Readjustment

It's already been over a week since I returned from Ireland. Readjustment hasn't been too bad. My sleeping patterns are still pretty wacky, I think it's been harder readjusting my sleep pattern this time than when I came back from China. Otherwise readjusting has been fine, I've had some moments when I slip and say "sorry" instead of "excuse me" or I start to walk fast and leave others in the dust. I feel my biggest readjustment is more socially oriented. I have gotten used to eating with my friends every night or going out now and then which was a huge change for me in the first place. Now I feel reclusive again, this wouldn't have bothered me before the trip, but now I feel kind of antsy. By the time break is over I'm sure I'll be used to my old schedule. For now, I'm just going to stay busy visitng Eddie, working on projects around the house, working out (finally), and spending some much needed time with my horse.

Slainte,
Roni

Reflections

Although I am still here in Ireland I think it's probably important that I start writing down some of the thoughts I've got going on. I've definitely been reflecting over this semester a lot. The semester went by faster than I had imagined it could; it's probably been the fastest semester for me in my college career. It's crazy to think that I have a less than three weeks left. So have I integrated? What do I feel about the Irish culture? Will I come back? To the first question, I feel that I have integrated to a small extent, the to the extent I had wished at the beginning of the semester. I feel that I have picked up certain phrases well and that I can blend well into the crowd when it comes to how I move through it and what I say to get through it (i.e. push and shove while saying 'sorry!'). But I know I wouldn't be able to fully integrate unless I had stayed for a full year, which I know I am not ready for. The Irish culture was truly interesting because it was so much like american culture with a few twists here and there. I am giong to miss the night life here. It will be an adjustment not being to up and walk to a pub for a drink. I feel I might catch myself saying "hey let's go to a bar" and realizing that I can't just up and go. It has been the easiest semester of my career and next semester will be an adjustment back to better work and study habits. So, will I come back to the Green Isle? I would love to come back in the future to travel around and maybe do more of a backpacking experience, but I feel that Ireland will be on hold for a while. There are warmer and cheaper places that I would like to see next. I really want to start exploring South America! Hearing so many of the Irish tell me that I look Spanish made me appreciate my hispanic heritage more than ever and I want to start exploring that now that I know I probably will never be able to fully integrate into Irish culture.

So what kind of adjustments will I have to make back in the US? Well, drinking is one, duh. My alcohol tolerance has definitely gone up, more than I've truly realized. I can't wait to have more of a selection when it comes to drinks though and they will be so much cheaper! One thing I have learned well here is to budget. I thought I knew well back in the states, but I have learned much more here. I will also have to adjust back to American prices. I feel that I will probably spend my first few weeks exchanging back to euro just to feel how cheap the price really is. I will probably say 'sorry' a lot so please be patient and remind me that I don't need to say it for everything! One great thing is that I'll be used to walking a lot, I'm used to walking at least 2 miles every day, they dont' even phase me, but now I'm used to walking fast. Now I can walk to campus in about 10 minutes whereas it used to take around 16-17 before.

At the farewell dinner we were told to say something about Ireland, but I hadn't even started to reflect upon the trip. It has been a great cultural experience that many students don't take and I don't regret coming here even though there were many ups and downs, it was expensive, and the academic experience was far from impressive. It was a great experience that I know I will always look back to.

Slainte!

Cork City and a bunch of Blarney

As soon as Celeste got here last Saturday we up and left for Cork City. The bus ride took about 5 hours down to the southern part of Ireland. Cork city is also known as the rebellion city since it was one of the largest supporting cities of the IRA. On some shirts its still referred to as the Republic of Cork. In fact, on St. Anne's Church, which was right next to our hostel, someone had spray painted IRA on the wall. Cork city reminded me of Dublin although it is much smaller and less touristy. There are a lot of shops and pubs, but not tourist shops. We spent some time wandering the streets and then the next day we spent at Blarney Castle. The castle was simple but imposing. It was fun reading the history of the castle and where it's name came from, thanks to Queen Elizabeth I.
We climbed up to the very top and kissed the Blarney stone (I'll upload the picture later). But while we kissed the stone it began to rain a little so it was a little scary leaning backwards to kiss the stone. Of course, the rain stopped after we kissed it, perfect timing. Afterwards we walked around the gardens and walked up and down a staircase called the wishing steps with our eyes closed making one wish we hoped to come true. By time we got back to our hostel it was pouring so we didn't really have anymore amibition to walk around the city in the rain.
The next day we spent traveling back to Galway where I showed her all the places I knew in Galway. We even ended up going to the Aran Islands yesterday (the 2nd time for me), but we got to see mroe this time since we equally up for a long bike ride. :)
It was a great week that went by fast. I would highly recommend seeing Cork City, just to see it. And if anyone says their accent is impossible, I disagree. I understood the Cork locals a lot better than people from Limerick that's for sure! But the accents are still fun no matter where you go.

Until next time
Cheers!

