Clifden..with videos!

Quick! Everyone pretend they're in Western Ireland!

I took a journey to the west of Ireland this weekend. Clifden was recommended (by their website) as the "gateway to Western Ireland". It then showed a slideshow of gorgeous countrysides that one could see while staying in glorious Clifden.
Truthfully? It was lovely. But it was a tourist town, no doubt about that. It was like vacationing at Plymouth Plantation. Actually, I would liken it more to Old Sturbridge Village...it lacked the polish of Plymouth Plantation. They were trying to be a tourist town, but the natives lacked the attitude that is necessary for a tourist town. Instead of rolling their eyes at the crazy bus tours that rolled on through, they looked excited to see tourists. I sat down for a cup of tea and two teenage girls literally squealed and watched me drink it. I gave them a quizative look and one of them nodded at me as if to say "go on, drink...please?". I didn't know whether to be offended or amused. Who am I kidding, I was amused. People making a huge deal out of mundane things is the highest form of comedy.
The town was odd in that the population was mainly Irish and French of all things. I thought this was fantastic. The French? This is one of the first French enclaves I've ever heard of and I was fascinated (I'm a nerd, I go to Bryn Mawr, I'm sorry). Why did they come to Clifden? Is there some form of industry here that I wasn't aware of? What drew them to podunk West Ireland? Is this the start of more emigration from France? Again, I was fascinated. The library was even called the "Biblioteque Municipale". The tourists were mainly senior bus tours, which delighted me even more. My life goal is to be old and go on bus tours. The social structure is AWESOME. The women all sit around a table gossiping while the men handle the drink and sandwich transactions and look frustrated. I sat in a pub and watched one group for a good hour. I had a lot of time to kill. At night I went to the pub for traditional Irish music. Since this was a tourist town the bar was filled with British tourists, plus a few Polish natives (I've accepted the fact that the majority of the Irish population is Polish, no matter where you are...they're there). One of the highlights of my night was being able to understand the drunk Polish girl behind me who kept muttering "I love you, I love you, I love you" to her boyfriend. I was honestly giddy when I realized I recognized what she was saying. I got a disapproving look from a lady on the British bus tour when she saw how fast I downed my pint. I'm not exactly a fast pint drinker, but when paired against 60 year old British garden party ladies I guess I drink quickly. After the only Irish person in the bar requested the band play Dueling Banjos I decided it was time for me to head out.
The bottom line of Clifden? I wouldn't recommend it without a car. However if you've been kidnapped and taken to Clifden, once you've contacted the authorities I suggest you take a look around. The bay is really spectacular when the sunlight hits it and lets not lie, it's in Western Ireland, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Here are a few more videos to highlight the experience.
Before OMP protests, I'm aware the wall in this video is not "ancient"
One of the saddest moments of my trip to Ireland
The bus ride home through Connemara made the trip worthwhile. It was like driving through a calendar. I cannot describe the absolutely gorgeous views that we saw. I could have spent two days in a trash dump and that bus ride would have still made the trip worthwhile.
The absolute icing on the cake, however? On the bus ride back to Dublin we stopped randomly on the highway and a Guardai (policeman) boarded the bus. I love when this happens because usually its an immigration check and the Guardai starts cracking jokes about everyone's country of origin, and basically everyone leaves the check in a good mood. This one gets on and shouts "I'm sure you're all wearing seat belts!!!" then proceeds to check and make sure. The chorus of CLICKs that followed got me giggling. After he was done checking he begins to make a speech about the importance of seat belts. By this time I am actively shaking. He goes in for the kill with the statement "In addition to saving your life, seat belts also improve your posture". At this point I audibly laugh and double over trying to keep the laughter in me. He is not pleased, looks at me and says "Do you think seat belts are a laughing matter?". I manage to shake my head before he leaves the bus. How I'm still allowed to stay in the country is beyond me, but that was by far one of my top 5 moments of my entire trip to Ireland.

Final Exam Thoughts

Have you ever taken an exam in the esteemed halls of Taylor and wished that you could be someplace more fitting to take an exam? Say an airplane hanger or an abandoned fairgrounds? Yes? Then you should come to UCD.

I took my LAST EXAM today at RDS Simmonscourt, the other exam taking place. The bus drops you off at this rugby stadium that has an attached airplane-hanger-esque building. Thats where you take your exams...with 3500 other students. Imagine if everyone in the Tri-Co took their exams together. It was ridiculous. 

That being said I am DONE with my academic obligations here. Woohoo! Two weeks to go wild and do whatever I want. 

Random Studying Induced Thoughts

-A ridiculous amount of Irish students have the Footloose Soundtrack on their iTunes

-That being said, I have listened to 'Footloose' a ridiculous amount of times over the past 24 hours

-There is a group of guys who I swear must sit outside and wait for the minute I turn off my light to start playing soccer. This is followed by an hour of "thump...thump...thump...CRASH....thump...thump...." 

