To Arthur!

Monday and Tuesday I just had classes so there was nothing exciting to blog about.  Wednesday I didn't have any classes so I wrapped up some of my homework for the following week.  We had our "family meeting" for about an hour and then we all took a bus into Galway city.  We received a guided tour of the Galway museum and then we wandered around Galway for about two hours.  When we got back to the cottages we learned that J.P. was going to open the pub again for us.  We spent a little time there just all hanging out and getting to know J.P.  We asked about his wedding coming up in January and he answered all of our stupid questions about Ireland.  I think he got quite a laugh out of it.  

Thursday was a big day.  It was the 250th anniversary of Guinness. We heard that everyone in Ireland was going to raise their glasses up for the founder, Arthur Guinness, at 5:59pm or 17:59 military time which stood for it being founded in 1759.  It was a crazy day.  We all took a bus into Galway around 4 so that we could get a pub and get a pint of Guinness before the big moment.  The pubs were packed and everyone was out celebrating the big day.  Everyone cheers-ed for Arthur about million times before the night was over.  Another added bonus was that Guinness was only 2.50 Euro, which made it easier to actually drink. :P  Our huge group of 28 all split up into groups of about 4 and visited some other pubs around Galway.  Overall it was just a really fun night.  Everyone was out on the streets and meeting new people.  It was a really good opportunity to meet some Irish people and get to know them.  An interesting thing about going to pubs in Ireland is how fast that they will figure out that your American and to what gave it away.  Whenever they figure it out before I've said anything I like to ask how they knew I was American.  And here are some of the answers:  North Face....duh! (although I have none), teeth (yeah, they're actually straight...haha), accent (ya shore you betcha), they way you walk, my hair (apparently I have an 'American' style of brownish gold), and I'm sure that there are others.  Anyway, so it was a really good experience and I'm glad that I got to do this.  I got back to the cottages at midnight and went straight to bed.