The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker (grocery store)

So, big news in my life as an Irish (American) independent student. As I bet everyone expects, I go to all of the bakeries constantly in Galway, because, well, it's a bakery. After working in one for five years and still getting discounts, I don't know what else people would expect, I'd probably have baked-good-withdrawal if I wasn't going to the ones here. (The Oven Door for scones, Griffiths for chocolate, O'Hehirs for bread...wow I could go on). Also -this is a surprise- I have gone to the grocery store (candlestick maker). Yes, I have been eating in Ireland and Have Gone To The Food Store.
But.
Yesterday I went to the Irish Butcher for the first time in my life. And bought three marinated chicken breasts for 7.99 euro. And have successfully cooked them! I have crossed a rubicon.

That's all.

Oh, also I am addicted to coffee as well as chocolate. Oh vice!

Austen and Dickens worked magic here...

So this is love...da da da dahhh...so this is what makes life divine

I love England. I could live there, I know it. As soon as I set foot in the country...wow. The bus driver spoke to me and I was like, yes, this is it. This is right. Not to say I don't feel that way about Ireland! Because I adore Ireland and the Irish people and our lives. But I think it's because (esp since i'm not a James Joyce or Yeats fan, although I love Oscar Wilde) I feel like I connect so closely with the heritage of England...the literature and the writers and their work is what I feel so closely there. Okay, imagination and philosophy end here.

I arrived in the London Gatwick airport on Friday and took a bus to Oxford. The bus driver had two tattoos, one on each forearm. The one on his left was a bloody knife being plunged into a skull, and the one on his right was a naked mermaid -or at least as naked as a mermaid could be. Make of that what you will...I still haven't decided if it means anything.
Once we got to Oxford, I loved it. It was pretty late because Maria, Josh and I were waiting for two other friends to come for the night. We went out for a bit of a pub crawl Friday and I am slightly embarassed to say yes, I actually waited in line to go into a club called FILTH. Saturday was the real tour, we went to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Christ Church College where Harry Potter was filmed (Maggie Smith and I walked up the same steps...) and a general tour of the town. Bodleian was beautiful, although I liked Trinity better. They had an example book that was chained to the shelves there, because they are so old and valuable you cannot take them away.
The next day we went to the Eagle and Child, the pub where the famous Inklings gathered -T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien- and ate. I had a steak and mushroom pasty...it was scrumptious. We also went punting that day in the river. Apparently British people only go punting in the spring, but Josh and I definitely wanted to go punting, so we did. I was not too great at it..I wish I was but I had a lot of trouble. It is hard to push a boat along on a stick, I promise. We hit Magdalen College, where there is a deer park because there are no deer in England, I guess, and walked along the outskirts of that, which was beautiful and Josh and I had a lot of fun taking pictures that could embarass Maria, because "only tourists do that." That night we pub crawled as well with some of Maria's friends and I tried 6 different England ales. I think I don't like ale unless with a hearty meal, but they were very good. Quote of the night that I feel sums up English quotes:

(we are discussing a friend's dad who knocked out a horse)
"Bollocks! Knock out a horse? I wouldn't even know where to hit a horse!"

It was so English.

Monday Josh and I woke up super early and took an early bus to go to London for the day. I had never been, he had been once so we decided it was totally worth it. We sat on the upper deck and watched the sunrise as we headed towards London. Once we got there, we took the tube straightaway to the Tower of London and had a tour with a real live Beefeater. I can't believe they live there! That is crazy. It was incredible and creepy (like seeing the place where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and buried) and went into the armory, chapel, torture chambers, bloody tower, etc. We did not go to the crown jewels because the queue was SO long, so I missed seeing that. But it was okay, we had to move on we could have spent the entire day there. We ate lunch on the river Thames, right across from Tower Bridge. Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, toured, climbed the dome and walked in the crypt. Admiral Nelson and the First Duke of Wellington are buried there, and there are monuments to important people like William Blake and Florence Nightingale. I was embarrassed because my heart was racing so badly when we were climbing the steps to the dome...I guess I need to join the gym here.
Then we walked along the River Thames past the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and walked through St. James' Park at sunset, ending up at Buckingham Palace just as the sunset was fading into night. It was an incredible journey. Wow.
I feel so luck that I am able to do things like this...travel places and go see where all this history takes place.
I do have to say that the pound is SO EXPENSIVE, it's double the American dollar. So when I came back to Galway, it was great, because I thought, "Wow, everything is so cheap on the euro!"
What a lie.
I hope to go back one day and actually tour places like the Globe and Charles Dicken's house (I cannot believe Josh did not want to visit there). It was incredible...what a weekend.

