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Welcome to the Limerick section!
In this part of the website you can find entries about my internship in Ireland which will take from August 21 until December 24! (so I’ll be the Christmas gift this year!)
Where in Ireland am I exactly? In Limerick, which is at the west coast of Ireland.
In Limerick I will be studying at the Mary Immaculate College (Or the Mary I as the Limerick people call it) with my dear classmate Saskia!
Since you can't react directly to my posts in the Limerick section, please leave me a message in my guestbook! I am looking forward to your reactions to my adventures here just as much as you are looking forward to hearing about my adventures ;)
Ciao, Punkwillow
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| Day 72 & 73: Halloween!! (and the day after) |
31 October: Today was the day of our super cool Halloween Party!
But first, we had our first international bake sale! We sold things we baked in the library to collect some money for the international society and the trips that are to come. In the end we sold for 145 euro, not bad right?
At about 17.00 Saskia returned from Dublin and we finished the last decorations in our apartment. Cleaned the shelves, placed all sofas against one wall, placed candles in all the right places, put some food on the tables, and waited for the guests to come.
The first guests were an hour early, and Saskia and I were still dressing up. The left again to get some more alcohol and came with more people and the party was ready to get started! I don’t know if I already mentioned this, but alcohol here in Ireland is very very expensive. So when we’re having parties, we have it the American way, everybody just takes their own alcohol.
I was dressed as a vampire, and to be as white as possible, I put paint on my face, and trust me, after some time when the paint was dry it looked dis-gus-ting, but I was too lazy to wash it off :p
I had a cloak and fangs, and after Saskia thought of the food colouring, I also had a red mouth as if I was just having a vampire style midnight snack.
With the food colourings we also made our drinks get nice disgusting colours and I told people that it was dragon blood or something else weird :p
The night basically consisted of drinking, dancing and singing, and came to an end around 3, when most of the people left. I myself went to bed at 4, and Inge kicked out Akili at 7 in the morning.
1 November: The actual beginning of the month Samhain (in Irish). Today I washed my hair 3 times, and there still is black hair dye in it, and the food colouring also likes to stick to my skin :S
We had two lessons with just international students today, and it was pretty funny to see all those small sleepy eyes in the classroom. I myself was smart and drank loads of water before going to bed, so I didn’t have a hangover or anything in the morning. (I need to remember this for all the other parties to come :p) | | Wed Dec 12, 2007 18:23:10 | | Leave Your Comment - 5 Comments |
| Day 63 till 71: Movies, 60’s, 70’s and Pumpkins |
22 October: This morning it was really hard to get up, but I proved to be a good student and I managed to be at my lesson at 10, in time! We had a two-hour break afterwards and went home to have breakfast. After that, more lessons, till 6, and afterwards some grocery shopping and a society meeting to decide when we would have what next trips. (Belfast, Galway and Cork)
23 October: Today nothing special happened, just same old boring Tuesday ;)
24 October: Today there has been some heavy cleaning in our apartment! The apartment was a complete mess, and we had to clean it before Saskia’s parents would arrive in this ‘shit-hole’ ;) So we’ve been good girls and really cleaned everything that we could think of. Saskia even cleaned the inside of the showers, wearing a towel to cover her mouth as the fumes of the cleaning stuff were attacking her lungs ;)
25 October: Saskia left to Dublin to pick up her parents and I went to school and decided on what I wanted to eat. I had the most simple food ever, chicken, broccoli and potatoes. Easy easy.
I also went to the city with Thomas, Mandy and Alicja, to but some clothes for the 60’s and 70’s party. In the end I had quite a cool outfit ;) You’ll see in the pictures.
Also today my roommate Magdalena had three friends over, they’ll stay until the 1st of November, so it will be very crowded in here! But well, the more people the more fun right?
