Ok, I'm just doing the weekend here cause otherwise it'll get intimidatingly long. The next one will be about my flatmates and classes I promise. And then I'll be caught up, so be excited!!
Day 7: My first Saturday
Aaaahh the joy of sleeping in on a Saturday is something irreplaceable...especially when I haven't been able to sleep in the whole time I've been here. It was very relaxing and mainly consisted of putting up photos, updating this, skyping people and talking to Byron (since Byron and my dad still haven't gotten skype *glare*). Other than that I tried to explore St. Finbarre's Cathedral because it's so beautiful but it was CLOSED. Huh? Weird right? Oh well, I figured I'd just try later. Wound up walking around and exploring a bit of the city and then going back and having a movie night with a couple friends.
Day 8: Gaelic Football and Irish pizza
So the Irish have their own sport called Gaelic football. It's been described to me (via my dear friend Wikipedia and locals) as a combination of rugby, basketball, and football (soccer). It's the second fastest moving game after hurling, and dude they're not kidding. They play it on a football pitch but the goals are different. They kinda look like American football goals with the H shape, but there's a net in the lower half where players can kick it in. So teams get 3 points for scoring in the net and only 1 for kicking it or punching it over the crossbar. Unlike football, they don't dribble the ball with their feet. They carry it and every 3 steps have to bounce it off the ground (like dribbling in basketball), "solo" it (bounce the ball off their own foot back into their hands), or pass/shoot it. It's insane.
Anywho, there was a match of county Cork vs county Kerry, Cork's archenemy...mainly cause Kerry borders Cork, so the closest counties always have more tension. It was the all-Irelands, so a pretty big deal. Bethany and I got our red on (Cork's color) and went to a pub to watch. Oh goodness. Definitely a good way to experience Irish culture. We were surrounded by screaming drunk Irish men who would make the whole pub seem like it was going to erupt everytime Cork scored. It was great fun, really. The silence that ensued whenever Kerry scored was also highly amusing :) Sadly, Cork lost by 4 points, but kudos to them because Cork got a net goal and Kerry didn't at all...and let me tell you, net goals are hard as heck to pull off.
After the match Bethany and I banded together in our confusion and frustration with the UCC timetables. GAH. It's not necessarily worse or better than our system in the states, just different and a tad confusing to figure out. Especially when your classes aren't on it and you have it the next day...
When hunger struck we ordered our first Irish pizza!! Yes, we know we are goofs for being excited about that, but oh well. It was fun :) And just for your info, the pizza tastes the same as in the states, they even have Domino's over here.
Ok, on to the next post so as not to overwhelm you in one fell swoop.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment