Amsterdam Adventures

Since our flight was at 6am, we had to take a taxi from Coleraine to Belfast that left at 3am. Needless to say the 6 of us pulled an all-nighter. Once we got to Amsterdam there was a blizzard outside! We couldn't even see where we were going because the snow was blowing in our faces. It was miserable and all of us thought, "What are we doing here? Take me back to Ireland so I can sleep." Eventually we got on the right tram to take us to our hostel, but after about 15 minutes it stopped because the tram ahead of us broke down because of the snow...perfect. Miraculously we made it to our hostel and got warm and dry. We walked around the city and went to a Christmas market, coffee shop, and a Greek restaurant.


The next day we went on a canal tour of the city, which is surprisingly gorgeous. I had no idea. It is similar to Venice with all the canals, but I think its prettier, more lively, and diverse. We also went to Anne Frank's house where she lived for 2 years in hiding with 7 other people. It was really interesting, but the whole house was empty. Otto Frank, Anne's father who survived the camps, wanted to leave it empty forever. That part was a little disappointing, but I saw her original diary with her hand writting and doodles in it! It was amazing.
Once she filled up her diary she started writing on pieces of paper and created short stories that she wanted to eventually publish. Her, her sister, and her mother all died in a concentration camp, but Otto went back to the house to collect Anne's diary and decided to publish it for her. It's a touching story. There are clips of him talking about her after her death in the museum. He said he never knew that she had such deep, sad thoughts about the political situation at the time because she was only 11 years old. Its very sad to think about some of her quotes. One of them she says she longs to ride a bike, run outside and yell, sing, play, and feel free again.


Monday we saw the red light district. It is so insane! There are girls standing in full length windows waiting for people to come in their room. Then they just pull the curtain close. I still can't get over it, but it was interesting to say the least. The bridges in Amsterdam are lit up and provide a romantic atmostphere. I noticed too that everyone travels via bike. There are bicycle parking lots!
It was a fun trip, and now I am a broke college student again :) Good news is I come home in 2 days!! Saturday the 11th, I can't wait to see everyone. There is about 7 inches of snow here so it will be a nice break from all the slush that I have to trudge through. And people say it never snows in Ireland...liars.

Turkey and Chocolate

Dear Family,

TURKEY! Happy belated Thanksgiving. I talked to many of you on Thursday and it sounded like you were either in the middle of cooking or taking a nap. My friends and I had a fun dinner togher. We invited some of our Belgium ,German, Canadian, and Irish friends over so all in all we had 22 people, 2 turkeys, and a table full of desserts. Of course, we had all the other neccessary dishes as well. I wanted to share the gravy song with them but didn't get the chance to. Don't worry, I sang it with Mom, Laurie, Tootsie, Evan, and BB through skype :)

I would also like to thank you for passing down the strong love and passion for not only music, arts, academics, adventures, and food, but most importantly chocolate. Thank you Judy for your very 'sweet' package :) I finally received it and I've enjoyed tasting all the treats! My friends will love you as much as I do when I share with them. Every April I get to enjoy one of my favorite kinds of chocolate in the shape of a Cadbury Egg. To my surprise, Ireland's version of Hershey's IS Cadbury! Needless to say, Cadbury and I have formed a special relationship that will end in sorrow as I get on the plane to come home.

In 2 days I go to Amsterdam! I get back on Tuesday and then I only have 3 days until I come home for Christmas! I will fill you in on my trip when I get back. Enjoy the week to come.

Galway and the Aran Islands!

Incredible! Magical! Perfect :) I love Galway. This has been my favorite trip so far because our hostel was great, it was just three of us travelling together, the city is friendly and cute, there were breathtaking sites, and plenty of adventure. Galway is in the south of Ireland on the west coast. James Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, lived in Galway. We went to see her house, it was very modest looking. It was a small, two level house that was crammed in between a whole row of identical looking houses. It had a blue door and cute lacy curtains, which I'm SURE are the same ones she had in the early 1900's :) We couldn't go inside because the tours were closed for the season.

The first day we were there we went to the grand opening of the town's Christmas market! It was a huge attraction and so much fun. There were french crepes, spanish candies, german sausages, danish dooughnuts, a bunch of handcrafted items, Christmas carols, Christmas lights, little kids running around, and everyone was so friendly.

The next day we took an hour ferry ride to the Aran Islands and took a bus tour. I would have much rather rented bikes and gone out on our own, but it was real cold and windy. The bus was fun though because we learned some history and we stopped to get out and explore whenever we wanted. The first thing I noticed were the incredible looking stone walls everywhere! There are huge pastures filled with knee high hand made stone walls from the 1600's. There is no concrete filling to hold the rocks together, they are just balancing on eachother. Isn't that absolutely amazing that they have lasted this long? These stone walls cover the entire island, and I learned why they were built in the first place. My first thought was they were meant for dividing properties, but this reason actually came secondary. When settlers first came to the island, it was covered in sheets of limestone. They needed green grassy pastures to farm, so what they did was break apart the limestone into little peices in order to clear out room for grass to grow. Since they were so heavy, there was no other way of getting rid of them than to stack them ontop of eachother, thus producing thousands of miles of winding stone walls.

