Bhi me ag taisteal go Gaeltacht

Dia dhaoibh! (Hello all)-
Well, to start with it was Valentine's Day on Thursday and since we're all overseas and alone we decided to throw a party at our apartment, "Drink 'til you fall in love". We had all of our friends over here and played lots of games and ate a ton of chocolate, because everyone had to bring a prize for the prize box, which ended up being food. It was a lot of fun!!

An deireadh seachtaine, Bhi me ag taisteal go Gaeltacht.
(This weekend, i went to a gaelic village)
I had such a great time. Maggie and I signed up to go on a trip with our Gaelic class to a Gaeltacht which is a village that still speaks mainly Irish. We had no idea what to expect or even exactly where we were going but hopped on the bus to spend a weekend away. We rode the 3 hour bus ride which ended up taking us to the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry. We arrived at our little house a little after dark and were served tea and other random foods. We had already eaten dinner but basically ate another whole meal...that would be the trend of the weekend....eat,eat,eat! We had scones, deli ham, eggs, cheese, tomatoes and bread with our tea. After our 4th meal, we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about the history of the area and his job of broadcast journalism. It was actually pretty interesting. We then decided to call it a night.
Saturday morning we woke up and had some porridge (which was actually really good) before we took off on our bus tour around the area. The tour was beautiful...we got off the bus a few times to take pictures at different beaches, cliffs and mountain tops. The views were incredible. After our tour, we arrived back at the hostel and Maggie and I were on lunch duty. We had pizzas and salad. Another delicious meal! In the afternoon we had free time to explore around. We went to the pub in town and listened to music because there happened to be a festival going on. There were accordions, singers, and dancers of all ages from 7-80. We also walked down the road to the beach which was gorgeous! After walking around all afternoon we had worked up an appetite for dinner and wow was that delicious. A few of our group members made a feast for us! We had mashed potatoes, vegetable stew, chicken, and tomato sauce with tons of veggies in it. I hadn't heard of a lot of the foods in there but it tasted so good! We then all headed out to the pub. There were no street lights or sidewalks into town so we all had to wear reflective vests and arm bands so the cars flying past could see us. There was again traditional music being played. At one of the pubs there was a whole family of musicians...one of the little boys was playing flute, violin and accordion, it was pretty impressive.
Sunday morning we got up early to go to the town's church service. That was quite an experience because 1) you all know that I'm not a frequent church goer anyways but 2) the entire service was in Gaelic. It was definitely an interesting experience though! We had another delicious breakfast before we headed back to Cork in the early afternoon. It was an extremely relaxing weekend with lots of eating, socializing and sight seeing. I have classes all week and then Friday morning I'm off to Galway for the weekend. It's a trip through the school so there is a huge group going.
Well I hope everyone back home is doing well and staying healthy! Miss you all!
Ta gra agam duit! (I love you)
Marissa