Sunday was my first adventure with the NUIG Mountaineering Club. We hiked the South Bens, a pretty impressive ridge of mountains in Connemara. Now when I say hike, most of you probably imagine a nice trail up the steep mountains. This could not be further from the truth. After a glorious ten minutes walking on a road, we turned into a field and proceeded to head right on up the mountain! We were actually following the sheep through the boglands! Since it was raining (as it did for the entire duration of the six hour trip), I felt like a little kid tramping through the puddles and mud. Along with the rain, it was also pretty cloudy. On the one hand, this meant that most of my pictures didn’t turn out very well, but on the other hand, my height-fearing self wasn’t able to fully grasp how high we were! To give you an idea, we ate lunch on the summit of the first peak (520 meters) and were literally inside a cloud! I’m sure the views from atop the mountains would have been incredible, had we been able to see anything beyond the grey mist. Because we forged our own trail, it was fairly demanding physically at times. On a few occasions we needed to navigate straight0vertical ascents or declines, which, again for my height-fearing self, was pretty scary! Even though my legs are still recovering from that day, I can’t wait to go back. We met so many interesting people from all over the world and even got to end our evening at a pub (we are in Ireland after all), where Tiffany and I chatted with some adorable older Irish ladies. J
Sunday night was of course the Superbowl. As I’m sure most of you know, I am a huge football fan. Therefore, it pains me to say that I could not have cared less about this particular game. Not only do I despise both teams (the Giants found their way onto the naughty list after knocking out my beloved Packers), but I knew we wouldn’t get to see the infamous commercials here either. And Madonna for the halftime show? No thanks. The game also didn’t begin here until almost midnight. Being that I had a morning class (11am, but that’s still morning in my book!), I was not about to stay up late watching that nonsense. Turns out that was a wonderful decision, as I read the next morning that the game and commercials were both pretty lame. What a great Superbowl to miss!
Being that this is my sixth blog entry, I figured that most of you would have noticed a theme to each posts’ titles. I’ve also enjoyed the Facebook competitions to guess their origins (Ashley’s in the lead, Nicole needs to stop cheating). Since the majority have been about the weather, I didn’t think they really required explanations. I’ve clearly broken the trend with this one though! Last Tuesday I began experiencing some odd dizziness. Not too intense, but it lasted all day. It was sort of like being drunk, minus the drinking! After no improvements, I finally went to the Student Health Center (never thought I’d be visiting there!) and was diagnosed with labyrinthitis. Basically, it’s an inner-ear disorder that affects your equilibrium and probably stemmed from a cold I’d had a few weeks prior. Since I honestly can’t recall the last time I was sick, this has been quite a weird experience! The doctor prescribed me some pills that hopefully will help clear it up, but it could be a few weeks before it’s completely gone. Luckily Sunday was a good day, and thus I was able to go on the hike. Monday, though, was by far the worst I had done some reading for school on Sunday night (see kids, never do your homework, it literally makes you ill!), so I’m pretty confident that that is what caused Monday to be so bad. It’s been more of an annoyance than anything, so I just hope that it goes away permanently soon!
Tomorrow IFSA-Butler is bringing us on a trip to Northern Ireland! We’re all really excited to be getting away from school for a few days and enjoying the wonderful scenery of the north coast. Since I’ve already been to most of the sights they were taking us to, I’m most looking forward to the Black Taxi Tour in Belfast, which takes tourists around the parts of the city most affected during the Troubles. One of my favorite classes this semester has been Northern Ireland: The Politics of a Divided Society, so it will be really interesting to witness first-hand some of the issues that we have been learning about in class.
Speaking of politics, I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago I had to register with the Garda. The Garda are the police force in Ireland, but they also deal with Immigration issues. Since I will be in the country for longer than three months, I was required to register and pay a fee. The process went very smoothly (he told me I was by far the most organized student to come through there, thanks Dad!) and they were all very nice. The officer I was with even called me a Cheesehead when he saw my passport! Not only did he say he follows American football, but the Packers are his favorite team. What are the odds?! I love this country J
The Gaelic Girls posted their second video from their time in Galway, so I will attach that below. Thanks for reading!
Click here for Part 2 of the Gaelic Girls video from Galway!
Click here for pictures of my first Mountaineering Club hike!
No comments:
Post a Comment