July 20th, 2008 (level 2 Orientation)

-Kenton
Today I woke up early and went to Mass. Now I have to say I'm not Catholic. I have been to Mass a few times in the states but I was raised Baptist so I'm no expert on how a regular Mass goes down. But the one I saw today was lot less organized than what I've seen before. There was no organized way of getting in line for communion everyone just jumped in. It also started at 11, the protestant sermon started at 12, which tells me that these really are't morning people. It really is a laid back way of life here, my favorite saying I've heard so far is that there is no "late" in the glean.
On the way out I saw Julie and Ryan. They had come to Mass too we had ust all sat in different places. We decided to have breakfast at the cafe across the street with a couple of new people at the school. I finally got to have my first full Irish breakfast blood pudding and all. It was delicious. It included beans, 1 egg, a tomato, sausage, black and white blood pudding, and bacon. It really hit the spot. I washed it down with a big pot of tea.
Then we went back to the girls place and just sat around and talked. Joe (not our Joe, the guitar player from the session on friday) decided to stop by. He was telling us about the bluegrass festival in a nearby town that was happening today. The only problem is that with no readily available transportation avaiable to us it's impossible to make it there with out sweet talking into someone taking you and all the students with cars that we used to know are gone now replaced with new ones.
At 2:30 it was time for the new weeks orientation. We got the same speech as last week and we understood a lot more of it this time. We were all moved up to level two. We got the same teacher we had last week, Andrew. A couple of new faces in the class; a woman from belfast, a guy fron indiana, and an english teacher who lives in dublin. It was pretty much a quick review of everything we had done the week before. It made us all feel more confident about being moved up a level because for the first time we were responding to a lot of things without having to look them up.
After class we went to a gaelic football game. It took a while to figure out was going on. I have no idea who won of what the score was because there was no scoreboard but it was still exciting to watch. It was like a combination of soccer, rubgy, basketball, and american football. When the game was over we headed home to our respective cottages. I'm been comming down with something so I'll going to stay in tonight. If I don't feel any better by tuesday I'll be going to the doctor. He only comes into town once a week andif he gives me a prescription I still have to go to a pharmacy. The nearest pharmacy is 20 minutes drive away but luckily there is also a van that leaves every tuesday for that town a about 1. If I plan it right I can make it to the doctor the the pharmacy in the same day.