These shoes make my feet look big

This was my dilemma. I’d brought my converse as my main pair of shoes. Little did I know that the Irish weather wouldn’t agree with them. So they’re muddy and gross now. This means I’ve been on the search for a new pair of trainers. Every time I’ve been to Pennys I’ve looked in the shoes department for something cute and cool and never found anything. Why? Because none of the shoes I wanted came in my size.

This has been the story of my life since I hit puberty and my feet started growing. In middle school all the boys thought it was funny and they’d call me big foot because by 6th grade I was already wearing a womens 9. My feet have long since stopped growing and I’m a large size 11 almost a size 12.

Having such big feet makes it very hard to ever find shoes. They’re either ugly or too wide. And since most people don’t have such large feet stores rarely have size 11 shoes. On the bright side if I want to wear high heels I just need to find ones with 3 or 4 inch heels and I can wear a size 10.

But when it comes to trainers I’ve always hated shopping for shoes. Only ugly ones ever fit me. In high school I found out a little secret… lots of guys have big feet. And in guy size I’m a 9 which is small so there are always plenty of guys shoes that’ll fit me.

Now back to my current predicament. Today I went into city centre looking for shoes and clothes for my older brother. I went into the guys department of Pennys looking for my brother and I spotted the coolest looking trainers. Of course a light went off in my head. Why hadn’t I thought of it before!! I made a very quick dash to the trainers and started looking for my size. My converse told me I was a 42.5 European size so I figured I’d try the 42s on. Nope tooooo small, it was a little depressing. So I searched for a 43 and low and behold they had them!!!!

I was so happy to have such a sexy replacement for my dingy converse, that I’d failed to actually see how they looked on my feet. So I got home and put both of them on and holy cow they make my feet look huge. After a deep breath I remind myself I have huge feet and all shoes will make my feet look like flippers. So no biggie.

Although I’ve come to terms with my big feet a tiny problem still remains. I hate shoe shopping because I know there’s such a tiny chance that the really cute shoes will come in my size. Most girls love shoe shopping and hate bathing suit shopping. I’m the opposite. I’d rather swim suit shop then go look at shoes. That’s how much I truly hate it. So I’m destined to wear guys trainers for the rest of my life and I’m down with that because some of them are super trendy!

Cheers,

So there’s this thing called Rugby

I’d heard of Rugby and seen a bit of it before coming to Ireland but I’d never seen a live game. Friday I saw my first Rugby match and it was epic. My program bought us tickets to go see the Munster rugby team play Edinburgh. I’d done a wee bit of research of the rules and game play before going, so I had a general understanding of what the heck was going on. It was so much fun! So here are a few pictures....

And vidoes!

This is from one of the kicks. And as you hear my friend say whenever there's a kick the stadium goes silent. In the later kicks ligit the whole place was silent! it was pretty cool.

This was one of the throw-ins. Every time they'd lift up a guy to try and catch the ball. Most of the time they did catch it. I was impressed by such coolness.
Cheers,

One Month

Do you remember the scariest moment of your life?


I do. Vividly.

Although now it’s not so scary but at that moment, I felt so sick and scared.

One month ago I landed in the Shannon Airport. It was my first time flying outside of the United States and I was essentially alone. As I waited to get my passport stamped I couldn’t help but feel so scared. I was 3,000 miles from home surrounded by strangers. I was in a country where I knew no one. The only people I sort of knew were the kids in my program that I’d met 7 hours before.

That was the scariest moment of my life, realizing I was alone with no help from familiar people.

On the bus ride to campus I sat quietly staring out the window at the landscape and morning traffic. Everything was so different. From the cars to the green rolling hills. It made it even more apparent that I wasn’t in Jersey anymore. I prayed that I wouldn’t be back on a plane in a few days because I wimped out. Although I knew that even if I was totally alone and afraid to be here I wouldn’t go home early. That’d be too embarrassing. After all this was going to be the start of a grand adventure for me.

