Weeks 4 and 5: What I'm Still in College?? and Westport!

Hey y'all!

Sorry I didn't update you last week, but not that much happened.  I did things like homework, and senior design because apparently I'm supposed to learn more than the drinking culture of Ireland here (crazy I know).  So last weekend all the roomies and I worked on our senior design project on a *gasp* Friday evening.  I know, I know, I totally just ruined their street cred.  But afterwards we watched a movie called Perfume, suggested by Nathan.  I wanted to watch the Hobbit but got shut down, I think solely because I suggested it.  The film is about a boy with the world's best nose and what he does in his life (spoiler alert: it involves killing lots of people, orgies, and cannibalism). Weird movie. Saturday was a lazy bum day and this time two movies were watched! Star Trek into the darkness (sooo good) and Now You See Me (only Matt hadn't seen it and he got uber confused because it kept jumping).  Sunday we ordered a pizza (!) and Nathan introduced me to the second season of American Horror Story which is messed up, scary, and really good.  And as I normally hate anything that goes "boo" you know it's gotta be good for me to keep asking Nathan questions until he gets the hint and takes out his headphones.

I may have not mentioned this yet but my roommates all have a TV fetish.  The three of them will sit on the couch in the dark with their computers on their laps just watching various TV shows.   Eric lives on ER and may self-combust when he finishes the series.  Matt has just recently gotten hooked on ER, via Eric, and who knows what Nathan's watching.  The TV is always a steady stream of BBC, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, and game shows.  I watch so much more TV here, but at least a lot of its the news!

Oh! Last week we also went out as a group (Purdue peeps and SLU friends) to the 90s night at College Bar! There was a live band and the music was awesome, because it was 90s music.  We then decided to head into town.  We went to a pub and then somehow managed to lose Matt, and had no clue where the heck he went.  We looked through the entire pub and around it and had Nathan go into the restroom twice. We then went to this bar/dance place called Stock Exchange which was really nifty because the prices of the drinks change based upon how popular they are so you try and get them for really cheap.

This week was a pretty fun week :) Wednesday evening we had a girls night! So I pretty much went out with my friends I've met here and told my roomies they couldn't come.  There was a Disney trivia at the College Bar, but we nixed that idea when we realized it cost 5 euro each.  Then we went in to town to a pub called KingsHead where I rediscovered my love of vodka-cranberry and we listened to live music (what I love most about pubs) and had girl talk, which ironically consisted mainly of talking about boys.  We went to a second pub called the Front Door for one last drink and then went to a dance club which was fun to just dance around and wear off some energy.

Thursday was Arthur's Day, which is bigger than St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.  It's always on a Thursday in September and you throw Guinness in the air at 17:59 (year Guinness was invented). Sadly I missed that because I was in class :( But I still went to a pub with some friends where we discovered a mysterious third floor that had more live music! The band was AWESOME! There was a bass guitar, violin, old guy who sang and banged a drum, two guitars, bagpipes, more drums, wooden blocks, a flute/clarinet cross, and a woodwind instrument.  Mama - you would have loved them! They were so so so so so so sooooo amazing!

Friday we decided to chill at the apartment.  Bridget really wanted to bake so we made sugar cookies, and they actually turned out how they were supposed to! Yummmm :) We then watched the Emperor's New Groove.  Saturday we took the bus in to Westport.  Since we booked it kind of late we had to stay in a B&B, which ended up being 10 km from city centre. Thank goodness we found a guy to drive us there.  But our B&B was precious!

Figure 1: Our B&B from the road.

We decided to walk in to town...which was around a 3 hour walk.  But the weather was gorgeous and we got to see some interesting things, like the famine ship memorial.

Figures 2 and 3: Memorial!

We also saw horses, cows and sheep! Yay animals :) When we got in to town we walked around a bit, and realized we got there right when all the shops were closing.  So, we got food.  After dinner we went in to a pub for a drink because we thought there was going to be live music.  Since there wasn't we left.  Thankfully we got a ride back from a nice Irish man.

In the morning we got breakfast from the lady who runs our B&B.  She made us a full Irish breakfast consisting of mushrooms, tomatoes, white pudding, a french toast slice, sausages, an egg, and Irish bacon.  She also gave us cereal, toast, pancakes, and the best coffee of my life.  Anna- you will be happy to know that I did try everything on my plate (except tomatoes because ew and mushrooms because they are a FUNGUS) and I still do not like eggs or sausages.  The white pudding was ok, and Irish bacon is like Canadian bacon: it's more ham and not that nasty nasty excuse for edible things that is American bacon.

