Rugby Craic and Rainy History

As is becoming the norm in Galway, the past two days have been jam-packed with new experiences, and since I know I'm not going to be able to update this daily once the semester starts in earnest, I'll probably move towards trying to make themes out of my life rather than include every little detail. And if that doesn't work, I'll go back to rambling about whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment.

Yesterday afternoon, after returning from a successful phone-shopping spree (it's really fancy), one of my roommates called up our landlord with a list of everything in the apartment that wasn't working- I've detailed this somewhere below. Though he couldn't make head or tail of the issues, he called in the VP who let me in on the first day and she soon sorted out all of the issues: washing machine door won't open? Take off the cover, it'll still work; oven doesn't heat up? Wrong setting, girls. Microwave smokes up? Don't put it on grill. TV won't turn on? Push this button. Oh.

So while Tona went all tough Russian on the room, Oliver (that's the landlord) set about to chatting with us. I learned that my immigrant great-great-grandparents' name, Gavin, basically means 'Smith', all about the history of our building, which is really old, and about a rugby game happening a few hours later between Galway's own Connacht and the Welsh Dragons, which was supposedly drawing a crowd of seven to eight thousand. 

Well- there weren't quite that many people there, but the stadium was still packed with die-hard Connacht fans! One of the girls from next door knew an Irish guy who showed us all the way there, and though we probably still stuck out like Americans "I think they just got a touchdown? Now they're doing the head-butty thing," and I'm still mostly sports-illiterate in any setting, it was an awesome experience. One of my favorite things about Galway so far is how much is within walking distance: school, scenery, sports, shopping...saloons, to continue the alliteration. And at one of the latter later that night, we saw a live band! That's not even counting the plentiful numbers of solo or duet street performers on every corner in this arts-drenched city. The amount of energy this place possesses is fantastic for something still so picturesque.

Perhaps that has to do with the sheer amount of time that Galway's been around to gather strength and collect it's resources into something wonderful. Around midday today I went to a lecture on campus for new international students all about the history of the area, followed by a walking tour of those streets that have run the same route for 400-some years. While I won't even attempt to recreate the very funny, tounge-in-cheek presentation, people have been living on this land for almost 10,000 years (by comparison, 1776 was 237 years ago- Molly or Amy if you ever read this take note of the lucky number), and the main shopping mall I've already gone to several times is built around a medieval tower, the remnants of which are still there. In the middle of a food court. No big deal.

Classes start tomorrow- well, one class for me, if I can find it. (ENG doesn't stand for English building, but Engineering, glad I realized that...) It'll be a very different campus with all of the regular students there, sort of like freshman year all over again. So goodnight for now, I'll update again when I can, and thanks for reading. :) Slainte!