26 October: Today Daisy came over to visit me! She’ll stay here for two nights and enjoy my student life in Limerick ;) We went to see a movie, Stardust, which was really cool! Did some shoppings, went home, and saw another movie, shooter, which was also pretty good, but not as good as stardust.
27 October: Today I think I’ve seen more streets of Limerick than I have so far. Daisy and I just wandered around the city and checked out all the streets we could find. On this tour we also found some cool shops that we simply had to check out. And I even found something cool for Radu in one of them =D
In the evening there was Alicja and Verena’s Birthday party with the theme: 60’s and 70’s. It was quite busy but it was a cool party!
28 October: Today we didn’t even sleep that long after the party, we woke up at like 10, and soon after that Saskia and her parents came walking in, with all of us still wearing our sleeping/home stuff, not really prepared for the visitors yet.
Saskia’s parents had a car, so we ‘abused’ them and went to the Tesco with them, (and on our way there we dropped Daisy at the bus station) buying loads of stuff that we wouldn’t buy of we’d have to carry it. Or well, we would have bought it, but it would take way more effort to get it home.
We also bought some pumpkins, and in the evening we couldn’t resist and we started carving our first pumpkins ever. The result was really cool!!
29 October: Today/night Saskia slept on the sofa and I agreed with her to sleep on the floor the next day, so she could sleep in my bed. We didn’t have any school today, so Saskia and I spent our day carving the second pumpkin. As Saskia was going to go to Dublin on the 30th of October, this was the last day to get our apartment done for the party, with some help of Saskia’s parents we got the apartment in a nice Halloween mood quite fast.
30 October: I had to get up really early today to go pick up Inge from the airport today. When we came home again Saskia and her parents were already awake and almost ready to leave to Dublin. Inge and I went back to bed as we were both really tired. (no, I didn’t sleep very comfortable in the floor to be honest). | | Tue Dec 11, 2007 16:48:46 | | Leave Your Comment - 2 Comments |
| Day 62: Aran Islands Trip |
October 21: Today we went to the Aran islands! (again for me, but for the rest the first time)
We had to get up at 6 in the morning as our bus was leaving at 7 from the bus station, which is about a 5 minute walk from here. We rented a private bus to make sure that we would all fit into the bus, and that we’d arrive in time in Rossaveal from where our ferry was leaving.
After we made sure everyone was there, and had paid me, we all got in the bus, and were on our way. The bus trip took about 2,5 hours which isn’t that bad at all! Just a little further than Galway we made a short stop at the seaside for pictures, stretching legs and fresh air. We also took the opportunity to hand the bus driver some cameras and make a group picture of us.
As we arrived to the harbour, we had a nice surprise as it turned out that group leaders got free tickets for the ferry!! That saved us 80 euro!
The trip on the ferry was super cool! You were able to stand on the deck and every time the ferry hit a wave, there was a big splash of water, giving us all a free shower...
The coolest part though was that a helicopter was doing a rescue action on another ferry nearby, and after some time also came to our ferry. A hell of a noise, but damn cool to see! (and kind of scary as well, imagine that thing crashing down on you :p)
When we arrived at the Island I talked to Bertie (The guy I had a nice deal with to take us around the Island) and we agreed on where to meet, at what time. We first had some time to buy some breakfast and coffee and then the trip started! We had two little vans, and Saskia and I were in the van with Bertie, who is completely insane, but so cool =D
The first thing we went to see was the 7 churches, Na Seacht Teampaill, what are actually just 2 churches, but well Irish logic I suppose? I just couldn’t resist this cute walls and I simply had to climb them (and crawl in small window openings)
Then we went on to the most north part of the Island where we enjoyed the sight of waves crashing into the stones. Here we just had a short picture stop and then hurried on to the next stop, Dun Aengus. At the stop we saw an ogham stone and tried to read what it said, but neither Saskia nor me knew the alphabet by heart.
