24 february 2010

hello hello!

sorry for the hiatus but there is legitimately nothing going on these days. i did manage to finish an essay on the two irelands during ww2. pretty interesting stuff but i'm glad it's over!

i've also started listening to country music again. for me, country music has a time of year just like christmas music and that time of the year is SUMMER. i know i am yet again stretching it a bit but today as i was walking back from class there were buds on all of the trees and even a few flowering plants so i have spring/summer on the brain :) it's almost impossible to listen to kenny, keith, luke and co. without 80+ weather and a car with windows rolled down but i am doing my best.

so in the words of mr. chesney:

"And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love and an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo
And a Yoo-Hoo bottle on the floorboard

Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cause it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss
It's a sip of wine, it's summertime
Sweet summertime"

here's to the immediate arrival of spring! xoxo

20 february 2011

hello everyone! it's a rainy day over here in ireland (surprised?) and i am passing the time alternating between pretending to write my essay and finding random websites on stumbleupon.com. i just discovered this horrible horrible site and now can't stop stumbling. as if i needed more ways to procrastinate!

i also found this:

it's my latest obsession and i like her version more than gaga's (as ms. mattea complained, "sounds exactly like madonna")!

anywayyy hope all of you are doing well! 

countdown to:

ski team europe edition: 17 days

spain: 31 days

dad's visit: 62

16 february 2011 - clonmacnoise and dublin

hello everyone and happy belated valentine's day!

back home and ready to start writing my first essay of the semester after a busy weekend! on saturday, our adviser here took us on a day trip to the ancient monastic site, clonmacnoise, as well as a famine museum in the midlands of ireland.

clonmacnoise was once a thriving metropolis in ireland and some of the structures still stand, including these celtic high crosses. there were others that were even bigger than these and had carved pictures of bible stories that were used to teach illiterate people.

the famine museum was on the grounds of strokestown house, a palatial house on 10,000 acres (or something like that), all of which was divided up into tiny plots of land for tenant farmers. during the famine, most of these people were starving and to add insult to injury, evicted, because they couldn't pay their rent on this tiny piece of land. it was heartbreaking to read about while walking around this huge and extravagant house. 

 

on sunday, my florentine biddies arrived in time for a lovely dinner out and some traditional music at taaffes. the night obviously ended at supermacs, where we all ordered chicken fingers and fries. absurd. on monday, we walked around galway and each purchased a little something something for ourselves for valentine's day. lauren purchased a claddagh ring, jenna got a little pandora charm and i got a claddagh necklace. we were encouraged by an adorable saleswoman, who assured us that she had purchased a pair of valentine's day shoes for herself that morning :) lauren's friend, laura, who lives in dublin, was kind enough to drive us from galway to our hostel in dublin and we did some countryside driving complete with stops in tiny towns on the way! i still can't get over the sheep over here. they are just so cuddly and cute.

on tuesday, we woke up to a disappointing grey and rainy sky. we pretended that seeing this side of ireland was necessary for anyone's trip but it was still not the most pleasant thing to walk around in! we  started off by walking all along the river liffey to check out the famous samuel beckett bridge, which looks like a harp. we then walked over to check out trinity college and grafton street where i purchased some new boots... traveling boots, you will be missed, but your deteriorating soles were just not working for me. 

after a stop for coffee we went to the guinness factory for a tour. we ended up spending most of the afternoon there and had a lot of fun looking at the advertising history as well as the methods of brewing. during the 1920s, some doctors would prescribe guinness for headaches and other aches and pains... "guinness for strength!" also, the characters below were created by john gilroy after a trip to the circus! the tour ended with a complimentary (then again, i did pay 11 euro to take the tour) guinness in the gravity bar, which looks out over dublin.

after the guinness tour we walked over to christ church, which was absolutely gorgeous. the church closed about 15 minutes prior to our arrival so we headed to a pub for an early dinner. said pub (bull&castle) had the most AMAZING lamb stew and we were seated right next to a roaring fire. it was so good to see the florence crew and i think it's safe to say that they fell in love with ireland. let the convincing for a return visit commence! 

now on to my essay! miss and love you all!

