Just in case there is anyone out there who cares.... which it doesnt seem like it.... because even though we are expected to write... there are never any comments... just sayin.
This weekend Katie is going to Dublin to get Jackie Poo and hang out until Tuesday. YAY! We dont have any plans set for sure yet, but we hope to hit the Dublin Castle, Killmainham Gaol, and maybe the zoo! And it will be our very first Valentine's Day together so we're definitely going to do something special, whether or not Jack is aware of that yet or not. ;) He will be staying for a total of two weeks and it is going to be wonderful! Katie will have lots to blog about when he has to leave at the end of the month...
Camille will be traveling to Nottingham, England to visit fellow Luther geeks. ha. She will be returning on Tuesday late late with Lizzi to spend some time in Galway. She is SUPER excited since she has not seen any of these people since late August. Two of those that she is visiting are going to be her roommates at her last year at Luther. Good stuff!
We will both try to blog about our weekends on Wednesday or so; keep checkin in!
LOVE
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
LONDON
I don't know why she said she'd promise... two posts in one day? That's asking a little too much... But alright, one day late. Here goes...
London- What can I say? It's one of my favorite places in the whole world!! We stayed with Chelsea's friends who are studying there for the semester so not only did we get cheap boarding, we also got a jam-packed weekend of fun! But let's start from the beginning- the Shannon airport. Well, this was quite the event. Shannon airport is quite small and we got there early enough in the morning where we were pretty much the only ones there, and we even checked in online ahead of time. You'd think we'd get right through with no problems, but you are wrong. First we went to the security desk without having our boarding passes stamped. Then I found out I had gotten my return ticket stamped so I had to go back to get the appropriate one done. As I was doing this, Camille fell victim to the "Random Frisking" and Chelsea got her bag searched and a lecture on how "anything that can become liquid must be in a plastic bag if she's carrying it on"-- referring to her deoderant, which for the record, Camille and I carried on with no problem AND no baggie (rebels, I know). Finally we were through and got to our gate, where we waited for over an hour to board. While in line to board, Camille and Chelsea decide that now was a great time to freak out about whether or not our bags are small enough to be carried on RyanAir planes, as if we could do something to change them. No worries, we got through just fine. Once on the plane, however, we were searching for our seats only to find out that you can sit anywhere you want! I chose the middle of the plane, which got us off last since you exit from the front AND the back... UGH talk about a strugglefest.
Alright, back to London events... The first night we arrived we pretty much went straight to the theater to see "Phantom of the Opera" which was, needless to say, amazing. Although we had a large group of Spanish high schoolers surrouding us who found it necessary to talk and sing along throughout the entire musical. Awesome. Loved it. But it was great anyway!
The next day we got up semi-early to try to make it to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards. As usual, we had difficulties and the Tube caused us to be almost an hour late. Thinking we had missed all the good stuff, we walk up and hear a band playing "Thriller" and joked about how it was probably the guards, as "Thriller" is obviously the Queen's favorite song... Turns out it was! The guards, that is. Although we decided it is likely that MJ was definitely on the iPod that Obama gave her when they met... Ha! The guard band went on to entertain the crowd with other pop-songs including Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" (which, for those of you who don't recall, happens to be the song that Camille debuted as a solo in our fifth grade Millenium concert. Fun fact.) Chelsea got extremely picture happy at this time, and if you would like to relive these events second-by-second, her photos will surely do the job. The rest of the day was dedicated to touristy stuff: Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London...
Saturday was dedicated to the Harry Potter tour that our hosts put together. We journeyed through the city to see the spots where Harry ran from Death Eaters in front of a small souvenier shop, where Harry ran from Death Eaters over the Millenium Bridge, Platform 9 and 3/4 (which was conveniently relocated as the station is being remodeled) and we even saw Hermione in a Burberry ad! Mixed in this day was several shopping stops where Chelsea and Camille bought a few too many items to fit cleanly in their suitcases, causing more fear in their hearts as we boarded our flight home.
