IRISH FRIENDS!

I've stayed up til almost 4 in the morning and woken up easier than I did this morning after a weekend away at Killary. My body is so tired and sore no part of me wanted to move haha. Nonetheless, I was up and ready in time to go to my 9:15 Sociology lecture this morning. I was brave this morning and went and sat next to one of the girls I was grouped with last week for seminar and talked to her for a bit before class started. She is very nice but it was really just a short conversation and then we ended up having a guest lecturer who you had no option but to pay attention to. He talked to us about suicide practically the entire time so it was a bit of a downer lecture. His way of lecturing makes your hand cramp. He doesn't use the board or any type of visual, he just talks. However, he talks slow and pauses for good amounts of times very often to give you time to write what he's just said. But he literally has it down to a science. You have enough time in his pauses to write what he's just finished saying and you honestly write constantly the entire lecture!!!

After lecture I had an hour's time before my sociology seminar so I figured that was enough time to attempt to tackle the library. I went to the information desk and the lady there was incredibly nice and helped me a ton. She even helped me find the books hidden away behind the sea of computers! I was able to find one of my sociology books and checked it out, made a few notes on the Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution and Urbanization (these are the things we were going to discuss in the seminar) and had just enough time to head to the seminar. Once we got there we did the same thing as last week. The prof split us up into groups of four and asked us to discuss what we had read about. My group talked about the different topics for about 5 minutes and then I was bombarded with questions about America. One of the girls was sooo funny...she said that if she could choose she would be American because it is so glamorous and they have so much fun! It was me and four other girls and they all wanted to know everything about what they called "red cup parties." They've seen in movies (and the one girl watches Greek...I think she knew more about our greek system than I did and they don't even have that here haha) where all the college parties everyone uses the party cups and they have always wanted to go to a "red cup party." So two of them gave me their names and said to add them on Facebook and I'm going to help them throw a "red cup party" and they said they'll have to take me out and make me do shots with them. Their names are Brea and Aisling (pronounced Ashlyn) and at one point Aisling was talking about something and one girl turned to me and said, "Do you know what she is saying?" I said yes because I actually did and she said, "I don't know what she's saying half the time!" I explained that you get used to following a conversation even though you miss a word here and there haha. Aisling has a very thick accent and the two are good friends so they talk very fast to one another. BUT....you know what this means? I'VE FINALLY MADE SOME IRISH FRIENDS! It's taken me almost a month...but looks like I'm getting there. :)

After class I headed back to my room and on the way I stopped to check the mail and had two pieces of good news! One of the letters was from Ulster Bank letting me know that my wire from the states had gone through (yay money) and I also got another letter in the mail from Kay with MORE PICTURES! :) There is a possibility that I also went into the convenient store and bought caramel squares too. I was getting ready to snuggle down and watch a movie when I got a message from Ally on Facebook asking if I wanted to go with her to Tesco. I didn't have anything I needed but I didn't have anything better to do so I went along. I ended up buying a pair of wellies...which I had wished I had this morning, a sewing kit because I have a whole in a pair of leggings, and a newspaper so that I can do my political science assignment. Then, when we were headed out I mentioned that I really wanted to get a couple more towels because I only brought one here with me. We took a taxi back home to put our stuff away and decided to take a trip into Belfast so I could get towels and Ally could get a blanket she saw at Primark that she wanted. We road the train!!! It was my first time on the train and it wasn't that bad. On the way there it was very quick. It took a while coming back because we were coming back around the same time everyone was getting off work.

I came back to my room and am starting to really feel myself getting sick again...I thought it was just going to be another cold but I have been really light headed and getting the chills a lot. I took a shower and just sat on the floor under the spray to get warm and that seemed to help a bit. I've also been drinking a lot of tea (but that isn't straying too far from the norm). Jessi and Rachel just got back from Rome and Jessi's friend Mo from home also got here today and will be staying for the next 10 days. Jessi said she's a "redread" which is a red head with dreads lol. She's very nice and we just got done spending about an hour in our common room talking and eating dinner and drinking tea. We also had some type of cake for dessert that was really good! Now I'm back in my room getting ready to snuggle down and watch Hot To Train Your Dragon and HOPEFULLY fall asleep. It's only 9:30pm but I don't feel well and sleep usually helps. I don't have class Tuesday's until 1:15pm so that will be nice.

I forgot to mention yesterday in my blog about a fact I learned when we were drinking our guinness at the end of our hill walk. I don't know why exactly the conversation came up but if you ever come to Ireland do not order a Black and Tan at a pub. Our guide explained it a little...but I wouldn't repeat what he said without messing it up so I googled it and this is what I found out:

Black and Tans is the nickname given to the British paramilitary force, largely made up of English WWI veterans, formed to suppress the Irish Independence movement in 1920 and 1921. The Black and Tans employed brutal tactics in an attempt to suppress the Irish Republican Army's guerilla war, massacring civilians and burning Irish towns. They were called "Black and Tans" due to their khaki military trousers and darker police uniform shirts. As a result of their mistreatment of the Irish people, Black and Tan is pejorative term in Ireland and calling someone a Black and Tan is an insult. Ordering a Black and Tan in a pub in Ireland with an American accent might not be taken as insult, but would certainly be considered quite culturally ignorant. To bring it back home, ordering a Black and Tan in today's Ireland would be like ordering a Red Coat in early 19th century America. So order a Half and Half instead. Similar to a Black and Tan, it is half Guinness Stout and half Harp Lager, making it all Irish.

Nice little fact for you!! Cheerio!!