Hey Mom! Now we can share pants!

I do believe that at one point in my life (i think around the 5th grade) I proclaimed to myself that I would NEVER wear tapered leg jeans - only old moms wore those (no offense mom - you look awesome in tapered leg!)....

however I think now my 5th grade self would look down on me in shame, because that day has come - I bought tapered leg jeans....

NOW before you all close out this window, take this blog site off your favorites list (cause I know you all have it as your number one spot!), and vow to never speak my name again, let me explain myself:

1) Instead of calling them tapered leg jeans, they are actually called "skinny jeans". They come in all sizes and even the farthest of "skinny" people wear them - they are actually in style! Think Audrey Hepburn....

2) Having Tapered Jeans means that they don't drag past my shoes, which means that I don't get my pants wet - and as I mentioned before about having cold wet feet, this function of these pants makes life much more wonderful - great for going out!

3) I secretly really like them! They are comfortable and kinda cute!

So much apologies to my 5th grade self, as well as anyone who opposes to wearing "mom" jeans - I know you all now see me in a different light. But when in rome.... (or wet rainy Ireland!)



PS: other updates (besides my new jeans)
1. I bought a plane ticket to Brussels (only 30 euro both ways!) and from there I plan on taking a train to Paris! I met another girl yesterday who I think will join me on my journey - should be fun!

2. I started Athletics Club on Monday - we started off the year with 4 x 800s - which I have not done since 2003! Needless to say that it is wednesday and I still cannot walk normal!

3. Last night I went to a bday party, and tonight I am going to my friend Annelies' for dinner - then we will all go out! Yay I have a social life!

4. I miss everyone so much - I love all your emails, updates, and comments - keep them up!

until next time!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Goodbye fresh vegetables...Hello chick flicks!

I honestly think that at the moment I submitted in my last blog that I was thankful Fiona moved out b/c of the space issues, was the exact moment that an 18 year old Cork girl living in Centrepoint Apartments (about 30 minutes walk from everything - no joke) got a call from Corrib Village letting her know that space was available to her in apartment 109!!

On Friday I went to a pals house for a lovely little girls dinner night filled with risotto, wine and a game called Ligretto (very fun). However, the while the wine effect most of the girls by making them sleepy, my consumption had a reverse effect - and I decided to join my roommates out at the pub (a swankier one this time called BAZAAR) and then to a dance club called the Living Room(so fun! We stayed until it closed!). This was when Judith informed me that we had a new roomie that just moved in that night! However the only thing else Judith knew was that she had a TV with her, as well as a ton of stuff!!

So the next morning I finally managed to meet our new roomie named Christine. Originally from Manchester, she has been living in Cork for about 9 years now. She still has a bit of an English accent to her and seems very laid-back and chill. Here are some other cool qualities about her:
- she can understand a bit of Irish Gaelic!
- she has a DVD player (which is perfect for my movie class - I was not looking forward to watching Psycho by myself in the library....eeeh!)
- she likes to watch chick flicks like New York Minute, and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (great for lazy sundays!)
- she has loads of good music - and wants to share!

So in celebration of obtaining a new roommate (and to drink away the sorrows of our lost food storage) Julia, Judith, Christine, and I all went out again - first to a bar called Richardsons and then of course to our new favorite dance spot, The Living Room - again, we stayed until it closed! Overall it was a great night and Christine was a lot of fun. She even showed us that if you ask for blackcurrent with your beer, it pretty much tastes just like juice. Just what Ireland needs: beer with a taste suitable to go along with your breakfast cereal!

So not much else has been going on since the excitement of a new roommate. On Saturday morning I visited the street market and got a lot of lovely yummy fresh fruits, vegetables, and cheeses! Sunday I did two amazing things: 1) homework (aka watched movies for my film class) 2) I cooked! I made tacos for Judith, Juila, and I - and it was actually pretty good!! And the other amazing thing is that I want to do it again!

So peeps: send me your best American recipes so I can cook for everyone! Try to keep it fairly simple (as I have little to work with as you have seen), and inexpensive is always good too!

I look forward to some great recipes!

Until next time!
xoxoxoxo

I fell in love today....