We continued on and saw a few thatched roof houses (the roofs are replaced every 60 years or so), some sheep and cows, and ruins of 17th century stone houses. Our first stop was the fort of Dun Aengus. It was built to protect the villages if ever they were invaded. It is a huge semi-circle wall that stops literally at the edge of the 330 feet high cliffs that jet out into the ocean. This was the most spectacular and magical feeling I have ever felt standing at the edge of these cliffs. There are no ropes, fences, or signs that stop you from going right up to the edge (and right over the edge if you're not careful). All you can see beyond the cliffs is the ocean and the sunset :) I took tons of pictures, but I just wish everyone could have experienced it like I did because it's impossible to capture that feeling in a photograph. Afterwards we went to a cafe (the same cafe that was filmed in Leap Year) and had some Irish stew and vegetable soup to warm us up. We went to the 3 tiny shopping stores there and I bought a hand made crouchet headband from the nice little lady that that makes them.

Along our next busride we spotted some seals and snapped a few photos. We then got some coffee, got back on the ferry, and made it home to our friendly and conveniently located hostel. I used the last of my own money on this trip! So thank you Mom, Dad, Granny, and everyone who has helped me pay for this! I am now waiting for my 400 pound check from my financial aid to get cashed :) Dad I haven't checked my mail yet for your package but I will tomorrow. I'm sure it's here by now! So exciting!

I can only post 4 or 5 pictures on this blog, but if you want to see all my Ireland photos, go to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050463&id=1578300060&l=b6cfd6158b

Just copy and paste it into your Internet browser.

Essay Shmessay...

Today I been very productive. I went to class all day, got home and cleaned my room very thoroughly, made some food, watched an episode of Glee, and pretty much anything besides my essay that I need to start. I've run out of things to distract myself with, any ideas?

Tonight Siri, Emily and I are getting together to plan a trip to Gallway and the Aran Islands. London isn't going to work out this semester because it was too expensive. I will definitely go in the spring though! Next weekend we might all go to Belfast and do the touristy stuff there...and see Harry Potter!! 2 of my friends are English majors and they worship the Harry Potter series. Dad, I will go again with you when I get home, since its tradition and all :)

Right now I'm living off left over lasagna, ham sanwiches, and this really dilicious cereal I found. But my milk is about to expire, so cereal won't be an option. Haha I'm trying to wait till Saturday to go grocery shopping because there's a free bus that comes- instead of paying to take a taxi.

Thanks Mom and Paula for your Halloween cards! They are hanging up on my wall. Alright, its about time for my skype date. Update you again soon!

Wait...I'm here to study??

Well this week was a toughy. I managed to finish 2 essays on time and now I only have one more to worry about that is due in 2 weeks. If ever you need someone to educate you on Oscar Wilde's life or what Yeats' sybolism is in his poetry, I'm your girl. Thursday my friends and I went out to celebrate our completed work. This week our classes start again, and I have been trying to figure out what courses to take next semester. I need 3 classes that are pre-requisites for my Global Wine Studies degree so hopefully Ulster will offer them. If not, second semester is going to be semi-unproductive. I am going to meet with my advisor to figure it all out this week. Cross your fingers!

On Saturday night, the international students and families gathered to learn traditional Irish dances! They were more like jigs, it was a lot of fun and surprisingly a good work out. After we learned about 10 different dances, we watched 2 girls dance something similar to Riverdancing. I have ALWAYS loved Riverdance! I remember being on Dad's couch and watching them dance on TV. He was always so leniant with the TV remote :) Thanks, Dad. After the dancing was over, can you guess what we did? We had tea and cookies hahaha, I love this country. They have tea for every gathering- for a break during long classes, after church, after meetings, after dinner, before dinner, during dinner...

Well anyway, I have been in this bad habit of going to bed late (4 or 5am) and sleeping until 2pm- it's terrible I know! It is hard because there is not much to do during the day so I have no reason to wake up early. But lately I have been feeling bad, getting homesick, getting bored, and sad. I decided that my sleeping patterns have a whole lot to do with that, so this morning I woke up at 9:30am, went to work out, made a nice breakfast, went rowing (it was SO rough and very frustrating), had dinner with friends, and went to a mass with them and sang church songs. Overall, I feel so much better today. Being productive and busy is an important part of keeping my mind entertained while I'm here since there is not much time spent on school.

That about sums up my week. How was your week? Anything exciting happen? Keep me up to date! I miss all of you. I'll see some of you in only FIVE WEEKS! :)

Bye for now

Happy Halloween!

Well hello again, my Halloween was very fun. It was more of a Halloweek because there were activities every night of the week. Monday there was a dress up party at my school, Wednesday was dress up night at a dance club we go to, and Sunday was a huge celebration in Derry. Yesterday I dressed up as a lumberjack man wearing a plaid shirt, an axe, and a big ol' mustache. There was a bus that took people from the university to Derry, which is about an hour drive. We got there and watched this really fun parade and everyone was dressed up and dancing! There were a bunch of spooky floats and people on stilts walking around :) I saw a bagpipe group in the parade and took a video of them playing. After the parade we went by the river and watched fireworks for a while, it was so pretty and exciting. Apparently Halloween is a big deal in Ireland. There were a lot of kids and parents that were dressed up, but I didn't see any trick-or-treating. I think once the Troubles started trick-or-treating stopped, which makes a lot of sense. We all socialized and danced for a bit and came back to Coleraine. I saw Carsten's toilet costume, thats hilarious! He should have won something for that. And Adrienne, I didn't know Lucy had glasses! She looks very intelligent for a 6 year old.

Today I have been in the library for 9 hours working on my essays. I have 2 essays due on Thursday that are worth 50% of my grade. Geesh! I finished one today and hopefully will start and finish the other tomorrow. Wish me luck. I don't have classes this week since it's study/reading/slack off week.