-I noticed when I first got here that Ireland doesn't have too many toy stores. I now know it's because give any kid here a soccer ball, or a hurling stick and they're good to go for hours. I will raise my children this way. Ideally with hurling sticks

-Google hurling, there's no way I can describe it.

-All semester there has been an area of the main walk to campus fenced off as they build "something". They finally took the fences down. What did they build? A bench. 

-I have discovered the perfect sandwich. A baguette filled with ham and snap beans. Try it, it will change your life. 

-I've reached the point where I can't even guilt trip myself into studying. This is a bad thing. 

-I have an exam tomorrow at 6...who does that? 6 o clock on a Saturday? 

-24 hours and it will be summer. 

Pain and Joy, all within 3 hours

Mawrtyrs, when you take your self scheduled exams this week I want you to get down on your knees and thank a god of your choosing that you have them. If ANY of you cheat or otherwise break the honor code and put them in jeopardy I will personally punch you in the face. I have seen the horror of scheduled exams, it's not pretty. 

My first exam was today at 9am. Thats fine, I'm not exactly a morning person, but 9am is a legitimate exam taking time. Here's the problem, UCD makes you take them at another site, ie not on campus. So I had to get over to the UCD Blackrock campus, a bucolic site a few miles from here that's only purpose appears to be a place for students to take exams. UCD kindly provided a shuttle bus....but wouldn't start the shuttles until 10am. Thats not going to help me, thanks though. I woke up this morning at 6 to try and cram in some more studying. As I stated before, I am not a morning person and this really was not a good plan. I decided to leave myself an hour to find this place and left the apartment at 7:45. My first obstacle came when the front door of our building, usually unlocked, was locked. To a normal minded person, this wouldn't be a big deal, you would simply turn the doorknob and continue on your way. I stood there in a haze wondering how I would ever get to my exam if I couldn't even leave the building. I really wonder how I've gotten this far in life sometimes. 

I'm glad I allotted an hour, because I got lost numerous times. Finally I found my way to the town of Blackrock, which basically made the town of Bryn Mawr look like a shanty town (I'm completely serious) and onto campus. Next I had to find the building, the place was deserted. It was 8:50 now, 10 minutes until my 9 exam, I'm in panic mode. I finally find a building swarmed in sequins and bad tans...I mean UCD students...and rightly assume it's the exam center. After carefully reading each sign to make sure I'm following the rules correctly (and there are a lot of them) I sit down at my assigned desk to await the exam. The first thing I notice is that the exam booklet is in Gaelic. OH BALLS! Luckily english instructions are written in smaller writing below the large bold Gaelic print. Again, a normal person would make this adjustment easily, however simple tasks are hard for me this early in the morning. The cover of the booklet was probably the hardest part of the exam. It took me roughly 15 minutes to figure out exactly what I needed to write on it. It asked for all sorts of numbers and codes. After the exam was done i asked one of the proctors if I had filled it out right, he gave me a look as if I had asked if the sky was blue. 

The exam itself went pretty well. Once i was situated and my mind in the zone I was good to go. I was still stressed, though, from studying the previous day and waking up early to get to the exam, so I decided a post-exam trip was in order. Anyone who knows me should be able to guess where I decided to go. Thats right, the zoo. Well, sort of. I walked down to the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) station to catch the train into town, but right next to the station was Dublin Bay/Irish Sea and it was absolutely stunning. So I hopped on the train and went the other direction towards Bray. Best decision I've made.

At Bray I sat on the beach for awhile. Many parents had taken their children down for a lunchtime outing so the beach was really alive. The favorite activity seemed to be to stand on the waters edge and throw rocks into the sea. Everyone was doing it, kids and adults. There must have been about 30 people just chucking rocks into the water. One kid clearly had some anger issues and started yelling "TAKE THAT SEA! YEA! WHAT NOW! I THREW A ROCK AT YOU!". I stayed away from that kid, I didn't want to risk being behind him when his last string of sanity snapped.

This was my third time to Bray, each time I go I find something new and enjoyable. The first time I went up Bray Head, the second time I discovered that the beach is really peaceful and this time I discovered the cliff walk. Wow, walking along the cliffs it's just you, the cliffs and a 50 foot drop to the ocean. 70 degree weather, sun in the sky, a cool breeze off the water, this is heaven. Growing on the rocks was this plant that had a scent that was a mixture of honey and sunscreen. Normally, repulsive, but absolutely perfect in this setting. Looking down the water was turquoise and crystal clear, almost like the water in the Bahamas. Walking along the cliffs gave the feeling of being either someplace tropical, or Cape Cod...I am fine with either. 

An ice cream cone (with sprinkles! Thats amazing, they don't usually have those here) back in town sealed the day as a success. 

