It's just one of those days..

Sorry, been awhile. Not much news going on here in Galway. Just been in and out of classes, doing some reading to keep up..again, not too much.

There was a volunteer fair kind of thing on campus this past Tuesday. Signed up for an after-school activities program with young kids. Times are flexible, so once they send out emails I should be able to pick and choose which dates/times work for me. Also wrote my names down for the Special Olympics. There aren't many events until January, I actually think there's only one while I'll still be here but I guess one is better than none yeh?

Still no news or emails from basketball, kayak, softball.............I don't care if all we do is play Knockout I just want to shoot a bit haha.

Nothing planned for this weekend...probably just wing it. Maybe go to the Greyhound Races?? One of the girls from SJU has her 21st birthday on Saturday, hence no traveling.

Cheers.
Until Later,
Luke

Croagh Patrick

Today we traveled out to Croagh Patrick in Mayo County, Ireland. Asked everyone in my last post to cross your fingers for good weather...and it happened. Taxi driver said it's been nothing but rain past few days so we really lucked out. Just uploaded the pictures...I took 120 of them. I swear it wasn't just me though. Twelve of us went, and I did most of the climb with 2 guys - one from SJU another from Marquette. The whole way we kept pulling out our cameras saying "I know I've taken this picture before but I can't help it". It was just...amazing.

So a little about Croagh Patrick I suppose. It's the mountain where St. Patrick supposedly fasted for 40 days during Advent and cast the snakes out of Ireland. Oh, and it's 2,500 ft. in the air (Dad, I was 3rd one to the top...how surprised are you? haha) They say it takes about 3 hours to scale and 2 hours to descend. The 3 of us did the entire thing in 3. Wooo..my legs hurt so bad right now I deserve to brag a little bit haha.

Like I mentioned, I took soooo many pictures, so, sorry if I kind of go overboard posting them here.

Here's the mountain from the parking lot.

Statue of St. Patrick with mountain in background...

This was the "first leg", and it was like this the whole way through the first part. Slightly inclined, tons of rocks and a lot of slipping...

Here's the view at the top of the "first tier"...That's the town of Westport in the distance...

This is coming to the end of the "Second Tier"...that part was mostly a bunch of up and downs but without as much loose gravel and rock...Here's looking up Croagh Patrick and the "Third Tier"...

This is a little ways up the "Third Tier"...there were points we were on all four grabbing a hold of rocks above us for support, as you can kind of see here...very steep...was a pain coming down because all the rocks would kick out from underneath you...quads, knees and feet are killing me after the decline haha...

Here's a view of where we had just come across...most of what you can see is that "Second Tier", so again, mostly flat...was a nice break...

And finally we're at the top...here's most of our group sitting on the edge and grabbing our lunches...the view was awesome...photos really can't do it justice...

So, there was just a small portion of the photos...I tried to limit them! Back to school on Monday...hopefully something comes up to blog about in the meantime, but until then...

Hope all's well.
Cheers.

Luke

To Arthur Pt. 2

This will be a short post..just promised that I'd throw up pictures after Arthur Day festivities.

Here's Shop Street on a typical day...semi crowded and all...

And here are some photos from Arthur's Day...including Arthur himself (and no...I do not like Guinness anymore than I did when I first arrived...haha)

Before the toast....

Posing for the camera's haha...

And, to Arthur...

And, a video...not sure if this works or not but...this was one of the many chants and stuff from the toast. Sorry the quality probably stinks people were bumping into me left and right haha.

Mountain climbing Saturday...remember to wish for sunny weather.

Cheers.
Luke

To Arthur

Change of plans..I'll be going to Croagh Patrick on Saturday to hike up the mountain. Most definitely worth a google image search. Please please please cross your fingers we get good weather for it. The view is killer. Can't wait to share pictures with everyone. I think I'm going to save going to Cork when my Dad arrives in late November. Apparently that's where our family traces back to, so, I figured I'd like to share that time with him.

Real reason of this post, however, is to wish everyone a Happy Arthur's Day tomorrow! Ireland is going to be one big party tomorrow, from what I hear. At 17:59 (5:59PM) everyone goes out into the streets with their pint of Guinness and raises their glasses. Someone leads the toast and yells 'To Arthur!' to which the entire crowed responds with the same. (By the way, the Guinness Brewery opened in 1759, hence the timing of the toast).

If you can recall from one of my earlier posts, that's The King's Head in the background..where I had my first Guinness in Ireland. All the pubs are going to have live music and there may be a stage set up down by the harbor which is right out our back door of the apartment.

So, I invite you all back home to raise your glass to Arthur at 12:59PM with me and my roommates...even if yours is just coffee or water haha. (Murph, you better raise a Guinness...but only one okay bud?)

Cheers.

