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.