And it has been one hell of an adventure this past month. Since I arrived I’ve made a lot of friends, only a few of which are American. I’ve traveled about Ireland and taken hundreds of pictures. I’ve learned to cook better. I’ve also attended classes. It’s funny because the reason I came here was for school and it seems that school is only a side note. That applies to everyone.

Sure we go to class but that’s not a huge part of the day. The thing that means the most to us here is what we do at night. Usually around 5 or 6 each night everyone starts hitting facebook or texting people to figure out what’s going down that night and where people are going. This is the most social I’ve ever been. Back home I didn’t go to parties and I didn’t really drink. Here I go out almost every night, sometimes to friend’s houses and other times to the pub. As I’ve said before drinking is a social thing so I usually have a pint while I’m out. So that’s a huge step for me, I’m social now.

The shock and fear I had my first morning in Ireland has long since faded. But the fact that I’m in Ireland hasn’t and I hope that it doesn’t.


Cheers,

Charity Shop

I’d like to believe that I don’t dress like normal people. I refuse to wear popular clothes brands like American Eagle. The only clothes that I’ll buy new are jeans and those are from PacSun. Otherwise the rest of my wardrobe consists of second hand clothes, unless I see a super cute shirt for cheap in the store. In the states I always shopped at the second hand store, not only is it cheap but there are a lot of cool things that come in.


During high school I volunteered at The Open Cupboard second hand store. It was great because I was a pricer and pretty much got first dibs on clothes. I’ve had a lot of really expensive dresses and shirts come home with me. Like my prom dress….

Shopping at second hand stores gave me more money to spend on other things which was nice. But it’s funny because people will ask where I got a cute top or something and when I say it’s second hand 90% of the time they get this odd look. Just because it’s second hand doesn’t mean it’s dirty or over used. I’m a very savvy second hand shopper and I don’t buy things that look old or damaged or dirty.

One of the things I was looking forward to most was being able to second hand shop here in Europe! And today I finally found three charity shops! I was so excited and I got some tops, skirts, scarves, and 2 dresses for under 25 Euro. I was soooo excited! I can’t wait to wear my new finds in the states and tell people I got it in Ireland! I also can’t wait to go back, because I’m sure they’re like most second hand stores the stuff they have is different week to week.

Cheers,

I Fear........

For me Ireland has been like a nice hard slap in the face. I’ve been here for nearly a month and a lot of things have been put into perspective for me. This fact is what inspired an entry in my writing journal. So I’ve typed it up to share with you. I hope that I can do a little inspiring with my thoughts here!


Some people fear heights.

Others fear death.

I fear wasting my life.

I don’t want to wake up one morning and realize I’m 45 and have done nothing with my life. That’s what I fear most. So far I’ve wasted 20 years of my life, that’s two decades, on education and school work. Mind you I’ve learned a lot and I don’t regret it but it’s done nothing but make me thirst for more.

More what?

More knowledge.

More places.

More memories.

More books.

More everything.

I want to see everything and do everything. I’m working toward this goal… slowly. I’ve started with a few small steps. I hope that these small steps become long running strides. I hope that in coming to Ireland I’ve made my small steps just a little bigger. I want these steps to take me to grand places so that when I wake up one morning in the distant future I can be content with my life.

I don’t want to be someone with a bucket list. My whole life should be a bucket list. Everything I do should be an adventure. Every class I take, every place I travel, every person I meet should be my bucket list. I want to be able to tell my children about the crazy things I’ve done, I don’t want to be boring. Because boring is not in my vocabulary.

I don’t want boring tagged onto my life in any way shape or form. True the start of my life was ordinary but not boring. Besides I’m only 20 and my adventure is just starting. You see where I am today isn’t where I want to be tomorrow. I want to grow and change and move on.

So how am I going to do this?

