Best day ever...

So today was probably the best day I've had so far in this great Emerald Isle. I'm going to lump last night into it, too, because it really started around 9 pm last night. I was a little tired of going out on the town so often, so I decided to stay in. Immediately, I was contacted by four people on Skype- Chelsea, my friend Andrew from home, Tiffany, and my parents (okay, so that makes five people). It was SOOO good to talk to all of them. I hadn't talked to my mom at all since I got here, and it was good to hear her voice. Dad even got the dog to bark into the microphone! Haha.

So I went to bed really happy that I had heard from those folks. I woke up today and decided to go downtown in order to buy everything I need. I've been putting off getting things, but I had to make a trip to get my school books anyway, so I figured it was then or never. So I spent four hours running around a town that I only semi-know, searching for things like a rain jacket and a hair straightener. I got "lost" a few times- lost only in the sense that I went down streets with which I wasn't familiar. But I got to where I needed to go, AND I found a lot of cool shops in the meantime. For example, the ritzy boutique where I found the perfect rain jacket, or the freetrade coffee shop where I bought incense and was given a brochure for this really cool arts festival in October. Or how about stumbling across the open air market outside of the boys' school? Or turning the corner and bumping into an outdoor store that made my heart leap with the familiarity of the mountains and home? I found everything I needed, including an obscure book for class about Irish slang and the hair straightener I've been searching for since I got here. Plus, taking time to myself, with no agenda, was brilliant. I needed to settle back into my own skin for a little while, especially because of all of the cultural pressure I'm facing to be someone I'm not.

After catching the bus back to my apartment, I spent some time with my roommates and took a shower. Then I went to a get-together at another French girl's place. At first, there weren't many people there, but after about an hour, the place was packed with international students. My WCU friend Garrett and I taught people how to play the card game Bullsh*t, and we played an international version of Uno (international meaning we made up new rules because everyone plays it differently). Apparently, the security guard wasn't happy with all the noise, so eventually the party got shut down, but we just moved to another place and kept hanging out. I met so many new people and had a lot of great conversations. Plus, we weren't at a bar or club spending tons of money on booze. It was a lot of fun, and now I have 20 more friends than I had before tonight. So really, it was probably the best day I've had yet. Tomorrow I think we are all going down to a pub where they play traditional Irish music. I also want to see if I can download a podcast of the sermons back at Pinedale. The general Irish population is Catholic, and nondenominational Christian churches aren't really around. And I don't think I can go three and a half months without church. So we'll see.

I want to thank everyone again for reading this blog. I have a mailing address too, if you wanted to mail something. I'm not going to publically post it, but if you email me at rathkatie@gmail.com, then I'll send you the info! Thanks!