Tuam and Scotland, Non- HO!

#1 the cathedral in Tuam. basically the only building of interest, aside from a cool pub that we hung out in on Saturday


#2 all of the bathroom doors at the university are painted the same color as their surrounding walls-- camouflage that is entirely unhelpful to those with small bladders desperately needing to pee
#3 the water that flows beneath the bridge that I cross over to get to camps

#4 one of many failed attempts to capture just how much water is flowing through downtown at all times-- it is probably the most consistently wicked- strong current I've ever seen
#5 during the tour we took our first Saturday in Galway, looking up one of the main streets












homestay was... a lesson in the fact that you can't generalize a culture based on one weekend with one family living within that culture. but I knew that before I went.

my expectations: sitting around the dinner table, sharing and laughing with the family over a huge, home- cooked, traditional Irish meal; strolling through town while the children pointed out their favorite sites; church services on Sunday morning followed by a warm, lengthy brunch full of pleasant conversation.

the reality: dinner on Friday was Ramen and canned peas, then the mother sat down in front of the TV (the father works odd hours and wasn't home for much of the weekend), told us to feel free to do our own thing, and shot-gunned three Heinekens.

haha! seriously. but the family was nice, and my program-mates and I took advantage of the lack of structured time to sleep in late and generally move slowly. the two daughters were adorable, though they got me really sick.

as a result of said illness I am now currently not in Scotland, as was the original plan this weekend. but it's not just the sickness that kept me behind-- I was starting to get sick (heh) of constantly moving, feeling like I wasn't actually living here but just using my apartment as a home base for traveling. so I stayed in Galway. since I don't have classes on Thursday or Friday, this will prove to be a very long weekend. I'm not sure yet what all I'm going to do with it, but I'm thinking lots of rest will be in order, as well as some randomness.

in a few minutes I'm walking over to a shop that my flatmate told me about-- it apparently sells fruits and vegetables for waaayy cheaper than the grocery stores. so you see-- the weekend is off to a bangin' start