Even though I have been attending school at the University of Galway for 3 weeks now, each of my professors began their lessons today by stating “welcome to Galway everyone”. I believe it is because today the normal Ireland weather finally arrived.
Saying that I woke up to the “firm pitter-pat of rain” would be the understatement of the century. All day long it has been pouring down with rain – I think it stopped for about 30 minutes – right while I was in the shower...funny….
The other day I told an Irishman that I was from Seattle and he said “oh yeah the Galway of the United States – so you are used to this weather right?” Not in the slightest bit. Whoever dubbed Seattle as the rainy city obviously had never traveled anywhere near Galway. Actually in all honesty it probably rains about the same amount as it does back home, but I simply never noticed because everywhere I needed to go I could drive, then go back indoors. Now, without a car, and the ALDI (a grocery store I do my regular shopping at – great prices, sketchy produce…) being 30 minutes walk away, the rain is a bit more noticeable. Walking across four lanes of traffic, holding onto a 16 roll pack of toilet paper all while trying to keep dry under a tiny 3 euro umbrella is quite the feat - and not looking totally ridiculous – well that’s just pretty much impossible!
Speaking of looking ridiculous…I actually loved my entire day out in the pouring rain because of my new love in life….wellies. Yes, sorry to disappoint all you dashing single Irishmen, but my heart goes out to my lovely green rainboots (called Wellies here). Although I might look a little like I belong back in the 4th grade, but not a drop of water touched my toes – and everyone knows that the way to a woman’s heart is through my warm and dry feet!

So even though I wrote just yesterday, I forgot just a few things to mention. And since you all are dying to know everything about my life here, here’s a couple new updates:

1. Tuesday and Wednesday were clubs and societies day – a couple days for students to visit club booths, get info (and loads of free candy!), and sign up for stuff! So here is what I signed up for:

Athletics club (aka track and field – training on Mondays and Tuesdays!)
Christian Students Club
Business Society
Dance Society (Irish dancing for beginners on Wednesdays)
International Students Society
Photography Society
Recreational Therapy Society (I really just wanted a sucker)
Traditional Irish Music Society
Volunteers Society
And last, but certainly not least (I saved it for you Amber):

Ultimate Frisbee Club – a club that I have always wanted to be a part of, and now I can finally do it!

However, I am unsure how I am going to fit all of these clubs into my week – but I’ll make it happen – maybe I’ll have to drop Recreational Therapy Society (tear).

2. Fiona moved out! Turns out that she was originally signed up at another apartment room, so they made her switch out to a place just across the street. So now we are back down to four people, but there is still a possibility that we might get another roommate. At this point, even though I am sad to see my little Irish roomie go, I can now buy frozen chicken! So I won’t be the least bit disappointed if we do not get another flatmate.
<<

Ok well it is actually getting late, and it looks like I’ll be falling asleep to the gentle sounds of howling winds and buckets of water coming down from the sky! At least I have my wellies to snuggle with.

Goodnight!

xoxoxo

Requirement #1 to being Irish: wait 5 hours in a hard plastic chair

<<<>

Well Corrib Village life has settled down since I have last written. The town was a little quiet this weekend, as most Irish students go home for the weekend…I would too for a nice hot Irish breakfast (blood sausage and all!). However my weekend was anything but settled down, as I had another guest come to visit for the weekend! Sybil, another friend from UW, has been traveling all around Europe this entire summer, and is attending school in Vienna (the place I promised to go back to!!) for the semester. So for the last 5 days or so, she has been here with me and has actually entertained me more than I have her! She is always full of energy and fun, and so I never go to a place with her and not have a great time. The weekend we spent just walking around, making fun home meals with my roommates, and of course going pubbing (Sybil even scored a date!), then on Sunday we took a tour of Coonemara, which are basically some beautiful mountain ranges that I hope to go hiking around sometime! There is also this place called the Kylemore Abby, which is this gianormous castle in the middle of the mountains – its now a monastery, inhabited by just a handful of old nuns. However I think the best part of the tour was my new friend Desmond, the bus driver who had been doing tours of Coonemara since 1956 (you can’t drive a car until age 18 – so you can imagine how old he was). He repeated everything he said 3 times, drove wildly over the road, all while singing Irish folk songs at the top of his lungs! However, he was very nice and even gave me his number and told me to call him anytime! So was this my turn to score a date?

So this week, while Sybil got to go on her date, I got to wake up to go to the Immigration Office to avoid getting deported! Thinking that I was going to avoid the long wait by getting there at 7:30 (when the office opened), I was greeted by 36 other non-EU citizens thinking the same thing! So we all waited together outside until 8:15 (when someone FINALLY came to open the doors), grabbed number 37 and waited until just before noon to be served….luckily I had a good book with me, and the Dunnes store was nearby, so I entertained myself well! Now I am officially a legal visitor of the wonderful country of Ireland! To celebrate, I spent the night playing card games and beer pong with a bunch of USA pals I have met…luckily I made up for being completely American by taking Sybil out to McDonaghs famous fish and chips for lunch – greasy and delicious!!!

