out with guys is so very different from going out with girls! Friday night we had an enjoyable evening in the apartment and our friends came over, we started Sweeney Todd, but had to stop when it was 1 am because Nathan and Eric have been staying up to unhealthy hours watching the Cardinals games.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to Cork City! It was about a 3 hour bus ride down so we got in right around lunch time.  For lunch we went to a Gourmet Burger place, seriously the best burger I have ever had.  It was delicious! I got something called the Italian burger with beef, ham, pesto sauce, mozzarella cheese, and lettuce.  We all loved our food!

Figure 1: The best burgers ever.

Then it was time to head to Blarney Castle, about a half hour away by bus.  Blarney Castle is the home to the Blarney stone but it is also so much much more.  The Tower is very old and the grounds around are simply gorgeous!!! I fell in love with the place, I seriously could go back every weekend.  We decided to first go to kiss the Blarney stone and receive our gifts of gab :) Gab in Irish meaning eloquence, so I don't just talk a lot now, but I speak eloquently as well! Climbing up to the tower the steps could get pretty steep, but there were stops in rooms along the way like the main bedroom, a great hall, a room for the daughters of the house, and the servants areas and kitchen.  When we finally reached the top we had a short wait for the stone and then we got to kiss it! It's a little intimidating because you have to lie down and grasp these bars on the wall and bend down, so your back is hanging over open air and then lean down and kiss the bottom stone.  When the guy holding me said to kiss the bottom stone I misunderstood thinking he meant I had to kiss the bottom of the stone, and I thought "There's no way I can reach that!" So I asked him, "Which stone?" and he replies "There's only one bottom." I felt pretty silly.  Highlight was definitely Eric saying he thought the stone fainted after he kissed it though.

Figure 2: Me kissing the stone!

Figure 3: Posing by the castle.

Figure 4: View looking up at the Blarney Stone.

Next we went to the Poison Garden, which was seriously amazing.  The sign was kind of scary going in because it warns you not to touch or smell anything in the garden.  I learned a lot about different plants while in there though and superstitions behind them and what illnesses they cause.  I think I took a picture of every description in the entire garden :) 

Figures 5-11: These will probably be difficult to read, but I found them really interesting.

Next we went to Rock Close, which is a walking path with so many hidden wonders inside! I found it absolutely beautiful :) It had trees and waterfalls and moss, some of my favorite things! I took so many pictures, everyone would walk ahead of me and then have to stop and wait for me to catch up.  There were lots of little stories about the sites through out, but my favorite was the wising steps.  Supposedly if you walk down them and back up with your eyes closed thinking only of your wish within the year it will come true.  So keep your fingers crossed for me!

Figure 12: The greenest clovers ever!

Figure 13: The wishing steps.

We finished up with seeing the Blarney Manor house and some random walking around that took us to a fern garden and around the side of Blarney Castle where there were caves.  By then we were pretty tired and decided to head back into Cork.  We had a lovely dinner at a pub, I'm becoming quite fond of fish and chips and will definitely miss it when I'm back home! Then we went to some pubs and talked for a few hours.  Nathan and I both decided we didn't want to bring our rain jackets because it'd been clear for most of the day, so of course when we leave the first pub it starts to rain.  Thankfully it didn't pour and the night was really fun :) 

In our hostel we stayed in an 8 person room, thinking that since there were 7 of us the last bed would most likely not be filled. We were wrong. It was the most uncomfortable thing in the morning because we didn't meet him the night before and we accidentally woke him up in the morning since we were all getting ready at the same time.  He just laid in the bed though in his boxers without the covers on.  It was rather awkward because I think all of us girls did a double take when we looked over, because I thought he was naked at first.  

Then we wandered around Cork in the rain for awhile.  We caught a bus to Blackrock Castle and observatory.  It was a castle turned space exploration information center.  We took a tour of the areas that were still castle oriented and watched videos about space exploration.  Then we went inside this planetarium that was tiny and watched a video about life on other planets.  The strangest thing was that it was narrated by Rupert Grint, or Ron Weasley!  It was a very different and fun experience.

Figure 14: in Blackrock Castle!

We headed home after that to relax before classes starting again on Monday.  So far this week has been off to a fun and exciting start! But, I am looking forward to the bank holiday next Monday (3 day weekend woo!) and the chance to relax this weekend.  I've been doing quite a few trips lately and want the chance to relax in my jammies and catch up on my Game of Thrones reading :) Also things like planning my last semester of classes (eek!) and grad schools and essays! 

All my love,

Amy Liz

Week 7: Baking Success and Northern Ireland!

