Are you American? Oh good, I can't understand the Irish.

I feel as though there is too much to report back home about! So I began to write, then I took a nap, and erased everything once I woke up. I guess the best thing to do is to begin at home, my new one for the moment.

I took the bus from Shannon to Galway and slept a bit of the way. However, I did see some of the cutest little towns along the way, including rock walls. Literal rock walls, GIANT rocks, no mortar or anything. Lots of horses, sheep and cattle and Johnny Walsh's bar.

Bertie picked me up in Galway and drove me to the house on the other side of town. Galway isn't really a large city, though I haven't explored it thoroughly yet. Anyhow, there was a bit of traffic and so I got a lesson in reading license plates. the first two numbers are the year the car was made, then the city where it's registered is listed, then i think just random numbers, I can't remember. So mine would be 03 NT DMDQN17, but not personalized, haha. It's been fun guessing the towns that I'm not familiar with (G for Galway, D for Dublin, C for Cork, the smaller cities have the first and last letter). I know that sounds really nerdy to include on a blog, but I think it's fun, so there.

The house is really the equivalent of a townhouse. And smaller as to be expected. My room is the tiniest of all of them. Possibly the size of the bathroom. It fits my twin bed, a set of 3 drawers and a small wardrobe. I have a chair in the corner, but use it as my desk for now. A lap desk would be ideal, haha. But seeing as how my things don't really fill the room up, it's just the right size. There is a garden out back with a picnic table, a defunct basketball hoop, a weird clothesline thing, and two propane tanks. Plus one large pink hydrangea and other assorted plants. Bertie explained "I put the things in and these are the ones that lived."

I will have three roommates, two boys and one girl, but the boys haven't arrived yet. They must be brothers, and they're from Derry. The girl, Kasha, is from Poland but has been in Ireland for 5 years and spent some time in Wisconsin (?!) before that. She sounds Irish, but doesn't talk as fast. I like her and think we'll get along really well. She works at a clothing shop in town, Monsoon. Apparently Monsoon is very popular in England and VERY expensive, so I don't think I'll be sporting their designs anytime soon! Kasha dates Collum, Bertie's nephew. Collum's in a band and really nice as well. Also, we have an electric shower. It's awesome. You push a button and the water comes on, push it off, and it goes off, very neat! There's also a National School in our neighborhood, literally four houses down. I met a little girl this morning who thought I was a new teacher. The schools here are very small and look more like houses than schools.

Today was MY first day of school, sort of. International Student Orientation. For those of you in Blacksburg and/or Houston, guess what? The first person to introduce himself was ITALIAN. However, I didn't meet just Italians. So far I've met Anya and Rebecca from Germany, Carlene from Holland, 2 Italian girls (I forget their names already, yikes!), Fergal from Cork, 3 girls from Buffalo and Matt from St. Marys, PA. Matt will apparently be singing "Like A Virgin" at karoake night tonight. I may or may not attend. It's a 30 minute walk in the dark both ways.

And that brings me to the walking. If I'm not in better shape by even Christmas, I'm useless. It's not a bad walk, but there is a bit of a hill involved and let's face it. When do I walk anywhere for that long, twice a day? So, Mom and Summer J. Brown, be proud.

So that was today. We had a man speak about the library today that sounded exactly like Professor Snape. I feel a bit like an undergrad again with all the stuff that I could become involved in. I know I won't be able to do a giant amount, that's reserved for writing, but I definitely want to volunteer somewhere, and take some Irish classes if I can. For now, I'm going to cook up a bit of dinner and prepare for my department meeting tomorrow. I'm really excited about this! Wish me luck!