So I haven't posted anything in a pretty long time, but I've done a LOT in the past two weeks. I went on a trip with the Saint Mary's girls to Newgrange and Tara, which are different but both are super duper old. They look like mounds of dirt, but they're intricately placed stones with soil covering the top, and then grass grew all around it -- so it looks like a hill, but when you walk inside it's like a cave. And after 5,000 years rain STILL doesn't leak inside. They were pretty brilliant ancient dudes. We also went to some ruins -- they explained what they were, but we were too interested in taking pictures to pay attention =)
That week was really amazing, I started to become closer friends with the international students and even branch out to meet some Irish people, too! My Italian friend, Ruggero (or Roger), cooked me, Meagan, Mary, and Ben an authentic Italian dinner. It was similar to pizza, but wrapped up and fried. It was ssooo good! So then, the next week on the same day our French friend, Ben, cooked a French dinner! He made us bread with goat cheese, raw salmon! (it sounds scary, but was ssoooo good), and rice with chicken in an amazing sauce. Now it's our turn to make a stereotypical American meal, but we're kind of lost for ideas. I mean, seriously, what is American? We don't wanna serve them McDonald's, so if you guys have any suggestions, shoot me an e-mail =) Beyond that, my Irish friend, Eoin, has cooked me numerous meals, and they're all really, really delicious. And he uses lamb, which is so strange, but apparently quite common here. And he's also responsible for my ability to cook pasta. SCORE! Megan Reece can now cook something!!! I've also taken up baking while I've been here. It's kind of humorous how little baking the Irish people do. I made brownies, which didn't turn out nearly as well as they should have, and my roommates were thrilled with them. I'm going to bake a huge batch of cookies sometime this week, because most people have never tasted homemade cookies here!! It's a tragedy and has become my responsibility to save these poor, innocent people ;) I just need to wait til I'm feeling a bit better, because I've recently fallen ill with a cold.
Okay, so due to a lack of homework and a large, expendable amount of time on our hands, my American friends I have come up with new and innovative ways to entertain ourselves. Well, okay, we stole the idea from Eoin's friends, who pranked him, but we had some fun with with Gaelic football team's rooms while they were visiting home last weekend. While they were out, we labelled EVERY item in their rooms, including parts of the room itself with Post-Its. So Tadhg, Mickey, and Tommy now have Post-Its labeling things as "Tommy's ceiling" or "Tadhg's toilet paper." Two weeks later and they're still too lazy to take them all down. Victory. Our next victim will be Brendan. It may involve putting someone's favorite crackers in Jello... ;)
This past weekend I went on another trip with the Saint Mary's girls to Cahir Castle, Rock of Cashel, and Dunmore cave. Yes, you heard me, caves! Cahir Castle was my favorite simply because I've never seen a legitimate medieval castle before. It was even equipped with a dungeon and moat =) However, the best part of the weekend wasn't the site but the company. My best friend from Notre Dame, Miss Laura Taylor, came to visit!! She's studying abroad in Rome right now, so she came up for the weekend to see Ireland with me and Meagan. We took her shopping in Dublin, travelled around the country with the SMC girls, showed her Maynooth's glorious south campus, and enjoyed dinner with our international friends. However, I have a feeling that the best part was going to a real Irish pub.
Well, those are my adventures so far! Once I get over this cold, you can expect plenty more!
Megan =)