I book a flight to Amsterdam with my friends the first weekend in December, and Emily and I are planning to go to London the last week of November. Sometimes I forget that I'm here to study, but weeks like this one reminds me...don't worry Dad :)Hope all is well! Remember, don't forget to comment because you should all know how to do it now!

Pictures!

The first one is of me and my costume. Dad said it looks like him in 1974 just with longer hair :)

The second is of my friends and I waiting for the parade. Emily was Sandy from Greese, Siri and Alanna were greek goddesses, and Erica was a hippy.

Third is of the pretty fireworks!

The last one is of our pumpkin carving night. Mine is the one with a goofy face.

Lazy Day

Today I slept in far too late to tell anybody. Lets just say I had breakfast around 2pm. I got up and went rowing for an hourish with our soon to be new coach. His name is Chris and he coaches the younger team just down the river. That team has been rowing since they were probably in middle school :) This upcoming weekend, Halloween weekend, the team and I are going to meet up with the other campus' rowing teams and have a night out together. Should be some good craic. I came home and read and began to feel a little homesick. I get homesick when I'm not busy and I am alone for most of the day. I try not to think about it and focus on my school work or cleaning my room. It's really not that far away till I can see everyone again! My friends and I are trying to plan a trip to Poland to see Auschwitz. We are all very excited even though the trip may not be extremely happy. Mom I know you visited Poland with Gigi when you graduated. Where did you go? Tell me about it! If anyone has any friends or family or people they know that live there it would be neat to meet them.

I went shopping in Derry yesterday with Emily. We bought a ridiculous amount of clothes and shoes and spent a ridiculously small amount of money :) It was great! I bought some 4 inch high heels so I can fit in with the Irish girls when we go out. Emily and I have to practice walking in them so we don't make fools of ourselves. Hopefully when I come back I will look very European and high-fashion haha :)

It is getting so cold here, whenever I go outside and am not wearing a huge winder coat with gloves and a hat I am chilled to the bone for the rest of the day. Brrr!!

I'll leave you with some more interesting facts about Irish lifestyle:
They pronounce the letter 'H' as 'Haytch'
Usually, when someone pronounces it 'Haytch' they are from the republic. This is another way people can figure out where you're from/what religion you probably are. Freaky huh?!
They don't use different flavored salad dressing, they usually only have one that is similar to something like mayo, water, and sugar. Blech...
No one has ever had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Irish peanut butter is terrible compared to American Jiff peanut butter.
They only have about 3 options for sugared cereal: Frosted flakes, chocolate hazulnut crisps, and honeynut cheerios. Out of any country in the world, I though Ireland would at least have Lucky Charms.
Most of their fresh fruits and vegetables are pre-packaged.
Their grading scale is different. A mark of 63-73 is an A, 48-62 is a B, 33-47 is a C, and so on. I won't worry about the rest of the marks because I won't get below a B :)
They call the marks First, Upper Second, Lower Second, Third, and Fail.

Hope everyone is well! Talk to you all soon! If you want to skype me, my skype name is ellie.holcomb I'd love to hear from you.

Te amo Espana!

Yet again, it has been a while since I've written and I apologize! I feel busy all the time which is odd since I only have 9 hours of class a week. What to catch you up on? How about my trip to SPAIN!!! I had a blast, it was so much fun. The weather was perfect. It was cool in the mornings and evenings, but in the afternoon it got hot sometimes. Even if it was just warm the sun was always out which was a nice change from dear old cloudy Coleraine. The hostel we stayed at was the nicest one I've seen. Each room had it's own mini kitchen and living room, all newly furnished with ikea furtiture and artsy photographs on the wall.

The first day, after eventually figuring out how to ride the metro, we went on a bike tour and saw all the major sites. It was brilliant as the Irish would say! Our tour guide was a girl from Arizona that decided she wanted to up and move to Europe and do something exciting with her life before she turned 30. She was funny and very knowledgeable. We biked to the castle which used to be the home of Isabel and Fernando in the late 1400's. Isabel was the woman who funded Cristopher Columbus' trip to sail arcoss the world in order to discover America. Archaeologists recently discovered an underground city underneath the castle which visitors are allowed to walk through. These workshops, factories, and rooms that were found were for washing, dying, and drying clothes, making wine, salting fish, going to church, and shops. You could see the 'very modern' drainage system that ran through the little city. I snuck some pictures you can see at the top. We also saw Sangrada Familia which is a cathedral that looks like a drippy sandcastle. It is very impressive and extremely intricate. We went to the beach at the end and we got to learn about the man made beaches that were created for when the Olympics were held in Barcelona. We went out on the town that night with some people from our hostel and drank calimocho, which is red wine mixed with coke. Sounds disgusting but it is actually quite tastey.

The next day we were all tired and decided to spend the whole afternoon on the sunny sandy beach. We packed some sandwiches and laid by the ocean for a couple or 3 hours. These beaches are clothing optional...that was interesting. After the beach we went shopping for some touristy things and headed back to the hostel. We planned on seeing the Magic Fountains (fountains that shoot up water that has music and lighting) but they were closed. We ended up sitting on our deck playing cards in our sweatpants :)

The next morning we took the bus to Girona which is where we flew out of. It was a wonderufl town! I enjoyed it more than Barcelona because it was quiet and cute with parks all around and everything felt very simple and relaxed. That could have also been because it was a Sunday, and Spainards apparently just hide out for the whole day. I'm not exactly sure why. So we had a delicious inexpensive lunch out on the street under the sun listening to the birds chirp and the Spanish people walking past. It was lovely.

