Race Day

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Galway Race Day this year fell on Halloween. Apparently this hasn't happened in a very long time so people were a little confused. Anyway, I had never heard of Race Day until I got here, but apparently it was a really big thing for students. From my understanding it was like the Kentucky Derby on a smaller scale, but everyone got dressed up and went to the horse races. I'm not big into gambling at all, but both my mom and my grandma told me that I had to bet at least a little bit.

Monday morning I woke up at about half past eight and started putting on my makeup. I knew this was supposed to be a day of perfection so I spent way more time putting it on than I ever have before. At about 10am I got my dress on and grabbed my champagne and bagels and headed to Jess and Mary Cate's apartment. They were doing brunch for API. I got there and everyone was in a cheery mood, eating and drinking. It was great. I popped my first bottle of champagne so that was definitely an experience. I ended up doing a hairstyle that I did when I was Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town and I must say I looked quite classy. At 1pm we all were ready and headed to campus to catch the bus. Yes, I was drunk and I would stay that way for the majority of the day. I couldn't really tell you how long it took to get from campus to the races, but it wasn't very long. The day after that went by in a fast-paced blur. One moment I was betting and the next I was dropping sausage all over my dress (thankfully it didn't leave that much of a stain). I remember going up to the betting counter with five euro and telling the man I didn't know what to do. He told me to pick a number 1-12 and I picked six and put my money on it. I somehow ended up winning twenty four euro, which was a nice little chunk of money for having no idea what I was doing.

We got back to campus at around 5:30pm where some of us ordered pizza. With our Race Day ticket we also got admission into one of the nightclubs. I really wanted to stay out, I truly did. However, the terrible thing about day drinking is that when you stop you can feel yourself get hungover. While I stayed out as long as I could, I was home by 9:15pm.

Race Day really was such a fun day and I'm so glad I got to be here for it.

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Photos

My Suitemates and I
Sadhbh, myself, and Sarah