Don't worry, we managed to fit in some culture at the Tate Modern and the British National museums. And at three a.m. on Monday night, my bed in Galway was never better. :)
Love, Katie (and Camille)
London- What can I say? It's one of my favorite places in the whole world!! We stayed with Chelsea's friends who are studying there for the semester so not only did we get cheap boarding, we also got a jam-packed weekend of fun! But let's start from the beginning- the Shannon airport. Well, this was quite the event. Shannon airport is quite small and we got there early enough in the morning where we were pretty much the only ones there, and we even checked in online ahead of time. You'd think we'd get right through with no problems, but you are wrong. First we went to the security desk without having our boarding passes stamped. Then I found out I had gotten my return ticket stamped so I had to go back to get the appropriate one done. As I was doing this, Camille fell victim to the "Random Frisking" and Chelsea got her bag searched and a lecture on how "anything that can become liquid must be in a plastic bag if she's carrying it on"-- referring to her deoderant, which for the record, Camille and I carried on with no problem AND no baggie (rebels, I know). Finally we were through and got to our gate, where we waited for over an hour to board. While in line to board, Camille and Chelsea decide that now was a great time to freak out about whether or not our bags are small enough to be carried on RyanAir planes, as if we could do something to change them. No worries, we got through just fine. Once on the plane, however, we were searching for our seats only to find out that you can sit anywhere you want! I chose the middle of the plane, which got us off last since you exit from the front AND the back... UGH talk about a strugglefest.
Alright, back to London events... The first night we arrived we pretty much went straight to the theater to see "Phantom of the Opera" which was, needless to say, amazing. Although we had a large group of Spanish high schoolers surrouding us who found it necessary to talk and sing along throughout the entire musical. Awesome. Loved it. But it was great anyway!
The next day we got up semi-early to try to make it to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards. As usual, we had difficulties and the Tube caused us to be almost an hour late. Thinking we had missed all the good stuff, we walk up and hear a band playing "Thriller" and joked about how it was probably the guards, as "Thriller" is obviously the Queen's favorite song... Turns out it was! The guards, that is. Although we decided it is likely that MJ was definitely on the iPod that Obama gave her when they met... Ha! The guard band went on to entertain the crowd with other pop-songs including Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" (which, for those of you who don't recall, happens to be the song that Camille debuted as a solo in our fifth grade Millenium concert. Fun fact.) Chelsea got extremely picture happy at this time, and if you would like to relive these events second-by-second, her photos will surely do the job. The rest of the day was dedicated to touristy stuff: Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London...
Saturday was dedicated to the Harry Potter tour that our hosts put together. We journeyed through the city to see the spots where Harry ran from Death Eaters in front of a small souvenier shop, where Harry ran from Death Eaters over the Millenium Bridge, Platform 9 and 3/4 (which was conveniently relocated as the station is being remodeled) and we even saw Hermione in a Burberry ad! Mixed in this day was several shopping stops where Chelsea and Camille bought a few too many items to fit cleanly in their suitcases, causing more fear in their hearts as we boarded our flight home.
Don't worry, we managed to fit in some culture at the Tate Modern and the British National museums. And at three a.m. on Monday night, my bed in Galway was never better. :)
Love, Katie (and Camille)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Hello Hello Hello
Many apologies for waiting so long to update you all! Katie and I just got back from a long weekend in London, but more about that later...On Saturday, the 30 of January, Katie and I and several others went on a day trip to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. The scenery was simply breathtaking! Connemara is the name for the countryside north of Galway. The area is identified by the type of rock found there, granite, because the majority of the island of Ireland is made of limestone. There were sheep everywhere, I would say the most we have seen at one time yet! And on our way to a beautiful 14 century monastery we got to see itty bitty baby sheep! So precious. Also on this adventure we were able to see Ashgrove Castle. It was owned for several years by the Guinness Family but today it is a castle turned hotel. Also extremely gorgeous. Pierce Brosnan grew up 20 minutes from the castle and had his wedding reception at the hotel. It used to cost anywhere from 700 to 1700 euro a night to stay there but now because of the recession you can stay there for about 80 euro a night! Haha. Also, you should know that the Lochness monster resides in this area of Ireland, not in Scotland. So, we finished the tour by spending some time at Kylemore Abbey. It is a breathtaking castle-like building that is curremtly inhabited by 6 Benedictine nuns. The sisters there used to run a boarding school for girls but because of the lack of interest and the age of the nuns that live there it is most likely that the entire building will be opened up for tourism, rather than just the grounds. It ws a long but gratifying day!
The next day (Sunday) we went out for our friend, Trisha's, birthday. We started out around 7;30pm and ate at this really nummy tavern on the Corrib River called Monroe's. From there we pub hopped and finally ended up at this pub in City Centre around 11:30 called the Front Door. There we met a group of local Irish guys who had apparently been drinking since 11am that morning. But they were a lot of fun and made sure that Trisha was having a good birthday celebration!
The next week was filled with classes and then LONDON!
We will post about London later tonight! I promise!!!!!!
Monday, January 25, 2010
I am sorry that we suck at blogging...