On our flight home I learned a very valuable lesson thanks to Ryanair. Leave PLENTY of time between connecting flights, because if you miss your flight (like we did) you have to either pay a 100 pound fee for changing your ticket or just buy a whole new ticket which turned out to be 75 pounds. That was disappointing and stressful, but we made it home eventually and it was so good to be back. I missed Ireland, I really do love it here.

Tuesday night I met my International Friend's family! This is just a family who is active in the church that runs this program. Each student who signs up is assigned to a family and that family can invite you over for dinners or take you out and show you around. My family, Mervyn and Pearl, are so sweet and friendly. Pearl reminds me of you, Mom :) I brought Siri along with me and the four of us had a cozy sit down home-made dinner in front of their crackling wood burning stove. Pearl made chicken, potatoes, salad, and bread for dinner, home made crepes for dessert, and tea and cookies to top it all off. By the way, I am loving the tea here. I put cream in it and it is calming. We chatted about politics, Irish history, the differences in cultures, school, and their 3 kids who are all graduated from college. It was a delightful evening!

Pictures:
The first one is of the wine vats that were in the underground city. It was a huge complicated process of fermentation and production. Pretty cool!
The second is me on the beach :)
The last one is Sangrada Familia, which had scaffolding on it but it was still incredible.

Now that I have just written an essay telling you about my life, I'd love to hear what everyone else is up to! If you don't know how to leave a comment, I will tell you now:
1. You have to sign up to create an account with Blogspot. It is SO simple and they won't send you annoying emails. It is only to allow you to comment on blogs.
2. Once you enter your email, name, and other info, you can sign on using your username that you created and password.
3. Once you are signed on to you account, you can search for my blog using the web address or the search box.
4. Once you find my blog page, scroll down to the bottom of a post and click 'comment'.
5. Write away! Let me know if you have any questions by emailing me. I use holcombe@cwu.edu the most.

Ok, I am loving life here but I can't wait to come home for Christmas and see the family, friends, and Chloe and Cleo!!

Ready, Set, ROW!

Today I had no class, but instead 3 hours of rowing practice! Today was my first time getting to go out on the water in my own boat by myself. Before I was in a boat but it was attached to a string and so I would take 3 strokes and they would pull me back in. So today was really fun and I am getting the hang of it. It's hard to get all the technique down because there's so much to it. It's a whole body movement- like dancing or something- that has to be perfected in order for you to be good at it and not hurt yourself. It's very graceful when you see someone experienced do it. There are only about 8 people in the club, but not everyone is at every practice. It's pretty relaxed about attending practices because most people are just doing it recreationally, which I find odd because I am used to having strict practices. For instance, if you get there late you get in trouble and you can only miss a certain number of practies. The weekend of Halloween all 4 rowing clubs at the Ulster campuses are getting together to row and hang out, just for some good craic. I am hopefully going to be able to go! My hands are getting blisters on them, and my muscles aren't very sore except for my back. We have conditioning in the gym twice a week and that is the really hard part. Rowing for 15 minutes while keeping up a ceratin pace, running for 15 minutes, and biking for 15 minutes. Then we all do abs and stretches together. I really like it. And my coach Charlie said we should make sweatshirts, I was ALL about that! I volunteered to design them and get the process started.

Tomorrow afternoon 4 friends and I are going to fly to Bercelona for 4 nights. I am SO excited about this trip! I will tell you all about it when I get back. Hope all is well in the states :)

Dublin

This weekend was very busy! 7 of us took a bus and train (about a 5 hour trip) down to Dublin and stayed in a hostel for 2 nights. The hostel was nice but in order to save money we decided to stay in a 16 person bedroom. It was HUGE and way too many people, I didn't like it. The first day we got there (Friday) my friend Siri came to my room and said she had a surprise for me. Then one of my friends from high school peeked her head around the doorway!! My friend Becky was staying in the same hostel on the same weekend, how random is that?? So that was nice to see her for a while. She is studying in London so I will eventually go visit her as well.

The first day we walked into town and grabbed some take-away fish and chips, then headed towards the pub crawl meeting spot. There were about 70 people on the pub crawl! We went to 3 different bars and ended at a dancing club. I didn't really enjoy any of the bars or clubs except one who had a live band that played Bob Marley songs :) The next morning we pulled ourselves out of bed and went to enjoy our free breakfast downtairs in the hostel. It was a lovely plate of 2 peices of bread, butter, jam, tea, coffee, and orange juice. I could have probably had 8 peices of toast but I held myself back. Then we all went on a free walking tour of downtown Dublin. We saw the GPO, General Post Office, which was the big meeting place of the Catholic Rebellions. It was attacked by the British and you can still see bullet holes in the columns. We walked through the courtyard of the castle that housed all the British Parliament, saw the museum of the 'Bogside People' (bodies dated from the 1800's that were preserved in the bogs throughout Ireland), and walked through the St. Stephen's Green Park. It is so peaceful and magical inside the park, that was my favorite part of the trip. One night we also went to the famous Temple Bar, super crowded but the live music was fun.

Other than that nothing is new. I wish I had more classes though! I only have 9 hours of schduled class a week, which is a lot less that at home. Some days I don't know what to do with myself (besides read, I know Dad). This week one of my classes got cancelled so now I only have 6 hours of class, and 2 of them I won't be able to attend because I am leaving to go to Spain on Thursday!!! Hooray! I am so excited to see Spain and be in the warm weather and sun. My 'host family' emailed me today and asked to meet sometime soon. That should be fun! I don't know anything about them yet, but when I do I will let everyone know. I am trying to get over a chest cold I had this weekend. Last night I slept for 16 hours straight. I woke up at 4:15 pm and was shocked!

