Hard to believe that I have been in Ireland for almost two months. Days are flying by here, and I am beginning to feel the dread and excitement of returning home soon. I was told that I would never want to leave Ireland once I came, and I think that statement could not be more true. Yes I miss home, but Ireland has become a second home for me. For those who are thinking about studying in another country I have some advice for you. You really need to be willing to put yourself out there and meet new people. You will have to opportunity to meet people from all over the world, but if you are too shy to introduce yourself then you never will. I personally had trouble with that when I first arrived here, but the best way to make friends is to get to know your roommates, and then meet their friends and keep meeting people from there. Another way to meet people is to get involved in clubs, societies, and sports. I have become good friends with people from the Anime and Manga Society, and look forward to going to the events that they hold each week. Just remember to be yourself, and you will always find people who share the same interests as you. But enough sentimentalities and I will tell you about my week. Monday and Tuesday were pretty typical, but Wednesday was when the fun really began.Wednesday night my friend Seamus and I went to a concert for the band Hermitage Green. They are a bigger band now in Ireland, but had humble beginnings in the local pubs of Limerick. They do some covers of songs (my favorite was a cover of "Cosmic Love") and then original songs. Some unique things that they did was bring one of the professors at the campus on stage to play her harp along to a few songs. The drummer also played a drum set and a bodhran (Irish drum) at the same time, which was incredible to witness. The concert took place at the Stables bar located on campus, so it was a small crowd. This actually made the show more enjoyable, because I had plenty of room to just enjoy the music and not have to worry about the people around me. As a side note I always seem to see people I know around campus, because I saw some friends of mine at the concert as well. I love when this type of thing happens, because it makes me feel like I have a place here now and that I can always find friends wherever I go.
Last week I posted a video of me playing my tin whistle to the tune of "The Rattlin' Bog". This time around I am posting a video of a professional that sounds MUCH better than me. By professional I mean my instructor. He taught us our fourth song for the course, which is called "Planxty Irwin" and was composed by Turlough O'Carolan. A planxty is a tribute to someone, so this is a tribute to Irwin. Apparently this song is very popular at weddings in Ireland, so once I learn it make sure to ask me early! I will be booked very quickly. Thankfully I am getting much better at playing my tin whistle, and it is becoming easier to follow along.
On Friday I headed with several of my roommates
to a very popular pub called Curragower in downtown Limerick. On a side note I realize I keep calling the City Centre of Limerick "downtown". It is just easier to think of it as a downtown area. Limerick is much bigger than just the downtown section, and it takes about 15 minutes to get to the City Centre from campus. Anyways, after eating we headed to my very first (and hopefully not last) rugby game at Thomond Stadium. Rugby is one of the most popular sports in Ireland, besides hurling, and is just getting into the main part of the season. For those who have no clue what the sport of rugby entails I will give you my best and simplest explanation. I would best describe it as a mix between football (soccer) and American football. It has scoring much like American football, but the play is continuous, which is much closer to soccer. The point of the game is to get the ball to the other end to score (pretty self explanatory). However, the only ways to get it there are by kicking the ball forward, running forward, or tossing the ball backwards to another teammate. The third option is the most common, and the way they throw it is by looking forward and throwing it underhand behind them or sideways. The only way that the play will end is if there is a penalty or fault, an injury, if the team scores, or if the ball goes out of bounds. The teams that were playing this day were Munster and Scarlets. Munster is the local team here, so that is the team to root for usually. They wear very bright red and blue colored uniforms with neon yellow warm ups, which makes their fans impossible to miss. There were about 15,000 people at the game, and the taxi driver on the way home mentioned that there would be another 15,000 additional fans at next week's game. It really was great to be able to go to a sporting event again. I missed the action of live sports that I usually would get at an American football game.
Saturday I finally was able to go on another trip around Ireland! This time it included Kenmare, the Ring of Kerry, Killarney National Park (including Torc Waterfall), and Killarney. This time the trip was set up by the International Society, so I went completely with society members and friends. There were about one hundred of us total that went on the trip. It took two hours to get to Kenmare and we were given a very limited amount of time to explore. It was a nice little place with shops lining the sides of the road. My friends and I went into a few shops and bought some souvenirs. The best parts were the line of crafters that were near where the bus dropped us off. One was selling bracelets and jewelry while another one was selling some clay houses that he made individually by hand and another was selling wood carvings. Something that we happened upon was a funeral procession for a local garda officer who had passed away. Officers flanked the hearse on both sides as it made its way from the church to the main intersection. All of the traffic was stopped in order for the procession to go by. It is difficult to describe the atmosphere that was present, but everyone was showing the utmost respect for the people that were a part of the procession.
Another thirty minutes in the bus took us to the Ring of Kerry, which is mainly tall hills and sheep dotting them. The day we went was clear and gorgeous, so the blue sky was visible in most of the pictures I took that day. The picture of me standing with the hills and blue sky behind me was taken here. (Notice that I am sporting some Central Michigan attire in this photo. Represent!) We stopped at a few locations along the way to take pictures, but it was mainly a scenic drive until we reached Killarney National Park.
Killarney National Park is made up of a few different features. The most well known ones are the Torc Waterfall and all of the lakes that are spread throughout the park. The majority of the park is made of forests that are overrun by moss, trees, and ferns. Our group stopped in the park in order to hike up to the waterfall and follow some of the trails. My friends Derek, Sami, and I ended up branching off from the group and explored off the beaten path. The hike was exhausting, but well worth it. Everything was really green and bright.
The last stop of the tour was Killarney itself. This is a popular tourist spot, so there are a lot of souvenir shops that have all of the Irish things that you could possibly imagine. Naturally I finished almost all of my souvenir shopping here for my family and friends. By this time my friends and I were exhausted, so we only stopped into the stores that looked interesting, such as the sweets shops, and tried to continue walking in order to stay awake. It was dark by the time we headed back to Limerick. Home Sweet Home.
Fun Facts:#1. Limerick is known as the city of culture and city of churches. The culture part comes from the historical monuments, but also the artwork that can be found on the sides of buildings throughout the city. The churches part is pretty self explanatory, but references all of the catholic churches scattered around the city.
#2. I was told this fun statistic the other day. Apparently, in Ireland, cows outpopulate people, sheep outpopulate cows, and chickens outpopulate sheep.
#3. Here is a fun fact to dispel some of those Irish stereotypes. The saying "top'o the mornin' to ya" is not something that you will hear while in Ireland. It is something that Hollywood invented. 
#5. On the note of mythical creatures I should mention that no one here believes that leprechauns exist. They are quite fictitious (even if Walt Disney came to Ireland looking for one).
#6. The most common mode of transportation for college students here is either a taxi or the bus. Rarely will you find a person who actually owns a car.
#7. Most of the Irish students go home on the weekends to either spend time with their families or for work.
