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!