Dia Duit!

Hey y'all!
Sorry I didn't post last week, but all that week included was getting settled into classes and let's be honest, that wouldn't have been a very exciting blog post!
But, I've been asked by quite a few people what I'm doing here so I figured I'd share. We all know that this is my second time back at school and most of the general education courses I took during those first two years don't all count toward my new major this time around which is Early Childhood and Elementary Education with a concentration in English and History. I was pretty frustrated by this after AmeriCorps when I figured that out but God works in mysterious ways sure enough, I'm really glad things have worked out as they have. Without those extra gen ed's that I need I wouldn't have been able to come to Ireland. Also, for Elementary Education majors, you need a concentration so I chose English and History which works out wonderfully with the courses offered here. Now, to the cool thing I'm really excited about! NUI Maynooth (my university) offers international students the opportunity to earn a certificate in Irish Studies while here. What is that you ask? Not much of anything really, but the courses that are required to receive the certificate fall in perfectly with the courses I need to take while I'm here. So I figured, why the heck not!?! Everyone loves a good certificate! In order to receive the certificate you must take two required classes, Introduction to Irish Studies and Irish Language, and then take two more courses that are about anything Irish. So, I'm taking both of those (as you probably guessed from my heading which means God be with you or hello) and I'm also taking a course on Women in the Celtic World, an English course on Victorianism to Modernism, and (the nerd in me is SO excited about this one) a history course entitled Gender and Emigration in 19th Century Ireland. I'll tell you more about that class as we get to do/see more! They set up their classes here differently than we do at home so I have class on Tuesdays from 10-11, 2-4, and 5-6; on Wednesdays from 10-11, 1-2, 2-3, and 3-5; and on Thursdays from 10-11, 11-12, and 1-3. Worked out AWESOME!!! Four day weekends! I'll take it!:) Oh, the last thing I want to say about classes here is that America is doing it ALL wrong book wise. In one semester at FMU, the average price a student will pay for five classes worth of books is around $500. I'm taking five classes here and I've spent less than 150 euros. They find readings online or post them online for you and only make you buy the books you will use regularly.
House wise, our apartment is finally full. Drum roll please...... And the statistics are as follows, two Chinese students, one Russian, and four Americans. We're sharing three bathrooms, two fridges, and one microwave but so far we haven't had any problems (knock on wood). Everyone is getting along really well. I sort of wish we had some Irish students here also but it's nice having such a variety regardless. Speaking of the Irish, they sure can have fun! Back home, Thursday night is college night. Here, Monday night is college night at the club, Wednesday night is college night at a pub/club, and Thursday night is yet another college night at a different pub/club. I tried to participate in these nights but I think my old bones can't handle it! I do however, LOVE the live music at the pubs and the people watching is pretty epic!
On to the next! NUI Maynooth also has a Clubs and Socs Day (which was on Thursday) where all of the clubs (sporting groups) and Societies (non sporting groups) have little booths set up and you go around and sign up for the ones you want to join. I joined the American Football club, the Equestrian club (which takes you on weekend getaways all over Ireland to ride!), and the Rovers club (which goes hiking, camping, rock climbing and other things all over Ireland). I also joined the Christian society, a Christian volunteering society, the Irish society (which offers free Irish language tutors and they go on trips!), and the History society. So far, the Rovers are the only one that have offered anything to do so soon so I went to a movie night with them on Thursday and then yesterday we went hiking! We went to Glendalough and it was awesome!

Here we are just arriving. At this point in time, I didn't realize what awaited me... ie- a ten mile hike up a wet and cold mountain.

Look how pretty it is!!!

It was fun climbing over the rocks!

At this point, I realized what I'd gotten myself into. If you know me, you know I'm clumsy and trip a lot. I could just see me being the ignorant American who tripped and fell at the top of the mountain which meant that everyone else would have to carry me down...

Luckily, I made it to the top with many trips but not a single fall! But then we had to go down a hundred bazillion catrillion fee fi fo fillian stairs...

Made that too! And then the last leg of the journey was past a beautiful waterfall! You can tell I'm exhausted!

It was exhausting, especially since I haven't hiked since AmeriCorps over a year and a half ago. But the views as I went were amazing. And when I saw the whole view at the end, I felt really good being able to see what I had just overcome.

Got home last night at six, ate some dinner, showered, and fell in my bed. Slept about 15 hours! I feel AWESOME!!! Now it's on to homework... But before that, I figured I'd upload some pictures of me and my friends. They are definitely making this experience even more awesome.

Oh, and I found a cat who rode on my shoulders and hung out in my room for a while:)

So blessed.
xoxo,
B