9 february 2011

after days of trying to figure out who my history professor looks like... EPIPHANY. he looks just like wallace from the wallace and gromit claymations:

i'm not even kidding. the pants, the too small vest, the tie. it's uncanny. i'll try to sneak a picture at some point in the next few months. on the other hand, i, during his class, look somewhat like gromit does in this representation. mainly because the tudor conquest of ireland has turned out be pretty painful.

dad used to get these cartoons at the movie rental place. remember the one where they eat cheese from the moon? makes me want to rewatch them :) miss you all!

8 february 2011 - derry

firstly, i think a GO PACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is in order :) we had a blast watching the game at the pub surrounded by americans and a few random irish people (one of which was wearing a favre jersey. i don't want to talk about it). but overall it was so much fun to watch the game and know that friends and family were watching from home :)

backtracking to saturday morning, we woke bright and early and hopped in our very small and cramped bus to travel to derry. we stopped along the way to see yeats' grave (overrated) and made our way straight to the walled city for a walking tour. it was incredible to see the divide between the protestants and catholics - the city has a neighborhood for each, and to hear about the violence that has plagued the city for decades. other things of note, on sunday january 30, 1972, 13 unarmed civilians were killed by british paratroopers and the day came to be known as "bloody sunday" (thus the u2 song - shout out to dad).

after an amazing dinner at the hotel and some pub action, we woke up on sunday to go to giant's causeway and the carrick-a-rede bridge. both were a lot of fun although the rope bridge was possibly the most terrifying thing i have every walked across...

hc takes giant's causeway

not a big deal

notice how firmly i am holding those ropes.

it was a nice little weekend trip and i'm so happy that we could take the trip on holy cross' dime since i probably wouldn't have made it to northern ireland otherwise!! hope all of you are doing well! and celebrating like crazy back in wisco! love you all!

4 february 2011 - solidarity

hope that everyone survived the snowstorm and had lots of fun building forts, snowmen, etc. with all those snowdays (not bitter)! although not quite as severe, galway has been experiencing some rather horrible weather of its own. it's a miracle that i haven't been blown right into the river by now. the winds have been howling away for the past few days and even blew my earbuds right out of my ears on the way to class today. hopefully it will clear up for the weekend, when we're trekking all over the place? doubtful. 

we leave bright and early on saturday morning for a long drive to derry in northern ireland. we'll be seeing the giant's causeway as well as the carraig a rede bridge. i'm pretty nervous about this second event... especially with rain. but i'm sure it will be gorgeous barring any disasters.

we arrive home on sunday night at approximately 10 pm and all of us americans will head over to garvey's pub to watch the superbowl! the game doesn't start until 11 here and this pub is kind enough to stay open until the game is over (in galway, it's illegal to keep pubs open past 12am on sunday SO the bar closes the blinds and locks us in until the game's over!) sounds fun :) jury's still out on whether or not american commercials will air but we're hoping for the best since those were apparently going for 3 million a pop this year.

teach me how to raji

it's killing me that i can't be in packer country for this epic event. my friends and i have been reminiscing about superbowl parties involving appetizers, family and debauchery. hopefully our boys will be able to pull through without us on actual wisconsin soil (although we already beat the bears so this would just be icing on the cake ;)). unfortunately i did not have enough time to have dad send a jersey so i'll be donning a plain green shirt instead... but thankfully it's the thought that counts and i, for one, will be in full solidarity with all packers fans come sunday night!!! 

you will be missed :(

on a more depressing note... we received an email today telling us that our beloved holy cross president (likened to one albus dumbledore) will be stepping down once his position is filled. i can't help feeling that he too has been metaphorically killed by the forces of pure evil. it's a devastating blow and i'm secretly hoping that i'll be able to live out my senior year with him at the helm.

anywho, off to bed after a tough day of curling up with a blanket and watching grey's w mary. love you all!