a very busy day in Limerick city.

On Saurday, I spent the day in Limerick with Sydney and Steph.  We started off the morning with our second trip to the Limerick Milk Market.  The market is a great place to get fresh fruits and veggies at a reasonable price.  We also treated ourselves to a breakfast of hot cocoa and chocolate croissants... the start of a new delicious tradition!!

After breakfast, we headed out with cameras and map in hand to explore Limerick (like true tourists!).  Our first stop was St. John's Catholic Cathedral just a few blocks from the Milk Market.  The church was beautiful!  despite the poor lighting I was able to get a few great pictures of the architecture. After a long look around and lighting a few prayer candles, we were on our way...

 We sloshed throught the streets of Limerick, and crossed the Abbey River in hopes of finding St. Mary's Cathedral (Church of Ireland/Protestant).  After a long walk around the church wall we finally made it into the church grounds.  Although we decided not to pay to see the inside of the church, the huge cemeteries and gardens within the church walls kept up busy for quite some time!

 It was well past noon by the time we had seen what we wanted of the churches of Limerick.  With tired and soaked feet we we decided that it was time for an indoor activity.  Our proximity to the Hunt Museum made it a prime choice... and it is not a location that I am likely to forget anytime soon!

It was at this point in the day that the we began to see some true Irish hospitality and kindness! Although it only cost 3.50 euro for students to visit the Hunt Museum, the women at reception generously let the 3 of us soaking wet girls in for free! And preceded to find us a guide... also for free!  We were unable to take any pictures in the exhibits, but we enjoyed almost 3 hours of art, trinkets, and banter from our guide!  The museums collections consist of items donated by John and Gertrude Hunt and included items like pottery, paintings (a few Picasso paintings that once hung in the Hunt's kitchen!?), crucifixes (an entire room of them), and dog collars (Gertrude's collectable of choice!) among many others.  It was a great experience despite the extreme case of 'museum legs' that followed (Pat!).

Now completely dry, personally and the weather, we left the Hunt Museum to find King John's Castle.   Which is a relic of Limerick built along the river to protect the town around 1200 or 1210.  The castle is now a history museum and an interactive 16th century village.  We again decided not to pay to go in, but enjoyed the history from the outside!  It was while we were taking pictures in front of a canon that we had our 2nd brush with kindness for the day!  An older gentleman smoking a pipe (very cliche) offered to take a picture of all 3 of us (seen below).  He then preceded to tell us that he worked in the Limerick Museum across the alley and that if we'd like to come in it was free!  

It was a small museum consisting of the basic history of Limerick.  Although a little shabby, see the picture below, it included pictures of historical figures and artifacts such as hand made lace.  It's always good to know a little about the town you live in!

Clearly, the day was packed with adventure, rain, and a lot of walking!  It was a day to remember, defiantly one of the reasons I decided to study abroad!  Sorry this post was so long... I couldn't pick anything to cut out of the day!  I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little bit of Limerick through my eyes.

PS: We actually headed back into town later that evening to experience a true Irish pub night, but I'll get into that later...

the secret garden.

On Friday, Sydney, Steph, and I decided to take advantage of the sun and explore the ruins that you can see from my balcony.  While we have no idea what the structure used to be, but it has now become a shell of stone covered in vines and trees!  It is how I would imagine visiting the secret garden would feel! 

I am actually standing in front on entrance to the ruins.  It is essentially a vine covered hole in the stone wall.

The tall existing structure still has a visible spiral staircase. 

Despite the empty beer cans, the place was beautiful.  It has been so interesting to see ruins just randomly scattered throughout the country... not something we're used to in the US.

hurling.

On Thursday afternoon last week there was a very big hurling match between my school, the University of Limerick (UL) and the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT).  The game was strangely played at 2:00 in the afternoon on one of UL's many fields, and despite the time of the game there were hundreds of students and adults in attendance.

Based on my observations, the game of hurling is a combination of hockey, soccer, softball, and rugby.  It's a high speed, high contact game in which the players attempt to score goals (for 3 points) or gain points (1 point).  The equipment used in the game includes hurleys (the wooden stick you can see in the pictures) and a ball similar to a softball.  The helmets that you see the players wearing have only been an enforced part of the uniforms for the past 3 years! The players run with the ball, pass, and tackle in hopes of getting to the end of the pitch to score and it can be quite violent!

It was great fun to watch, even though the game ended in a draw, and I am excited to see more of the sport.  My friend Sydney's roommates play on UL's 1st year team and helped us to pick up some of the rules.  I hope to go watch them play soon!

PS... the natural glow lighting up the game is actually the sun! we got three days of sun last week and I felt completely spoiled!