Well, I think that the most important thing to be mentioned here is that Katie found a Starbucks...yes I am serious. Miss Katie has several giftcards to Starbucks and was hoping to be able to use them in Galway, however, the city is absent of a Starbucks. But, there were two that we ran into in Dublin! I was excited too, gotta love a taste of home! In our two day, one night stay in Dublin, we were sure to enjoy the luxury two times...
So, Dublin. We took the short 2.5 hour bus ride to Dublin early Saturday morning. Upon our arrival we walked to our hostel and checked in quick so we could be sure to get in some tourist activities for the rest of the day. First, we needed sustenance so we ate at this tasty restaurant, the name of which I cannot remember. Following, we looked around Trinity College and Dublin Castle but opted out of the guided tours since we plan to spend more time in Dublin. We also spent an hour or so on Grafton Street to look around the shopping stores. I found a fabulous Lady Gaga tee for only 3 euro! We then took some time to relax at the hostel before going out to the pubs. The pubs were fun but crowded and since we had a tour the next day we turned in semi-early.
The next day we took a tour of County Wicklow and got to see some beautiful countryside as well as the Guiness Lake and lots of sheep! Also, the tour guide was the very same Stephen that I got to tour with last year, so that was exciting. Plus, he is a cutie.
During our stay in Dublin we noticed a few things. There seems to be the most awful of hair trends occurring. it consists of the under part of the hair being long and stringy and the upper parts being rather short and fluffed out. Don't really get it and I hope it doesn't catch in the States. Also, the doors. For some reason, several locations in Dublin have seem to have something going on with their doors. This "something" consists of taking the standard size door and splitting it in half, each half is on hinges on it's respective side of the frame; saloon style, if you will. However, since the total parts of the door equal a standard sized door, it is basically impossible to get through these doors with any amount of grace. ANY.
When the time came to head back to Galway, 7:15pm Sunday, we were ready. It was nice to travel west and feel like we were heading home, because Galway is our home for now.
Well folks, we will try to keep up a bit better with the blogging...
Until next time...
So, Dublin. We took the short 2.5 hour bus ride to Dublin early Saturday morning. Upon our arrival we walked to our hostel and checked in quick so we could be sure to get in some tourist activities for the rest of the day. First, we needed sustenance so we ate at this tasty restaurant, the name of which I cannot remember. Following, we looked around Trinity College and Dublin Castle but opted out of the guided tours since we plan to spend more time in Dublin. We also spent an hour or so on Grafton Street to look around the shopping stores. I found a fabulous Lady Gaga tee for only 3 euro! We then took some time to relax at the hostel before going out to the pubs. The pubs were fun but crowded and since we had a tour the next day we turned in semi-early.
The next day we took a tour of County Wicklow and got to see some beautiful countryside as well as the Guiness Lake and lots of sheep! Also, the tour guide was the very same Stephen that I got to tour with last year, so that was exciting. Plus, he is a cutie.
During our stay in Dublin we noticed a few things. There seems to be the most awful of hair trends occurring. it consists of the under part of the hair being long and stringy and the upper parts being rather short and fluffed out. Don't really get it and I hope it doesn't catch in the States. Also, the doors. For some reason, several locations in Dublin have seem to have something going on with their doors. This "something" consists of taking the standard size door and splitting it in half, each half is on hinges on it's respective side of the frame; saloon style, if you will. However, since the total parts of the door equal a standard sized door, it is basically impossible to get through these doors with any amount of grace. ANY.
When the time came to head back to Galway, 7:15pm Sunday, we were ready. It was nice to travel west and feel like we were heading home, because Galway is our home for now.
Well folks, we will try to keep up a bit better with the blogging...
Until next time...
Sunday, January 17, 2010
WEDGIE WEDNESDAYS!
So yesterday we went to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. This was the day we fell in love with Ireland. It was gorgeous! Although we did almost get blown off a cliff... that part wasn't as fun. But at least it wasn't raining (for the most part, since there are random downpours every couple hours) and we got some great pictures to share! Our tourguide, Desmond, was HILARIOUS. He was a frisky old man with an interesting sense of humor, but he definitely kept us entertained!
Upcoming events: 1- We register for classes tomorrow, finally. 2- We are going to DUBLIN this weekend! Chelsea, Trisha, and Denise will be joining the festivities as we take a tour around County Wicklow and scope out potential St. Patty's Day accommodations. Should be good!
Enjoy the pics; more later! LOVE
Oh, and in case you were wondering: Wedgie Wednesdays-- An Irish Papa John's tradition that we are taking part very soon. Obviously.