Hello darlings!

Alright so this week was pretty awesome! It was very low key, not much happened during the week, but I had an amazing baking success! So the roommates have been pushing the whole "bake for us" thing and I caved, especially when I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookie covered Oreos! They turned out absolutely perfectly, the oreos cream melts and becomes all soft and the dough was perfectly golden and soft...I was pretty proud of myself as you can see.  And all my neighbors and roommates were fans so no complaints here :)

I have also discovered that Irish weather HATES my hair.  And yes, the all caps was quite necessary.  Seriously, like I step outside after I've gone through the whole effort of straightening and doing my bangs and within 10 steps there are flips and my bangs are going all funky. Not ok. And then I get to class and every Irish girl has awesome hair, and I'm over there like why won't it just stay in one place?!

This weekend was really where the magic was, because we went up to Northern Ireland! We caught the 8:30 am bus on Friday morning to Dublin, then on to Belfast and arrived around 3:30 pm. We walked to our hotel which was a short 10 minute walk from the bus station.  The website described the hostel as "Alice in Wonderland shops at IKEA" and it was fabulous! First off-free coffee and tea all day! Also free breakfast, and the people who worked there were all super friendly and helpful.  Austin - I definitely saw some decorations that could've come from the Warehouse.  This hostel was my first time where there were people I didn't know in the room and I wasn't sure how that was going to go but I followed my parents instilled method of complete and utter paranoia and locked up everything all the time, even my flip flops.  Also, the lights in the bathrooms were motioned activated, so in the middle of my shower the lights just go completely dark.  And I had to finish the rest of my shower in the dark until I stepped around and the lights turned back on.  It was really freaky.

Then we decided to take a black taxi cab tour.  They go through the areas of strife in Belfast, where there have been a lot of religious differences.  The beginning was pretty scary because he just told us stories of the Protestants persecuting Catholics punctuating it with "kill them dead".  And then we arrive in the Protestant area and he's just like, I'll stay with the cab and you go and look at the murals and we're like what?! You're leaving us!!! But obviously it was safe and we were fine :) We also saw the Peace Wall, which is the physical barrier dividing where the Catholics and Protestants live.  There were some pretty awesome murals and memorials to the dead in both areas of the city.  You could tell our driver was a little biased though, he had no sympathy for the Protestants and pointed out all the wrongs done to the Catholics.  Some points on the confusion for me were 1. The hunger strike: I don't get why it was an effective form of rebellion, the people didn't like them so why would starving yourselves cause a difference? and 2. Apparently Pres. Obama visited Belfast and informed them that it was time for the walls to come down, and me and Colleen didn't understand why he has any jurisdiction whatsoever over what Northern Ireland does, but who knows.

Figure 1: Black taxi cab :)

Figure 2: One of the murals in the Protestant district, the gun always looks like it's pointing at you!

Figure 3: One view of the Peace Wall.

Figure 4: Big Catholic figure, one who organized the Hunger Strike.

Next we went and got dinner at a yummy fish and chips place and then decided to just wander around the city at night.  We ended up at a mall called Victoria Square and spur of the moment decided to go see We are the Millers at the theater.  It was hilarious! And a student tickets was 4.30 euro, which is about $6...on a Friday night..is this real life? It was so amazing! We decided to call it an early night after that, because we were tired from the travelling.  Apparently in the middle of the night one of our temporary roommates smoked something, and rummaged around in plastic...I am happy a rock is a lighter sleeper than I am because none of that phased me.

Bright and early we woke up to our free breakfast (Nutella on toast yum!) and for our Giant's Causeway tour! The order for the tour went: Carrickfergus Castle, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, Bushmill's Distillery, Dunlace Castle, and Giant's Causeway.  Carrickfergus Castle is very old and full of history, my favorite story was by far the story of its name though.  Apparently there were three brothers: Irish name, Irish name, and Fergus.  Now, by Irish law the most powerful sibling is the won who rules, so basically the one who offs all of their other siblings.  But these 3 brothers decided "united we stand" and decided to rule together.  They joined forces and conquered some parts of Scotland.  Fergus lived the longest and in his old age got sick.  He heard of a cure back home in Ireland, and decided to take the journey.  On the way back, a storm hit and Fergus died on a rock on the coast of Ireland and then later a castle was built in that location, called Carrick(rock)Fergus(his name).  There's also some history about William of Orange conquering Carrickfergus but the only reason I'm including that is because of his statue outside of the castle, which is life sized. He was 4'10"! Talk about Napoleon syndrome pre-Napoleon!

Figure 5: William of Orange

Figure 6: Some of Carrickfergus Castle! 