So tomorrow Sybil leaves me =( and I will be having one of my first weekends without my pals by my side – what will I do? Originally I had plans to go with my roommates to Belfast, but we have decided to rent a car for the next weekend and drive up there! So I will certainly be spending my Sunday saying my prayers in hopes we don’t die driving on the other side of the road. You all should do the same..!
>>>sybil and I at the Kylemore Abbey ( its the big giant castle behind our goofy faces!)

xoxoxo

First years and fire alarms

In the matter of two days, Corrib Village (my accomodation for the semester) has trasformed. Once a rather peaceful complex situated along the slow-moving river Corrib, the village used to be rather quiet and full of new students and even older tourists with their children and grandparents.

That was until the first years (freshman) moved in.

It all started when on Sunday night the fire alarm went off in our complex at 2AM. Someone had come into our building and smashed the fire alarm, waking everyone in our building and the building adjacent to us. It was actually quite funny - you could tell who was american and who was not. All the americans quickly got up, put on some shoes, and made their way outside and towards the parking lot, just as always practiced. I was on my way out as well until I was stopped byJudith, who after detecting no fire, simply called the security and waited inside for them to check it out.

But wait - I think it might have been earlier than that...
It probably started when our Italian roommate Elisa noticed that there were purple sheets on the bed next to hers (she has a two bedroom room). Then towels appeared in the closet. We had thought this whole time that it was just going to be the four of us - HOWEVER that was obviously not the case - someone was moving in.

It turns out that all first year students do not start school until the following week. So instead of the four of us sharing a refridgerator the size of a middle-school gym locker, we were adding on another! We all anxiously awaited the arrival of our new roomie - what would she be like? Was she Irish? Elisa said she had a feeling that she was Japanese...I don't know how she got that from purple sheets and stack of towels, but that was our only guess!

So we waited...all day friday...and saturday, sunday, even monday. Yet no one showed up (she missed the alarm - too bad!). Was this a practical joke? Judith began to be relieved - I think she was just as frightened of the thought of trying to make space for more frozen chicken as I was! Over dinner I made a comment about how maybe our new roommate was a ghost, or maybe invisible - and literally a minute after I said that - the door to our place unlatched and our new roommate (along with her parents) suddenly became very visible. A small, blond, 17 year old Irish girl named Fiona was now the 5th addition to our place!

However it did not take her long to become invisible again - she brought in her things with her parents, and said goodbye to her parents. It wasn't more than 15 minutes later she came into our living room and annouced she was going drinking! I was hoping to be living with an Irish student, and I think I got as true an Irish girl as I could ask for!

I went out myself, along with Judith and Julia, for a little 70s dance night, and then to a hole-in-the-wall place called just that - The Hole in the Wall pub. It was on our way back home that I noticed a small change in the Corrib Village environment - maybe crowds of people drinking cheap alcohol slyly in a circle outside (too young to go out to the pubs! haha!), the small girl puking on the backside of her apartment, or the fire alarm that was going off in another building (at least not ours this time!)- ahh yes, the first year Irish students had arrived!

So although Corrib Village is no longer a serene calm place to relax, I look forward an entertaining night culture at Corrib Village, which I actually think of as more humerous than annoying - lets just hope for no more 2AM alarm wake up calls!

until next time!

xoxoxo

Friend filled weekend!

So this week of school has been quite stressful, yet interesting. Rather than sign up for classes before school starts, students here at NUI Galway just simply go to the lecture and then decide if that is the class they would like to take. So this week I have been scrambling all around campus, attending classes from "Ireland in the 19th century" to "Media Law". The first couple of days were quite stressful - not only could I not find half of the classes I wanted to attend, but the ones I did weren't that impressive. However things started to get better when I attended a International Business Law class - the professor was quite enjoyable and rather than lecture on the first day, he just told us to relax, put away our notebooks and just talk with him. It finally put me at ease a bit, and our class discussion about the world (how it was getting smaller and countries are coming together through business) was actually interesting to me. So there was one class I could finalize onto my schedule!

Speaking of small worlds, this thursday my two roommates from college, Tasha and Bree Anna, came into Galway to visit! Tasha is also studying abroad in Spain so she decided to make a pit stop on the way there - and Bree Anna was along for the ride! It was just funny/awesome to be sharing a lunch on Quay Street with two friends from home. I would constantly have to remind myself: hey! I'm in Ireland! My old home and new home were colliding together. It was a bit of a 'blind leading the blind' case, but it was quite fun figuring things out with them! Thanks girls!