Upcoming events: 1- We register for classes tomorrow, finally. 2- We are going to DUBLIN this weekend! Chelsea, Trisha, and Denise will be joining the festivities as we take a tour around County Wicklow and scope out potential St. Patty's Day accommodations. Should be good!
Enjoy the pics; more later! LOVE
Oh, and in case you were wondering: Wedgie Wednesdays-- An Irish Papa John's tradition that we are taking part very soon. Obviously.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The commericals are working!
But seriously. When you are at the grocery store somewhere far away from home with no recognizable brands, what else is there to do but go for what you recognize? And if you still don't feel like you can pick one, go for what the locals are going for I guess... That is how we picked out bread, butter, and tea! So far our theory hasn't hurt us.
Humorous weather-related news: although it is finally nice out, we have witnessed several natives finding interesting ways to deal with the cold and ice that we had. First, Galway is experiencing a shortage of table salt... You do the math. Also, on our walk to City Centre, we watched as a lady leaned out her second story window to dump hot water on her vehicle below. Do they not have defrost?? SO FUNNY.
This weekend will be our first one away from the apartment as we venture South to the Cliffs of Moher. We are hitching a ride with the group from Duquesne (Doo-cane), the school our roomie goes to in Pittsburgh. We are getting picked up from our apartment (no walking!!!) and got a pretty good deal at that! In a couple weekends we will be going with them to Connemara as well. Should be a grand time!
Side notes: we walked just under 6,000 steps today, according to Cami's iTouch pedometer. Seems like more... Registration is on Monday; can't wait to just KNOW what we need to do! Pray for luck getting into our seminars!... Our internet is being kinda sketch because they are working on getting wireless, so skype is equally unreliable for the most part. But that doesn't mean we don't want to try! FAMILIES: get on Skype every once in a while! Seriously. Do it.
ALL OUR LOVE
Humorous weather-related news: although it is finally nice out, we have witnessed several natives finding interesting ways to deal with the cold and ice that we had. First, Galway is experiencing a shortage of table salt... You do the math. Also, on our walk to City Centre, we watched as a lady leaned out her second story window to dump hot water on her vehicle below. Do they not have defrost?? SO FUNNY.
This weekend will be our first one away from the apartment as we venture South to the Cliffs of Moher. We are hitching a ride with the group from Duquesne (Doo-cane), the school our roomie goes to in Pittsburgh. We are getting picked up from our apartment (no walking!!!) and got a pretty good deal at that! In a couple weekends we will be going with them to Connemara as well. Should be a grand time!
Side notes: we walked just under 6,000 steps today, according to Cami's iTouch pedometer. Seems like more... Registration is on Monday; can't wait to just KNOW what we need to do! Pray for luck getting into our seminars!... Our internet is being kinda sketch because they are working on getting wireless, so skype is equally unreliable for the most part. But that doesn't mean we don't want to try! FAMILIES: get on Skype every once in a while! Seriously. Do it.
ALL OUR LOVE
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Snow and ice or wind and rain?
Perhaps one of these days some decent weather will appear? Today Katie and I braved the drizzle and wind gusts to get to campus. Needless to say, we arrived quite wet. But it is warming up!!! Our apartment is finally toasty!
This week we are testing classes out. Registration will take place on Monday and Wednesday of next week but until then we are attending the lectures that we will most likely be taking for the semester, most of which are English! I think we have the layout of the campus down finally, too (something we were both a tad concerned about). This is only because at times we have hour to two-hour breaks in between classes that we choose to spend exploring and enjoying coffee and muffins from one of the several cafes on campus.
To be honest, nothing of extreme excitement has happened thus far! I mean, we are here to study after all... but really, I think once we finally have our class schedules finalized we will start planning excursions to go experience Ireland!
Stay warm and dry (we will try our best to do the same)!
Peace and Love
This week we are testing classes out. Registration will take place on Monday and Wednesday of next week but until then we are attending the lectures that we will most likely be taking for the semester, most of which are English! I think we have the layout of the campus down finally, too (something we were both a tad concerned about). This is only because at times we have hour to two-hour breaks in between classes that we choose to spend exploring and enjoying coffee and muffins from one of the several cafes on campus.
To be honest, nothing of extreme excitement has happened thus far! I mean, we are here to study after all... but really, I think once we finally have our class schedules finalized we will start planning excursions to go experience Ireland!
Stay warm and dry (we will try our best to do the same)!
Peace and Love
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