Also at Dun Aengus the leaders of the group had free entry! I want to be the group leader more often ;) To get to the actual Fort of Dun Aengus you had to walk for about 20 minutes, but it is really really worth it! I’ve already been here a week and a half ago, but I was still completely amazed by the beauty of the place. I’ve been laying on the edge of the cliff for about 3 minutes non stop, just watching the waves crashing into the cliffs under me, and create foam.
After Dun Aengus we took the beach-road back to Kilronan where our ferry would depart. On our way we passed the seal colony, but the tide was in and we saw just two seal heads.
Our ferry departed at 17.00 and everybody was really tired from the trip, so almost everybody was sleeping in the ferry.
In Rossaveal our private bus was already waiting for us (a lot of people must have been very jealous of us because of that, as they had to hope there was still a spot for them in the regular bus). Three hours later we were back in Limerick and I was so tired that I went to bed soon after and fell asleep in a deep deep sleep. | | Tue Dec 11, 2007 15:46:15 | | Leave Your Comment - 3 Comments |
| Day 55 till 61: Pure laziness (and an essay) |
14 October: Today was the day of our big Leann Duchais essay. Since we’re internationals, our essay just has to count 4-5 pages, whereas the nationals have to write an essay of 15 pages!
I typed my essay and ended up with 4 pages, but since they use double spacing here for essays, I actually had 8 pages, not bad right?
I am pretty curious about my mark, I wonder if the teacher will mainly concentrate on the things we say, or how we say it. I hope he will pay more attention to the first thing, as I’m sure that then my mark will be better.
Since we didn’t really want to start with the essay, today was also the day of cleaning our apartment, and everything is nice and shiny again.
15 October: Suzanne, Saskia’s friend arrived today to keep us company here in Luimneach for a week. I was at school while Saskia went to pick Suzanne and I received a very funny sms about another funny experience in an Irish bus.. Yeh, some people have sex in the back of a bus. (and no, I DO NOT talk about Saskia and Suzanne here)
In the evening we had a meeting with the society and made some plans for the upcoming weeks. We’ll have our first bake sale on Halloween (31 October) and our first big trip to the Aran Islands will happen on the 21st of October.
16 October: During the Irish lesson today we had a real cool surprise! Our teacher took his banjo to the lesson and gave us a little private concert in class. This mini set took about 15 minutes, out of a 45 minute lesson, so not bad at all. (our teacher is 29 by the way, can’t remember if I already told you) and he is a really cool fellow.
17 and 18 October: Wednesday is officially the most boring school day of the week, and shares its first place with the Thursday. On Wednesday we have just 2 lessons, and two free lessons in between, so mostly we get tired during those two hours and at the end of the day are super tired.
On Thursday we have EFL, which is the most crappy subject EVER, and the theory lessons of Irish, which are interesting, but no input from the class is asked, so we just listen listen listen all lesson long, which is tiring!
19 October: Honestly.. I can’t remember what have I been doing today :$ probably nothing noteworthy, cause in that case I would remember ;)
20 October: Today I slept long, and in the afternoon went to the bus station to pick up Saskia who just returned from Dublin after bringing Suzanne away, to do some shopping for the trip to the Aran Islands. I felt like a mother/teacher who buys things for her little children’s school trip. Cans of drink, crisps and loads and loads of chocolate.
In the evening Saskia and I weren’t able to sleep, so we watched Scream 3 (yes, Neve Campbell still is one of my favourite actresses) and in the end went to bed at 3... | | Thu Nov 15, 2007 13:35:06 | | Leave Your Comment - 4 Comments |
| Day 47 till 54: Radu here! |
6 October: Around 21.00 I arrived to the Airport and had to wait almost 3 more hours before Radu (my girlfriend for those of you who don’t know that, which I can hardly imagine) would arrive. I spent my time with checking the two small shops at the airport, reading some Czech vocabulary, unwrapping my new calendar for 2008 and already reading some pages of it and eating a biiiiiig Sandwich.