Dubliners

Welcome to DUBLIN. what a trip. It started out fabulously, because we were supposed to leave at 7.45 am from in front of my building. almost 8:00, I get a phone call from a friend. "hey...katie?" this was what I said:
"annie? hey. wait. why are you calling me. oh my god, i'm late. that's why you're calling me. don't leave. i'll be right down. oh my god. bye."

luckily, I slept on the bus and it was fine.

We arrived and walked down Grafton Street (that to the right). It was beautiful...cobblestone street and open air-flower markets and there were people dressed up like statues, musicians, singers and even a man who was tango dancing with a doll in the middle of the street. We stayed in the Mercer Hotel which was very close to the city center and like HEAVEN. I love hotels. That was great...down comforters, free mineral water, pretty soft carpets and humongous shower. fabulous. Anyway, Fairfield U sponsored this entire trip so it was all FU, 26 of us. If was really fun because I don't know a lot of the other Fairfield people very well. AFter this trip, I know some of them quite well and really like some of them.
First we hit Dublin Castle. We had a private tour with an awesome tour guide and saw the palace. I did not realize how much the Irish love Bill Clinton, (I guess I was too young to realize how important those peace talks were) but everywehre we went in the castle was that's where President Clinton sat - That's where Tony Blair sat and they talked peace. That's where President Clinton sleeps when he visits-eats-talks, etc, etc. The palace was cool. our guide told us a lot of the history. For instance, there is a room filled with pink carpets and love seats next to the ballroom. That was where the women had to wait to be asked to dance...I cannot even imagine. It was nicknamed the "wallflower room." YIKES. Then she took us to the picture gallery. It turns out Cornwallis is in there, but his portrait is hung about 6 inches lower than the rest, because since George W accepted surrender, Cornwallis came back to England in disgrace and got sent to - gasp - IRELAND. Where he decided to take out all of his aggression and mess up a rebellion that possibly could have worked instead of waiting until 1921. So his portrait is there since Dublin Castle was under British control for hundreds of years, but since the Irish are there now, his portrait is lower than the rest. And a door opens into half of it that they keep open. I love the Irish.
We went to Christ Church cathedral, beautiful. Gothic in the extreme with the sweetest flying buttresses I have ever seen (not that I have seen many in person but there is a whole row there). This is getting really hard, side note, because I am not allowed to use exclamation points in the blog and it's driving me crazy.
Anyway. Brian Boru, the first "high king" of Ireland who united many tribes is buried here. Over the weekend we also went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells (impressive, but you can't really see more than a couple of pages. Can you imagine being the person who turns the pages of a THOUSAND YEAR OLD BOOK so the public can see a new one every day? I would be scared out of my mind.) The thing that impressed me the most was the old Trinity Library. There were half-statues, I forget what they're called, of famous philosophers and scientist along the rows. I could get lost there and be happy forever, it was incredible. There is a harp there, rumored to be Brian Boru's but probably not. Incredibly intricate and beautiful. I asked the guard a few questions about the library, it's a total working library with special reading rooms. I think I may have embarassed myself a little when I said, "Isn't it so romantic...(insert exclamation point)" and he definitely chuckled in a most un-Irish more British way. oh well. No photography in there, but wow. I was awestruck.

Over the weekend obviously the big trip was the Guinness Factory. Well. Hopefully you will all see my certificate which says, "Katie Carroll has pulled a perfect pint of Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse on whatever date, blah blah." I mailed it home to Mom to put on the refrigerator, it is more important than any report card I ever got, I think. Hey, I also realized that the Guinness Book of World Records is put out by Guinness. I can't believe I am writing that in print but I am. I never connected. This was an educational experience. I learned all about making guinness - the yeast, hops, barley and fresh pure mineral water. Apparently Arthur Guinness took out a 9,000 year lease on the storehouse and negotiated for free water forever. That last part is changed now, haha. The view from the top of the factory is stunning. and of course the guinness was the best I have had in Ireland. There was a great quote there about the craic that I think is really cool:

The Craic: It is hard to define. It is about ordinary days and extraordinary days. Ordinary people and extraordinary people. It is whatever you make it.

I'm a Carroll. There is always "good craic."

We went out Saturday in the best style, and went to the Temple Bar area. I had been there earlier in the day at a book market. Temple Bar has all these cool vintage shops, record stores, eateries, pubs. It's a total tourist trap, but with one night in Dublin, that was where we decided to go. We did go to the famous temple bar. Some man sprayed beer on me. That was the cue to leave where myself and two other girls went on a search for late night mcDonalds (I'm ashamed) and we found one where there were three security guards (?) I cannot believe I ate it. But I did.

I also spent Sunday night at a friend's townhouse about a half hour from the city center, we grew up together. That was fun to see her. The cabbie got lost and only charged 5 euro, but he was donezo. In order to try and be friendly, he tried to talk American politics, but big mistake. He literally said George Bush! MWah! He is Da Bomb and said Hilary is too old to be president because she has bags under her eyes and McCain is too old too. I don't know what he wanted me to say, I was speechless from all of the ridiculous things that came out of his mouth while we were lost. He was from WEst Africa and had been in Dublin six years (why were we lost???)