Luke

Getting the Ball Rolling

First and foremost, wanted to thank everyone for the comments, especially on my last post. Means a lot to see you guys are reading and taking time to comment. Makes me feel like I never left home.

Just got back not too long ago from my appointment with Immigration. It's about a half hour long walk to the office...and my two friends and I walked about another half hour past it because we didn't see it originally. I'm ready for a nap haha. But, after a busy first few weeks for my Mom to scramble around getting me insurance coverage, bank statements, etc. it was a breeze and I'm legal through December. With my newly acquired GARDA ID, I can finally travel in and out the country. Booked a trip Scotland the other day. That's for October 7-9. Also have a trip to Berlin planned for November 4-7. We're going to Cork, Ireland this weekend, and this Thursday is Arthur Guinness Day. Everyone will go out to the pubs early, and at 5:59pm everyone around Ireland raises their pint of Guinness for a toast to Arthur. I have class on Thursday though...hmm...

For some reason, my roommates and I have been itching to go hiking. So within the next month or so we have a few day trips out to either National Parks or different mountains in the area. If you've got a second, do a google search for 'Croagh Patrick' or 'Slieve League Cliffs One Man Pass'...hopefully it's not too windy!

Other little day trips we have penciled in include the Hurling Finals in Galway for October 23 (hurling is like a hybrid of hockey/lacrosse/rugby/field hockey/baseball/football....its worth searching on youtube or something..so intense haha) and another trip for the Greyhound Races over at the track in Galway.

Classes are going well, and I'm settling in just fine. I'll be sure to post pictures from Cork this weekend.
Hope all's well. Cheers.

Luke

Philosophy 101

Well, not much has happened recently in Ireland..just a lot of class and hanging out. I head to immigration this coming Monday and once I’m all registered with that, I’m able to go in and out of the country…can’t wait to explore more of Europe. Any suggestions?

For lack of post-worthy material, I thought I might write down some things that have gone through my head recently while I’ve been here. Last night I walked home from campus along the river at about 8:30pm. The sun had set, and it wasn’t too cold out…warm enough for just a pair of sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt. Not many people were out, and with my iPod in it just felt like it was me. So I walked out behind one of the shops on the river and sat on the stone ledge looking out on to Galway Bay - Just me and all the docked boats in the harbor. I’m sure half this stuff we’ve all heard at one time or another in our lives, but why not write it down and see where my stream of consciousness goes?

First and foremost, even just being here three weeks, you start to understand the people in your life that mean the most to you. Now I know that may sound weird, seeing as when you go away to college shouldn’t you realize all that stuff? But it’s something about being thousands of miles away from somebody that really makes you miss them. Knowing I can’t send out a text to say what’s up, knowing that phone calls cost extra money…only interaction you get is if you happen to cross paths on Facebook or something. The things I would do for dinner with the whole family, slice of Nirchi’s with Jaske, soccer tennis with Bru, SuperSmash with the roommates, a party with the 54^th girls, watch Jake’s football games…but at the same time, being here makes you appreciate those things just a little bit more, and I know I’ll enjoy them that much more when I get back to the states.

I’ve learned that in order to truly live your life, you’ve got to be vulnerable.  For anyone reading this that was a part of the Orientation at St. Joe’s last year you’ll probably get a laugh out of this next phrase but it’s so, so true. You really have to lean into discomfort to get the most out of life. We all have certain things about ourselves, our personalities, our appearance…or certain situations that simply make us uncomfortable.  We all just long to be connected…to each other, a team, ourselves…but it’s, I guess, the fear we have towards certain things that stop us from being connected. I’m not smart enough, good enough…and it’s weird to think that we all have these feelings about something…to not have this feeling, I’d think, would mean someone doesn’t even have the capacity to feel connected in the first place…but ANYWAYS. Vulnerability undermines all of that feeling…in order to get over those feelings of I’m not smart enough, not good enough, etc. is to lay out on the table everything that we see as an imperfection, or in other words I suppose, become vulnerable. I’ve also heard it before as having the courage to be imperfect…let go of the person you think you should be and just be the person you are.  We have to be willing to invest in something that might not work out, something that doesn’t have a guarantee. Very small example is signing up for the basketball team here at NUIG. I’m not the best at basketball, and personally don’t think I’m very good…but then back in highschool or modified basketball I can’t say I really ever shot, or tried hard…because there was no guarantee that the ball would go in, or the effort would pay off…I didn’t want to be vulnerable to failure and so I was never vulnerable to success. So here’s to hoping that putting myself out there and trying out for the team here may pay off haha.

But all these things we’re afraid of, we try and numb it out…fear, shame, rejection. But it’s impossible to just selectively numb these things. Instead we not only numb those things, but you numb happiness in the process. Furthermore we hate uncertainty and therefore try and make everything a certainty, or only get involved in something that has a certain outcome.  So I guess to wrap that all up I’ve learned to become vulnerable, put yourself out there, put everything you have into something despite the uncertain nature of everything we do and you’ll be happier. Dang that got real philosophical, real quick and I hope that makes sense when I go back and reread it hahaha.

