The Days are Winding Down...

...but the cottage life is still in full swing in Spiddal! It is pretty unbelievable that I will be home in exactly one month and that we will be leaving Ireland in exactly two weeks.  We have been trying to pack our days full with Irish fun in order to get everything done before we leave.  In some ways, it seems like we just arrived at the Park Lodge last week, but in others it seems like I have been away from Minnesota forever! We have had two great weeks in Spiddal since we got back from our fall breaks. I think the break came at exactly the right time, because after a few days away from each other, we so excited to see everyone again! After missing everyone so much after only a week and a half, I'm not sure what we are going to do on December 3rd. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things from the past few weeks! (Sorry it's kind of long, but we have been pretty busy lately so I have a lot to talk about...feel free to skim :)

Sunny Days: Our first day back in Galway after our fall break adventures was one of my favorite so far. It felt like we had been gone for so long, so it nice to spend some time there on Sunday. The weather over break was so perfect, and we were all a little worried about going back to rainy Ireland. Thankfully, our first day back was sunny! On most Sundays that we are here, we take a bus into Galway for church and shopping. This week, a group of us had traditional Irish breakfasts: bacon, sausage, baked beans, toast, brown bread, friend eggs, "pudding" (blood sausage!), and of course potatoes. It definitely wasn't my favorite thing I've eaten on the trip, but I figured I had to give it a try! When we got back to Siddal that afternoon, I decided to take advantage of the nice day and go for a run. Yep, you read that correctly. After eating so much chocolate and waffles on our travels, I thought I needed a little activity. I took a break at the beach as the sun was just beginning to go down. I think living by the ocean is one of the things I will miss most about Ireland! That night, we all got together on the beach across the road from the Park Lodge for a bonfire. It was a blast to catch up with everyone on their breaks and it really made me realize how much I missed the group!

With friends at the bonfire!

Adventures in the Spiddal Medical Center: Ok, so this was maybe not one of my favorite things that happened since we've been back. But on Monday morning I woke up with a bad case of hives. At first, I chalked it up to stress and my overly-sensitive skin, took a Benedryl and forgot about it. The next morning however, my hands and feet were swollen as well. I called the doctor's office in Spiddal and set up an appointment. The rest of my roommates were in class, so my friend Abbie was super nice and volunteered to come with me. In hindsight, I would have been totally fine by myself, but I was having flashes of the clinic in Northern Exposure and wasn't sure what to expect in the middle-of-nowhere Ireland.  The medical center turned out to be really nice and the doctors were as well. They decided it was some kind of allergic reaction (after thankfully ruling out bed bugs!!) and prescribed me some medicine. I went back to the cottage, but after a few hours the swelling got worse and worse. As Rory told me a few days later, he was afraid I was turning into a Chinese lantern and would float away! We made a speedy trip back to the clinic where they gave me some injections which finally helped. I was still out of commission on Wednesday and Thursday because it took a while for the medicine to kick in and the hives were quite resilient! I missed three days of classes and started going a little stir-crazy in the cottage by myself for so long! I was also disappointed to miss out on a whole week of fun things since our time here is going so quickly! One good thing was that Cottage 6 had a record number of visitors :)

Kilkenny and Cork: Last weekend was our final overnight excursion to Kilkenny and Cork.  It was up in the air whether I would be able to go or not right up until we left on Friday morning. In the end, I decided to go along and I'm glad I did, although because of the medications I was taking, I ended up sleeping through most of the excursion! Because of that, I don't really have much to say about the weekend, but on the way back we stopped at Blarney Castle, the home of the Blarney Stone. Legend has it that kissing the stone will give you the gift of gab, so we all gave it a try:

A Night to Remember: Prom 2011: On Thursday, we finally had the night we had all been waiting for: Potin Prom. Several weeks ago, the boys all picked a name of a girl to be their date and had to come up with a creative way to ask us. When I arrived home from fall break, I was surprised to see a sign on my bedroom door from my date, Spencer, asking me to prom! The girls were all very impressed with how the boys took the initiate and planned everything for the big day. Our dates all invited us over for dinner before the prom, but because of a little scheduling conflict with a program tour, we ended up having the dinner on Wednesday instead. It was probably a good thing because we were all so full afterward, I don't think much dancing could have happened! I went to Cottage 3, along with two of my cottagemates and two other girls, and they made us a delicious dinner of stead, baked potatoes, salad and garlic bread. The girls brought dessert, and Sarah made her famous dirt dessert :). Finally, the night arrived and we had fun getting ready together before our dates picked us up. John Paul opened the bigger pub and banquet hall for us, so it really felt like a special event. Tommy, who is an amazing photographer, set up a very professional-looking photo booth and took some really great pictures, too. The night was definitely a success!

My prom date and I!

Cottage 6 on Prom night!