A Day in the Life in Spiddal

Life has slowed down now a bit.. as we are completely done with excursions. This will allow more time for me to work on homework, upload photos for this blog, and just get caught up on everything. I do have an personal excursion planned here and there, so I will certainly keep all of you updated on that. For a couple weeks now, however, I get to relax and soak in pure the pure Irish experience by relaxing and mingling with the Irish people.

Last week, my favorite class was Gerard's class (a common theme), as we read through a funny (and sometimes serious) play by Sean O'Casey. In Juno and the Paycock, I played the drunkard Captain Jack Boyle with my sidekick Joxer Daly (who was, ironically, John Murray) who "inherits" a bunch of money from a dead cousin. Boyle immediately begins to live extravagantly. By the end of the play, Boyle find out that there was a confusion about the will, and that he really hasn't gained a huge wealth. This was a comedic and enlightening class session- very enjoyable.

This past week I was able to see my parents... they flew in last Saturday and stayed till today.

During their visit, they were able to visit the Aran Islands, find a few geo-caches, visit Galway and Clifden, and take myself (and even some of my friends) for dinner every night. We got to visit with people at the local pub in Spiddal (Hughe's Pub), see some live music at the PLH, and they even stayed up late with my fellow classmates on the Wednesday night pub night! After Thursday's class, we took a road trip to Kilkenny and spent Thursday night and Friday day there. We visited Kytler's Tavern, Kilkenny Castle, Rothe House, and a few other pubs. Friday night we spent in Dublin. We ate at a nice big pub and I took them on a tour around the Temple Bar area. We stopped at the porterhouse and sampled a few interesting beers.

I saw them off today at the Radisson Inn (where, coincidentally, the France FC is staying before their big game in Dublin tonight). I will be taking a bus back to Galway from the Dublin airport in about a half hour. I am looking forward to Bowling tonight with the whole group, and afterwards a nice night in Galway!