I’ll be myself. I’ll do what I want, when I want. I won’t let others put limitations on my life. I won’t place limitations on my life. I’ll strive everyday not to be boring. I swear to myself to love me and the things I do. I promise not to be apologetic for my actions. Above all else I swear not to wake up 30 years from now and regret my life.


Cheers,

To Galway and Back

In America we have college towns, this means that it’s pretty much party central no matter where you go in town. I was curious if there was a place like this in Ireland. UL has parties sure, but they’re all in the student villages so it’s contained. This means I’ve been under the impression that the Irish don’t party like the Americans. I was proven quite wrong when I went to Galway.

My group of American friends planned a weekend trip to Galway. So Friday afternoon 12 American girls boarded a nonstop bus to Galway. We sat in the back and we were rowdy… as usual. But what do you expect from 12 girls? We got there and split off into two groups because half the girls stayed at a hotel and the rest of us stayed at a hostel. After a few hours of rest we got ready and hit the town.

I’ll start with the hostel, since it was my first hostel experience. It was a really super nice hostel. I was in a 6 person dorm, but I wasn’t with any friends. No biggie though cause everyone else were rooming down the hall. This was my hostel room…

I had a top bunk to sleep in because it looked like my roomies had already been there a few days. Which reminds me I never actually met who I was rooming with because they were out of the room when I got there and they were asleep when I got in that night. Then they left early the next morning but there were two English guys and a girl. And the beds were very comfy!

Now on to the good part. We started our night at the King’s Head.

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted an Irish pub to be. We got there and there was a live band, it was a happening joint and I would have been content to chill there all night. But alas the rest of the girls wanted to go to other places. So after a drink at The King’s Head we went off to the Queys (hope I spelled it right….)

This place was positively frightening. We didn’t even stay for a drink. Why you ask? We were born about 20 years too late to blend in. there were people my parents age there all dressed up and hooked out looking for a good time. And we were getting the oddest looks so I personally stuck with my fail proof plan, don’t make eye contact. Thank goodness we all made it out alive.

The next stop on our night out was Coyote. This was…. Interesting. We walk in and it was a very tacky attempt at an “American” bar. But we gave it the benefit of the doubt and hit the bar for drinks. After we got ours we took a seat at a corner table and take the tacky Texan décor in. then the next thing I know there are girls getting on the bar. I almost laughed. They started dancing in their “Saloon Girl” outfits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in an American Bar… After this we thought that perhaps we would get our dance on. So we hit the dance floor. Bad idea. We got hard core creeped on by some old dude. He kept trying to dance with us, so two of the girls with me decided they wanted to ride the mechanical bull. This was probably the highlight of my night. Both of them fell of quite fast. That was fine thought because we were ready to move onto another place.

Carbon was where we chose to go. Turns out it was a dance club. We walked in and it was smoky and there were way too many lasers for me. So half the group (me included) left off to find somewhere else. We ended back up at The King’s Head where we got a drink and stayed for a bit before it was closing time. The ending to our night was very American…. We went to McDonalds. I personally didn’t eat anything it was too late plus who wants American fast food in Ireland?

When 3 am cam around we were getting back to the hostel and making plans for the next day.

Saturday we decided to be tourists! We walked around, I took a lot of pictures, got some postcards, you know the deal.

I got the 4 pm bus back to Limerick by myself because the rest of the group was staying another night. I wasn’t sure if I could take another night of partying. But over all Galway seemed like party central. There were so many pubs and clubs that we could have gone to. Perhaps I’ll go back when my brother comes to visit… but for now I’ll stick to Limerick and the not so crazy night life.

Here are a few other pictures of Galway.

^Shopping street^

^The square by the hostel^

^This was the ceiling of the palce we ate breakfast.... i love it^

^The Spanish Arch. Aka a waste of a walk.