Then finally Radu came and we took a cab to the hostel, where we quickly checked in and went to our room, where it turned out we had a bunk bed. Since the bed looked like it was about to collapse even under the weight of just one person, we took both mattresses and made our bed on the floor.
7 October: We got up at about 9 to have breakfast. The breakfast had more things than I’ve ever had so far in a hostel, toast with marmalade/butter, tea, coffee and even fried eggs. Normally all you get is a cup of coffee and a muffin or something small anyway.
The morning we spent with checking out some churches, cathedrals and cute buildings, but we didn’t enter any of them, as it was Sunday, and a lot of churches had mass that we didn’t want to disturb.
The afternoon we spent with shopping, and we ended the city tour with nice dinner at Zanzibaar, where Radu had lasagna and I had pasta with chicken, mushrooms and white creamy sauce. During dinner I told Radu about the surprise I had planned for her: a day at the Aran Island, and we’d get there and back with a small plane! This because Radu always tells me that she wants to fly with me once, and here we go, twice in one day ;)
We went back to the hostel and later went back downtown to have a pint of cider, Radu’s first pint of cider, and she liked it!
Then on the way back to the hostel, Radu had a surprise for me! She took a little box out of her bag, and asked me to marry her!!! Of course I said YES!!
So, dear friends/family/classmates: I am engaged =D *jumps around the room, still all excited about it*
8 October: Today we had breakfast, packed our bags and went to the bus station to fetch the bus back to Limerick.
Once in Limerick we immediately went to City Campus to drop the trolley, and then go to the city to buy some food. Radu made nice Cauliflower soup that I love!!
9 October: Radu and I went to the city to see King John’s Castle and some nice buildings in Limerick. After this we went to school where Radu attended two lessons with me, an tSean Gaeilge and Gaeilge.
For dinner we had pepper steaks, potato wedges and sugar snaps, and Brittany joined in (else she would eat a PJ-sandwich, so this was the better option). Afterwards we wanted to go out, but somehow my door got locked, so we were locked out of my room, where all our things were.
Then it took about an hour to finally get the key to open my door, and by then I didn’t feel like going out anymore.
10 October: Again two lessons, this time History and Leann Duchais. Afterwards we did some shopping and then continued the Limerick tour. Today we also went to the one and only (as far as I know) gay bar in Limerick. A really nice place where I’ll surely go more often for a drink.
For dinner we had pancakes, and shortly after opened a can of cider and went down to Brittany’s apartment because it was her 21st birthday today! Also it was Tove’s 23rd Birthday. Brittany got a bottle of Absinth from Saskia, Radu and me, and Tove got a voucher for the cinema.
Radu and I went to bed before midnight because the next day we’d have to get up early again to go to the Cliffs of Moher!
Afterwards though we heard we’d missed quite some funny things at the party, like a drunk Brittany falling and somehow landing on a car, only to fall of that as well…
11 October: Trip to cliffs of Moher! The third time during my stay here in Ireland :p It was al sunny and bright, until we came closer to the cliffs, and it got more and more foggy. When we arrived to the Cliffs we weren’t able to see a lot, so we went to the information centre and had a cup of soup to warm up, and also outside it warmed up, as it actually became brighter outside!
So in the end we were able to see the cliffs, not as nice as last time, but you got the idea.
Then the worst bus drive I’ve had so far in Ireland came: from the cliffs to Galway. I thought we’d go over a normal road, but it seemed as if we always chose the most crappy option at a crossroad. I normally can handle bus drives rather fine, but now I was getting a little dizzy as well, and I was happy when we arrived to Galway and were able to stand firmly with two feet on the ground again.
The Hostel we were in had a little weird route description, which made us make a little de-tour, but when we found it we were surprised, it was so cute! We had a room with two loose, normal, wooden beds, which was like heaven!
