I have to study???

Sorry to say...the reason so much time has elapsed between my posts is that I have been fulfilling the "study" component of my study abroad experience ! Fortunately, after this week I will officially be on Easter Vacation and traveling with Heather to London, and then to Copenhagen with Heather, Claire, and Liam. I do; however, have a few fun pictures to share with everyone back home. In between attending lecture and studying I have been enjoying some popular restaurants in Galway, having pizza parties with delicious and authentic Italian pizza made by the lovely Daniela Di Marcantonio (her parents own a pizzeria in Rome!), teaching some Europeans how to play my all time favorite game, Apples to Apples , and of course experiencing some of the local traditions, a.k.a., Rag Week! WARNING : some of the following pictures may upset a particular mother, but I promise that all of the activities captured on film were part of a safe and friendly cultural experience!

Fat Freddy's

Although the name doesn't sound particularly appetizing, Fat Freddy's is one of the most well known restaurants in Galway. The menu can be viewed by clicking on the above link and as you will see, they serve everything from pizza and burritos to more traditional Irish favorites like potatoes and Shepard's pie, and of course, as Daniela and I discovered, they also have excellent chocolate cake! So far I can only personally vouch for the nachos and chocolate cake (yes, the are both delicious!),but I plan on going back for another visit soon, and I promise all my visiting friends and family that they too will be experiencing the Fat Freddy's cuisine when they make their trip across the Atlantic to visit me here in Galway.

Authentic Italian Pizza!

My highlight of the past week was helping Daniela shop for, prepare dough, and eat her authentic Italian pizza! The recipe was from her father who owns a pizzeria in Rome! When we went to get the ingredients the weather was terrible and consisting of those wonderful Irish gale force winds and annoying misty rain that blows straight into your eyes and makes your vision blurred (this is the only time since being prescribed glasses that I have actually been thankful for having them because they act as a mini-windshield for my eyes!). Well, we eventually made it back to her apartment on foot (the only way for an International student to travel!) with 6kg of flour, 15 bags of mozzarella cheese, 10 cans of tomato puree, and other assorted ingredients! Both of us needed to relax and dry off after our hike through the retail park, and thanks to my cheap Dunnes store boots I needed to borrow a pair of socks from Daniela! Helping her make the dough was good fun, especially watching her get covered in flour ! The pizza party was a great time and we had plenty of food including about eight pizzas made by Daniela, six bottles of wine, and desserts including a chocolate cake and apple strudel made by Sophie and Barbara. After dinner we decided to check out a disco called Cuba and it was alright if you don't mind a 10 euro cover charge !

RAG WEEK

This has by far been my most "cultural" experience here in Galway. As many of you know, drinking is a favorite past time of the Irish and, to celebrate this age old tradition, the students at universities all over Ireland dedicate a week to drinking festivities, and of course, they manage to raise money for charities at the same time! R.A.G. stands for Raising and Giving and this was originally intended to be the sole purpose of RAG Week: Raising money, and giving it to local charities. However, students have added their own spin to this week and consequently, they have probably increased it's appeal and effectiveness. Come on, let's face it, who just wants to drop money in a bucket for some charity they've never heard of all week long? Now, RAG Week has become a week long drinking festival including competitions that donate a huge amount of their proceeds to local charities. This past RAG Week I was fortunate enough to be included in a project that raised over 500 euro for Alzheimer's research....and below you will all see photos of how hard my fellow Wisconsinites and I worked to help raise that money! We were entered in the annual RAG Week drinking competition as the infamous Team America: World Police (if you haven't seen the film yet please don't bother...it's not worth your time ! Our team theme was slightly disappointing, and we were definitely not banking on crowd approval...but considering we were a team of all American students, it figures they would stick us with this "creative" costume idea. All-in-all, despite the jeers and crowd disapproval, the competition was a lot of fun...and at least we raised some money for a good cause, right? For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, below you can see the inspiration behind our team costumes...and of course for more information on RAG Week click on this awesome link to the Wiki here

---

---