Taming the Atlantic Ocean

I have now gone surfing twice with our group in the Atlantic Ocean with the company Surf Mayo.  They set us up with wet suits, shoes, and surf boards.  They gave a crash course on how to surf too.

They first told us to go out and just lay on the board and try to catch a wave and lean back once you had caught the wave.  The speed of the waves was very deceiving, they are a lot faster than you expect.  After we did that for a while they called us back into shore and gave us instructions on how to stand up.  They basically told us once we caught the wave to jump up into the middle of the board.  It sounded a lot easier than it was.

After about an hour of trying to stand up and being unsuccessful, I made a personal goal to just stand up and ride just one wave.  The next wave that I attempted to stand up on, I rode until the wave had passed.  I was the first to stand up out of the group.

Then others started to get a hang of it, and we started to ride the same waves in a line.  Sure we only riding in a straight line on somewhat small waves but it was a lot of fun.

It was also extremely hard work.  We never went in deep enough to where couldn't touch the bottom of the ocean, but the waves were big and would knock you back quite a ways.  It felt like you would walk five feet and then get pushed back 10 feet.  It was exhausting but well worth it.

After our time was up we all shared stories of waves kicking our butts and how much salt water we had swallowed.  Getting the wet suit off was a lot harder to get off than to get on, which is saying quite a lot.  We then jumped into our taxi and made our way home.  We all showered and we are all in bed by about 8 PM. The next day we all woke up battered and bruised but we all wanted to do it again.

Trip to the North

Last Saturday me and my group went up to Northern Ireland to a town named Derry or LondonDerry.  It was really cool to learn about all the history that has gone on in this town.  Many years didn't get the chance to visit Derry because of all of the riots and fighting that was going on there during The Troubles.  Today Derry is peaceful and is working towards on being less segregated.  Also many countries are coming to them on advice on peace and how to achieve it.

This is part of Derry that is still very protestant and mostly English.

You can still see some evidence of the IRA in parts of the city.

In the center of the city called the bog site, there are 12 murals that represent peace.  The bog site is where the worst of the violence occurred during the Troubles.  Our tour guide told us that the bus that we were on would have been flipped over and burned only 30 years ago if we were driving through the bog site.  Each mural shows a different image but all have the same message, peace.  It was really moving to see all these murals and hear of all the terrible things that went on in the bog site, but it was also great to see all the progress that Northern Ireland has made.

Our tour guide told us that they having tourists visit, and that it was our job to spread the word, that Northern Ireland is peaceful and safe now.  By spreading this word he said that it will give people in places like Ukraine and Venezuela hope of achieving peace.

Illness

It wouldn't be a trip if I didn't get sick or have something happen to me.  When I visited Mexico I got pretty bad food poisoning and when I was in England a couple years ago I got an infection.  So last Monday I had a sandwich for lunch and some frozen Salmon for dinner.  I woke up Tuesday not feeling great but I went to class.  Then after class took a long nap.  When I woke up that is when the fun started, I won't go into detail because it wouldn't be pleasant for you.  Lets just say it was nasty.

I skipped class Wednesday to try and recover and get ready for our trip up north on Thursday.  Wednesday was still pretty miserable and I just wanted to be home in my own bed and not do anything. 

Woke up Thursday still not feeling great and not looking forward to a lot time on a bus and sight seeing.  I held it together though and didn't lose my stomach or anything.

Friday, was a little better and I could feel myself getting better and was more ready to enjoy our trip to Northern Ireland.

Saturday, was a great day, woke up feeling great and ready to take on the day.  It was a perfect day and was a very interesting day.  We went to a town named Derry, which is where Bloody Sunday occurred.  Our tour guide said we wouldn't have been able to be there 30 years ago during The Troubles in Ireland.  Derry, is still very much divided between Catholics and Protestants but the fighting has stopped and are peaceful these days. 

Overall I survived and learned many things about being sick by myself over in a foreign country about 3,000 miles away from home.

Bingo

Last Sunday our Professor offered to buy us all Bingo boards at the city hall and participate in weekly bingo.  We got there and the room was packed with locals and we got our bingo board, it looked nothing like our Bingo boards in the states.  Bingo is not spelt on the top of board instead there are nine columns and three rows with numbers in some of the spaces.  We were lost on the rules of the game for a while until some of our group went and sat next to some older women who looked like they were Bingo veterans.  They gave us the low down. 