We went out for dinner, and it took is quite a while to find a place to eat, and it turned out not to be so cute at all.. The appetizer was nice: vegetable soup with like 4 kinds of bread with it. But then the main dish came, and instead of a breast filet of a chicken, we got half a chicken on our plate! People who know me, know that I HATE meat with bones in it. So I didn’t even touch the chicken and just ate my vegetables, whish tasted like water, and my potatoes, which were actually really nice.
So later we went to the Mc. Donalds to eat some cheeseburgers to get full after all.
12 October: Getting up early again, seems like my new hobby or something uh? :p we had breakfast, which was even nicer than the previous one! As here you could also grab a glass of orange juice, milk, and cereals.
We packed our bag and put it in the left luggage, as we didn’t want to drag it along with us on the island.
The little bus/van to the airport was right outside our hostel and we were the only people on board. It took about 40 minutes to get to the airport and then the fun began. Check in! yes, even in the smallest airport ever you have a serious check in, and they even need to know your weight!
According to their scale I gained weight, but I am sure that I lost weight, because all my clothes are way looser, and even the pants I bought here in the first week are too loose now. So no way that I gained weight!
The flight was so cool! It was a super small plane, that fit a total of 10 people. It made a hell lot of noise, but it was just for 10 minutes, so my ears didn’t get permanent damage (I hope).
When we arrived at the island we had to walk an hour to come to the biggest town on the island, Kilronan, where we rented bikes and bought something to drink for the trip. The guy at the bike rental told us what way to go, but we missed a road so we went the total wrong way, and instead of going downhill we had to go uphill a lot.
We made a stop at a lighthouse and spent about an hour there, climbing on an old ring fort like thing, making pictures, and scaring away American tourists by telling them we’re gay.
We checked the map and didn’t think we could make it to Dun Aenghus in time to return the bikes, and get to the airport in time. But we tried it anyway, and it worked perfectly! We had to go very fast on the way back to Kilronan, but it was worth it. What a bloody nice place that is!!
You can hear the waves crashing into the rocks, see the mountains of Kerry, and hang over the cliffs and get a nice adrenaline rush.
On our way back to Kilronan we passed the spot where there should be a seal colony, but since the tide was rolling in, we just saw two of those funny creatures.
Before going back to the airport, we went to the Supermacs, yes they even have one of those on the island, unbelievable! (It’s like a Mc Donalds/Burger King, but then cheaper) and then asked a van driver to take us to the airport, since we really didn’t feel like walking that whole distance again. In the van I got a card of the bus driver and got a cheap deal from him for when the MI²S (Mary Immaculate International Society)will go to the Islands. (21 October)
The flight back was again super cool and a some point I wished we could do the trip 3 times as long as it was. At the airport we had to wait for just a couple of minutes for the bus that took us back to Galway. Then we went to the Hostel, grabbed our Trolley, bought a coffee to go, and went to the bus station again.
we arrived back to Limerick at about 21, went out for dinner at the Bank, a very very nice place, went home pack Radu’s bag, and went to sleep.
13 October: The last day of Radu being here *sad* We got up early again because we wanted to see one more thing before going to the airport: Blarney Castle. (have you ever heard of the Blarney stone? It’s in this castle)
we first took the bus to Cork, had some coffee there and went in with the bus to Blarney, which took about 25 minutes to bring us there. Since we had to drag around a trolley, we didn’t actually go up the castle to kiss the blarney stone. But instead of that we checked out the stone garden, where we saw some pretty cool shaped stones.
Arriving back in Cork we had lunch at Zanzibaar again, went to get more coffee, and waited for the bus to the airport. We were actually lucky, because when we arrived to the airport, the check-in had just opened, so there were just 3 or so people in the line, which made everything really fast. Like 30 minutes later, it was crowded at the desks!
At about 16.30 we said goodbye, and I went to catch my bus, while Radu went to personal check and eventually her plane. | | Tue Oct 23, 2007 01:56:48 | | Leave Your Comment - 3 Comments |
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