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
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