beginning of the sunset near Galway Bay




view across the river (out of the frame, on the left- hand side of the picture, is a short bridge that I crossed over) -- beyond the row of houses the Bay starts to open up

yesterday I experienced my first taste of homesickness. I can largely attribute it to the beginning of classes, which brought up general negativity as I realized how much I was enjoying not being in school and how much I don't feel like going back. but hopefully I'll get into the groove. anyway, my not wanting to be in school, and my being in school in Ireland, led me-- through one of those math properties-- to temporarily not want to be in Ireland. surrounded by tons of people I don't know, speaking all funny, and not smiling back-- why is it that college students so often stick their noses in the air? It seems to be a universal trait, and it pisses me off and makes me feel lonely.



class scheduling is proving a mess, and the entire system is full of red tape. on the plus side, my walk to school yesterday (20 minutes, most of which are spent on the edge of a highway) was set to the background of a double rainbow spread over the River Corrib-- it's hard to stay too cranky when presented with that kind of magnificence.

On Sunday I wandered downtown around 2 o'clock and got myself (intentionally) lost for about 2 hours-- I found the Bay and watched the sun begin to set (see picture above), then used the top of the huge cathedral (I still haven't figured out its name) to navigate my way back to campus and locate the buildings in which I had classes yesterday.

There is a huge expanse of ludicrously green grass stretching alongside the Bay, and on Sunday (which wasn't rainy!) it was covered with people-- people running, couples holding hands, people chatting on benches, kids playing soccer ("football", I suppose), and lots of people flying kites. and I thought, of course they're flying kites. in general, the lifestyle here works with the weather: it is windy, so go out and fly a kite. it's inspiring to see so many people remaining "un-cowed" by natural weather patterns

last night, after 5 hours of classes, Arcadia held a group meal at a ritzy restaurant downtown. it was some of the best food I've ever tasted, and a couple of us followed it up by locating a pub on the outskirts of town where a band started playing traditional music around 9:30.

I'm going to make it a goal to start cooking actual meals for myself while I'm here, at least a couple of times a week

I think this semester is going to fly by-- February is already pretty much booked: the first weekend is the homestay with the traditional Irish family, on the third weekend we're taking a day trip to the Aran Islands, and we're spending the last weekend in Belfast, where we're going to be given an introduction to the so-called "troubles" in Northern Ireland. I'm particularly excited for this last one; 20 euros gets me transportation, three- days' worth of housing, and guided tours.

the Irish students are essentially crazy, but I just realized that I've pretty much written a novel, so I'll save that topic for another post. I feel kind of odd keeping a blog; it seems very self- involved. but if you don't want to read it, feel free to click the "X" in the upper- right-hand corner (or the left corner, if you are unfortunate enough to be using a Mac)