I also want to say HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to Carsten!! I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you cuz :) Hope the Connolly's are doing well, and everyone else too. Love you guys!

Pictures:

1. The view of St. Stephen's Green park. There is a lake in the middle with ducks and seagulls and swans all swimming in it. Kids were feeding the pidgeons and it was very peaceful.

2. I thought this was ironic :) I saw it on our way to the park.

3. The fresh pint of Guiness at the end of the tour. I was in the very top, glass room that overlooked the whole city!

4. Infront of the castle on our walking tour. There are 3 kinds of architecture here built at different times. I wish I could remember the names of them. The middle is medieval, I know that :)

5. This is the GPO that has the bullet holes in it.

Glens of Antrim

It's been a while, I'm sorry!

First of all, before I forget, thank you to Tom and Paula for your card! I love the artwork, what an incredible background of the artist. For everyone else, the card was drawn by an Autistic 40 year old man who has been drawing all his life. It is of a castle on a hill and looks very much like Ireland :) And you're right Paula, I love getting mail! So thank you again.

The Glens of Antrim trip on Saturday was nice. The views were great but I would have rather gone to the coast. We ended up hiking 7 miles to see a waterfall and the highest look-out spot. That was rough, and I'm still debating if it was worth it. It probably was haha. I posted some pictures of the trip up above.

Tonight my friends and I went to see a movie, The Town. It was really great! And it was fun to go to a movie theater, especially since Tuesdays are only 3 pounds to get in and students get free popcorn and a drink! Woo! After the movie was over I forgot where I was and had to remind myself that I wasn't going to go out, get in my car, drive home and see Mom. That was a little strange. School is going well so far. I read the second book for my Irish Lit. class called Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth. Short but classic, I enjoyed it. Tomorrow I have rowing in the afternoon (I'm officially part of the club) and it's my roommate Elaine's birthday. We are baking cupcakes and having a little party before we go out on the town to celebrate. The cab driver who drove us home tonight was telling us about bars that we should stay clear of and ones that are okay for students and tourists. This was helpful and interesting because most of the bars we should stay away from are either very Protestant or very Catholic depending on which side of the river you are on. It is strange to have to think about where you should and should not go in the little tiny city of Coleraine.

Today there was a car-bombing in Londonderry. No one was killed but a few were hurt. Don't worry about me please! Coleraine is safe and sound. Even though it is a terrible thing that happened, I find it intriguing to learn about. Well, I hope there are no car-bombings in Seattle, Granbury, D.C., etc! Ha, ok sorry to make light of things, but it is all fine and dandy here. I miss everyone. And remember, you should comment on the blogs because I like hearing what you have to say!

BOX :)

I got it Dad!! Thank you so much, it was so fun to open up and see everything. Like Christmas! Haha. Emily was with me when I picked it up from the Accommodation Building so we went back to my room and opened it. I was throwing candy in her face because I had so much of it. And THANK YOU especially for the dill pickles, godess salad dressing, sugary cereal, and gold fish. They don't have any of those things over here. Plus Emily is in love with dill pickles so I made her eat some, she was very very happy. I told her I would be able to feed us for a few months now. And the Halloween lights are really cute too, my rooms is feeling more homey every day now. The honey leaked a little on a few things, I had to rinse the granola bars off haha. Emily took these 2 pictures to show her mom so she'll send a package too :)

My friends and I are organizing a Glee night. For those of you who don't know, Glee is a tv show about a highschool musical club. It is amazing and we all love it! I opened a bank account here with the Bank of Ireland so I can deposit my food stipen checks. Tonight some friends and I are going to Portstewert for dinner and maybe a bar afterwards. Then tomorrow morning we are heading to the Antrim Coast and it should be gorgeous. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Granny, your friend Ann Walters send me a letter! It was very nice, but she didn't write a return address on the envelope so I can't write her back. I also need your address, Dad would you write it in a comment please? Thank you. Dad also included fruit Mentos which always remind me of you because you always had them with you when I visited!

Mom, the first picture is of my friends Maureen (middle) and Ericka who are both from Pennsylvania. Maureen is the one I was telling you about, she has a great sense of humor. I hope everyone is doing well! More tomorrow!

Self Inflicted Tummy Ache

I ate too much Nutella. I need to throw it away and never buy it again.

Yesterday I tried rowing for the first time! It was a lot of fun and I think I will be good at it. The coach said I caught on really fast and that I had 'muscular legs' :) The people on the team (technically its a club) are really friendly, too. First I practiced technique on the machines and then I got in a one man boat and practiced. It's tricky, but encouraging when you get a really good stroke! Some of my friends went surfing yesterday when it was beautiful and sunny. I would have loved to go, but it was at the same time as rowing. And I feel like rowing is more realistic for me than surfing...

Class today was interesting. I need to catch up on some reading and European history so I can participate in the seminars. I got posters and hung them up on my wall despite the 'no hanging or taping things to walls' rule. It tears the paint off, as I learned first hand today. Woops...

BB, I really want to come home for Christmas. And I knowwww you think I should spend as much time over here as possible, and I agree, but its Christmas!! I want to see my family and a Christmas tree and turkey dinner! So just start getting excited to see me if I show up in December :)

Thank you

Thank you for my letters Sally, Mom, and BB!! I just checked my mail for the first time today and it was a fun surprise to see I had 3 things in there. Sally, I'm really glad you sent me a Seattle postcard because now I can show people where I am from. And Mom your card made me laugh out loud with the fish haha :) I hope your cold is gone by now. Wish I could have brought you tea and tucked you in like you do for me. BB, what you wrote was very touching indeed. Thank you for sending me inspiration and happy thoughts, I need those every now and then over here. You were right, I did need that lonely advice about a week ago :) I will surely read it over and over when I feel like that again. I love you sister, and family!
Dad I'm so excited to get your box!!! I will let you know when it arrives.