The first night we spent out at the Quays bar where we watched table dancers...not that kind though! They were three girls dressed in celtic skirts, doing traditional dances - looked a lot like riverdance, all dancing to the beat of a live band. It was quite good! Now that kind of table dancing I wouldn't mind watching - or even participating in - in fact I tried my hand in a little Irish jigging - however I can't say I scored any applause....

The weather this weekend was absolutely BEAUTIFUL (I think Tasha and Bree brought it in with them) so we spent the Saturday out on a tour of the Cliffs of Mohr and the Burren territory. We took a giant tour bus along a small bumpy road, which caused Tasha and mine's complexions to remain little on the yellow side that day. All the while, our tour guide told long and detailed legends of the County Clare and County Galway region, and didn't have a problem stopping to look at a baby cow, or a "tatched roof" (which after some confusion we realized was a thatched roof!). Yet, it was worth the temporary motion sickness to see all that we saw that day. It was quite beautiful - and it made it even better to know that I had someone to share it with!

So early this morning they left back to the Airport and onto London. Then 5 minutes later it began to rain...thanks girls for taking the sunshine away from me! =) I am so jelous of their adventures that are sure to come upon them, but I am almost looking forward to starting a everyday life here in Galway - getting settled and continuing to meet new people. Although that will last for about one day, as my friend Sybil is coming to visit again for a couple of days! I guess my holiday time is not quite over yet - lets just hope she brings sunshine with her too!

xoxoxo
Vanessa

Regular Life Begins....sort of...

(my room in Galway - I bought kids sheets with boats on them to liven up the place =>)
WHOO!

So much to write about – So I am now back in Galway and school started…well today actually! However I still am not registered for classes – in fact I was not even a registered student of NUI Galway (National University of Ireland) until about 4 o clock this afternoon. I think the Irish are much more laid back than Americans. I am used to being completely signed up for classes at least a month in advance, sometimes more!

Luckily I have decided not to take any classes on Mondays and Fridays (convenient huh?). So I start tomorrow, with International Business Law. How exciting!

But I guess I should rewind a bit, starting with student Orientation, which was last Thursday, but feels like it was 8 months ago. We pretty much just sat there and listened to people speak from 9 until 4, but it was all worth it in the end when we had a wine filled ceremony, along with a party at the college’s bar (yes the college does have a bar on campus…).

I guess what makes it all seem so long ago is the fact that the people I met during that day now feel to me like old friends. It really amazes me how just one comment, look, or physical bump towards a stranger can change so quickly into a friendship. For example, I overheard the girl sitting behind me during orientation saying that she had not met any Americans. Hearing this I introduced myself, and just hours later she, along with the two people sitting next to her and I all had dinner together at the hostel that night. An even rapid example: I bumped into a guy while waiting in a line and just after a small conversation I ended up joining him and his friends for lunch about an hour later – and now he, his friends, and my roommates all might go to Cork this weekend together! It’s just simply amazing!

Ok so after orientation night, the next two days were filled with trying to figure out school class timetables, take campus and city walking tours (we visited the church where Columbus said his last prayers before coming to discover the New World), AND the worst part: trying to move in! I discovered that my little dorm-esce type room is nicely located near campus – but about a good mile and half away from the city. So you can imagine how ridiculous I looked walking through the city (twice) with my luggage, trying to wheel it along the cobble streets, then once more again holding bags of groceries. My back does not like me at all right now.

Yet, I have finally found a home, after many days! And I love my place. Although I feel as if I am back in freshman year, I do have my own room and space, and share a kitchen with three other girls: one older, very smart, and very talkative Netherlands girl named Judith, a much more reserved, yet very adorable and very nice German girl named Julia, and then there is Elisa the Italian girl – who can barely speak a word of English, and thus far has been mainly hanging out with her other Italian friend. Judith and Julia are some great girls to live with, and I have been hanging out with them watching episodes of Sex and the City and CSI while drinking tea nearly every night. Its been really good so far – but I am also interested in meeting Irish people sometime soon. A German friend of mine is living with all other Irish people, and today she said that the Irish people “make party” all night in her room, and left a big mess in the kitchen the next day…ahh a reminder of home back at UW – I think UWers would get a long well with the Irish folk!

Anyways, I think I could go on forever on the little things/people/situations I have encountered in the last few days! I’m sure I will have many a rainy day where I will have time to write (in case I have not mentioned it, it does not stop raining here – ever.) so you will all be updated – whether you like it or not!

Until next time

xoxoxoxo