The past week has been absolutely bizarre. The hardest thing to process is the fact that I willingly turned my entire life uspide down and hauled myself to an entirely new continent. It's not a bad thing really, it is just the most disorienting experience I've ever had. Things are so different here! Obviously it's not like I'm living in a secluded forest somewhere, there are some similarities to Charleston. The traffic here is slightly more terrifying than Charleston though, I will admit. I have almost been run over several times (even when using crosswalks), and people use their car horns a lot more here than at home (or at least that's how it seems so far). There's a store right up the road called Dunnes, and it's supposed to be the Irish equivalent to Wal-mart. Except anyone that has ever been in a Wal-mart knows that Dunnes is a much, much classier place. Oh Wal-mart....I do miss people watching in that store.
Overall, Galway is an incredible place. There's just a nice feeling about living here, very peaceful. And downtown is excellent! It's not a bad walk from our apartments, so I've been there quite a bit in the last week. Last night a group of us went to hear some traditional Irish music. The sound was so incredible, I couldn't believe it. I've never heard anything like before - at least not live - and I've never heard an Irish flute played before, so that was an amazing treat. I really want one now! It's pretty unlikely that I'll leave here without one, I have definitely fallen in love with the sound.
Classes just started yesterday, and I'd say that so far things are going well. The system at NUIG is so confusing though! We basically get to try out whatever classes we think we might sign up for, and that lasts for about two weeks. Then we sign up for classes, and a few days later they are "locked in". It took me the longest time to figure out what to take (so stressful!), but I think I'm finally set now. Some of my classes start now and run until October, some pick up in October and run through November, and only 2 of them run the complete length of the term. I guess it's comparable to express classes at Charleston, but I've never taken any of those so I'm a little overwhelmed. The professors seem great, and the subjects are pretty interesting (I'm taking all archaeology over here, so it should be fun). I even met a guy who went to my high school in one of my classes yesterday- talk about a small world!
I should probably stop now. There have been so many things going on in the past week I could very likely ramble on for several pages, but that's a little unnecessary.
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