Today I had class and I think I finally know my complete schedule (minus one seminar time during the week). I'm taking:
Laying the Foundations, an Irish history class from the 1500's to 1800's
Irish Story Telling, a course about famous legends, myths, and their history (fun!)
Irish Author Studies, focusing on W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett

I don't have classes on Mondays or Wednesdays. It's nice because that gives me a day to read and study during the week and an extra day to travel on the weekends. Speaking of weekends, this weekend we are going to the Antrim Coast on Saturday and the Bushmills Distillery on Sunday. We get a tour of the distillery and afterwards get to go to a tasting room and have a bit of famous whiskey. Should be fun! Tomorrow I have decided to go to the school's rowing team meeting and see what its about. It is an all year round sport here and I've heard great things about it. Plus BB liked rowing, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm feeling like I need to be physically active or else I am going to become a balloon. I also joined the gym on campus today. Its about 30 pounds extra, but all my friends are members so we will be inspiration to each other to actually go and work out!

Tonight my friends and I are getting together to plan our trip to Spain in 3 weeks. Sally I would love to talk to you about that! Then we are going to a men's Gaelic football game :) Emily has become part of the women's team and says it is an extreme sport, but she loves it. No new pictures today...

Granny, BB told me that you read my blog every day! I'm so glad, now you will just need to learn how to comment on it :)

That's all for today folks!

Derry/Londonderry

Yesterday a few of us took a train to Derry which is about a 40 minute ride. We met an Irish guy who was sitting across from us and he said that this train ride is the most beautiful in all of Ireland because it takes you right along the beach, rolling hills, and huge gorgeous cliffs! I took lots of pictures :) We eventually found out that the same guy we were talking to, Ross, was going to surprise his girlfriend of 5 years because it was her birthday. He also told us he was going to PURPOSE!!! Then of course all the girls around him started 'awing' and getting excited. We probably asked him 20 questions about his plans haha. Then we found out he was only 19! We got off the train once we arrived in Derry and Ross showed us where to go to get some delicious crepes. We wished him luck and chowed down on some banana, nutella, and cinnamon crepes! Then we shopped around a bit. Derry is a bigger and busier city than Coleraine. It has lots of bigger and cheaper stores that are similar to Sears or Forever 21.

It was freezing and windy and I was on the verge of getting a little head cold, but we all sucked it up and went on an hour walking tour with a very informative and quirky tour guide. We walked along the walls of Derry, which were origanally built to protect the invading Protestants from the Catholics. The Catholics didn't want the Protestants to be in Ireland and therefore tried to kick them out and have them surrender. To save themselves, the Protestant King decided to build a wall around the city to provide protection. It took about 5 years to build and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, which was a ridiculously large amount of money in those days. It worked though! The walls have never been breached and they still stand to this day. It was very impressive to see. Just a few years ago, the Union Jacks left Ireland and destroyed their watch towers that were located throughout the ciy. The Nationalists were very happy about this and it is now a much safer place to live. There is, however, a block of Protestant housing located smack dab in the middle of Derry that is surrounded by Catholic neighborhoods. It has tall green fences around the entire neighborhood for security purposes. We saw murals that artists had painted on the sides of buildings. They all represent the history of Irelend in some way. One is a dove to represent the peace and equality that Ireland has been wanting and working towards for years. There is so much to learn! I love it!

After the tour we walked to the University of Ulster Magee Campus. The main building is a huge castle, it was the first campus built out of the 4 that exist today. We met one of Siri's friends who goes to school there and went out to dinner with them. It was a restaurant that Rick Steve's suggested called Flaming Jack's :) It took SO long that right when we got our food we put it in take-away boxes and ran out the door to catch the last train back to Coleraine! There were 6 of us that were chowing down on our dinners on the train! It was a delightful, and almost not successful trip if we had missed our train. I would love to go back there when family comes and visits!

Pictures:

1- Warming up with a cup of coffee after the tour :)

2- This is the view from on top of the wall. The wall has holes in it that allowed cannons or guns to be shot through them.

3- This is one of the murals. It is the dove of peace. The squares behind it represent equality. The colors go from dark to light which represents the process of gaining peace in Ireland. Something like the 'dark' ages to the 'light and peaceful' ages.

4- This is a picture of a Catholic neighborhood right outside the wall. The beautiful green grassy area used to be filled with Irish slums and very poor, jobless, hopeless Catholic families. It used to be an extremely dangerous area to live in. Ovbiously, lots has changed and it is now a beautiful, peaceful place where dogs chase balls and children play under the grey sky.

5- This is the Protestant neighborhood I mentioned before with the green fencing around the entire area. There is only one enterance.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BB!!!

YAY! Wish I could be home to celebrate with you! Or call you! Or something! This is the best I can do haha :) Glad you had fun at dinner with Mom. Hopefully I will have internet by Sunday so we can skype still.
<3

I really love my Genres of Irish Literature class. My professor is quirky and odd but funny and knows what he's talking about. The whole lecture is like listening to him tell a story. It's funny :) It's also funny when he makes references to America during class. Today he said that America was the land of praries...guess I can understand that. Another professor said that he's going to be using words like 'protestant' and catholic' because we're not in America and don't have to worry about words like 'black and white'. I saw a picture on my Irish friends facebook that was from a party they called 'Obamarama'. They celebrated Obama's election and all dressed up in costumes that represented America. One was the Statue of Liberty, a cowgirl, an American flag, etc...