A few important lessons from my first couple of weeks...

Irish life is taking a little getting used to, but once I figured out the following things it all got easier:

1. Craic (said crack) means story or fun.  So when people say "What's the craic?" Or "That was craic!" it has nothing to do with drugs!

2. Instead of most buildings on campus beginning on floor 1 and working up to the top numerically, the first floor is G, then O, then M, then 1,2,3... and so on.  It makes it terribly confusing to find your classes!

3. Just because I technically speak the same language as the Irish students and professors doesn't mean I have any idea what they are saying!

4. Not only is it possible for Catholic mass to be less than an hour... it can be less than 30 minutes!  If you show up 10 minutes late you miss communion.

5. I will never take ISU's smoke free campus or free busses or wifi for granted again...

6. Irish students don't care that it is Sunday night, or Monday night, or Tuesday night... they are always up for a good party!

7. All the Americans that told me that nobody here would wear sweats, sweatshirts, and tennis shoes lied!  Many of the female students here on campus do dress very nicely, but many also dress for comfort and warmth... And so do I now!

8. Tea is consumed almost constantly... mostly because people are cold, not because they like it!  I have taken to this habit as well, but luckily I love tea!

I'll keep you posted as more oddities show up in my life here across the pond!

the Cliffs of Moher!

Yesterday was a true adventure... one of the reasons I decided to study abroad!

After missing a school planned day trip to the Cliffs of Moher last weekend, a group of my friends and I decided that we were going to take the trip planning into our own hands.  My friends Sebastian and Paul (both German) left yesterday morning for the Shannon airport to rent a car for the day.  After coming back to campus to pick up the very excited (and slightly nervous) ISU girls (Sydney, Steph, and myself) we headed off to the cliffs!

It was a day of excitement for sure!  We made it to the cliffs by lunch time.  After we had had our fill of the breathtaking views, and the rain, we headed for a little town to eat... Fish and chips and vinegar!

Here are a few photos from the first half of the trip:

 

For the rest of the day, we drove around in search of some of the interesting things we had read about in our Irish guide book.  While we failed repeatedly to find a specific town or sight, we had an amazing time seeing the countryside!

We stopped in a few small towns on our way home to walk around and se a few sights.  While it had begun to get too dark for pictures I did manage to snag one good one.

I don't know the details of the town or the water, but I plan to ask around and will let you know what I find out!

My first pub night!

Last night I went out to the more quite pub on campus (The Scholar's Club) with a few Americans for our first taste of Irish traditional music!  Every Wednesday night students from the music academy, or anyone with musical talent, here at UL meet up to play and enjoy a few beers.

The atmosphere was amazing!  All the musicians sat in a circle in the corner of the pub, many with their backs to the room, and just played!  The instruments ranged from the flute to the banjo and could not have sounded more perfect together.  The rhythms and beats are amazing!

I can't wait to hear and learn more about the music here in my county. I am taking a course this semester called Traditional Irish Music and will have the opportunity to learn how each region of Ireland has created their own sounds and how music has evolved here over the years.  I will also have the opportunity to take a tutorial focused on a specific area of music culture here.  I can learn the tin whistle, the bodhran (a type of drum), Gaelic and english song, or social dancing!  I'm torn on which area to study... but I'll let you know when I make a decision!

I posted a video of the music to flickr if you want to check it out!

PS.... Despite the cold and the rain, the sun came out long enough today to provide this view out my bedroom window! I tried to find the leprechaun, but had no luck!

A multicultural evening

Last night I went to an informational meeting for a weekend trip to the Ring of Kerry.  I have decided to join many of my international friends on the excursion for a weekend of dance classes, gaelic football, and traditional Irish food!  The trip is in March so i'll post the details as the date approaches.

The real fun of the night began after the meeting however... I decided to join a few friends for dinner at one of there apartments.  The crowd consisted of myself, Steph (my friend form ISU), 4 German guys (Thomas, Paul, Sebastian, and Stefan), and 1 Italian guy (Daniele)!  Thomas, our host decided to make spaghetti and Bolognese sauce... I offered to help along with Daniele.  This made for an interesting experience as Daniele is actually from Bologna!

After about 2 hours of cooking with language and cultural barriers we were able to enjoy a great meal together!  I can't wait for more experiences like this in the future!

Here a a few pictures to show the progression of the meal:

Thomas (left) and Daniele work to cut the 2lb block of frozen beef in half so it can fit in a pot!

Our pot was too small for the spaghetti and we kept having to add water as the noodles soaked it up...

...Which resulted in a lot of spaghetti being stuck to the bottom of the pan!