I might as well just open a hostel in my living room!

You know, when I look at other 'blogs maintained by other friends, my life just seems plain boring.

"But Ayla," you say, "you live in Ireland! That's a foreign country! Depending on who you ask, it might even be in Europe! How can that fail to be exciting?!"

Well, yes, I live in Ireland, which is a foreign country to an American like me, and may or may not be in Europe. But it is also a fairly prosperous English-speaking first world country. A lot of things are different from the United States, but they're all fairly small things. My overall lifestyle isn't all that exotic-- the biggest differences are things like when I buy cheese, I buy Charleville instead of Sargento brand. (Or, more likely, Dunnes store brand instead of Kroger store brand.) I look "right, left, right" instead of "left, right, left" before crossing the street. And I don't even try to order a whiskey sour, let alone a complicated mixed drink, when I'm in a bar.

Plus, I'm in grad school, and that is pretty much the same everywhere. I sit at my desk, I read books, and I write things. I could really be in any desk in any English-speaking country; the only reason I'm here is that NUIG has the faculty and resources that specialize in what I'm interested in.


Of course, I shouldn't be complaining about my life being boring: my friend Sara was just here for two weeks! As I'm sure I've mentioned before, having visitors is always refreshing, because they get excited about things you take for granted and give you a fresh perspective on your boring ol' life. When Sara was here, we went to the Galway City museum, which I had never done! We also did lots of shopping, ate lots of good food (both in restaurants and home-cooked), and went to a lot of bars. We even went to a club, something I had also hitherto never done in Galway! The verdict: clubs anywhere are overpriced, and the dancing isn't any better than the dancing you'd get at a regular bar. Still, at least now I can say that I've been to one.

Sara had to fly back to Detroit, by way of JFK airport, on September 11. Yeah. I was nervous that she'd have a security nightmare to get through, but she said it wasn't too bad. Though she added that the security personnel looked rather on-edge. She made it back safe and sound, though, which is all that matters.


AND! Speaking of visitors! My cousin Maggie and my aunt Barb are coming to visit me this weekend! Maggie is currently living in St Andrews, Scotland, working at THE golf course as a chef; Aunt Barbie is visiting her there. They decided to take a couple days to come visit me in Galway. They get here on Sunday, and I am super excited, because they are some of my most fun relatives to hang out with. Time to roll out the futon again!

Excelsior!

Well, I am back from my summer vacation in Michigan and Chicago. It was lovely! Beach time, good food and drinks, great friends-- pretty much everything a vacation needs to be.

After I got back, I spent a day getting back on my feet and then jumped back into the swing of things... for about four days. And then...

My friend Sara arrived! She is currently visiting me for the next ten days! Admittedly it would be a little more exciting if I hadn't just seen her two weeks before, but still. I love having friends visit-- it makes me look at my city in a whole new way. Plus, I like it when people stay with me. I'm a person who needs a lot of alone time, and overall I love living by myself, but waking up and having someone to chat with over your morning coffee is something that I miss. And having that kind of companionship, even (especially?) on a temporary basis, is really nice. It's like having a roommate, only without being slowly driven insane! (Well, maybe that's just me.)


Ok, off to exploring and adventure! Excelsior!

Ulster road trip photos-- FINALLY

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been really busy, and plus I didn't feel like I should update until I could put up my photos from the road trip. And since I took over 200 of them, well, it took me a while to finally get them sorted out.

But I did! And I put them on Facebook! You can see them all here!

After whittling it down from more than 200, I still put up 67 photos. So I'm not going to post them all here, simply because it's already taken most of the evening to get them up in one place. You should go look at them on Facebook, if you want to see them all. But I will give you some highlights...















The intrepid explorers:



Up next: adventure in Scotland! My lovely mother is flying over this week-- on July 21, my birthday!-- and we are going to Edinburgh and St Andrews together. I am almost inexpressibly excited! I have wanted to go to Scotland since I was a little kid, and going with my mother on my birthday is just too good. And then, as soon as we get done over there, we're flying back to the 'States together, for my summer break. I get to spend pretty much the whole month of August in Michigan and Chicago this time, and man am I looking forward to it. Excitement abounds!

Dang, an update

Ooh hey, new layout! I think this is more thematically appropriate, don't you? Also more relevant to my interests, as I have a bit of an obsession with old maps.


Anyway, in case you were wondering-- the road trip was fantastic. I took over 200 pictures, so I'm still kind of sorting through those... someday I'll put 'em up online. There are a lot of gorgeous ones, owing nothing to my skill with a camera and everything to the rugged natural beauty. Anyway, Jenn and I spent our four days hiking, climbing, and/or rambling around on mountains and cliffs in Ulster. It was a wonderful time. Also full of firsts for both of us-- first time renting a car, first time driving on the other side of the road! I was really nervous about driving for the first two days, but by the end of it I was feeling confident and enjoying myself a lot.


Since getting back, it's mostly been business as usual. My friend Quincy, who lives in New York City, was visiting Galway this weekend, so I spent some time hanging out with him. And my friend Jenn broke up with her boyfriend on Sunday, so I spent some time hanging out with and consoling her. Tomorrow I'm going to a symposium (ie, two lectures, some discussion, and then dinner with bigwigs, with a liberal sprinkling of schmoozing throughout) on Imperialism and Media. This weekend, I'm helping out with a conference ("Empire and Education") at the college-- registering attendees, setting up rooms, directing visitors to the College Bar, etc. Grunt work, but that's what being a grad student is all about, really. After that, back to business until the end of July...

Road trip!

So, um, I'm taking a road trip! This coming week, from Tuesday to Friday!

My friend Jenn and I are renting a car and driving up north.* We're going to County Donegal, which is in the Republic of Ireland, and County Antrim, which is in Northern Ireland. This is exciting to me for a number of reasons! I have never been that far north here, and it's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous... plus, I have never been to Northern Ireland, and even though it's on the same island and you don't need to show your passport or anything to cross the border, I'm still excited to be going to what is technically a different country. Also, we are driving there-- I have never driven in this country! I'm really excited (though admittedly nervous) about driving on the other side of the road. And we got a manual, so I get to try shifting with my left hand!

We're going to be mostly doing outdoorsy stuff-- hiking on Slieve League, Ireland's second-highest cliffs (and Europe's 6th-highest); walking the beaches at Malin Head, the most northerly point of Ireland and a haven for whales and basking sharks; hiking from the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge to the Giant's Causeway. We also might stop by Derry to see some of the city, particularly the murals. We're not staying in Derry, but Jenn has been there before (and she did her MA on Northern Irish stuff, and is really knowledgeable about the history) so she can show me around the cool stuff. Woo!


I'm also currently engaged in planning another trip-- my mother and I are going to Scotland!-- but that is a subject for its own post. Suffice to say, interesting times are afoot for this summer!





*Not to be confused with Up North, which everyone from Michigan knows is a place. No, I just mean "in a northerly direction." Though in Ireland, The North is a place-- Northern Ireland, part of the UK.