Irish Living

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but Irish life has been great! Since returning from break, we have all been settling back in to cottage life.  The weather is most definitely beginning to become wintry.  While sunny days are still scattered throughout the week, its beginning to rain even more!  And by rain I mean a blustery, icy, sleeting type of rain.  Luckily, our gas fireplaces are working just fine and keeping us warm inside our cozy cottages!

Irish Brown Bread made with Geraldine

It has been a nice change of pace to not travel for the last few weeks.  We have had time to start doing homework (as that is a rarity here) and get to hang out in Spiddal and Galway more often. Here are a few highlights from the weeks!

1.  We are all required to do an Experiential Learning Project while we are abroad.  Annie, another dietetics major, and I are working with the Park Lodge's chef, Geraldine.  We are getting to help cook, bake and prepare meals with her. It has been a lot of fun to learn traditional Irish recipes (she has none of the  recipes written down!) and to spend time in the kitchen with her.  Shes always hollering and running around the kitchen frantically!  Her two daughters also hang out in the kitchen sometimes after school.  They know most of the recipes as well and can do a pretty darn good American accent!

Dominos for Halloween! 

2.We all dressed up for Halloween and went into Galway!  Fun fact: The Irish will tell you Halloween originated in Ireland as a Celtic festival, Samhain.  Many historians argue on this fact, but all our professors will tell you that Ireland is indeed the birthplace! We all had a lot of fun dressing up for Halloween with the entire group-even our directors!

3.  I think I've maxed out the number times I can draw an invisible map of the United States to explain where Minnesota is-only to end up by agreeing that it is "Oh, in Canada!"  Sure.  Close enough.


4. We found the Irish equivalent to Punch Pizza! There is a little pizzeria in Spiddal that is run by a single Italian man.  The restaurant has two tables in it and barely room for a group of us to stand.  On Friday night we took Rory into Spiddal, ordered Pizza and then took it over to the Au Tobar pub to eat and hang out.  Now that I know the pizza place is there, you can bet I will be back!

 5.  Our group took a day trip to Kylemore Abbey on Saturday.  Kylemore Abbey is in the beautiful Connemara region.  The Abbey itself is tucked in between beautiful mountains, lakes and streams. The weather was cold and rainy (as usual) but we actually saw snow on the road driving there!  The Abbey was a large estate built in the Victorian era, but in the 1900s a group of Benedictine Nuns bought it and now it is a monastery.  They use to run a school for girls, but a few years ago it sadly closed because there weren’t enough nuns to run it anymore.  We were able to walk around the woods, lakes, gardens and the estate its self.  And met with a Sister who had taught at St. John’s for a few years!

6.  “We Connacht be stopped!” This was the common cheer at the Connacht rugby match we went to Saturday night.   Connacht, pronounced kah-knot, is a region in Ireland played an Italian team on Saturday night.  While my jeans were wet from the sideways rain and my toes were probably white, I had a great time cheering along side the die-hard Irish rugby fans!  Connacht won the match quite easily!  After the first half, there was a little kids rugby match for entertainment.  While, rugby is not considered an Irish sport, it was still fun to go to a sporting event in Galway!  

Thursday we hit the road again and head down to County Cork for the weekend!  Stay tuned for pictures of the Waterford Crystal factory, kissing the Blarney stone and much more!