We thought it was going to be cooler then this^

^Not sure what body of water this is but it was pretty^

^More of the shopping street^

^The outside^

The inside

^Me and my awesome gloves I got at a market^

Cheers,

I’m Underdressed For The Party

The wardrobe for an average American college student consists pretty much of jeans and tee shirts with some sweats thrown in there. You can walk around campus on any given day and tell what kids have a presentation or perhaps something to do after class like work or a date and that’s because they’re dressed up. I mean sure there were some days that I’d wake up and feel like looking cute for the day but that outfit still usually involved jeans. College kids dress comfy.
Naturally since I’m now in the college kid phase of my life nearly my whole wardrobe is tee shirts and jeans with a smattering of nice clothes for such things as family functions. So what I brought to Ireland was what I’d normally wear tee shirts, jeans, sweat shirt, sweat pants and the only skirt I own.

I had heard from a girl who studied in Ireland in the fall that the girls always dress up. I wasn’t too convinced of this. Then I started going to class. They always look like they’ve got a date afterwards. They walk around with heals and a skirt and shame all of us American girls who wear our jeans. Also mind you these aren’t small heals they’re wear some of them walk around with five inch heals on like it’s nothing! If I chose to wear shoes like that to class I’d die on the walk over from my village to main campus.

Clearly my wardrobe needs to be Irish-ized. I think I’ll make that my goal this weekend, to go shopping and get something other than tee shirts. I’d like to be able to walk around campus and not stick out too horribly. I mean I probably won’t be giving up my jeans any time soon because I like them so much but the least I can do is not wear a sweatshirt and tee shirt all the time.

The same code of dress also applies for parties and pubs. Back in the states as long as you showed some cleavage you were good to go at a party. Here you’ve got to have the whole deal aka skirt, heals, nice top, and hair done up. You’ve got to go the whole nine yards it seems. The first few times I went out I wasn’t too thrilled about this idea, mainly because I hate doing too much to myself. Half because I’m lazy and half because I don’t feel the need to look like a hooker.

My not abiding by the dress code for the pub and parties only lasted 2 nights. This was because people would come over and be like “Hey you’re American right?” I hate being picked out so easily as an American… that’s a whole other blog post… That simple inoffensive question made me start dressing to impress when I go out.

Now I’m proud to say I don’t wear jeans to the pub or parties. I don’t stick out as an American till I open my mouth, which is a little better.

Cheers,

Into The West

I have yet another epic adventure checked off. Yesterday the program I’m over here with sent us on a day trip to the west of Ireland. We went to the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, the Aliwee Caves and Bunratty. It was a super packed day but it was beyond amazing! The only down side was that it was raining all day.

The first stop of the day…. The Cliffs of Moher. Check out these wicked facts from the site (http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/)

- The Cliffs are 214m high at the highest point
- range for 8 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean on the western seaboard of County Clare
- The Cliffs of Moher take their name from a ruined promontory fort “Mothar” which was demolished during the Napoleonic wars to make room for a signal tower

Also…. For those of you who are Harry Potter fans the cliffs in the Half Blood Prince are.. ah hem… The Cliffs of Moher. Also the cliffs are in Father Ted, one of my favorite British shows. It’s in 2 episodes Tentacles of Doom and Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading.

Epic

you can see O'Brian tower there in the distance

O'Brian Tower

ME!!

Next stop was The Burren. This was beyond cool. On the ride over our tour guide/ bus driver was telling us how the whole Burren area used to be under water millions of years ago and since then the plates have shifted and the water receded so that’s why it looks the way it does. Here’s some cool things I got off Wikipedia

- is a karst-landscape region in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe
- measures approximately 250 square kilometres
- The rolling hills of Burren are composed of limestone pavements with crisscrossing cracks known as "grikes"
-region supports arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants side-by-side

close up of the ground

Next came the Aliwee Caves. I forgot how cool caves were. The last time I was in a cave was when I was pretty young so I was excited for this part. We were in groups of 35 and I was at the back with my group of American friends. We couldn’t hear much of the tour so we goofed off the whole time and made our own little tour.

