first weekend!

Hellooo!

Ok so Galway is finally starting to come to life as more students are moving back in. There were soo many more kids at the pubs last night than any other night. Nothing terribly remarkable happened but we definitely got to talk to more locals who, as a guy put it to Ainsley, we "don't just scream American... we ROAR American". Its totally fine though because after the initial few minutes where they make fun of our North Faces and picture taking, they are mad friendly and eager to learn about life in the U.S. I keep getting made fun of because even though the name Kelly is considered a very Irish first name in the states, its only a last name in Ireland. So every Irish boy I meet gives me a weird look when I tell them my name. No good. We ended up a Supermax last night, its a lot like McDonalds just with more selection and higher prices. For the second night in a row I didn't get in until 4 am so my clock is a little thrown off...

This morning we woke up really late and headed out to explore the other side of Galway which we had not seen. There's an ice rink and an aquarium that might be fun to check out. Then we went around town and shopped for a few things. Something about the euro that really has begun to irritate me is the usage of coins. Their smallest bill is a 5. Then they have 2 euro, 1 euro, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, 2 cents and 1 cent coins. SO ANNOYING. We'd been paying with our cash and then realized that we had wallets that weighed 7 pounds from change. So every purchase I made today was made with change that I had to step out of line to count out.

Tonight we're going out a little earlier than usual so that we can get a booth at this place where they play Irish music. We're still not exactly sure what the correct time is to go out so we're experimenting a little tonight. The Irish definitely go out earlier than Americans do.

I got a little homesick today. It was kind of dreary out and I'm getting nervous about signing up for classes. It is so incredibly messy at NUIG to sign up for classes its unbelievable. There are two different kinds of courses, modules and seminars. The seminars are caped at like 3 international students because they want to make sure that the Irish kids get in if they want it. Fair, but annoying. I feel like as soon as this process is over I will relax and really get started here!

Miss everyone!