Thursday night adventures!!

Okay, so this weekend we figured that we should probably stop being lame and actually hit the town since we have not been out since the third weekend. So we get all dolled up and head to city center, the place to be on Thursday nights! We really wanted to go to this club Gorby's because last time we went we got in free and got a free shot, but when we got there, the line was around the corner! I would say lets try our good looks on the bouncer, but American girls look like they are Eskimos going to the beach in comparison to Irish girls. It is literally 30 degrees and they are wearing the shortest skirts, highest heels and lowest cut tops ever, so me and my tights were not about to get to the front of the line any time fast! 

All the Ladies

Anywho we decided to walk further down Oliver Plunkett Street to see if we could find better, warmer adventures. So literally 10 steps later a creepy old man wearing clown makeup approaches the 5 us and our first instinct is to run, but then he asks if we could prove that we were 20 and if we wanted free passes into this club called the Society. We said sure, took the tickets and ran away. As some of the ladies got money from the ATM, we decided that we would try this club, it was free admission, so what harm could it be, plus if it failed our standards, we could always go to An Brog, the usual spot we go to on Oliver Plunkett. We were able to get right in since we were females, definitely a plus in the clubbing world! We walked in only to be approached by a lady giving out tickets for 3 free drinks each, baller!! Once inside, we found out it was a circus theme, hence the crazy looking clown guy outside. We decided that we were probably going to need to use some of those free drink coupons right off to get the party started, so we headed to the bar only to be approached by promoters of West Coast wine coolers... yeah add another free drink to the tab! 

The Fencers and Ninja

After a couple shots and a wine cooler, we hit the dance floor to get our boogie on! Wow, there are some crazy cats out there. One of my roommates battled with a guy in a ninja suit, another guy used some paper to "fan" all of us off, two other guys tried to be cool and dance with each other, but didn't work with us, and to top it off, there were two lovely people fencing in the middle of the club, I mean I guess some people might think of that as dancing?! 

Recap: Free admission, 4 free drinks and a night full of memories with the girls... an Epic Thursday out on the town in Cork! 

Cashel and the Rock

WARNING: This post is more about the pictures because I kinda faded away during the history lesson...

The Rock of Cashel from afar 

So this past weekend I journeyed to the town of Cashel, the host to the Rock of Cashel, a rather famous and visited sight. I went with the UCC's Chaplaincy, which ended up not being the best idea. Although they were very nice people, it felt more like I was on an awful field trip. We had a really nice tour guide that took the time to explain all about the Rock of Cashel and the two Abbeys that we visited, but I really just wanted to take pictures! The best part was that we only had to pay 5 euro for the bus there and back and it was private, so it was only UCC students. 

Inside a building at the Rock

Once we actually got to Cashel, we walked around the rock which hosts multiple building where high authority figures use to live back in the day! There were multiple headstones and crosses, since it is a religious sight. It was really cool how they recently discovered part of the original paint and are attempting to preserve it for future generations to see. 

The Countryside

Besides the fact that it was like a field trip, the Rock of Cashel is definitely worth the 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hour bus ride back. I got some quality sleeping in, so the ride did not seem that long, but when I was awake I got to see the gorgeous countryside for the first time with the beautiful Irish rolling green hills and pastures filled with cows! 

Hore Abbey

After the rock, we ventured down to Hore Abbey. Not gonna lie, I kinda dazed off at this time because i was STARVING, so I am not quit sure what went on here, but I got some pictures as shown above.

The front courtyard area

After Hore Abbey, we got some food, so I was a little bit better off and able to pay a little more attention. Following lunch, we went to Holy Cross Abbey. Now this place was mainly a huge attraction because there was a wedding going on, but I did listen to the lady talk as well and she said that monks lived here and that they had to wake up at like 2am, sometimes earlier, to start there day and would be in bed by 6pm. They slept in their clothes on straw beds. They didnt eat their first meal of the day, supper, until like 12pm, so 10 hours after they woke up. There are no longer any monks that live here because there was not enough interest in maintaining it. They now use the Abbey for weddings, baptisms, etc. The lead singer of the Cranberries was married here... apparently a huge claim to fame for little old Holy Cross Abbey lol

The Bride and Groom! 

So although it might not have been fun listening to someone talk all day, it was nice to see another part of Ireland and adventure away from Cork City, because once you have been here for about 2 weeks, you are ready to start seeing more, which I will continue to do. This weekend i am heading to the Cliffs of Moher, so look for a post about that next week, but until then.... Slàinte!

1 month down...

Wow, today marks my first month in Cork! I cannot even believe how fast it has gone by. I feel like every day I am here I find something new, like Monday we went to this new shopping center and I discovered this delightful little pond about 5 minutes behind our apartments that I would have never known existed unless we decided to head off on a new adventure. I also learn knew things everyday such as students get a student price on the bus... I think I might be using that a little more often when getting groceries.

Besides the little things, nothing big and exciting has happened. I am ready to start my travels outside of Cork, because once you have been here a week, you have seen all there is to see. This weekend we are going to see the Rock of Cashel which is this awesome church (pictures to come) and then next weekend we are off to the Cliffs of Moher and will cap the month of October off with Halloween celebrations in Dublin. Fun fact, Halloween originated in Ireland as a holiday to celebrate the end of the summer and harvest as well as ward off some sort of demons, hence the dressing up in costumes! There is suppose to be a big parade and stuff, so again, plenty of more pictures to come for the month of October.

In November I  have trips planned to Munich as well as Paris and potential plans to go to either Barcelona or Milan, but we will see where my finances are by the end of that month! I might also make it to the Giants Causeway which are these awesome rock formations located in northern Ireland...

For those of you who are worried about my studies, do not be. While my roommates were in London this past weekend, I wrote one of my many essays and have intentions of finishing another one this coming weekend. The day trips are fabulous, because it still allows for 2 days of homework!

As of now I am definitely ready for my package from home! The food is nothing to brag about and the speed of life is way too slow for me here and that is saying a lot when I myself am such a nonchalant type of person! Oh man, one final complaint, the inability to pronounce words here is sooo annoying!
For example:
                    We say Ireland........ they say Island
                    We say Resources... they say Rehorses
                    We say Thursday..... they say Tursday

Anywho, I think this is all I have for now, but stay tuned, I am sure there will be more soon, but until then...Slàinte! 

The Garda

Okay, so since we are studying here for more than 90 days (which really I am not, but I said I was staying for 3 months at the airport, otherwise I would not have had to do this whole situation) you have to register with the police to see if they will grant you permission to remain within the country. This is not a privilege, it is a right, therefore they take it extremely seriously!

So, we start our journey to the Garda (their police) last Friday. We leave around 1:50ish and head on our way to a part of town that we had yet to travel through. We stop at a convenience store and make sure we headed in the right direction, only to find out that if we walked like 5 feet past the corner, we would have seen the building we need to go to. Anywho, we get there at 2:20pm, wait in the line for roughly10 minutes and then the lady behind the counter sticks her head out to tells us to leave because we are wasting our time standing in line because they will not make it to us by 4:00pm, when they close, ugh! So we leave and make the long journey up the hill home!

We head back out at 9:00am on Monday morning, since the receptionist told us they open at 9:45am ( it really is 9:30), hoping to be the first people in line. When we got there, it was wrapped further around the little circular room you must wait in! So we sit down and start talking. The first hour went by fast. We tried figuring out how to use our cellphones the second hour, so that was entertaining, but when it came to the 3rd hour, we were very impatient. Turns out that Ireland, and I think the rest of Europe, have to take their lunch break all at the same time. So when we were only 3 people back from getting our paperwork done, they closed shop for their 2 hour lunch, so inefficient!!

So we took shifts to go grab food from across the street, played with the cutest baby ever who had a laugh that sounded like she was hiccuping, and slammed a solid game of War before they returned from their break. Roughly 30 minutes later, we get up to the desk and get our paperwork going. Now I must say now that I am extremely happy that we get reimbursed for this 150 euro process because if not, I would be strangling the guy at the airport!!  So apparently the guy at the airport, although extremely nice and actually has family that lives in Legacy Ridge (a subdivision like 10 minutes away from my house), does not know his days. If he would have wrote 1/1/2011 instead of 1/1/2010 and stamped 15 Sept 2011 instead of 15 Aug 2011, I would have been able to stay in the country without waiting in line, nor paying the fee.

Summary:

2 days, 8 hours and 150 euros later, I am officially a-okay to stay in Ireland until the end of the semester!!

Gotta Love the Irish.... Slàinte! 

My week of Free!!

First and foremost, we have to start with a side note.... Potatoes come with everything. I don't eat potato wedges with my pizza back home, but I do here. I don't have two options for fries, regular or curly, at McDonald's back home, but I do here. Lastly, I don't go to a street fair and see potatoes available at every stand back home, but I do here!! I just cannot believe how many potatoes they have here and although I LOVE potatoes, I am sick of seeing them everywhere!! Unfortunately I did not get any free potatoes, but they are Ireland!

Anywho... I finally made it to the gym this week, not like i haven't been working out everyday by walking across Ireland, but I figured maybe I should actually do a little more to work off all these damn potatoes I am eating lol! So like I said it has been a week of free and the gym was no exception. It was a free show of short-shorts and man boobs. Now in the states we have short-shorts for women, but no, the men wear the shortest shorts EVER here. There is a problem when the men's shorts are shorter than mine! Also, the Mardyke (the name of the gym) has this lovely women's gym that overlooks the pool, where I got my free view of the biggest man boobs ever. I was like damn, when you have bigger boobs then me, we might have an issue lol!! Finally, they have free lockers which just rocked all my roommates socks right off, so now I can just head to the gym right after class without having to hike home first to drop my stuff off!!

Then Wednesday the cast of the musical FAME came to our campus to promote themselves which was awesome. It was like a free 20 min. show, which I recorded but it wont upload, so you have to check it out on facebook!! We might go see the actual thing down at the cork opera house, but we will see what this coming week brings!!

Friday came around and we head out for a night on the town which ended up costing me a whopping 3 euro!! We went to this pub that seems to be popular with the college kids.. on Thursday nights.... so it was a little older crowd when we went, but it was totally worth it because we got our 3 euro pint of cider and watched a free live concert... It was not too shabby to listen to either! We then left to find this more mainstream music that we kept hearing. It ended up being a disco right above the pub where apparently it is free for UCC students to get in on Friday nights. Once we were inside we found out quickly why it was free, for we were 4 of the 6 people on the dance floor. Thankfully we got a free shot in addition to our free admission and within an hour the place was hoping and we danced the night away!! In addition to free admission and a free shot I got some fantastic free people watching in such as these two crazy Asian girls that were dancing all up on each other, these middle eastern men that thought they could dance, but really couldn't, in addition to the typical skanky girls and desperate men that are at every dance club back in America!!

To top off my week, I finally got my phone! It ended up only being 29 euro and then every time I top up 10 euro or more, I get double that amount, so for 10 euro, I really get 20 euro!! But the best part is that i got a 20 euro top up for FREE, so I don't think that I will need to invest any more than my initial 39 euro!!

Well, that has been my week... I shall be back again soon, but as usual until then... Slàinte!