Hello everyone! I hope everything is going well at home. Ireland is still just as wonderful as it was when I first got here. I am starting to really find my way. Sometimes I forget I am actually in Ireland. I still plan on writing a post about this weekend (Hannah’s aunt and uncle took us to different parts of County Mayo, and let me tell you, it was beautiful); however, I never wrote a post about Galway and how different (or similar) it is to home. So, this post will be a collection of little stories and interesting parts of life here in Galway.
Let me begin by saying that the taxi drivers here are so incredibly nice. They are all cute, little 65-year-old grandpas. For example, when Hannah and I took a taxi home from my friend’s apartment after a night out, the taxi driver, John, took us all the way to the door, waited until we got inside, and then beeped the horn goodbye. They actually care about your safety. Here’s another story to prove this point even further. One day last week, Hannah was walking on Shop Street (the main street filled with restaurants, pubs, and shops in Galway) when our friend Kaitlin texted her to meet her at a place Hannah had never been before. (I had class at this time otherwise I probably would have been with Hannah) After Hannah exhausted her efforts of trying to find this place by herself, she hopped into a taxi that took her to the place she planned to meet Kaitlin. Hannah said that she could find it from here, but the taxi driver insisted on taking Hannah directly to Kaitlin and our other friends. It was a good thing too. It took 10 minutes of driving up and down, street after street to actually find Kaitlin. When Hannah took out her wallet to pay him he told her, “No, no. There is no need to pay me. You were by yourself, and I wanted to make sure you were safe and found your friends.” Isn’t that awesome?After seeing horrible things happening in this world every time I turn on the news, my faith has been restored in humanity to see good, kind-hearted people like this taxi driver. If anyone comes to Ireland, I would highly recommend taking a taxi ride. They are also a great resource for good restaurants, pubs, and shopping.
Now anytime I talk to home I am always asked, “How’s the weather?” So here it is. It rains.Every day. More than once. That I was expecting. I was not expecting, on the other hand, for all the pages in my books to curl due to the moisture in the air, the majority of my clothes to be damp, and to not be able to write in my spiral notebooks because the pages are too wet. Let me tell you, although it costs a small fortune to do laundry here (3€ for one wash, 2€ for a dryer), I appreciate to an entirely new degree clean, dry clothes. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the years when clean clothes would just magically appear on my bed, nicely folded, sometimes even put away or hung up. I apologize for arguing with you when it came to putting my clothes away myself. If my future children ever complain about putting their clothes away, I am sending them on a one-way trip to Ireland. They will only be allowed to come back after they write a blog (or email) apologizing for their attitude.
I haven’t written a lot about my roommates for two reasons. One, there isn’t all that much to say, and two, I don’t know their humor and wouldn’t want to offend them in any way. Still, there is one roommate of mine worth mentioning, Lou Lou. She is my roommate from France, who is so freaking awesome! I love her and want to put her in my suitcase (she would fit; Europeans are so skinny!) and take her back to Chicago. Anyways, one day Lou Lou (her full name is Ludmila) got into a little disagreement with her boyfriend and was kind of upset. (Her computer also broke later that night. Bad day!) So the next day I went to the store and bought her some chocolates. When I gave them to her she was so confused. She also doesn’t speak very good English, but it has gotten a lot better over the last five weeks. I told her, “Hannah and I bought these for you.” She responded, “From me?” “No, no. FOR you,” I said. I then continued to explain that when girls from the United States are upset about boys, their friends buy them chocolate and ice cream to cheer them up. She thought this was so weird. She also thought I only planned on giving her one of the chocolates in the box. When I told her the whole box is for you, she was so surprised. I guess this is why people in the United States are heavier than Europeans.
I forgot to mention that we also have a sixth roommate, Ginger. Ginger is a cat that is always outside our building, waiting by our apartment door so it can sneak in between our legs as we walk inside. One night, as Hannah and I were cooking dinner, Ginger jumps into our kitchen through an open window. She watched us eat dinner, probably hoping for us to share some with her, until she finally gave up and jumped back out the window. We think the people who lived here before us fed her. One of our other roommates Jess works at a veterinary clinic, and she told us that she doesn’t seem too skinny or sick so that she must be getting food from somewhere else. One day, Hannah and I walked into the kitchen to find Ginger taking a catnap (get it?) on our couch. I closed the windows because it started to rain and about three hours later I hear her meowing. I went into the kitchen, opened the window and she jumped right on outside. She’s not a very good roommate. All she cares about it getting a free place to sleep.Even when Hannah tries asking her for advice about boys, she just turns her tail and jumps back outside.
The majority of people know that people in Ireland drive on the other side of the road. (Note: I did not say wrong side of the road for those of you in Ireland reading this) But did you know that people walk that way too. All I can say is, thank goodness I am not driving over here. When I am on my way to class, and I see someone approaching me, I immediately move to the right.Well, they immediately move to the left. So after 10 seconds of the awkward “which way are you going, change your mind, make eye contact, quickly look down, change your mind again, avoid eye contact, possibly change your mind for the third time”, you ultimately pass them and hope to never see them again. Although, in my case, it’s the same person every Wednesday on my way biological psychology.
Side note: The stoplights here have red, yellow and green lights for people crossing a busy street. I know we have the whole countdown with numbers thing, but I thought this was pretty cool. They still have the same meaning. Red = stop, Green = go, Yellow = run.
I guess that’s all I have for now. School is actually starting to require some work (who would have thought?) so it might take me a little longer to update you on my life. I hope that’s okay with everyone. Still, I will do my to be as on top of everything as I can.
Love, Molly
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