-Kenton
Today Joe and I got up at about 8 and decided to walk into to town and try to get some breakfast. The only thing open however was the grocery. The store is about the size of a gas station convience store back home but stocked much better. I got some butter and soda bread and Joe got some groceries of his own and then we headed back to eat.
After we had something in our stomachs we headed back down the hill to the girls cottage to see what they were up to. They were up and about, they had a power problem the night before and they could not figure out what it was. It wasn't a fuse, not a breaker, what it turned out to be was an actual coin operated power meter that had run out. Pay as you go type of thing. 2 euros is usaly supposed to last a week.
Joe and I had met thier roommate the night before. Her name is Julie, for the purpose of this
blog we'll call her NI(North Ireland) Julie seeing as how she's a teacher from North Ireland. We all headed out that morning to explore the area. NI Julie had her car so she drove us. We headed out to Malainn Mhor to see what we could see. On the way we some some loose sheep and I thought it would be fun (or a good craic as they would say here) to see if I could catch one. I wasn't very good at it and it turns out they are a lot faster than I thought. As you can see in the next picture I fell and all I got was a knee full of sheep poo...or hopefully mud....we weren't really sure which it was.
After the sheep chasing adventure we went to the woolen mills. They had tons of great sweaters and scarfs. I ended up with a hat and a scarf myself. I really like the hat you probably see me wearing it a lot in future pictures. After the mills we drove further down and saw a an old tower and a light house. We drove as close to the tower as we could. There was also a harbor in the same area so we checked that out too. I would of called it more of a boat dock than a harbor. There were tons of people geting ready to go diving. I asked later and aparently there are several wrecks and tons of sea life in that area.
After that it was time to head back. Our Orientation and class level assigning was at 2. The orientation was giving by the head of the school Liam. It was a mix of english and Irish. All of us from UWM were put in level 1 of course and that was when we noticed Ryan. A Student from UW-Stout we thought had decided not to come. He had made it all the way to the school without anyones help. Professor Gleeson didn't even know he was here.
Once classes were assigned we had out first class. Our instructor was Andrew, a local teacher who was from the Glen. We went over introductions in Irish then and introduced ourselves to our fellow classmates. Then we went over how to say please and thank you and some other phrases and basics.
After class I went to go see a play in town that was being done by the locals. They do 2 or 3 a year and this was going to be the closing night of this particular play. I have to say it was really good. It was a comedy called "I do not like thee Dr. Fell". The others had stayed at the school to learn how to set dance.
Afterwards we all met at Biddy's on of the local pubs in town. It
was a great time. We stayed out untill about to. I talked to a local lobsterman (Martin), One of the actors in the play in town (Mark), The bartender (Paddy), and a local farmer (also Martin). Farmer Martin tiped me to how to catch a sheep. You need to use a plastic bag because that's how they are fed. I will definitely try this later. AFter that we headed home but before we got there we ran into this glowing mother mary you can see over Ryan's shoulder...Nice.
Today Joe and I got up at about 8 and decided to walk into to town and try to get some breakfast. The only thing open however was the grocery. The store is about the size of a gas station convience store back home but stocked much better. I got some butter and soda bread and Joe got some groceries of his own and then we headed back to eat.
After we had something in our stomachs we headed back down the hill to the girls cottage to see what they were up to. They were up and about, they had a power problem the night before and they could not figure out what it was. It wasn't a fuse, not a breaker, what it turned out to be was an actual coin operated power meter that had run out. Pay as you go type of thing. 2 euros is usaly supposed to last a week.
Joe and I had met thier roommate the night before. Her name is Julie, for the purpose of this
blog we'll call her NI(North Ireland) Julie seeing as how she's a teacher from North Ireland. We all headed out that morning to explore the area. NI Julie had her car so she drove us. We headed out to Malainn Mhor to see what we could see. On the way we some some loose sheep and I thought it would be fun (or a good craic as they would say here) to see if I could catch one. I wasn't very good at it and it turns out they are a lot faster than I thought. As you can see in the next picture I fell and all I got was a knee full of sheep poo...or hopefully mud....we weren't really sure which it was.After the sheep chasing adventure we went to the woolen mills. They had tons of great sweaters and scarfs. I ended up with a hat and a scarf myself. I really like the hat you probably see me wearing it a lot in future pictures. After the mills we drove further down and saw a an old tower and a light house. We drove as close to the tower as we could. There was also a harbor in the same area so we checked that out too. I would of called it more of a boat dock than a harbor. There were tons of people geting ready to go diving. I asked later and aparently there are several wrecks and tons of sea life in that area.
After that it was time to head back. Our Orientation and class level assigning was at 2. The orientation was giving by the head of the school Liam. It was a mix of english and Irish. All of us from UWM were put in level 1 of course and that was when we noticed Ryan. A Student from UW-Stout we thought had decided not to come. He had made it all the way to the school without anyones help. Professor Gleeson didn't even know he was here.
Once classes were assigned we had out first class. Our instructor was Andrew, a local teacher who was from the Glen. We went over introductions in Irish then and introduced ourselves to our fellow classmates. Then we went over how to say please and thank you and some other phrases and basics.
After class I went to go see a play in town that was being done by the locals. They do 2 or 3 a year and this was going to be the closing night of this particular play. I have to say it was really good. It was a comedy called "I do not like thee Dr. Fell". The others had stayed at the school to learn how to set dance.
Afterwards we all met at Biddy's on of the local pubs in town. It
was a great time. We stayed out untill about to. I talked to a local lobsterman (Martin), One of the actors in the play in town (Mark), The bartender (Paddy), and a local farmer (also Martin). Farmer Martin tiped me to how to catch a sheep. You need to use a plastic bag because that's how they are fed. I will definitely try this later. AFter that we headed home but before we got there we ran into this glowing mother mary you can see over Ryan's shoulder...Nice.
1 comment:
Kenton already mentioned about class and orientation, so I will talk about the set dancing since he missed that part. I have always loved set dancing, although I have never really learned. I watch a lot of those period movies where you see men and women courting through dancing (yes, I'm a bit of a romantic) and so I was excited to see it in real life.
Our set dancing experience was not exactly what I expected. I thought people would be more enthusiastic, but I had to practically drag Joe and Ryan onto the dance floor. Also, most people, including myself, did not catch onto the steps very fast, which meant there was a lot of bumping into each other and stepping on people's toes. In the end, it was fun and we laughed a lot, but don't ask me how to do a jig or reel because I will just smirk at you.
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