We then began the ascent of Croagh Patrick.  Eric is a regular hiker so he all but skipped up the mountain, Bridget and I were a little bit timid however.  The first part is a winding uphill section that's kind of steep, but not awful.  When you finish that you think you're about half way, but that's a lie.  You then go on a semi-level walk for a bit and that's when the wind really started to hit because we didn't have anything to stop it.  Then we reached the bottom of the third part, aka the STEEP part.  It was really foggy today, so when we were looking up we couldn't see how far we had to go, which was a good thing otherwise I would've said "um no, not happening". As it was, I was like, well I've already come this far.  Eric and Bridget just went for it, but I took a slower more meandering, I was terrified to fall down route, aka a lot lot lot slower.  I met tons of lovely people who were heading down who were full of the encouragements: "Oh it's not that much farther!" "You're almost there" "Only 10/15 more minutes"...they were all liars.  The fog was so dense you could only see for about 20 ft in front or behind you, so it was strangely peaceful even though my legs were on fire and really made you think about when St. Patrick was doing this journey to fast for 40 days and nights or when people do it barefoot (insane).  When I was almost at the top Eric and Bridget were heading down (they didn't stay long at the top due to wind).  I reached the top and had my moment of woo-hoo accomplishment! Which quickly turned into "Oh my lanta this is freezing and I am going to blow over if I don't take cover!" Which led me to the church.  It was small yet lovely inside.  Also, there is something about being on top of a mountain that makes you feel closer to God.  I felt completely serene in that tiny church on top of a mountain with winds that would make Dorothy jealous.  Then began the descent, and the moment when you realize that while you have climbed to the top, you are in reality only half way done with the journey at that point. Coming down the fog started to lift and I got to take some pretty pictures.

Figure 4: Simply gorgeous!

Going down was not easy, I fell 3 times on the steep part and twice on the casual incline.  But, my goal was to fall under 5 times so I just hit my limit! I was pleased :) At the start of the climb I wasn't so positive that I wanted to do this, but Eric insured me it would be worth it.  And I must say, even though it was so windy and foggy once you reached the top that pictures were pointless and just a mass of gray on gray, I fell and got bumped and bruised, and my legs were so sore they were telling my brain that I could totally just roll down-that it was 100%, not even a doubt in my mind, completely and absolutely worth it.  I know a lot of people can say they've climbed this mountain, but I'm pretty damn pleased to count myself in that number.

Figure 5: On the descent, Croagh Patrick is in the background, shrouded in fog.

I have had an amazing past two weeks! But the whole reason I started blogging tonight was because Eric informed me it was not socially acceptable to go to bed at 8:45 when we got back, but now it is after 10, and I feel that is much more acceptable and quite frankly, past my bedtime.

See you next week!

All my love, 

Amy Liz

P.S. Shout out to the best ladies ever for sending me an awesome Halloween package!!! Lauren, Kelsey, and Sasha are the best and sent me kitkats, graham crackers, chocolate icing, Purdue socks (which I wore to hike!), and a Purdue Hello Kitty!!!!! I loved it all, but not nearly as much as I love and miss you three!!!! <3 

Week 3: Baking Failures and Dublin

Hello all :)

Week 3 marked the arrival of all first year students to classes, meaning my first full week of classes of the semester! Except when classes were cancelled, ha.  I'm really excited about my history class, I think it will be really interesting and different from all the science classes that I'm used to.  Bioethics has been fascinating thus far, the professor is really awesome.  I also like my engineering classes, and we're starting to get in the full swing of senior design as well, which is nifty.  We also had our first sets of homework assignments with lab and senior design.

On Wednesday my tissue engineering class was cancelled, meaning I had an extra two hours of free time.  Thus, I decided to surprise my roomies and give in to their demands for baked goods.  Plus I had a blondie recipe I'd been wanting to try.  I though ahead and made sure my ingredient list was in SI units, and then got started on the baking! Then when they were ready to be put in the oven I realized two things 1) I forgot to preheat it and 2) the images and dials had worn off of it.  So Matt and I guessed on what we should do.  It did not turn out well. At all.  I also think the fact that I put it in a broiler pan was another mistake.  The top of the brownies turned this awful awful burnt black color, and then the bottom of them didn't even bake, after 35 minutes in the oven.  The entire kitchen area steamed up, but thankfully no fire alarms went off.  Nathan tried to tell people it was custard with chocolate on top...they didn't fall for it.  And surprisingly, they still want me to bake for them.