These facts are from wikipedia and http://www.aillweecave.ie/

- This cave was formed by the glacial melt waters of an early ice age
- The name Aillwee is derived from the Irish Aill Bhuí which means yellow cliff.
- consists of over a kilometer of passages
- Roughly 300 meters of cave passage is open to the public, one third of the total length of the cave. The tours end at a point called the highway and exit the cave via a 250 meter manmade tunnel
- It was discovered in 1944, when a farmer named Jacko McGann followed his dog who was chasing a rabbit. The farmer did not explore very far into the caves, and did not tell anyone of the find for nearly 30 years.

The waterfall in the cave

Our last stop was Bunratty. There was a castle there…

That was as close as I got. It was raining and we only had 30 minutes to explore. There was also the fact that I was tired as hell by this point.

Over all I had a fantastic day and man I got some super sweet pictures!!

Cheers,

Without a Lab Coat

It’s rainy. It’s windy. It’s cold. I forgot to set an alarm and missed my 10 a.m. tutorial. And even better… I’ve just been shamed from my bio lab. Turns out you need a lab coat and goggles. Glad I knew this. Now I’m that “Stupid American.” What a perfect way to start my day.


So as I was walking miserably back to my house I ran into one of my friends in my exchange. He had just dropped of his schedule, which was what I was doing. I also told him of my failure a few minutes before. He laughed and said that he had a lab coat that he didn’t need this semester. So we walked back to his house and I have a lab coat now. It’s a good thing I left class.

And even better it’s getting sunny out now and I’m going into city centre to get a dress for the international ball tonight. It’s James Bond theme, so naturally I’ve got to get something classy and a bit slutty. We’ll see if I can pull it off.

I’m dedicating my time between now and when I leave to writing. Before I’d met my friend on my way I’m ashamed to say I was depressed and wishy washy. Sure I miss my family a bit but I miss my writing a hell of a lot more. I haven’t done any writing (excepts blogs) since I got here. Writing really effects my moods so I think I need to do some hard core writing to vent some. I also need to start writing daily. Since I’ve been in Ireland I’ve dropped my habit of writing in my notebook once a day… so I think I’m going to start doing that again.

Cheers,

Sliabh Torc

Torc Mountain (or in Gaelic, Sliabh Torc) is a 535m high mountain in Country Kerry. According to Wikipedia it gets its name from an enchanted boar that was killed there by the legendary hero, Fionn mac Cumhaill. Pretty cool right? Guess what’s even cooler.... I climbed it Sunday!

I went with to OPC (Outdoor Pursuit Club). We walked 20 km (12.5 miles). It was lots of fun but a lot of work. I’ll start with saying I’m not a very athletic person so you might be wondering why I did this. I have a friend who was already in OPC and she said it would be an easy hike... so I thought it would be good fun to go and take pictures.

Boy was I wrong. The first bit was nice… then we got to the first hill. And it was steep and I started getting tired and out of breath maybe a quarter of the way up. But I pushed on! Then it was downhill and flatness, which I enjoyed a lot.
 After we stopped for lunch we tackled Torc Mountain. It didn’t look too bad from the bottom, little did I know I couldn’t see the top. This happened three times when I was hiking. They were all when I was getting very tired and needed a break that I would look up and think “I can see the top! It levels off there!” Of course not. Just past it leveling off was another long stretch of hiking. When I really was getting near the top one of the guys in the club came and walked with me. He was totally hysterical, he was blabbering on about his or that and all I could do as nod or say a word. He was walking like climbing a mountain was nothing, then again he’s been in the club since he started UL.

Here are a few of the 300 pictures I took.....

the bridge right after I got off the bus

epic mountain

THERE WAS SOOO MUCH MOSS!!

waterfall at our first stop

the view climbing up Torc

these are my housemates at the top, sooo pretty

more top view

going back down

walking to the bus

Cheers,