I wish someone would pay me to do what I want to do

Today makes the fourth Tuesday in a row that I haven't had class. If you recall, my professor had surgery a while ago, and he was supposed to be back last week and wasn't, and then he was supposed to be back this week, but he isn't back today either. SOOO no class for me. Where a few weeks ago I was frustrated and I little lost about how to kill time, now I am thankful for the extra hours. I'm writing essays, looking for jobs, and pulling things together for when I get home.

I'm still looking for work, but I haven't heard back from anyone yet. There are two Salvation Army jobs I think I'll apply for: one in Ohio as a spiritual coordinator/youth ministries person, and one in MA as the Assistant to CRD Director for donor relations operations. Elyse just sent me one from idealist.org (fantastic site for NGO jobs, by the way) for a Development Coordinator of Marketing and Communication for a non-profit in MA. Ha those are all so different.

If anyone has any suggestions or knows of job openings, please let me know! I'll move just about anywhere in the country! I would LOVE to find a job in the next few weeks. Preferably before I leave here, but that's highly unlikely at this stage in the game. Hohum.

I wish I could fast-forward for a sneak peek of how my life turns out. I don't really want to know how I get there, because life is an adventure, and there are many ways God gets us to our destinations. I just want to know what I'll be doing. Not how, not why, not where, just WHAT. Will I end up proving myself wrong and get married and have kids? Will I ever find a job that suits me? Will I be influential and respected? To get to my end, I have to begin somewhere. And that somewhere is most likely with a full-time job. I am willing to go (both physically and otherwise) wherever I need to go to continue down God's path for me. There are just a lot of blank canvases and question marks at this point. But what's new?

What a strange day

Today started out awfully strange. First of all, the dreams are back. I went about a week and a half without having a single strange dream or nightmare, but last night and the night before marked the return of my restless sleeps. Pretty bad timing, if you ask me, considering how busy I'll be in the next month and a half (Why? I'll discuss that later in this post). Even though I wasn't really asleep, I was rudely awoken this morning by a maintenance man who came to check ALL of our smoke detectors (we have 6). So there was no going back to sleep after that mess. I ate breakfast, watched a little TV, and then geared up to go run. As soon as I stepped outside, I knew it was going to be a great run. Perfect temperature, the sun was vaguely shining through the thick cloud cover, a nice breeze. My body was feeling good despite my bad night's sleep and I was eager to get going, seeing as how I haven't run in a few days. I get moving, and after about the first mile of my 3-mile run, I know I need to stop. I walked a little, eventually sitting down on a little stone step, and then it hit me. This wave of nausea washed over me, my head began to pound, and I start seeing black spots. I'm going to pass out or throw up, maybe both, but definitely one of them. I probably sat there for 8 minutes ( I know it seems strange that I know exactly how long without looking at a watch, but when I'm running, my body can feel time. ) before I finally got up. My run was over. I knew it. My brain was so angry; I knew I should be able to keep running, but my body refused. Dejected and a little embarrassed, I turned around to walk/jog the mile back to my apartment.

This has happened to me once before, back after I ripped up my ankle and I was swimming a lot. I don't know if it's dehydration or if I just didn't eat enough, but I carried around hard candy with me a long time after that just in case I needed sugar immediately. Well, I didn't have anything this time. So slowly, carefully, hesitantly, I made my way back home. Worse that the confusion my body was feeling was the shame I felt for not being able to make it through my entire route. Seriously? I'm not a walker. Ask my mom, whenever I go walking with her, I'm always 'casually mentioning' that I'd rather be running, much to her annoyance. :) Oh well, I guess I can't win them all. I may try going again tonight after class.

Speaking of class, I haven't had any in the past two days. As I mentioned in a previous post, my professor had surgery and will not be taking his classes for the next two weeks. Rumor has it that John Tunney, resident early Irish history professor at GMIT, is taking over, but because I don't have any other classes with him, I have no idea if this is true. Instead, I just stayed home the past two class periods. Don't worry, I've still been doing work. I knocked out one paper, one HUGE project, and finished reading a book. I only have one paper left to finish in the next two weeks, and a quiz. I think. Unless something else gets assigned. I need to start figuring out how to do my finals. I've talked to my professors and they both assured me we'd get it worked out. Today is the 6th, and I have about 1 month left here. We better start working it out soon!