On Friday Eric, Colleen, Bridget, Kristen, Annie, and I went to Dublin! It was awesome! We got there about 2:00 p.m. and checked in to our hostel, which was kind of out of the way but cheap, clean, and the 6 of us all shared one room and bathroom.  So it was nice not having to deal with strangers.  We went to the Guinness Storehouse first off, where we learned the brewing process and some history of Guinness.  Then we learned how to "pour the perfect pint" complete with a certificate (woot woot) and a pint of Guinness.  I enjoyed it, but I could not finish it all! Wayyy too rich for me, someone who's used to Coors light.

Figure 1: Me and the perfect pint in the Gravity Bar.

In the evening we decided to go to the Temple Bar district.  We ate at an amazing pub that had delicious beef casserole, which was pretty much beef stew with mashed potatoes on top.  The Temple Bar was a tad crowded and we were all kinda worn out so we headed back early and played a lot of car games.  Since then we have learned that Eric is not to be trusted in Go Fish, and Annie doesn't approve of the rules of it.

Saturday Eric and I went on a tour of the Boyne Valley.  It is home of Newgrange, an 80m diameter neolithic passage tomb of the Celts that is 500 years older than Stonehenge, 1000 years older than the pyramids, and 3500 years older than the Mayans.  Needless to say, it's old.  It's been completely preserved from the time it was built only the outside had to be touched up.  We couldn't take pictures inside, but we got to go in and walk along a hallway to the center room with three recesses where the cremated remains of most likely high rated officials were buried.  Inside there were various carvings, the most famous of which is seen below (don't know why this person got to take pictures and I couldn't).  Some people believe the three symbols represent life, death, and rebirth, our tour guide said it was the sign of hallucinogenic drugs at work.  Other carving we saw were more swirls, a feather, a rippling down the side of one stone, and jagged lines. 

Figure 2: Famous spirals

Figure 3: Newgrange from the side

Then we drove around some scenic parts of the Boyne valley, and saw where the Battle of the Boyne took place (William of Orange vs James II). William of Orange won (woo Protestants!).  Then we went to the Hill of Tara, which was where the old Celtic kings were crowned.  On a clear day apparently you can see 3/4 of Ireland.  We had a clear day, so apparently we did, I'm not so sure though.

Figure 4: Panoramic view from the Hill of Tara.

Then we met up with the rest of the crew, who had just spent the day in the city.  We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was where Handel's Messiah was played for the first time.  It was beautiful! We then did some shopping and found new shoes for Eric, which was a lot of fun!  In the evening we went to Temple Bar again.  We ate at a place called Bad Ass Cafe, which was nice although expensive.  Then we went to The Temple Bar, which had live music and was a nifty place :) We went home again and played more card games, and I learned how to play Kemps for the first time.  I wasn't very good.  

On Sunday we went to a Camogie game! It's the female version of hurling.   It was really intense and a lot of fun! I've heard of the game before, but never seen it or learned the rules so it was a really neat experience.  Sadly, our team lost, but it was a really intense game! And they wear skirts, which is awesome.  

This week was awesome, and I'm so excited for the week to come!  

All my love,

Amy

Week 2: First Week of Classes and Day Trips!

Hallo!

Week 2 has been pretty interesting! We finally got senior design figured out (yay!). So the four of us will be working on a problem relating to the growth of pressure ulcers when a patient has a cast.  Pretty fascinating stuff I know.  It's nice to have it worked out, but sad in the fact that it means school is really happening.  The first week of class in Ireland is so much more relaxed than at Purdue, lots of classes are cancelled and I had one homework assignment.  But, the bonus is my schedule is all worked out and here it is:

BME 402: Computational Methods in Engineering Analysis
BME 405: Tissue Engineering
SG 111: Early and Medieval History of the Celts
PI 240.E: Bioethics
Senior Design

It's going to be an interesting semester, and I'm excited for the variety of classes!

This weekend we took two day trips with a tour company.  The first day focused on the Connemara region, which is a primarily Gaelic speaking region and a very rural area.  It was really rainy that day, so there's lots of rain spots on all my pictures, but the fog in the mountains was lovely so it doesn't bother me.  Most people would say the area was dreary, but I think it was quite beautiful.