The next stop was Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.  Apparently they close it on windy days, but it was pretty windy and the bridge was still open.  It looks a lot more intimidating when you hear about it, but in actuality it's only about 30 feet long.  It had steel supports though added in later helping with stability.  Originally it was built by fishermen to get to the little island, and only had one rope as a support. The area was gorgeous and crossing the bridge, that little bit of tottering on the unknown, was amazing! Apparently people get so scared after crossing the first time that they refuse to cross back over again, which was a little silly because the bridge is stable, it just doesn't feel like it :)

Figure 7: The rope bridge right before we crossed.

Figure 8: Don't look down!

Figure 9: Me sitting on a rock after we crossed.

Figure 10: Gorgeous water!

On the way there we took the Coastal road through 9 different glens, which were stunning! All of my pictures are pretty bad though because they were all through the glass. For lunch we stopped at the Bushmills Distillery, and we had cheesecake with whiskey inside of it, but sadly did not have any time to sample the whiskey.  Next stop was the Dunlace Castle ruins, which were pretty awesome! It was a castle of the McDonnell's I'm pretty sure and may have been the one that never was conquered, but Cromwell came along and blew it up with cannons. 

Figure 11: Zoomed in view of the ruins.

The last stop was the Giant's Causeway! I have been looking forward to seeing this since I found out I was going to Ireland, so needless to say I took over 300 pictures of you guessed it, rocks.  There are three main theories involving their construction: 1) Volcanic lava forming the stones 2) God created it that way so tough and 3) Giants! Obviously option 3 is the logical choice.  It was simply stunning and calming and just gorgeous. 

Figure 12: The wishing chair.

Figure 13: View off into the sea.

Figure 14: Selfie of excitement!

Figure 15: Just lovely :) 

After we got back from the tour we got dinner at this place called Nando's that was this interesting chain type place where there was chicken and you could pick the level of spiciness of the food.  KLS: this would be the perfect restaurant for us! Yummy sandwiches and wraps, decent veggie options for Sasha (including a chickpea patty), decently priced, and drum roll please: FREE REFILLS! I was sold the second I saw that, I drank so much coke in one hour it was entirely unnecessary but so worth it! And they had coloring pages that I got to color, so our living room here now has decoration :) Next we wandered around some different areas of the city at night, like the Queen's College and City Hall, which were lit up and really pretty.

So, for those who don't know, the Titanic was built in Belfast! So obviously they have Titanic Belfast, a museum of the Titanic, and the Pump House where the Titanic was stored before its maiden, and only voyage. The museum was really interesting, my favorite part was probably the violin that was played by a man named Wallace in the orchestra.  He died in the sinking, true to the film in 1997, he played while the life boats were being loaded and went down with the ship.  I definitely teared up reading the radio correspondence between the Titanic and other ships, in the last distress call they didn't even send the last letter.  It was emotional.  Next we walked to the Pump House and stood where the Titanic was docked and learned about the process of how the ship was stored and the machines and pumps to drain the water. 

Figure 16: The violin.

Figure 17: The dock where the Titanic was, just over 100 years ago!

After that it was a long 6 hours back home, just in time for the excitement of this week to begin!

BONUS: So, for all you Game of Thrones fans out there (which should be everyone!)- about 80% of all of GoT is filmed in Northern Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently the tour company we used on Saturday is responsible for the shuttling of all things GoT related, and so they showed us the Wall! And I saw the fake snow on it! It was soo nifty, but sadly I didn't get a picture.  We also learned that our tour guide is going to be an extra in season 4, so I know someone who has been in GoT!!!!! And then when we were walking to the Pump House, we just so happened to walk by one of 2 main indoor filming locations for GoT! We saw the stacks of fake snow and a crew pass on a car!!! It was totally unexpected and awesome and has thus increased my desire to do a GoT themed travel where I visit all the main filming locations (Northern Ireland, Croatia, Iceland) because GoT is awesome! 

Figure 18: The crew pass!

So excited for the week to come! More Tissue engineering labs, and a midterm assignment in Bioethics will sure keep me busy, not to mention senior design! But this weekend we are planning on heading down to Cork to kiss the Blarney Stone, hopefully I receive the gift of gab ;)

All my love,

Amy Liz

Week 6: Senior Design and Inishmore, Aran Islands

Hallo!

