Learning Gaeilge in An Cheathrú Rua (known in English as Carraroe)

Dia dhuit! (Hello)

So after our group got back from Dublin on Monday night, we spent 2 1/2 days in Galway before we left for Connemara for 4 days and 3 nights. We drove from Galway to Carraroe and were dropped off at our host house, which was a family that speaks both English and Gaeilge fluently. They host students who are taking classes at NUI Galway's Irish Language School year-round. We were greeted by the family and were sat down to eat a wonderful home-cooked meal full of scones, soup and coffee and soon went off to our first class to learn  Irish.

Connemara is one of the few areas in Ireland where Gaelic is still spoken fluently. While Gaelic is the official language of Ireland along with English, it is a language that declined rapidly in the past 100 years. It was a lot of fun to learn, but very difficult. It does not share any roots with English (like French and Spanish do) and it is easier to learn aurally than on the the page because while Gaelic may look like this on the page, "Cen chaoi a bhfuil tu?" (How are you?) it is pronounced "ken rhi (a) whill too". Difficult but really cool, and pretty when spoken correctly.

So in between wonderful meals and classes, we went on a walk around Carraroe with our Gaelic teacher.

And in the neighborhoods we met people, horses and got to see a little more of the community. 

 And the ruins of old houses and farms

 And the ocean!

 In the middle of rain and cold wind, the sun came out as we were walking by the prettiest part of our walk.

 The sun didn't last too long, but it was worth it.

That was some of our walk around Carraroe. I think this post will be pretty picture heavy, so get ready for it. It has been a few weeks since I have posted, and I have a lot to catch up on. Here goes!

We also got to spend our Saturday visiting Kylemore Abbey and other parts of Connemara. On our way to Kylemore Abbey we stopped at Patrick Pearse's Cottage, which was really a recreation of his cottage since his burnt down BUT he was one of the leaders in the 1916 Easter Rising. He is one of many important people in Ireland's history, and we also learned a song in Gaelic that he wrote that became the song of Revolution at the time of the Easter Rising. You can listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NfY-ElcPo&feature=related

Here is his cottage.

 Once we left Pearse's cottage we drove for a while through Connemara and saw some of Ireland that at least I do not think of when I picture the Irish countryside. I normally think of green, just a lot of green, but Connemara is not so green and more rocky and has a lot of hills. It is a very different kind of beauty but it is still great.

 After our drive we arrived at Kylemore Abbey. This Abbey was originally owned by a very wealthy Englishman who built the castle for him and his wife because she loved the area so much. Unfortunately she died while she was in Egypt and did not get to live in the home built for her.

 Her husband lost her but they had a lot of children, and one of them died up on the hill above the house while on horseback. There is a statue way up on the hill for her that her father constructed.

Possession of the estate later went to Benedictine Nuns and it became a boarding school as well. And it was not open to the public until the 1990s. It is very beautiful but it is interesting to see remnants of British rule and construction in the Irish countryside where everything seems seemingly untouched.

From left to right: Me, Kathleen, Katie and Sommer at the Gothic Church at Kylemore Abbey

After Kylemore we took a drive around Connemara and our bus driver brought us to a lookout where we could see the Atlantic Ocean and despite the wind being VERY strong we got out and this is what we saw. 

 Cliffs!

And a group photo! (well 1/2 of the group, the others were keeping warm in the bus)

Top: Ian From left to right: Sommer, Joanna, Me, Kathleen, Katie

Overall it was a great weekend and a nice way to prepare for my first full week of classes here at NUI Galway which was actually a lot of fun. So to finish off this post I just want to take a minute to reflect on being here. I am very grateful to be studying here and to have the opportunity to live in Galway for five months. I want to enjoy my time here and also respect the place that I am visiting. So I will leave you with a picture of the Atlantic Ocean from our trip. 

Upcoming topics:

Will I ever talk about Dublin?

Pub adventures!

WU-UP Group, the great people I am travelling with

Easy Breezy Beautiful Bad Bitches - Kathleen, Katie, Kelsey and Ian

The Aran Islands

First Day of Classes and Updates

So I have been here in Galway for five days and it feels like a lot longer than that. I got caught up in moving in, seeing the city, going to pubs and drinking legally for the first time, and getting to know the people in our Willamette University-University of Portland group. On our first night I had my first Guinness ever at The Quays and visited a few other bars with our large group (okay it is 11 people but when we all walk into a small-ish pub it feels like a lot).

I think I need to have a whole blog post dedicated to pubs and the different atmospheres at each pub and the experiences I have had at each one. But! Moving on to classes...

So the registration process over here at NUI Galway is very different from the U.S. and has been stress inducing for almost all of us in the group. There are two types of classes, lecture and seminar. Almost all of these don't OFFICIALLY start until the 23rd of this month. So the first two weeks are basically, go to classes and see if you like them but you have no real work and do not have to commit until 2 weeks in. This seems great but it leaves a lot of things up in the air, and since I am a visiting student I am restricted to only certain classes and certain types of classes.

Today I went to a class that I may or may not take (Early Irish Script) which is all about learning to read the Book of Kells (link here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells) which I will visit this weekend in Dublin. Then after meeting a nice girl from Hungary who showed me to my class I went to a very large lecture theatre for my Medieval Literature course which I am for sure taking.

The classes however were not the main part of my day. So while this was the first day of classes it was much more focused on exploring campus and the beautiful main Cathedral in Galway. Here is the church from the outside on my walk over.

After I got over how big the church is (it is the biggest one I have ever been in) I lit my first candle in a Catholic Church since I was a kid.

And then the dome...

One of the many beautiful stained class windows.

Another huge pipe organ, I could not believe it.

So that was my first day of classes. I got a taste of the Irish University system and then took a break at the local Cathedral. And of course hung out with some great people in our WU-UP group and had an adventure/fight with the laundry machine, but that is for another night. 

Upcoming blog topics:

Living at Donegan Court

How the Pubs work, will I ever get it?

Dublin!

Favorite parts of Galway so far

Coming up with corny blog titles 101