During my first visit to Bray I sat on top of Bray Head and said "So this is what study abroad is about". As I walked along the cliffs today I'd occasionally stop, gaze out on the water and mutter "I can't believe I'm leaving this". I have a feeling the next two and a half weeks will include many return visits to Bray.

Galway, round 2

So I took a fairly spur of the moment trip to Galway to visit my friend Liz. She's leaving in a week and wanted a chance to show me Galway. She's been to Dublin to visit me twice and I chose the weekend she wasn't there to visit Galway the last time. Where our story last let off, my camera was out of batteries so I didn't have any pictures. While the camera is still out of batteries, I realized that we live in the internet age, so I present to you: "Marianna and Liz's Adventures in Galway, as seen though Google images"

Liz and I in front of Galway Bay
Liz feeding the Galway swans
They haven't gotten around to taking down the Christmas decorations yet. As you can see, Liz and I are judging them on this.
We did a little jig in front of Long Walk
I had some quality time with Oscar Wilde
Liz enjoyed the beautiful day
We found some friends, yay, look how happy we are, ahahhaahha. Good times.
We took a bus tour, I was less than pleased.
So we ended the night in a pub with some new friends.
Now I have to study for my two final exams. ick.

Had a great time visiting Liz. We checked out the aquarium...which was really more of a tank with fish in it that they charged 7 euro to see. I say pass if you're in the area. After a stroll along the bay we went back to her apartment for dinner. For nighttime entertainment she took me to her favorite pub for traditional music. We met a nice young German couple and the fiddlers grandson and his friends, including one that looked eerily identical to Ryan from The Office. I considered paying him money to yell "THIS GUY GROWS HIS OWN BEETS!", but passed. So we enjoyed the stereotypical Irish pub experience, throwing back a pint while singing pub songs. Very fun. Today we walked around town a little before I had to catch the bus back. It's GORGEOUS here today, so the bus ride through the Irish farmland was fantastic. Lots of baby sheep, horses and cows. On to studying.

I Am Not a Trained Monkey!

That's a lie.

I've been yelled at to update my blog. Let me explain something. In order to update, I have to do things. If I come back to the US and re-read my blog and find that it's filled with live updates from the library I'm going to be sorely disappointed. So I'm sorry that it has been almost a week since my last update but I've been busy having that so called "time of my life". 

We do have numerous things to cover, however, so lets get to that.

1. My Mom and Peggy's visit. 

I believe the sole reason my mom came to visit me was so that I would blog about it. I'm embarrassed that it's taken me this long to get to it. Anyway, we've covered the bag of goodies. The week was fairly low key as I was in the beginning stages of one of the most stressful work weeks of my college career (see previous three entries for evidence). Most nights consisted of us going out to eat, and then me collapsing and staring at my old best friend television for a few hours. I would then take a 30 minute shower before heading back to my apartment. What a great child I am. I was so grateful that I even managed to get her sick. On Saturday we were supposed to go on a tour to the Wicklow Mountains. I show up at their hotel and find that my mom is horribly ill with food poisoning. Whoops..apparently the oysters at dinner the previous night were not ok. So I'm given the task of showing Peggy where to pick up the tour bus before heading back to UCD to write my papers. I managed to put her on the completely wrong tour. Whoops. It was a banner day for all. I went back later to take my nightly shower though...I wasn't letting that one slip through the cracks. I also discovered my new favorite show "I'd Do Anything", a reality show where they pick the next Oliver for Oliver!. On Sunday Mom was feeling better enough to go to Tara with Peggy while I continued to write (wow, writing about their visit makes me feel like a horrible child), returning in time for dinner and a shower of course. Then on Monday our friend Rachel came down from Scotland to visit for the day. I met up with the crew in Bray and had a fantastic afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful and Bray was gorgeous as always. Afterwards I showed mom and Peggy around UCD and the area a little before they went back to the hotel. No final shower, unfortunately. While the visit might not have turned out as planned, it's always great to see friends and family. It's also always great to have a nice, hot, hotel shower where the water never runs out. 

Second: Where have you been for the past week?

Well on Friday I handed in all of my papers and promptly collapsed onto the sofa in relief. Then hell broke loose. I'm not really sure what happened, but I enjoyed it. I went up to the convenience store with my roommate to buy some beer for an afternoon celebration of success (lies). On our way back to campus someone stopped us and told us that public safety was guarding all of the gates and wasn't letting alcohol in. Apparently they have been preparing all semester for this day or something. So we freak out and decide to "find an alternate entrance". To our surprise, they are guarding every way in. Wow. So we buy a tube of Pringles and a bag of chips so that we can get a bag. I, in a display of paper induced ridiculousness, empty the Pringles into the chips and put a beer in the Pringles tube. Alex, my roommate, just shakes her head at me. I feel cool. We then put the other beers in the bag. We begin to walk in the gates, worried that they'll take our drinks. Long story short they didn't care that we had beer but they were only letting UCD students onto the property so they were just checking ID cards. Ironically, after all that, Alex had forgotten hers and we had to argue our way in. We then enjoyed a lovely day and night of leisure, forgetting any stress that we may have had.

