"With gifts like these I'd live at ease, were I near Galway Bay."

Well, I've been in Galway for about a week now, but I haven't really gotten around to typing a whole ton. Well, now's my chance. Lets start with the first few days:

We flew into Spiddal last Saturday from London, and just spent the evening driving to Galway and getting settled into the hotel. After a meal of fish and chips, we called it a night. Sunday morning found us in the Galway cathedral for an 11:15 mass. First of all, the cathedral is BEAUTIFUL. I don't even know what the architectural style is or anything, but it was great. Almost every color was represented in the three main windows, and they looked phenomenal.

After mass, we walked the streets of Galway. After about an hour, my mom and I stopped at a sweets shop for a panini lunch. I met one of the waiters there and got talking with him. His name is Dave, and he plays in a big band in one of the pubs every Thursday night. We talked about that for a bit, and we found out that we each play trumpet! So he invited me to come listen to them and he said I'd be able to PLAY with the band if I want! AWESOME!

We also got to adventure and explore Spiddal. It's a nice little town, with a gas station, a grocery store, two schools, a few restaurants, and three pubs (I've thoroughly explored all of those, I promise). The Spiddal experience ended with a walk along the seashore.

One place that I really enjoyed was the Connemara region in county Galway to see the Kylemore Abbey. That's a cool looking place. Built in the middle of the woods and on a lake, it's a picturesque site, one that draws plenty of tourists. Invariably, I was one of them.

Thursday was the day where I saw my mom off from the Shannon airport and met up with my classmates for the next semester. We got checked into our cottages around 2:00 on Thursday and took the next few hours to figure out how we're going to fit everything into the place. Fortunately, it all worked out, and by the time dinner was served to us by the hotel staff (chicken, potatoes, veggies, fruit dessert, and tea), we were just about settled in.

We spent Friday in Galway getting acquainted to the city and picking up groceries for the next week. We've got some GREAT meals planned. So far, we've had sausage pizza (more or less homemade) and grilled chicken, both phenomenal meals, courtesy of our designated cottage cook, Bobby.

Finally, we spent the day on the Aran Islands today. After taking the 10:30 ferry (45' ride), we spent the next 4 hours biking around the island, seeing different places. It's been about three years since I last went biking, so I'm expecting to be a bit sore tomorrow. But best of all, I got a chance to buy a much-coveted Aran Island sweater. Pictures to come...

(I apologize for the length of this entry... I'll try to cut it down in the future)