It's been a while

So I'm sitting here, trying to figure out ways to not write these two papers that are due in two weeks (one on the way leisure culture changed social order in Europe in the '60s - not boring, but still a paper - and the other on how Irish music made in America is as much about America as it is Ireland - once again, could be worse but still a paper) and since no one interesting is on Facebook to distract me, ditto with Skype, and my Irish housemates are off being productive future teachers of Ireland, I thought I'd update my blog! That may be the longest sentence I've ever written.

It's been so long I don't even really know where to start. I guess with last weekend, well the weekend before last weekend. On Saturday, Feb. 28 I went with the UL International Office to Lahinch, as well as the Burren (including the Ailwee Caves). Lahinch is a little coastal town where lots of people go to surf, and don't really care if it's February in Ireland. I couldn't imagine soaking my body in cold Atlantic water, but apparently the threat of frostbite didn't phase the surfers at all.

The beach at Lahinch.

More beach at Lahinch.

Still more beach. Cool sidenote, see those really big cliffs in the background? Those link up to the Cliffs of Moher. See last post for more info.

The Burren is not a place so much as an area. Apparently, before the last Ice Age this part of Ireland was somewhere else? I don't know I didn't listen all that closely to our tour guide. If you want to know more, I'm sure Wikipedia has a very thorough explanation (even if it doesn't have "collegite-level reliability").

I do know that after the last Ice Age, plants and stuff from the Mediterannean ended up in this part of Ireland, making the ground pretty much a sheet of limestone. Rich in calcium but also makes for shallow soil. So the cattle that are graized here are worth a ton, but most of the land is rock. I do also know that the Pope is the bishop of one of the towns because when choosing bishops this town got forgotten and rather than going through the process again the pope said he'd do it. How kind. I also know that the actor Brendan Gleeson has a home in one of the towns we went through and when he and Colin Farrell were rehearsing for "In Bruges" they went there. I also know that the way to tell where the center of town is in a small town is to look for the local pub. Our tour guides's town had more than one, so she felt oblidged to make fun of the towns that only had one. I think her town had just over 100 people. The number was about to jum two since some woman is pregnant with twins. Oh small towns...

A horse, just chilling all by its lonesome. Next to the ocean. FYI, my little pony, next landmass isn't for a mile or two.

The Burren. Not joking about all the limesone. And also the Atlantic is back there. You know, that big oceany thing.

The Ailwee Caves are, well, caves. That once again have to do with evolution and land masses moving around. Whatevs. They found the skeletal remains of bears. Bears that have been extinct in Ireland for thousands (or millions? Once again, I didn't listen that closely to the science chatter - Wikipedia it) of years.

A stalagmite and a column.

Praying hands or an overflowing pint of Guinness? A question for the ages.

A bear bed for the bear that's been dead a looong time.

Sunday night we weren't going to do anything because none of us felt like it, but it was Kieran's birthday, so how do you not? And since my parents read this blog, that's all the information I'm going to include. See me for details.

Last week was pretty much normal. We went bowling Tuesday night with James. I scored over 100 for the first time ever, and would have won if James hadn't been a bad sport and ruined my last roll. But whatever, I still did amazingly well for me. The next game I bowled a 53, which is more my style. Then we got ice cream. Because it was snowing, so why not? We tried to have a snowball fight with Kieran, but the loser wasn't home. So James started throwing his snowballs at random drunk girls trying to get into taxis. That didn't fly with Katie, Lauren and me, so we turned and threw our balls (originally meant for the ambush of Kieran when he was supposed to open his front door) at James. And then ran screaming the 100 yards from House 31 to House 82. And locked the door, with James on the other side. Other than that, a pretty quiet week. They just seem to fly by!

This weekend I did absolutely nothing exciting. I checked books out of the library for the first time, which probably makes my mother happy but no one else really cares. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do the self check-out. They should really have better directions for stupid people like me. Especially if the darn computer is going to beep loudly at me every time I do something incorrectly. So that everyone in the quiet library knows the blond at the self check-out is clueless. I can broadcast that all by myself. I don't need extra sound effects ok?

And now it's Monday night and I have managed to procrastinate from the time I got out of class at 4:45 pm to now. I'm pretty proud of myself actually. It takes hard work to go 6 hours without doing anything, including sleep. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Too bad most people pick it up in high school. I'm a little slow I guess. But now I really should do stuff. Or go bug Katie and Lauren since James and Brian are still being studious at the library. Shouldn't have let them leave. First mistake.