Belgium

This past weekend I went to the cities, Brugge (pronounced like rouge, the color) and Brussels. Brugge is apparently the oldest most well preserved medieval city. It was a beautiful and small city with cobble stone streets, bell towers, churches, and canals. It was exactly what I have been wanting to see in Europe. The city was quaint and the atmosphere was calm and cheerful. We never met anyone who didn't smile when we asked them for help or even when buying gifts. One thing we noticed about Belgium is its casualty considering sex. Shops displayed lingerie and lingerie posters openly in the display windows. We even saw some dominatrix gear in a display in Brussels. In Brugge we stumbled upon an awesome chocolate shop that had large chocolate penises and rather pornographic chocolate on display! You couldn't walk down the streets without seeing one chocolate store with a huge pair of breasts on display! lol. It was comical, but for the every day citizen it was perfectly normal. Of course on every street there were at least 4 chocolate shops and several shops selling hand made lace. There were some beautiful parasols and wall displays that had been advertised as handmade. On every corner there was usually a waffle shop (there were far more than that in Brussels). I can easily say I haven't eaten so much sugar in all my time in college. On Sunday, our one day in Brussels, we ate 3 waffles (two with dark chocolate poured all over them) and then fries (which they call 'frites' and smother in mayo), and maybe a hamburger. lol. I plan on only eating yogurt this week. I like Brugge more than Brussels only because it was quaint and felt authentic, but Brussels was fun. While we were shopping around for some chocolate we heard a band playing 'Yellow Submarine' and came out to see a group of officially clad men walking down the street. Belgium is well-known for its fountain with the baby pee-ing as the foutain piece. Well, it was situated just around the door of the chocolate shop we were in. We ended up watching some sort of a ceremony that a police officer told us was a "butcher parade" or so we crudely translated from french (yes, they speak french and dutch in Brussels, but Flemish in Brugge). They proceeded to make speeches and then at one point they sang a song to the statue. Someone was controlling the water flow from the fountain and turned it on high so it would actually spray some of the audience members. Then to finish the ceremony they hooked the fountain up to a keg (or somethign I couldn't see) and proceeded to serve themselves beer from the pee-ing fountain! It was so hilarious all of the people crowded around were so astounded by it and the butchers loved the attention. All in all, I highly recommend traveling to Belgium it's a great place to see.

Cheers!
Roni

p.s. I had the first beer I ever liked. It was a belgium beer, Bellevue I think, but it was raspberry flavored and it was delicious! I highly recommend it if you can find it.

The Election

Believe it or not the election wasn't only important in America, but in the whole world. As Americans we are in our own little world during our elections, but this year the entire world was watching with bated breath. So many Irish asked me "You're voting Obama right?" On the night of the election I went to an election party that ended up being really lame because everyone there was too busy playing beer pong to even really care about why we were there. My friend and I ended up going back to my flat and watching the results coming on TV. My irish roomie was also watching it with us and she was just as tense and nervous as we were. Later on we met with some other Americans and stayed up until after Obama's speech (i.e. 5:30 am). It was overwhelming to see history made and we all began to regret that we weren't home to experience this with the rest of America. It was great to see how much this election meant to other people outside of the US. The next morning my roomies greated me with big smiles and said "You must be thrilled!". I almost feel that this election is going improve our relationship with world and I couldn't be happier.

Cheers!
Roni

All Hallows Eve

Two posts in one day, weird. Anways, I just wanted to briefly write about Halloween. We ended up celebrating Halloween twice this week. All the students celebrated at Halloween parties on Thursday and then whoever stayed at school went out again on Friday. I am hoping to get my pictures up later today thanks to one of my friends, the school computers won't let you download pictures. Halloween was really fun. You had quite the array of costumes, from really well done, to cheap ones bought in the store. I saw a few that I thought were not cool, for example, I saw a guy dressed up as a suicide bomber...yeah...not cool, but all the others were fun stereotypical costumes. Mine was a stupid cheap costume, but I had fun with the make up which made up for it. The Thursday party night was much more exciting and involved, Friday was more relaxed. The only problem is it's starting to get really cold at night, there was frost all over the cars the past two nights and there has been talk of snow!

That's about it for now. I will be travelling to Brussels next Friday! It's hard to believe that on Monday I will be down to 6-7 weeks left, depending on when my finals are. It's also starting to get tense with the election coming up! We are thinking of going to a school election party or one somewhere in the apartment complex.

Cheers!
Roni

Traveling Tips

While I've been Ireland I have learned many differnet tidbits about traveling. Although buses are really useful they can quickly become your number 1 expense. Generally, it is cheaper to use Bus Eireann (pronounced like aaron), but they don't always take the most efficient route. I have found that although it may be a couple euro more to take citylink it is worth it. Citylink is also great for getting to Shannon airport because it takes less than an hour and a half, whereas if you take bus eireann you could be on the bus for over 2 hours.

I also tried out Ryanair on my trip to Spain. I will also be flying Ryanair to Belgium. I don't believe it is really worth it. Although they sell cheap tickets they will try to snag every euro out of you. If you check any luggage it is extra, just like checking in at the airport is extra and only EU citizens can check in online. So, for example, if you find a deal for €20 it will actually end up costing you about €50 after all the fees and taxes, which yeah may not be bad, but the airline just isn't that great. Both times I was rather uncomfortable for the ride because you can't adjust your seats (or at least I couldn't). But I have ridden worse planes in China. Although they are a rather sketchy airline they are prompt. Both of my planes arrived on time if not a bit early. But I think if I travel europe again I will use easyjet, as some people have recommended, or aer lingus despite the price.

Also, a bit on hostels. When I went to barcelona my friend booked the hostel using hostellingworld.com, but I have always found it cheaper to call the hostel directly. When I booked directly at the hostel for an extra night in barcelona I ended up paying €5 less. So I highly recommend finding the number/ website for the hosel you want before trying to use a hostel booking service.

Well that's all the traveling tips I have so far. Oh, and just like in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's always a good idea to have a towel. I've learned that the hard way.

Cheers!
Roni