Just a normal day in Ireland..

Darn, I got a little behind again on my blogging.  So on Wednesday I didn't have any classes, but I did have a one hour "family meeting" with everyone in my study abroad group.  After this meeting we got on a bus to go into Galway city.  When we got there we first went to the Galway museum and had a look around.  One thing that stuck out for me there was how personal everything was to the people there.  It really gave a good look at who the Gaelic people were in that area and what their culture really is.  At one part of the museum there were a bunch of photographs in a row that was of the front of an apartment or house and in front of that were the people who actually lived there.  It just shows how community-based their culture is.  After the museum we headed over the NUIG which is the National University of Ireland-Galway.  Our program director had set up a panel of professors and graduate students that would talk about the culture of Ireland with us.  It actually turned out to be a really good panel.  They were open and honest about their culture and would answer any of our questions.  It was cool at parts when they would talk about their friendliness and such and that would could compare that to our "Minnesota Nice."  When the panel was over we spent the rest of our evening in Galway.  The group that I split up with went to the King's Head pub.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  They had live music start around 10pm and we got to meet some locals there and talk with them.  

On Thursday I only had Senior Seminar in the morning and the rest of the day was free.  And how did I spend this time?  By reading on the rocks by the ocean...duh.  It was a gorgeous sunny day (which supposedly is really rare here...but we still have yet to see rain!).  I also got to see a boat coming into the Galway bay when I was out there.  Later that night we talked to J.P. who is one of the owners of the Park Lodge Hotel and he decided that he would open the hotel pub for us so that we could all hang out and also get to know J.P.  It was a blast!  All 28 of us went and just had a great time.  J.P. is a really cool guy and it was so much fun to hang out with him.  (I got a picture with him)  One of the guys in our group brought their laptop and hooked it up to some speakers so that we could have a dance party.  Some of the songs included Shout, Sweet Home Alabama, Lean on Me, and Piano Man.  Overall, it was a great time.  We took so many pictures that night (including a few "roomie" pics).  It was probably the most fun night I've had here thus far.  The next morning we departed on our excursion to Connemara, but I will tell you about that next time.  So stay tuned. :P