Monday morning was perfect, because I spent it walking around in the early morning by myself. Merrion Square, Oscar Wilde's house, a scone...walk along the quay.

Final conclusion: I loved the things I saw in Dublin. The touristy stuff. The city itself....it's just a city. I was so glad to come home to Galway.
More about London later...I think my eyes are burning out of my head.

I am a lapsed blogger

Oh hello everyone.
Wow the last two weeks have been crazy here in Galway. I've been home three days in the past ten, so I have a FUNN couple of weekends. Two weeks ago I went to Dublin, last weekend to Oxford/London. I am going to post about those separately because then it will be so so so long.
In other news...this week is RAG WEEK at school. It is totally for charity and lots of events cost money, but basically it is an excuse for the entire university to drink itself into a charitable mood. It is CRAZy on campus, to the extent that there are extra security guards, drunk people in lectures, the college bar is packed at 1PM and the pubs in town are in overdrive. wow.
also I started a snapfish account, so if you would like to look at my pictures, I'll send out just a massive email with invites! and then just save it so as I travel more you can see. more later. i need some lunch

Foulksrath Castle

So, I finally heard the ghost stories about the haunted castle I stayed in when I traveled to Kilkenny. All I can say is, thank GOD I did not know this beforehand:

according to anoige.ie:

"Many guests gather in the evenings where they like to eat by candlelight and share travel tales. A BBC television team of British Ghost hunters visited the hostel and sent back a report to say that ‘their machines recorded the best ghostly sounds of any place they visited in Ireland’.
It is believed that the daughter of the owner (Dean Swift) fell in love with an Irish boy and was locked away by her father in the ‘Cuckoo Nest’ room to stop her from seeing him. The girl is believed to have finally been killed by her father in this room and it seems that the ghost of the girl still can be found in this ‘Cuckoo Nest’ room.

Another story has it that in 2002 an An Óige member was sleeping in this room and awoke to find her duvet moving in a wave like motion. Therefore the stories continue as to whether Foulksrath is actually haunted or not!"

I STAYED IN THE CUCKOO NEST ROOM I CANNOT BELIEVED I ALLOWED MYSELF TO GO TO A HAUNTED CASTLE.

It totally must have been haunted. When we were eating dinner, a huge dump of dust fell from the rafters for no reason. It must be true.

the PRIMARY conversation

hasta la vista....romney (baby)
(sorry daddy)
*spoiler blog alert*
this blog is totally about the primaries, in case you would rather not read how what I think of politics and my affair with the Democrat party.

the Irish are obsessed with the American primaries. Whenever I meet someone new, there is a one out of three chance they'll say, "So, are you following the primaries?" Then you have to act awkwardly and see because they have very strong opinions on John, Hil and Barack. So you can't really commit, then they tell you how much they like one of the above. Then it's safe to say, "Nice meeting you- BYE," because the next step is usually what's wrong with the U.S. of A. right now.

Being in a foreign country has been enlightening, especially now. In half of my classes, American international foreign policy has been brought up by the professors. Sometimes they ask a leading question to get students to answer with an American example. For instance, in my environmentalism class we are studying Hobbes' "The Leviathan" in order to get a basis in conservative political theory. Well, our professor (who is as British as they come) says "Can anyone give me an example of where this might be happening now? Outside, right now." It was awkward, because the entire class was probably thinking the same thing, until one brave Irish student said, "Do you mean the I-word? Iraq?" There is constant ridicule about US imperialism, war, foreign policy, arrogance.

The craziest part is that myself, and some of my friends, have such a difficult time with this. Maybe we don't approve of being in Iraq. Maybe we hate George Bush, maybe we love him (I don't love him). Maybe, in fact, we think we were bamboozled, swindled, taken advantage of and had the wool pulled over your eyes. But at the end of the day - America is our home. It is so hard sometimes to hear people criticize it - this is the country where many of the students here have grown up. It's kind of like, it's okay for you to make fun of your best friend, but if someone else does, watch out, buddy. Well, that's what it feels like here. It's strange to be on the defensive about policies you personally disagree with. It is a learning environment, that's for sure.

I have been keeping track of what's going with the primaries and it's making my head spin. Yikes. The BBC Americas is my best bet (so bi-partisan by virtue of being in another country). It drives me crazy that here I am in Ireland and such an important race is happening at home. Luckily, a few of my friends follow politics too, so we can talk, and the ones who don't, I just take the liberty of informing them anyway, haha.

I've been on all three major candidates websites, and I have to say, I think McCain might be one of the bravest Americans alive right now and he definitely loves his country. I really wish I could agree with him, but unfortunately, we happen to disagree on almost everything. Environment, Iraq, health care. Damn. I suggest checking the below for nighttime reading.