Lastly, I thought about the feeling of regret. You hear a lot of people talk about living life with no regrets…and I suppose that’s a sound theory and all but is it really possible? And if it was, is that really how you want to live your life?  I’m extremely happy with the way my life has unfolded thus far, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have regret. And to me, regret’s not a bad thing. I actually welcome it. If it wasn’t for the regret I have of not getting involved very much in organizations during highschool, I don’t think my college experience would have been this rewarding. If I didn’t regret skipping out on my brother’s basketball games in years past, I don’t think I would be appreciating all the ones I enjoy going to today.  It’s that sense of missing out from years past that has propelled me to do all that I’m doing, have done, and will continue to do in college and beyond…and so I’m glad I’ve had regret in my life because it’s what has shaped me.

There’s my two cents for the month haha. Hope all’s well with everyone and look forward to seeing you all soon.

Luke

Random..

I'm almost through my third week (I think?) in Ireland. This is the week that majority of people say you kind of hit a funk so to speak? I feel like I'm sort of hitting that, but not even close to the degree I know some have in the past. 

Well..not so much a funk, but you just start to miss your family, friends...Jake's sports games, not feeling like a foreigner, buff chick pizza, tavern wings, hawk wraps, sportscenter and not having to stay up til 5AM to watch the Jets (too bad my Mets JUST missed the playoffs...) haha. As I believe I've wrote in the past, we've had so much downtime these past few weeks that you don't really know what to do with yourself. No more tours, community day meetings, weekly service, etc. But the good news is that classes fully started this week, and the clubs fair just wrapped up on campus. I wrote my name down for the basketball team, co-ed softball and kayaking. Lord knows I probably won't do all three due to time constraints but at least I followed through with doing something. When I approached the basketball table I thought for sure I'd be meeting short Irish kids but they're monstrous...like how-do-I-post-you-up kinda big. So, from what I thought might be a shoo-in to being on the team, it might actually be a good things I signed up for more than one thing haha. We'll see, can't hurt to try. 

The societies fair is tomorrow..that's where we'll be able to learn about different service opportunities in the area and whatnot so I'll stop by that, too, and report back. So hopefully between one of the clubs, and a society or two I'll get back into that old rhythm I'm used to on Hawk Hill. 

Got a package today from my mom. (Thanks Trish for getting that sent out and organized...and extra thanks for the tabs explaining everything...what gave you the impression I'd need things literally spelled our for me? ;) haha) Inside was exactly what I was expecting..a card with a bunch of little encouragements and stuff. For any of you who read my Moms comments on the blog, basically that haha. Too funny...thanks Mom.

This weekend we're planning on going to the Aran Islands...I think. 

We never do anything until the last minute haha but I look forward to showing you all pictures from the trip. Cheers.

Luke

Commenting

I've heard a lot of people have been having issues with the comments. So hopefully this will not only work, but be easy to follow...

Make your way over to www.livejournal.com
Once you're there, you'll find a link that says 'Create an Account' on the top right of the screen. Click that.

Create a username and password. Note that whatever you use as your username is what will appear on the comments section. So, if I created a username of 'LukeGuinan', the comment I write on the blog would read 'LukeGuinan said...', etc. Make sure you uncheck the little box at the bottom that reads 'Yes, send me LiveJournal announcements via email.' so you don't get anything sent to the email you're using.

Click 'Create Account', and on the next page skip over everything and continue. The next page should congratulate you on your new LiveJournal account.

Now come back to the blog, and write your post in the comments section. I'd copy what you wrote the first time just in case it goes screwy on erases it. But anyways, in the 'Comment as..' drop down box, click on the LiveJournal one. A box will pop up asking what your user name is. Just type it in, and it will direct you to the LiveJournal page once more, just to ask if you're sure you'd like to post with this username. Accept that, and I'm hoping that after you do this once, you'll be set from there.

It'll kick you back to my blog and just hit the 'Post Comment' button.

Now I know that seems like quite a bit, but hopefully it's easy enough and you're only going to have to do that once. After that, everything will be created and whenever you want to post a comment you'll just have to type in your LiveJournal account on the comment section.

Hope this helps/works!
Luke

First Day Tour

Today was our first tour out into Ireland. We paid 13 euro for the trip and it was worth every cent. 

Everyone got up to meet the bus driver outside our apartment at 9:45. He took us out to the larger station where we switched into a larger bus and took off from there. About 10 minutes in, our bus driver/tour guide came across the loud speaker and immediately we knew the trip was going to be awesome. He had more than enough Irish wit and humor to satisfy (and keep the attention of..) 20 odd college students. We were laughing quite a bit down the west coast. Aside from being comical, he really knew his stuff - so we learned quite a bit about each place we stopped. When we left Galway, it was raining (..shocker..) but by the time we approached our first stop, it was really nice out.

