Sun in the Forecast

Wow! It's been awhile since I've written... I guess I've been pretty busy!

Last week we went to Brady's Pub on Wednesday night, but it was CRAZY busy and all the girls had short little skirts and dresses on and we felt WAY under dressed. The music was so loud we couldn't even make conversation. We ended up leaving pretty early...

Thursday night we went to the Roost which was also SOOO packed! I think the first two weeks will be really busy and everyone will be going out every night, but hopefully after this first fortnight things will calm down. Anywho, I found a 20 Euro bill on the ground by the bar which pretty much made my night. It got really busy so we left early again, but this time we went to Maximas and got garlic cheese chips (french fries) which were amazingly delicious. Then we came back and sat outside and chatted until we met these two random Irish boys named Stephen and Siaorsea (I don't think I spelled that right, but it's pronounced "Seer-shuh" and means "freedom" in Irish). They were really funny and we were chatting and taking pictures. Then, some guy shouted something at us out a two story window, and we started having a conversation with him... the Siaorsea started talking to him for like 10 minutes in all Irish. It was all very funny. Then he invited us up to the apartment, but we had to be quiet because it wasn't really his apartment and his friend was passed out on the couch. We went up and all chatted for awhile before retiring to our own apartments for the night. It may not sound that funny, but the whole situation was really hilarious... guess you had to be there...

Friday night Katie and I stayed in, made pasta, and watched Maid in Manhattan in my abandoned apartment (since all my roommates go home on the weekends) because we had to get up early Saturday morning for a trip with the Saint Mary's girls.

Saturday morning we left at 8am to go to Co. Sligo in the northwestern part of Ireland. It felt like most of our time was spent on the bus, but we watched the entire second season of Grey's Anatomy, so that made things go faster...

Our first stop was at Boyle Abbey in Co. Roscommon (the county that my great great grandmother was from!) Boyle Abbey was settled by the Cistercian monks 1161 when they were invited by archbishop St. Malachy in order to help him reform the old Irish church back to Christianity. The monastery was laid out according to the usual Cistercian plan, a church on the north side of a roughly rectangular cloister area, with a chapter house for meetings of the monks on a second side, a kitchen and a refectory on the third, and probably store houses and dormitory above on the fourth. Only small parts of the cloister survive, because it was turned into a barracks by the Elizabethans in 1592 and the Cromwellians who besieged it in 1645. We also stopped at King House (an old manor) in Boyle before lunch.

We had lunch at a charming hotel in town, and it was absolutely delicious! Fresh ham with parsley sauce, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and cooked carrots with chocolate cake! It was probably the best meal I've had since I've been here.

After lunch we headed to Carrowmore in County Sligo. Carrowmore is the site of a prehistoric ritual landscape. There we saw pretty landscapes (more mountains!) and lots of neolithic stone tombs. We were supposed to hike up to see the famous Queen Maeve's tomb, but our bus broke down earlier in the day in Boyle and by the time we got there it was already getting dark. We were very disappointed...

So we departed for Bundoran, Co. Sligo where we stayed over night. Bundoran is apparently a resort town, but it was pretty dead when we were there. There was a pretty main street and a boardwalk leading down to the OCEAN which was BEAUTIFUL! I'm sure the town is bustling and bright in the summer. We walked around down town and took pictures by the beach. Then we headed back to the apartments we were staying in and made burritos and chocolate chip cookies that were both delicious. It was a fun and relaxing night eating cookies and watching X factor (England's version of American Idol). In the morning, however, we had no electricity because we had used up our 5 Euro limit. So, we couldn't shower and we had to get ready in the dark. It was lovely.

We left Bundoran and headed back toward Maynooth that morning. We stopped at Parke's Castle in Co. Leitrim. Parke's Castle is located on the banks of Lough Gill (a lake); the lake was like glass... it was really beautiful. The castle was built by Robert Parke in 1610 on the site of the earlier fifteenth-century O'Rourke castle. The castle was pretty, but the fake people inside were a bit tacky, I thought. We had tea and scones in the tea house and got back on the bus.

Our last stop was at Knock, Co. Mayo. This is the site of a well-known shrine and is a major pilgrimage site where Catholics believe that in 1879 there was an apparition of the Virgin Mary. There were hundreds of people there. I guess it's a pretty holy place, and maybe we just didn't appreciate it enough, but Elizabeth and I got bored and went to get icecream. We felt pretty guilty, but it wasn't a super beautiful place or anything. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a very interesting thing to witness: all these people traveling to this shrine. But the icecream suited us quite well, and we were very happy.

More Grey's Anatomy kept us busy on the three hour drive home, and when we got back we went to Jackie's to order pizza and chips! It was very delicious.

Today I had classes and work all day, and then we went to see Maynooth Castle with Roberta. It's incredible that Maynooth used to be a political centre of Ireland. There isn't much left of the castle, and it's strange that it's in the middle of town with a pub across the street and Dunne's store just behind it where the gardens used to be...

I'm very excited about my English class... we are studying poetry for the first half and drama in the second half of the semester. My sociology class today was kind of a waste of time because we talked about finding sources the whole time... Seriously, if you don't know how to do that by now, you shouldn't be in college (or university, as they call it here). I almost fell asleep.

We got our stipends (food money) today for the rest of the month, and we just got word from Roberta that Saint Mary's has granted us 5 Euro a week MORE than we thought we were getting (because she complained that we weren't getting enough)... so now we get about 200 Euro more for the whole year! Yippee! I went grocery shopping right after we saw the castle, and I'm pretty freakin' excited about all the food that I bought. I splurged a bit and got some things that I really love.

Tonight Katie and Elizabeth came over to make scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and BROWNIES! Elizabeth was in charge of making the brownies, and they weren't QUITE cooked all the way... but we were impatient and we ate them anyways. I hope I don't end up with a bellyache tonight. But I think it was worth it... they were delicious!

I've got three classes tomorrow and some tasks from Roberta to complete. We are going to take our laundry to town too (it's cheaper and easier just to take your things into town, I guess, and pay to have them launder it... fine with me!) It should be a long day, but I think there's sun in the forecast!