I apologize if this is offensive to anyone who's reading this, but wow. Being in a foreign country really makes you think domestically.

www.barackobama.com
www.hillaryclinton.com

Céilí Mór...more what?

Irish-ness:

"Brilliant!"
"That's Grand."
or,
"No, (don't worry) you're grand."
"You're okay."
"Cheers!"
"Love (like referring to you in person)"
"Trad(itional) music."
"Thanks a million,"
or the shorter
"Thanks a mil."
"Is it not...?"
"Quite drunk."
which is different than
"Drinking a pint or two."
neither of which means drunk
and
"good craic"
or
"just a bit of craic"
neither of which mean cocaine, but fun.

Last night was the celebration of

Imbol,

and so there was a Ceili Mor at the college bar. Ceili (ka-lee) was probably the best craic since I've gotten here. i'm glad we waited. the thing about ireland is nothing is ever on time. the people here call it "irish time." when I was in kilkenny, we met a bartender who had a pub in the bronx and said it was so hard to come back home to ireland, because he'd invite people to parties that started at 9 and really people would show up at 10.
but anyway, the ceili was supposed to start @9, but music didn't start until 10:30 and the first set at 10:45. colleen and i almost left, but it was totally worth it to stay. it was incredible - american square dancing stems from ceili. it was exhilarating - a little nuannarpoq in ireland, kind of. basically, you stand in lines, four facing four, holding hands. when the music starts you irish skip (it is totally different than american skipping, seriously) towards each other twice. then you hold hands with your partner and switch places with the other couple in your set. then.....the best part. you skip across to your partner across the way, "shake hands with your left" and hold each other on the side with your right and just spin as fast as possible for the next eight beats. it is AWESOME. then you skip towards each other again, but the second time you go under each others arms so you're facing a new group of four. look at this video from another ceili at NUIG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VntoLATvIwk

they only do it on special occasions, so hopefully there will be another ceili while i'm here, although possibly not. i'm in love with the irish culture. every day here feels more and more like i'm connecting with everything.

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY

HOORAY NEW YORK
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GIANTS

what a fabulous game. the hotel next to my student housing kept the bar open until 3 a.m. instead of closing it at 11 p.m. (which is the law) and gave us free chicken wings, chips and had the game on a huge screen.
and tom petty and the heartbreakers.

I am an american girl.
and I stood up for the national anthem.

Just another start to a four-day weekend

well, I officially have four-day weekends. this is going to be tough to go back to america. I love my arthurian literature class, it started thursday morning. I better love it, to take a 9AM class! The thing is, my professor is American. I am never going to get an Irish accent because only 3 of my professors are Irish! The others are American, German and British. Wow.
Yesterday I ran out of clothes, so I took most of my laundry to the place down the street. 10kg of laundry for 12 euro, I can deal with that. Although I washed some pajamas here. Unfortunately for me (and my roommate Colleen, who did the same thing) we forgot it wasn't same-day return, so we of course put our sheets in the laundry. So....last night we ran into a problem , because who knows how clean the mattress covers in Dunaras are?? We could get bed bites, I mean mites, or bedbugs, or worse, like the whooping cough. Luckily, my package from home has arrived with my Fairfield U blanket (stags to the rescue, fear the deer) and I put that on the mattress cover and slept on top of it. I gave in and bought new pillows from Dunnes (and pillow covers, remembered that, thanks Mom) so those were also safe, theoretically. Colleen slept in her sleeping bag. The small adventures that make life worth it. At this point, the laundromat shop is closed and I won't get my laundry until tomorrow, so tonight will also be the same. I like it, it keeps life interesting.
Today I gave in to the weather and all of the peer pressure. I bought real gloves. Apparently everyone doubted that my adorable flowered-but-fingerless gloves would last me in Ireland. I disagreed and knew they would pull through. But since it is constantly raining, damp or cold, they have suffered some small (large) holes...they are being retired. I went to a fabulous sweater shop in downtown Galway and got some genuine-state-of-the-art gloves, Aunt Marcella style. Also a purple hat that I'm probably going to sleep in because I love it so much (I'm waiting for the Aran Islands to buy a sweater). Here's the funny part of the story that makes it interesting and why I'm posting about stupid purchases...I used the credit card that I had forgotten to notify I was traveling to Europe. Good job, Katie. Luckily a phone call sorted it all, with lots of words like "security" "authorized purchase" "european stay" were used. Whoops.
Did I mention I've had my first Irish coffees? I like Bailey's Irish coffee better, definitely. definitely. When I ordered an Irish coffee at Tig Coili, I couldn't finish it. Once the whipped cream was gone, the whiskey was DEFINITELY tasteable. The barman Ronan gave me a little trouble about "there's still good whiskey in there" before he took it away.
I love Galway, have I mentioned that yet?