Our first site was the Aillwee Caves. For a few extra euro, we got to get out of the sun, sadly, and go down into the caves and wind our way around. The tunnels were formed by an underground river thousands upon thousands of years ago. Inside, we saw some bear remains from when they'd hibernate inside during the winter. Pretty neat stuff.

After the caves, we drove through the Burren. Its an enormous area of land that's just covered with massive amounts of limestone. That was pretty neat too. Everywhere you drive you see these stone walls. They're not to high, but they literally go for miles. Some, God knows what they use for. Others keep in locals sheep, goats, etc. They were built by hand (well, obviously..) but they aren't held together with anything, just literally stacked rocks. Crazy to think how much time that took to make haha But it was clear where all the rock came from. The main stop was actually to see the Poulnabrone Dolmen, or, 'Hole of Sorrows'. Its a burial site that dates back to about 4200BC. After excavating the site, they found like, over 20 people (men, women, children) buried there along with some various other items like a polished ax, some jewelry, etc. Weird to think how old the thing was, and also wondered how they got the large rock atop the other two way back when.

As you can see, the weather started to get a little overcast. We literally when into the cave with sun and came out to rain. The longest Ireland has ever gone in it's entire history without rain was 12 days. Crazy..

Anyways, out next destination was the Cliffs of Moher. They were amazing, and reminded me of the cliffs of Normandy my dad and I saw in France. Our first 20 minutes or so at the cliffs felt like a hurricane. The wind was whipped and the rain was literally traveling sideways. Nobody wanted to be there, despite how awesome the cliffs were. But thankfully, the rain seized for the last 20 minutes or so and we got to take some better pictures. The wind, however, was still nasty so I look awful in the picture I had someone take of me. Therefore, it's not going up here haha. Enjoy the view, though..

Left the cliffs, and went to a local pub in this really small village. You went up to the carvery and asked for whichever main dish you wanted..chicken, beef, sausage, etc. Aside all of them were boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, and an assortment of onions, peppers, zucchini, squash, etc. At first I assumed you picked what you wanted but the guy just scooped on everything and covered it all with gravy. I gravitated towards the scones at the end of the line and was told by the cashier that I had to get some of the homemade raspberry jam with it. For like, 10.50 euro we got all that. We all devoured it, and I would say it was my best meal since I've been here. Sooooo good, and the jam was awesome too. 

As we left the village, it was getting very very windy out. So our tour guide decided to take a risk and drive us down to the coast. The small, narrow road that leads to the coast had been closed for the past few weeks because a French movie company has been filming there. Lucky for us, it was open for the first time that day. Our tour guide texted the other buses behind them to let them know, but they had already passed the entrance, so we were literally the only people there. This was my favorite part of the trip. The waves were violently crashing down on the rocks and we were literally standing right on top of the rocks getting splashed. I snapped a few photos, and then my camera died. It was the last stop on the trip though, so..(Should have listened to my Mom and charged it last night haha but I felt that two bars of battery was good enough...I know you're shaking your head right now Ma :) 

We then rode the hour trip back to Galway, basically all asleep. We didn't even do much walking the entire day but for some reason everyone was so tired. I, for one, got back and hit the bed for a nap. Here are a few other random pictures from the day and I'lllllll be blogging again soon. Cheers.

Luke

Sun?!

Today was one of those days that you had nothing going, but turned out to be really fun.
We all slept in quite a bit, but when we finally woke up we looked out the window and actually saw sunlight. It was awesome out. Few of the guys went golfing, few others had class, and the rest of us went out and walked the streets to find a good lunch (fish and chips..again)

Once we returned, I got on the phone and started calling some tour companies for different rates to the Cliffs of Moher (they're what you see on the background of my blog). One company lowered their price to 13 euro/student and they're going to pick us up right in front of our apartment complex. I'll be sure to post pictures tomorrow.

After arranging that, we went down to Galway Bay to play some soccer with our Italian friends. The weather was still awesome, despite raining a bit earlier in the day.

The end of the bay was filled with swans (just like you told me, Joe). We were all standing right there and they all swam over to us thinking we had bread or something. This little Irish boy was there with his mother and he was having a ball with the swans - yelling and chasing after them. So funny.

Then we played some soccer on these enormous Gaelic Football fields. In the middle of our game someone looked over and noticed a rainbow out over the bay so I snapped a few pictures. I wish it'd stay like this the entire time we were in Galway, but..the rain is part of the experience I suppose.

Hope all's well and look forward to showing you all pictures from the Cliffs tomorrow. Cheers.

Luke