Talk to you all soon! Granny- I hope you are keeping up with this blog! Same with Judy and Allen and Adrienne and Padget!

Nearing the End of Week 2...

I don't have internet in my room right now which is very frustrating. I am at the library fooling around and what not. Here are some things that are funny and different from what I'm used to:

They have weird flavored chips like pickled onion and bacon.
They call fries chips, and they call chips crisps.
They don't tip taxis unless its after 2am.
They drive on the wrong side of the road and I feel like we're going to crash all the time.
They call classes modules.
Independent study in your classes is a HUGE part of succeeding. 1 class = about 150 hours of independent study.
Local students go home every weekend, so the parties take place during the week.
There is no such thing as a 'school night'.
Traffic lights turn yellow before they turn green too.
Planners are called diaries. I thought my professor was being funny when he said 'make sure to write it in your diary'.
They celebrate Halloween here, which I thought was odd.
'For here' is 'sittin' in' and 'to-go' is 'takin' away' when ordering food.
It costs more to sit down and eat.
Everybody drinks tea! Long classes even have a 'tea break' in the middle.
The rugby guys seem like celebrities to everyone.
Irish accents are way prettier than Northern Irish accents. And much easier to understand.
People say 'wee' here. As in 'I just took a wee walk down the street.'
They have a Christmas sandwich which is ham, turkey, stuffing, and cranberries on bread. YUM.
No bars or clubs I have been to serve fancy drinks. I have yet to try a Long Island Ice Tea :(
All the stores close at 5:30pm!
Theres a switch on the electrical outlets that you have to turn on before it will charge anything.
The campus is mowed about 2 to 3 times a week hahaha :)
We have the best conversations with taxi drivers.

I'm sure there's more that I have yet to learn. Things are going well here for the most part. I am worried about my classes because there is so much required reading, about 2 novels a week! We will see how it goes. My friends and I went to a huge night club last night that had tons of different rooms dedicated to different kinds of music and themes. It was really fun.
Miss you all! More later!

Homesick...

Yes, its true. I am getting a little homesick already. Its difficult because most of my friends I've made here are only staying for 1 semester. So they will all be leaving to go home for Christmas and I will be staying here... My friend Emily is staying and invited me to come travel with her and her boyfriend, but I am just thinking how nice it would be to see everyone for Christmas!

:(

Mom, if I'm not home for the holidays then you have to come visit me because I will be lonely! Meagan might come to visit in January which would be really great. And Dad in April. I'm sure I will be over the homesick feeling in a week or two (hopefully).

I had my first day of real class today! It was great, I love having something my brain can be engaged in. I've always loved school :) I had two classes today and both professors were fun and I could tell they were extremely knowledgable and liked their teaching subject. I have the same schedule as one other American student from Philidelphia who is also getting the Advanced Certificate of Irish Studies. She is very witty and sarcastic, I like her. Her name is Maureen. I started looking at trips to Spain and found out that I can book a round trip flight for 40 pounds! I will look more into after I talk to Sally, she studied in Barcelona for a year so she is an expert!

I am going to sit in my now cute and comfy bed and hopefully finish Trinity tonight. Here is a picture of last night with my friends at the Anchor bar.

Weekend

Let me catch you all up!

Friday we all went to the beach in Portstewart. It was a little drizzly, cloudy, and very windy. But oh man, it is gorgeous! It reminds me a lot of Seattle beaches, except sandy and soft. Then we walked into town which is about 10 minutes away and got some dinner at a bar. We cabbed it back to the campus and I stayed in for the night.

Saturday Emily and I went to Belfast to IKEA! Yeah! I figured since I'll be here for 9 months I would allow myself to spend some money on a new comforter, pillow, sheets, and a few decorations. My room looks much better now (besides my curtains).

Today I slept in, for once, and went grocery shopping. A few of us got together to plan out where we want to travel to. We made a rough outline for the next 2 months for weekend trips. They include Derry, the Antrim Coast, Galway and the Aran Islands, Dublin, Scotland, and London. We are planning to go to London for the HARRY POTTER OPENING NIGHT!! Haha how cool is that? :) Now I am going to watch a movie with some friends who are coming over and head to bed. School starts tomorrow!

Registration!

Today I went to the "Octagon" building to register for classes with my advisor. All the internional students were roaming about trying to figure out what to do :) This semester I am taking all Irish Studies classes. There is a program here when if you take a full semester of Irish Studies classes you earn a Certificate for the program. If you do two Semesters of all Irish classes you earn a diploma. I asked what you are able to do with a diploma in Irish Studies and if it is practical for any career area (thought you'd be proud of me Dad), and they didn't really have a great answer. They said it would look good on a resume and that it shows I am diverse, educated, wordly, etc... Sooooo I'm not sure I will get the diploma, but I will get the certificate this semester. I'm very excited to start!! The classes sound so interesting. I am taking:
Irish Cultural Studies: Introduction 121
Ireland in the 20th Century (HIS101)
Telling Stories: Genres of Irish Literature (ENG105)
These are all 20 credits, which is equivelant to 5 credits in the US. I also got my school ID today, so I am official. Dad- I met Siobhan today...she didn't have much to say to me. I was maybe a little cold towards her but I just don't think she handled the situation very well at all. Dr. Nerys Young is really great and helpful and supportive.
I would love to have everyone's address so I can send postcards please! And I love to get mail as well!!! :)Last night I went to an Irish pub that had an Irish group playing live music. Fiddles, harp, hand drum and all. I LOVED it!!! I told them I played viola and they said I should come back next weekend and play with them :) I am going to Portrush today to explore the beach with some friends. More about that later.