I can't get pictures to load right now, so I'll try to add some later.  But we saw Kylemore Abbey, which is a castle converted to a nunnery.  It's situated in the Inagh Valley and by a lake, very picturesque.  We also stopped for pictures at the Lough Nafooey, which is home to a lake that is said to house the water horse. We also saw a fairy tree! Pink ribbons are tied for a good wedding, blue ribbons for a pregnancy, and pieces of clothing for sick children. The last stop was the Ross Errilly Abbey, which is the ruins for an old home of Franciscan monks.

The day trip on Sunday was focused on the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.  We drove around the Burren, seeing the various stone tombs, one as old as 3000 years with a 12 ton stone on top (heavy!).  We also stopped at Dunguaire Castle, from the 1500s, which still houses medieval style meals.  For lunch we stopped at a lovely little pub which had the quickest service I've ever witnessed.  My food was sitting at the table before I got back from ordering it at the bar.  Also, fantastic fudge! Mom you would love it-they had praline fudge, no chocolate on it at all!

The Cliffs of Moher were by far the highlight of the weekend and simply AMAZING! The edge of Ireland before you hit the Atlantic ocean and 8 km of 416 m high cliffs.  We were cautioned about standing on the edges of the cliffs due to wind, but it was such a clear day we had to do it anyways.  We had an hour and a half to walk around and took tons of pictures at the edge.  It was pretty scary, but worth the jitters to be able to look down and see the waves crashing against the cliffs. Simply stunning.

This week classes will be kicking up again, and hopefully we'll be taking another trip this weekend! See you next week! <3

Love,
Amy Liz

Week 1: Arriving in Galway and ensuing shenanigans!

Hello loves!

First off, sorry if this is a poor blog, I've never done this before but I thought it'd be a cool week by week update on my whereabouts and doings! Once classes start (tomorrow eek!) my weekends will probably be my only exciting times, so I'm hoping to clue you in every Sunday!

So here goes nothing...

My Daddy and I flew out on August 25th, first flight was from St. Louis to Chicago, it was over in about 40 minutes, no problem.  Then came the 3 hour layover until we'd be flying to Dublin. Butttt of course, nothing goes as planned and there were issues with the plane (electronic things and then they did an engine check) so our flight was delayed an awesome 4 hours.  We got underway and I passed out, listening to Mumford and Sons on repeat and then I was woken up when we were getting close to landing.

My first thought upon landing in Dublin was "Green." I just looked out the window as we're taxing to disembark and all I saw was green, it was awesome! We took a bus from Dublin to Galway and I'd like to tell you that I was so excited I stayed awake and took in all the sights of the Irish countryside...but I passed out again.  I did see some sheep though.

 

Figure 1: Map of Ireland.  The city I'm living in is Galway, in County Galway

We checked in to our hotel and grabbed a bite to eat from a Pub called "The Front Door".  We fly around the world and we got to an Irish Pub, and what does my Daddy order to drink? A Budweiser.  But never fear, I got a cider :) We went to bed pretty early, since we were planning on getting up to see the city and check me in to my dorm.

I don't have pictures of my dorm yet, sorry I'll add them soon, but I'm living with Matt, Nathan, and Eric who are all BMEs from Purdue! There are 3 bedrooms (Matt and Nathan are sharing), 1.5 baths, a tiny kitchen, and a living area. The major advantage to living with 3 guys? They kill all the spiders, of which there happen to be many.  After we moved all my stuff in, we went to go get the things I had been planning on buying here and to tour the city and college.

Figure 2: Awesome view of Galway.

The rest of the week has been a blur of getting over jet lag, orientation for NUI-Galway, checking out pubs, and meeting people. The section of Corrib Village we're living in seems to be mostly international students, which is pretty nice because they're already moved in so we've met quite a few of our neighbors.  It's kind of worrisome that classes start tomorrow and the plans for senior design are still iffy, but I'm sure it will all work out splendidly! When I have my schedule hammered out I'll attach it, but right now I'm planning on taking senior design, a finite element class, a tech elective type class (either tissue engr or quality management), bioethics, and a history of the Celts.  Definitely a wide variety! 

When I have my facebook back I'll post all the pictures I have accrued in this first week :)

So far:

 Fave thing: The city, the campus, walking around it's absolutely gorgeous!

Least fave thing: Never knowing when it's going to rain! 

Random Funny: The fire alarms keep going off in our apartment...and only in the building we live in. Twice we've had to go stand outside while they are blaring until someone comes and turns them off! Not the best way to meet the neighbors.

Next week I'm looking forward to: Classes starting and getting in to a schedule! and hopefully a weekend trip :)

See you next week!

All my love,

Amy Liz