Week One (Part Two)

On Saturday, Hannah, Moira and I walked along the coast of the Galway on the Atlantic Ocean. It was gorgeous! It reminded me of going to Florida because of the smell of salt water; however, I don’t Florida gets nearly as cold. We walked up and down the coast for about two hours and it rained three different times. Thank goodness for my new red Anthropologie raincoat (And thank you Mom for convincing me that it was a good buy). The pictures from my first post were from this day.

On Sunday, Hannah and I attended mass at the Galway Cathedral. It was breathtaking. My Aunt Anne previously warned me that not many people in Ireland go to church anymore so I wasn’t surprised to see that the church was pretty empty. I would say that there were about 100 people there. I imagined a Sunday night mass at SLU where people have to stand and got a little sad. Something that surprised me was that families let their younger children run wild during mass, climbing over the pews, running up and down the aisle, and jumping into each other. One little girl even went across the aisle, took a lady’s purse, put it around her and swung it back and forth in the middle of the aisle while the priest was giving his homily. It was crazy! When a baby cries at Saint Mike’s, parents take them out into the Narthex or cry room.In comparison, here, they just let them cry which totally drowns out the priest. I felt kind of bad for him.

After mass Hannah and I went to this little waffle house right off campus called Mr. Waffle. One of the best decisions I have made! They have the most delicious waffles. I tried the nutella waffle with whipped cream. I wish I could send some home, but that would be expensive and I probably would have it eaten by the time I got to the post office. I have attached a picture along with Hannah’s mug of dark mocha coffee. So cute!

On Sunday night, a few girls decided we would go to Salthill and jump in the Atlantic Ocean.Now I promise this isn’t some crazy idea (well no, it’s crazy) that we came up with. People do it all the time. See this youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZuDcW-oLJI

Because the tide is highest at 9 AM and 10 PM, those are the two times to go. Of course the girls I went with thought 9 AM was too early a time to get up so 10 PM it was. So we headed out. Some girls bought some Bulmers along the way to warm themselves up for after the jump, but as for me I had my hat, gloves, scarf, wool socks, boots and two jackets on. People on the street must have thought we were going to Antarctica. If they only knew we were jumping in the Atlantic Ocean. After the 40-minute walk, we were finally there. This is when my Dad’s voice entered my head. “This is stupid and dangerous, Molly. It is dark out and you don’t know what is down there. What if there are rocks at the bottom? No, you are not going.”

“Okay, Dad. You’re right (like always). I won’t go.” End of conversation. For my fellow Twilight fans, I don’t know how many of you that are left, but I felt a little like when Bella heard Edward’s voice when she did something dangerous in the book “New Moon.” It’s good to know, Dad, that no matter wherever I go I will always hear your voice in my head looking out for me.

There were seven of us girls all together and a total of four jumped in. I promised them that I would come back and jump when it is light out. I feel like that is the safest bet.

On Monday, Teresa Broderick, my mom’s first cousin, met me for lunch. Her parents, Aunt Annie (my grandpa’s sister) and Marty Joe came as well. It was so wonderful to see her. For those that don’t know, Teresa lived in the Chicago area for 17 years and just moved back this past February. We all miss her back home! Anyways, it was so nice to see a familiar face and catch up. We went to Marty Joe’s favorite little restaurant in Galway city, Galway Bay Café.Cute name, don’t you think? Of course a meal would not be complete without a little dessert so we stopped for little ice cream cone. It was so delicious! It was so rich and creamy, much better than soft-serve in the US. Nana, you would have loved it! But I’m sure you’ve had and remember the ice cream here in Ireland. We should try and find a way to bring it back to Chicago. After lunch, they showed me where the bus and train station was. This is where I will catch the trains and buses to take me into Dublin and other parts of Ireland. They needed to catch the next train back into Ballinasloe so we said our goodbyes but not before they made sure I was safely secured into a taxi and on my way back to my apartment. They invited Hannah and I this weekend to stay with them in the country and see everyone. I am so excited!! My next post will be about my weekend there. I apologize for the length of these posts. I just want to fill you in on as much as I can. I promise I will post more frequently so they aren’t quite as long. Hope all is well back home!

Love, Molly