Guinness 101

Last night was our first night out on the town (top pictures). It's funny because the whole town has designated certain nights to go to certain bars or clubs. From my understanding, the word on the street is Tuesday nights go to Anchor Bar in Portstewert, Wednesday nights go to Kelley's Club, and the bar at the Student Union is always a safe bet as well. So last night was really fun, I had my first pint of Guinness...it was good. Not my favorite but maybe it will grow on me! There was kareoke and I sang "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West. I dedicated it to all the Irish boys in the crowd hahahahaha :) It was a good time and then people went upstairs to the club. I didn't really like the club because it is SO LOUD and CROWDED! And it's hot and you can't move really, just dancing and bumping into people. We took a taxi back to our rooms after that.

Today we had meetings again and learned about the modules, or classes. I organized my schedule and it all works out. I am taking Irish classes mostly but I need to meet with my advisor and make sure I am doing everything correctly. I also had tea with the Mayor or Coleraine today! It was neat. He is a nice guy. Then some friends and I went to town and bought European cell phones. The phone was 10 pounds and the phone plan is 10 pounds a month, pretty cheap! My new number is 07543 970 928.

I'm so tired, I'm not sure if I am completely done being jetlagged or what. I'm going to call it an early night. Catch you up on more later! Also here is the view from my corner window (last picture)! These are some pictures of my friends. Emily is the blonde from Canada, Siri is the brunette from Oregon, and Shamos is the guy from Greece who is in the first picture. I posted some pretty scenes I saw walking around today on campus and in town. The third picture is of St. Patricks Church (St. Patricks Day!!!!)

Night (or good afternoon) everyone!

And so it begins...

I finally made it to Ireland. I am sitting in my dorm room (which needs some homey touches) and you would never guess what happens next... Mom- there is a SPIDERFLY in my room!!! This cannot be happening. All the way across the country and they still sneak into my sleeping quarters.

Well anyway, lets start from the beginning! Woke up at 6am Sunday, flew to Chicago, then to London, and finally to Belfast. I was greeted by a girl holding up a sign for University of Ulster which was a relief because I was afraid I would be wondering around the airport figuring out how to get on a bus to Coleraine. Once we were on the bus, I met a few fellow abroad students who I like a lot. One girl's name is Emily and she's from Canada, one guy's name is something I cannot pronounce so I told him I would call him Sam because it was close enough. He is from Greece (really want to visit there!!) Once we got there we got our keys to our rooms and all spread out. I live on the second floor with my own bedroom (Thank God). The kitchen is downstairs along with a bathroom. There's another bathroom upstairs as well. I posted pictures above of my room even though I have not decorated or anything. I have an amazingly beautiful view from my window which I will show you sometime when it's light out. If you would like to write me or send something in the mail, this is my address:

Ellie Holcomb

House 7086

Room 7179

Errigal Hall

Cranagh Admin Building

Cromore Road

Coleraine

Co Londonderry

Northern Ireland

BT52 1SA

Pretty long!

Once I got settled in my friends and I went to the International Student lounge. Its a pub/bar inside the university with couches and a pool table and games. It was fun meeting new people but I was so tired that I was a bit unsocial. We ate dinner at a welcoming buffet in the Student Union and headed back to the dorms. Thats where I am now and I am about to shower and pass out! I can't wait :)

Sweet dreams everyone.

Hooray!!

I finally got my visa in the mail last week. What a beautiful little sticker it is in my passport :)

Thirteen more days until I get on a plane at 6:00 am and fly to Chicago, then London, then Belfast, and finally take a train to Coleraine. Now I have to start thinking about packing... can't I just take my whole closet? And all my room decorations...and my dog...and my whole family? Haha

Stressing Out

So I am having a VERY frustrating experience trying to get all my visa information together and finished and mailed off. There are TONS of deadlines and steps that you have to do in the right order or else everything will be messed up. I have found this out the hard way...applying for a visa is not easy in any means. My dad is helping me a lot and so is my mom, I am very thankful for them! Right now I am just waiting to get my financial aid award letter from CWU and my biometrics taken. It will all be mailed off very soon, and off to Ireland I'll be...

Update

Hey everyone! Thanks for looking at my page, and voting on my poll! I want to update but there's not much to share. I'm still waiting to hear back from University of Ulster for a certain CAS number which I need before I send my visa. I'm getting a little nervous because it's taking longer than I expected. They are 8 hours ahead so it is hard to get a hold of the secretary I've been communicating with.

I'm reading a new book about Ireland that my dad bought me. It's called Trinity, written by Leon Uris. It's about Ireland and it's struggle for freedom during the twentieth century. It's really interesting, and the best part is I'm learning the history of Ireland without even studying! I would recommend it to everyone. (Thanks Dad :))

That's about all the new news I have for now. Don't worry, the blog will get more interesting once I've started my trip. Bye for now!

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Hello! Welcome! I've decided to start a blog about my trip to Ireland. I figured I wouldn't be able to talk to everyone directly all the time so this is a good way for me to share my experiences with you all. I'm going to try to figure out exactly how to work this website, but for now I'll give you a brief overview of what I'm doing to prepare.

I am currently in the process of obtaining my visa, which has many steps and takes a loooong time. I'm also figuring out my financial aid and living situation as well. I have many books on Northern Ireland which I still need to read, and I'm saving my money for my trip from my new job at Nordstrom. If anyone has any suggestions on movies, books, tips, or other general travel information please share!