I have a lot of things taking my free time in the next month. As promised, let me tell you about my Nov/Dec schedule:

I leave tomorrow for London to see Elyse, and we will be there until Monday night. Immediately when I get back to Galway, I'm meeting Anso's parents who are visiting from France until Tuesday morning.

Elyse and I will meet back up when she flies into Galway late Wednesday night (12th), and she will stay until Sunday (16th) or Monday (17th). Also here next weekend is Oliver, Anso's boyfriend.

The next weekend (Nov 21-23) is the semi-planned trip to Belfast.

Wednesday Nov 26 is the American students' observed Thanksgiving Day, for which I'm in charge of a lot of the food. We're celebrating early because...

Nov 27-30 I will be in Germany with Stephan, Stephen, and Derek.

Dec 1-5 is my last week of classes.

Dec 2 is Stephen's birthday and I'm sure we'll do something fun.

Dec 7 is Stephanie's 21st birthday and I KNOW we're doing something fun.

Dec 9 (or maybe the 8th) I'm throwing a big party as my "Going Away/Graduation" party, which means..

Dec 10 I catch an early bus to Dublin, and I fly back to Charlotte!!!

Oh, but it's not over yet. Dec 11 I'm doing a sleepover with the girls back home, Dec 12 I drive to Boone to pick up Chelsea, then will continue on to Cullowhee where I'll reunite and celebrate with WCU friends. Dec 13, graduation morning, I have rehearsal, and then it's GRADUATION! Dec 14 is my party at home, and then I'm possibly getting graduation pictures taken on Dec 16. Ri-dic-u-lous. But you know, I'm so excited about it all. I love feeling like I'm doing something.

I don't have class until 4, and in the meantime I've got a P31 devotional to work on!

17 days in...

So, anyway, I promised to answer some of the questions I had been asked from all of you... here goes.

1. Is the Irish drinking reputation really true? Yes, yes it is. It's not out of the ordinary to go out every night to a bar or pub or club (or all three). In fact, drinking may start around 3 pm and extend way into the night. The drinking age is 18, and most Irish youths "pre-game" before going out, that is, they have a mini house party and they drink and chat before leaving for town. There are numerous bars, pubs, and clubs in Galway city. Most students say they come here for university because it's considered to be the best city in the country for partying and student life. I assure you, I believe that to be true. When students come back in the fall, the Galway city population swells; 20% of the people are students. Therefore, much of the life around here is focused on making students happy, meaning the clubs and parties and whatnot. The alcohol is expensive, but the longer you're here, you get used to the schedule of specials and who has the better prices which night and so on. I think most new students go crazy without initially realizing how much money they're spending. I'm not used to going out that much, so I've been trying to play it cool, which means I've also not been spending as much money. But I have to say, the Guinness is much better here than in the States.

2. How are the accents? At first, the accents were impossible to understand. But after making considerable effort to hear it as much as I could, it's normal now. Most of the international students agree that we are no longer surprised when someone starts talking in an Irish accent. Ladies, the Irish brogue is only attractive when the guy is 1) attractive and 2) saying something attractive. If he's cursing up a storm or drunk or whatever, not as hot as you'd think.

3. Does everyone have red hair? Actually, we aren't seeing an odd amount of redheads here. Most women dye their hair, so what might naturally be red is now no longer. Two of my classmates explained the Irish look like this- there are three types: the tall and red haired, the shorter, thinner, and dark haired, and the short squat folk who probably aren't 100% Irish. So far, this is generally true. A sub-question here would be: Are the guys cute? Some are, some aren't. It's just like in every other country; there are some amazingly cute guys, but more aren't particularly eye-catching. What is attractive about the Irish is that they are so friendly and helpful, which makes walking up to that one cute Irish guy much easier. :)

4. What are some of the first names? My family joked about meeting people with traditional Irish names like Liam, Ian, Conor, Ronan, Patrick, etc. And though the older people might still be named like that, the younger men and women have been named differently. Now they're Sean, David, Tom, Andrew, James, Patrick, Maureen, Bridget, Ray, Alex, Kathleen. However, I finally met my first Ronan in class the other day!

