CLAIRE O’REILLY
Staff Writer
Rain drops splash on the ground, and the cobblestone streets glisten. A soft glow of light spills out of a local pub and laughter fills the air. Welcome to Galway, Ireland.
For the next three and a half months, I will be fully immersing myself into the studies and culture of Ireland. While abroad, I am taking classes through the National University of Ireland at Galway and living with other Irish and American students.
I may have decided to embark on this journey just a few months ago, but it has been my dream to make it to Ireland since I was little.
I landed in the Emerald Isle around 6 a.m. last Tuesday morning, about 15 hours after leaving my home in Rochester, New York.
Long hours of traveling, including a five hour layover in JFK International Airport, didn’t exactly leave me begging to get into a van and drive another hour and a half from the Shannon Airport to my new apartment.
When I wasn’t dozing off with my head against the window, I could hear bits of the jokes our cab driver was making. He was a little old man with Santa Claus-white hair and a peculiar take on the sheep grazing along the road.
“Those aren’t sheep. They’re just cardigans with legs,” he said, laughing to himself.
Our group let out a little fake laugh and then returned to our zombie-like state of exhaustion. I don’t think any of us were really ready for what we were about to experience once we stepped out of that cab into Galway City.
An interesting thing about this Ireland trip is that it has brought me closer with a fellow Fredonia student. Senior music industry major Megan Stade is actually my roommate, and we have been on this adventure together since I arrived at the airport in New York City.
We both felt the pain of the extreme tiredness and ended up sleeping from 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night until 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. All I have to say is that jet-lag is a real thing, people.
Starving and looking like we were straight out of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” we hit the only place we knew would have good old french fries and chicken nuggets: McDonald’s.
Feeling like a typical American, I bore my shame and ordered that six piece with confidence.
What was actually surprising is that the portions were so much smaller here than back in the U.S. Larges in Ireland are equivalent to what we know as mediums, and mediums are equivalent to smalls.
On Thursday, I finally got a taste of the famous Irish rain. Coming out of the 90 degree weather in Western New York all summer, I am blessing the 60 degree rainy days.
Despite the rain, our little group walked into town and did our own version of a pub crawl.
Just a heads up, if you ever visit Galway, just know that a Galway Hooker is a beer named after the Galway fishing boats known as hookers, not the hooker you might first think of. Also, order the fish and chips. You won’t be disappointed.
After three days of getting my bearings in a new country and my little guilty McDonald’s treat, I’m starting to really take in the whimsical feel and pub culture this city is full of.
It’s all sort of ironic, being tossed into a new culture and new country but at the same time feeling so completely at home.