The game itself is pretty much the same as back in the states, first one to get a row, four corners, and a blackout.  In the regular games the row and four corners are worth 10 Euro and the blackout is worth 30 Euro.  However there was a jackpot game board and the jackpot was worth 460 Euro.  That is a life changing amount of money for us students studying abroad over here.  None of us won the jackpot which was probably a good thing, so the locals wouldn't think that we were stealing there money.  None of us won the jackpot but a couple of us won other games.

The packet of game boards that we got held about 8 games worth of Bingo in it.   Out of the 15 of us playing for the first time 2 of us won a game.  One girl won a row and had to split the winnings between another person.  We all got close to winning some of the games, and we never realized how fun Bingo was.  You could tell who was close to Bingo because they would become really tense. 

I was actually the other person to win Bingo.  I won the last game of four corners that was played.  I really hadn't come close to winning at all, but when 3 of the first 4 numbers called were in my corners I started to think I had a chance to win.  By some miracle the next number was in my last corner so I called out "check" (they don't say Bingo when they get a bingo).  When she was checking the numbers I hoped that I didn't screw up one of the numbers but I didn't.  I won 10 Euro!!  Me and friend then went to the pub and celebrated a little with the winnings.  Safe to say the winnings didn't last long.

Climbing Craugh Patrick

After school on Tuesday, my parents and my friend’s parents who were, by chance staying at the same B&B, and planning on climbing a mountain.  Then after class, the plans came through, it was a beautiful day, it was 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was clear with a couple big puffy white clouds in the sky giving the some shade from the sunlight.

So class finished on Tuesday and we went back to our cottages and ate a quick, filling lunch.  Then both of our parents came to pick us up and I offered the idea of climbing a mountain to each of my roommates, but one only took up the offer.  So we all piled into the car and drove the 10 miles to the base of mountain.

There was a little shop that I had heard of at the base of the mountain that offered walking sticks out for rental for only a 1.50 Euro so we each got a walking stick.

We had also heard that the story of Croagh Patrick was to find a rough stone at the bottom of the mountain and carry it up the mountain, and once you got to the top you replaced it with a smooth stone.  You did this because the rough stone that you carried up was something that you wanted to change about yourself, and the smooth stone represented the thing about yourself that you were going to change.  So we all did this and we all shared what we going to change about ourselves.

We started the climb to the top of the mountain, the tour book that my parents had bought told us that it was going to take a total of 5 hours to climb up the mountain and climb down the mountain. 

We all started to climb the mountain at our own pace.  The first third of the mountain was the toughest on the lungs even though it wasn’t the steepest.  Once we got past the first third of the mountain, the second third was pretty flat but the whole time you were staring at the steepest and most difficult part of the climb.  The last third was very steep and was covered in loose rock.

Once we got to the top it was incredibly windy and there was a little sanctuary built at the summit of the mountain.  So we walked over to side of the sanctuary that was the least windy and took a little break and waited for the others to arrive at the summit.  After a while we noticed that a sheep made it to the top of the mountain and was begging for food from everyone that was at the top.  It was quite funny to watch the sheep go from person to person looking for food. 

The view from the top was truly breathtaking; you could see everything for about 20 miles.  We could see our local town of Louisburgh and the local beach.  You could also see Westport which is about a 20 minute drive from Louisburgh.  We could also see some forests that we never knew existed next to some lakes that we had never seen before.  On our way up the mountain Clew bay was at low tide (which we were used to seeing) but on our way down we saw it at high tide which we had never seen before.  

The rest of group made it to the top after about 20 minutes of waiting and we then commenced to take numerous pictures of the sanctuary and the group.  With the wind blowing so hard the summit was actually quite cold so this was short lived and we all then decided to start the descent down the mountain.

Like the climb up, the first part of descent was the hardest part because it was so steep and the rock was all really loose.  The walking sticks were really helpful during this part.  Nobody fell, but my mom who slipped and rolled twice.  She hit her head and it started to bleed.  Which was really too bad, but it didn’t damper her spirits.  Like the journey up, we all went down the mountain at our own pace.

The first part going down was the scariest, it felt as if you were to fall you were going to fall off a cliff.  After you made it down the steep part of the mountain it was pretty much smooth sailing.  It was very relaxed but it was exhausting mentally and physically.  As soon as you made it down all you wanted to do was get off your feet and eat a big dinner and possibly have drink.  It was a very well deserved drink.

Finally we all made it back to the base of Craugh Patrick and we all celebrated.  My family and my roommate went out to eat at a local pub.  We had a very well deserved meal and pint.  The climb was exhausting but well worth the effort, it was a view that I will never forget and if I do I have pictures that will remind me of its magnificent’s.