Swans of the River Liffey

Whatever is said about my life in Galway so far, one thing is for sure: no two days are the same. Since I've written last, I've had several adventures and new experiences. It's becoming more and more apparent to me that my time here is limited- however huge four and a half months may seem to begin with, I'm already nearly a whole month in. I've really been trying recently to make the most of that, because now that I'm starting to divide up time and plan out weekend trips, I'm quickly realizing how fast the semester can really go.

The other day, I attended a talk by Andy Steves, son of the famous travel guru Rick Steves, who was presenting on how to make the most out of our study abroad time (while also hawking his own 'Weekend Student Adventures' agency). It was pretty informative, and even if I'm not sure I'm going to use his service, he did provide some cool info on getting around and packing light- and how to avoid killer RyanAir fees! Out of the whole talk though, one of my favorite points he mentioned was that the best way to meet local people in your new country (and I've been fairly unsuccessful at this so far) was to follow your passions, continue any hobbies you had back home. It's practical, because then you'll already have common interests. He gave the example of his love for biking that gave him plenty of rider-comrades and took him to watch the Tour de France with new cyclist friends. Of course, anyone who knows me well knows that this is something I'm miserably incompetent in (any readers from my India trip will remember the ill-fated Delhi bike tour when I hit a truck)- and it's funny, since biking is a big way of getting around Ireland without a car. Maybe I'll need to brush up my skills.

So I have been joining societies, slowly and surely, that work with what I'm good at and can talk about. I mentioned the homework club class, but in addition to that I've started going to a local elder-care center with  members of the Ros Geal house, and today I went to a park area with 'Conservation Galway' and planted trees! We were going to clear a path in the woods as well, but the weather, as usual, was awful. I almost didn't go to the conservation day, because I wasn't sure how to get there (no convenient transport to service sites- I find myself missing Van 17 even...) but at the last minute was able to coordinate getting a lift from one of the lovely group leaders. There, I met another American who lives right near me, several Actual Local Irish and a cool professor originally from the UK who I partnered up with to plant about ten baby trees! Since it was a Saturday morning, I was definitely comforted with the Neighbor to Neighbor familiarity of it all. 

I guess what I've really been trying to do is make Galway really feel like my 'home away from home'. A couple days ago I went to a board game and coffee night with my friend Alexa that the Christian Union was holding, and Monday night I'm starting a six-week Global Issues class which I hope will be full of more Irish people. I feel like I'm at a sort of turning point in the trip, that up until now I've been sort of going through the motions and figuring out where I stand. Maybe it's actually still a transition, but maybe the whole semester will be that sort of growing process: we'll see. 

Last night, at a pub for a friend's birthday, the Converse All-Stars (who play in Galway almost nightly and I feel like I'm becoming a groupie for) played a cover of Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days. Having grown up with Bruce under the influence of my mega-fan mom, combined with the lyrics and meaning of that song in particular, was a neat combination of hometown comfort and a push to seize the day. Carpe diem! Never stop exploring.

p.s. The title of this post means nothing yet- but doesn't it have a nice ring? Liffey is the major river in Dublin I fell in love with last weekend, and there are wild swans literally all over this country. The girl who drove me to the conservation site today worked at a swan sanctuary last summer, and it sounded like the coolest thing. So maybe one day I'll write a book about those swans. Reading lots of Joyce recently, I can hardly help but try to romanticize everything.