This past week has been a lot of fun :)

We had a lot of senior design work to catch up on after we all had been out of town for the weekend.  Thursday was our senior design preliminary presentation, where we had a skype meeting with our mentors back at Purdue.  We all had to dress nicely, so of course it was the worst rain we've experienced while in Galway.  We have about 5 minutes between the apartment and the engineering building, and we were soaked! But the presentation went well and now it's on to the exciting parts of the project-experimentation! Hopefully it will all go smoothly in the coming weeks-ha ha like that's going to happen.

Courses here are so different from back home.  For example, tissue engineering labs started this week for Matt and I, and so now we have lab for one hour once a week and our lectures are postponed for that time.  I really liked the first lab this week, it went over the basics of cell culture, which I've done before but the refresher in a different lab was welcomed.  I think the labs will only get more interesting from here on out and will compliment what we've learned in the lectures up to this point.

This weekend we decided to take a day trip on Sunday, so we got to go out and about in Galway on Friday evening and Saturday we bummed around the apartment.  We all had some homework to finish and then in the evening we watched a movie together.  It was guy's pick, as it always seems to be, so it was This Is the End, a comedy with Seth Rogan and crew.  Needless to say, it was a guys movie.  It was about the end of the world and I think I screamed more times than I laughed, but it was still a lot of fun.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to mist and fog (woo Ireland)! We then had our day trip to the Aran Islands' largest island, Inishmore.  It was a 45 minute bus ride to the dock and then another 45 minute ferry to the island.  Our tour guide played the best Irish music, my favorite being the love ballad where he sings about her fine long neck like a swan.  The ferry was soothing, and when docked we were ready to see the sights!

The first stop was the seal colony.  We got to see the seals lounging about in the distance and there was a Connemara pony fenced in across the road.  Our tour guide said he wouldn't bite, so Nathan goes over to say hello, and of course got bitten.  The tour guide then gave me some grass and I fed the pony (no bites for Amy Liz).  

Figure 1: Pony!

Figure 2: Seals enjoying the day.

Next stop was the famous ruins of an old fort (Dun Aengus) which sit on the edge of a 300 ft section of cliffs.  Sorry Mama, I lied when I said I wouldn't go to the edges of any more cliffs.  These were very different from the Cliffs of Moher because it was so much foggier and windier on Inishmore, so we didn't feel as courageous.  But the view was still amazing! 

Figure 3: The four of us braving the edge.

Figure 4: Looking down!

Figure 5: Aerial view of the fort and cliffs.

This is also where we stopped for lunch at a little cafe that had the best Guinness beef stew topped with mashed potatoes.  It was piping hot and so yummy! We also got to do a little shopping.  Aran islands is known for its hand knit commodities, so I caved and bought a "bow" scarf.  I love scarves, its warm, and its in one of my favorite colors, so I think I justified it enough to myself to give in. :) I also bought a tiny hand crocheted little flower to put in my hair.

Figure 6: Me and the bow scarf.

Next stop was the ruins of the seven churches.  Apparently there are 4 saints buried here, 3 males and 1 female.  They were 'ruined' when Oliver Cromwell was chilling and destroying in Ireland.  He burnt them to the ground and threatened to behead anyone who preached in there again.  No one has preached in there since.  You'll notice with a lot of ruins that the walls of stone, or the shell of the buildings, is still there but all the roofs are gone.  I'm assuming this is because they were all thatch roofs and as such did not respond well to Cromwell's pyromaniac ways.

Figure 7: Beautiful Celtic cross at the ruins.

Next we went to another stop on the coast, where there were more seals! They would pop their heads out of the water and I would snap like crazy trying to get a good picture.  Mostly they ended up looking creepy.  Then we went to the beach!!! Not exactly swimming weather but still my favorite because the sand was so unique (crushed limestone and rocks so the traditional tan mixed with a silvery gray) and there were seashells galore!!! It was definitely my favorite part!!! The guys were not as impressed as I was and refused to take a picture on the beach :(

Figure 8: The awesome sand and seashells.

Our tour guide then took us in to the main village of Inishmore, where the dock is and we had some free time.  Matt and Eric both gave in to the wool temptation and bought sweaters, Nathan was the only one who stayed strong.  We also went to a local pub to sit and talk which was nice.  I've noticed that a lot of pubs here seem to make their little sitting tables out of old old sewing machine type thing.  (Mama-what Grandpa V had in his backyard for the longest time).  We then got ice cream, which is so delicious here, it's just soft serve, but it tastes so different.  We wandered over to the dock to wait for the ferry, and of course I was the only one to spill it all over myself.  

Overall, I had a simply amazing weekend! It was a good combination of relaxation and travel :) I'm super excited for this weekend because I get to put a check mark in the bucket list after going to Giant's Causeway and Belfast!!!

All my love,

Amy Liz