The next day I woke up with a headache and an inexplicable craving for peanut butter. Also a message from my friend in Galway saying that she would be coming that night with another one of our friends. I starred at my messy room and decided that I would just watch some movies until she arrived, love me, love my mess. 

Liz and Lea arrived and for the next two days we marched around Dublin. Wow, they managed to run through my "things to see before leaving Dublin" list in about a day and a half. What should I do now?  We went to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, which was at the top of my list. Our guide was good, but American, which really added a surreal aspect to the tour. Especially when she'd say things like "well for us Americans" and you'd look around and realize that everyone on the tour is from America...or Canada...so North America. My favorite part of the tour?

in front of diarama of model workers and cats

Tour guide: The distillery had many cats, including Sam* who was the most loved. 

Everyone stares at cat and has the same awkward though

Tour guide: In fact they loved him sooo much....

Tour: No...no....don't say it...

Tour guide: thaaaaat they had him stuffed, there he is!

Tour: ahhhhh.....dammit.

*I was too creeped out by the models to remember the cats real name. I think it was Sam, don't hold me to that.

Then yesterday Lea left for Amsterdam and Liz and I took a short trip to Belfast. I was just about to fall asleep on the bus when we stopped on the highway in the middle of a field. Nothing for miles, just stopped. Hmm, I wonder what's going on. Then a Guarda boarded the bus. Ohhh dear, this might not be good. He then politely demanded to see all of our passports, we were on the Northern Ireland boarder. Luckily I had mine, but I distinctly remembered talking with Liz about whether or not we needed one. We decided better safe than sorry. Always bring your passport, otherwise you're going to be left in the middle of a field on the Northern Ireland boarder. Thats a lie, on the way back I discovered that they just need to see some form of ID, not necessarily a passport. One guy got away with simply saying "I'm Paul, I'm from Holland". 

Belfast was nice. The area around the university was gorgeous with a fantastic botanical garden. I'm not going to lie, there isn't much to do there. We were able to see some of the murals, but you really need to take a taxi or bus tour into the neighborhoods to see the famous ones. Since we were there for such a short time we weren't able to do that. Belfast also had some great architecture, so while a lot of it was really modern and new, occasionally we would run into a fantastic building. I think I need to go back for a second look. I don't have any pictures, however, because my camera ran out of batteries and I was too cheap to pay for more in pounds. I'll steal Liz's pictures at some point.

Bray, always beautiful
Rainbow outside my window, I thought it was nice
I called this game deathball. Basically people stood on opposite sides of the quad and kicked a soccer ball at each other as hard as they could. It got ugly
Jeremy made the mistake of posing for a picture and took a stray deathball to the chest. I honestly thought he had died and was amazed he escaped unharmed
Mary, Alex and Hannah

Marcus and Mmoloki

Mom and me in St Stephen's Green

I should also add that after all of that discussion on where I should go for vacation...I've decided to stay in Ireland. Hahahahahah, I fooled you all into thinking you had a say into my life. Seriously though, I realized I'm going to go home and say "yea, I spent a semester in Ireland" when what I really mean is "I spent a semester in Dublin, the crazy multi-cultural holding cell for the rest of Europe". I want to experience this place, so I'm going to take a week or so and hit up the West Coast. 

Paper Daze: 3

I wasn't going to blog about today, but within the past 2 hours two of the funniest things have happened, so I had to share.

1. I was in the library when I decided to take a break and stretch my legs. Since OMP was bragging about how the library has 7 copies of his book, I figured I would go check it out. I find the call number and head over to the stacks. Standing where his 7 books should be, was a bright pink thick book with the title "SOCIOLOGY OF SEX!!!" in big cartoon letters. I think I might have pulled a muscle trying to contain my laughter. Laughing is not allowed in the library during finals, it's punishable by firing squad. It's on the same plane as putting your card in your mouth

2. Remember how UCD banned fun this week? My friend Jeremy came over with an even greater story than the one I told yesterday. He was outside with some friends playing soccer, technically he wasn't even playing, just watching, when one of those Fun Police came out. Instead of taking their ball, this FP took all of their names and told them that she was going to call their parents. For the record, Jeremy is 21.

Working on my final paper. Nothing puts you to sleep faster than looking in a book and seeing that it starts with the phrase "first we must understand the potato"....ohhh it's going to be a long night.

UPDATE:

God is talkative tonight, and she's calling people out by name. Dan Sheridan needs to come to the front desk IMMEDIATELY. Balls. Someone was also called out for not returning a laptop on time. I want to commit an offense and get called out over the intercom.