5. What's the weather like? The Irish have been plagued with their second unusually-wet summer. So since I've been here, it's been pretty overcast and rainy. The temperature hovers around 55-60 degrees. And the wind can be pretty fierce, considering we're right on the water. Every once in a while, like yesterday and today, we get sun.

6. How is school? Classes here are in full swing. I have four- one literature class, one Irish linguistics class, and two archaeology classes. The mentality here is much more laid-back, almost to the point of apathy. So when my professor didn't show up to teach one day, without notice, none of the students seemed to mind. But the lectures have been interesting so far, and I think the work load will be manageable.

7. How is the food? Meat and potatoes is, like you would think, very commonplace here. But the Irish put spins on things so that you don't realize you're eating meat and potatoes, like cooking everything as a stew, or offering fries (what they call "chips") or chips (what they call "crisps") or even mashed potatoes ("potato smash" or "mash"). But most food here is good. We've been trying new things and have liked what we've had so far.

This week will mark the third week of living in Ireland. It's had its ups and downs, but mainly its ups. I'm learning a lot about other people, and also about myself. The last time I was traveling in Europe, I was about to begin eigth grade. I was gone for about three weeks then, too; about this time, I was so ready to go home. Ruben asked me last night if I missed home. The truth is, yes I do miss home. Mainly I miss my family and all the busyness of life. There, I craved alone time with nothing to do; here I'm struggling to appreciate all the time I'm getting. At home, I was never bothered for not going out at night; here you are tormented if you decide to stay home. I miss family dinners and playing games and going to see my aunt at work and stopping at my gramma's for a cup of coffee. It will continue to be hard as the weeks wear on, but let me assure you, I have little pieces of home everywhere, here. I made rice pilaf within three days of being here. I put together the paper chain my little sister helped me cut. As much as I miss the mountains, nature is still surrounding me. I even had a soda the other day that tastes exactly like Fresca! Haha. And I have so many wonderful friends here. Even though those of us whose native tongue is English are a minority, we are so enjoying teaching and learning from the others around us. We are very fortunate to have each other. I think that's good for now. If there are more questions, or you want to share something with me, just drop me a comment! Thanks!

"Do they sell sunshine in Ireland?"

Today was the first official day of classes for all students at GMIT. As exciting as that sounds, it was pretty uneventful. However, it was another great day in Galway, Ireland. I walked out of my front door, only to run into Darin, my neighbor and classmate. He said he didn't have class at nine like I did, but he had to go in anyway to talk to a professor. So on we went. We got outside, and lo and behold, the SUN WAS SHINING! "Quick, take a picture!" "Do they sell sunshine in Ireland?" "And package it for tourists?" "Can we keep it?" As silly as our exclamations were as they rang out over the parking lot, we were surprised to see solar rays. It's been raining so much here, it's depressing. But the natural light set the mood for a pleasant day.

As it turns out, my professor for both my 9 and 11 o'clock classes was out today (incidentally, we didn't find this out until 9:45). So even though I had technically gone to class, I didn't exactly have class. I did find out my schedule for my other classes, so the trip wasn't a total bust. As promised, I have nothing on Wednesday (as it is reserved for "field" trips). My other classes are a little spread out, but that will give me a chance to do some studying and get coffee or lunch in between lectures. I have two two-hour classes; the rest are one hour. Four classes total, three hours each per week = 12 hours of classtime total. Not too shabby. This semester will have the fewest number of hours I've ever taken in a semester. I'm a little nervous about keeping busy, but I also realize that I don't have to be busy. This is vacation, after all.

