Pints & Packer Pride

     Thanks to the Hole In the Wall pub I was able to watch the Packers dominate da bears!! Chris, is the only other student from UW-La Crosse studying here in Galway with me. He found the pub first and invited me to come along to faithfully watch our team. Chris's hometown happens to be Green Bay, needless to say he is a diehard Cheesehead. We sat next to Jack and Angie, both from Chicago and of course bears fans. It was fun to have a little banter back and forth throughout the game. Many of the American students didn't even know who the Packers were or where Green Bay was. A group of girls thought Green Bay was in Missouri! Catarina and Mickey both Irish students also sat with us and cheered on the Packers. They don't quite understand American Football, but are slowly catching on. Chris and I taught Mickey the GO Pack GO! cheer.  It was great to hear him cheer along with us in his Irish accent. The Irish students expressed that they've never seen Americans cheer like Chris and I had. We explained to them, that this was because we're Green Bay Packer fans, not just any ordinary NFL fans.

Chris and I celebrating our trip to the ship!

     Sadly we don't get American commercials here so I'll have to wait until the Super Bowl game is over to go online and view them. Irish commercials are pretty weird, so during commercial breaks Angie, Chris, Catarina and I would chat. Upon finding out we were from Wisconsin Mickey asked if he could guess it's location in the states. With hand gestures he drew out New York and then Boston and proceeded to put Wisconsin next to Boston. This made me chuckle, I had to explain that it wasn't quite next to Boston. The easiest way to explain the location of Wisconsin within the states to the Irish is to tell them it's in the middle, but way up north boardering Canada. I almost always get, "Oh, wow I didn't know that....it must be cold!" 

      Anyway Mickey asked if I'd ever seen the film Drop Dead Gorgeous. I responded that I had and that yes we do talk like yoopers in Wisconsin. Both Mickey and Catarina erupted with laughter and began quoting the movie. Catarina then pleaded with me to talk like a yooper. In my best UP accent, holding my vowels longer than anyone should,  I invited them over for "some coffee and bars, so we could watch da Pack. Don't cha know dem Packers are our pride and joy, da boys watch em even when their off at deer camp. Well sure, ya can't miss out on da Pack."At this point Catarina and Mickey could hardly contain themselves. Then Chris joined in so the two of us could converse like yoopers together. This proved to be too much for Mickey and Catarina, I thought they would end up on the floor. Catarina said my accent was just class (used along with grand or brilliant to describe something great) and begged me to always talk like a yooper. 

Too bad I didn't have a little blaze orange over
here to go along with my yooper accent.

     This morning I had my first Irish language class. Oh my goodness, it may be the death of me. Unfortunately Gaelic/Irish is not a latin based language and is not spelled phonetically. It's truly ridiculous. Thankfully my instructor is very nice and the class is based upon us gaining a basic understanding, so the assignments will be easy, but wowzers this is going to be an adventure to say the least.  Our course includes a manual and two CD's for us to listen to,  I think the CD's will be very helpful. I'll give you a little taste of what I've learned today

Dia Duit- Hello God bless you.                     Pronounced: (Dia-dwhuit)

Cen chaoi a bhfuil tu? - How are you?                               (Kerry-will-to)

Ta me go maith, go raibh maith agat. - I'm well, thanks.    (Tommae-ga-mah, gerah-ma-ha-gah)

With the exception of the first you can't tell me that these pronunciations look anything like the actual spelling of the phrases?

     Abby C. and I signed up for a yoga class here on campus that runs for 7 weeks each Monday afternoon. We both arrived early to find a greasy hippie looking guy setting up mats. Hmmm this should be interesting, I've never had a male yoga instructor not to mention one with a highlighted, dread lock  rat tail growing out of the back of his head. At the last minute another man, Paul, walked in and explained that he was actually our instructor. I was both relieved and bummed to hear this. Relieved because the greasy hippie didn't look like he'd be the best instructor, but bummed because I thought he may contribute greatly to stories for my blog. Paul, is a very good instructor, but very flamboyant so I am still hopeful for entertaining stories to come from yoga class. It was bittersweet to have Abby C. next to me instead of Jordyn. Most of the yoga classes I took in La Crosse I did so with Jordyn. Not necessarily a good choice to put the two of  us in a situation where you're in awkward positions in silence. Every class no fail we would end up with the giggles, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable laughter as tears would stream down my face. So much for relaxing and letting go. Even with Jordyn in a different country I couldn't keep myself together in todays class thinking about memories of our ridiculous yoga moments together. Overall yoga went pretty well with the exception of guys b.o. It's been a few years since I've worked out with guys, so I've forgotten the nasty stench that often accompanies them when working out. During todays yoga session I had a flashback to the high school weight room and the raunchy odor of guys b.o. Unfortunately, there are a couple of males in my yoga class that could use a little help in this area.
  

     Tonight I wasn't especially looking forward to cooking, but was pleasantly surprised by Aurelie walked in asking if she could make us spinach and goat cheese lasagna. Yes please! This was my first time trying such a lasagna and it was delicious. 

     My castles class has been canceled for tomorrow so no classes for me :  )

With Love from Galway