I came home and ate a little something before heading out for another run. I went farther this time, confident of my route. Turns out that my path heads straight out into the country- sheep, pastures, and all. It was very different from running in Clemmons, or even in Cullowhee. But I liked it. Except that I ran about a quarter mile too far; towards the end, I did something to my knee that forced me to stop running and to walk back. It's pretty sore, but I don't know what I did. I didn't twist it or anything. Oh well, it'll be fine. I'll just take an anti-inflammatory- that's what my mom would tell me to do. :) Two classes tomorrow, playing cards tonight with the WCU guys.

31 hours later...

Man, have things happened since my first post. To start things off the right way, thanks to everyone who prayed or wished me well on the trip over here- I got in safely and I am currently typing from the comfort of my apartment in Galway. But I don't wan't to jump the gun, I'd rather tell you about my trip over here!

In case the nerves didn't shine through in the last post, I'll just outright tell you that I was very anxious about coming to Ireland. Those nerves ate me alive during my 5-hour layover at JFK airport in New York. I bounced around the airport trying to dispel the nervous energy that clouded my mind, but no success. I tried to eat, I tried to watch a movie, I tried talking on the phone, I tried just being still. No matter what I did, I wasn't feeling better. I couldn't even get online and write it out! Oh well. We'll skip forward a bit, to the actual departure from JFK. I was seated with a very nice young many named Henry, a student at SUNY-Buffalo who was traveling to study business in Dublin for a few months. Henry started up a conversation, and before I knew it, his excitement rubbed off and I stopped freaking out so much. Among many fun things on that 7-hour plane ride, I woke up just in time to join Henry in eating breakfast while watching the sun rise over Ireland. It was amazing. I know I've seen the sun set while on a plane, but I've never seen a sunrise from the air. Truly beautiful. And before we knew it, we were in Dublin! Not a lot of sleep on the plane, but I was ready to go!

After being held up momentarily at the passport station (I had to be registered as a student), I grabbed my bag from baggage claim and began to inspect my surroundings. I said bye to Henry, promised to keep in touch, and settled down to wait for my friend Tiffany. Over two hours later, she hadn't shown up yet. Sadly, I had to leave if I wanted to get to the college before the offices closed for the day. I pulled my bags into the cool morning Irish air, took a deep breath, and continued on to the bus parking lot, the coach park. I found my bus, paid my fare, and spent the next four hours alternating staring at the beautiful landscape and staring at the inside of my eyelids. If there's one thing to be said about Ireland, it's so beautiful. Gorgeous green pastures, charming farm manors and homemade stone fences. The fierce gray cumulous clouds rounded out the picturesque scene and touched the painted land with a sense of foreboding; I should have known then...

When I arrived at GMIT and eventually found Helen O'Reilly, she informed me that I really don't have much to do for the next week except to meet my advisors and the other exchange students. Whoo hoo. So here I am, a little depressed, pulling my heavier-than-I-remember bags (I swear someone put rocks in there) up to my apartment complex, where I'm praying that someone will hand me a key to the hotel suite of my dreams. No such luck. I got a key, yeah, but not exactly the mansion of my dreams. For what I'm paying, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's not bad by any stretch, just... different. Don't you love when people use that word? Normally it's a euphemism for something bad, but I really mean that this apartment is just different. For instance, no AC, but that's not necessary for Galway in September. There are no carpets, but beautiful hardwoods. The TV is small, but at least we have one, and it has full Irish cable. There's minimal furniture but a sizeable bathroom. So far, no neighbors. And it was in desperate need of supplies. With the help of about five Irish men and women, I got into Eyre Square in town and did some shopping. Towels, sheets, shampoo, trash bags, toilet paper, cereal. Eyre Square is probably one of the most important places to figure out as far as any type of shopping goes. I'll head back in tomorrow to get a student bus pass and to go grocery shopping. But for tonight, I'm fine. I grabbed a burger from the food joint in our apartment complex and jammed to my iTunes shuffle as I unpacked and arranged the apartment. It's going to be a challenge to entertain myself for the next three days until more students arrive, but I'll figure something out. I always have this blog!

As always, thanks for keeping up with me! I look forward to sharing more of my Irish adventure with you!