Tag Archives: rugby

G’wan Donegal!

To preface this post, I’d like to first explain the title of my post. In Ireland, especially at sporting matches, it is common to hear the crowds yell “G’wan!” (AKA, “Go on!”) followed by the team or county they’re supporting. I heard a lot of this when my friend Mary and I went to a Connacht Rugby match on March 1st – we joined in the crowds yelling “G’wan Connacht!” as if we’d lived in Galway all our lives. Even after the match, the phrase stuck with us, so if we were happy about something, we’d yell “G’wan Connacht!” Alternatively, we started using the phrase as an affirmative or an expression of praise, as well. For instance, one of our conversations might ensue as follows:

Mary: Do I get a medium order of fish and chips or a large order?

Maddison: Go with a large. You’re in Ireland, so why not?

Mary: You’re right, I’ll order a large.

Maddison: G’wan Connacht!

(I’m fairly certain this exact conversation has taken place between us multiple times.)

G’wan Connacht!

So, to continue with my post… as you can tell from the title, we have changed our “G’wan Connacht!” phrase (which we still use sometimes) to “G’wan Donegal!” Why? Well, this may be a bit of a long story, so prepare yourselves.

There are several different accents within Ireland, as many of us study abroad students have realized. The subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences appear as you meet new people from all over the country. Many people we’ve met at school and in town hail from County Donegal, on the north west border of Ireland. Donegal borders Northern Ireland but is still part of the Republic of Ireland, making it a unique county. It is the second largest county within the Republic and also boasts one of the most interesting accents. It wasn’t difficult for any of us to fall in love with the unique sound of the accent – speaking with an individual from Donegal could turn the most loquacious conversationalist into the best listener.

Because of our interactions with individuals from Donegal, my friends and I had a little running joke about Donegal because we liked the accent so much. When I visited a sporting goods store to buy a Galway GAA jersey, I had to try on the Donegal one just for fun!

It suits me better than it should, right?

Well, all of this fascination boils down to one obvious conclusion: we needed to go to Donegal. My friends Mary, Nicky, Amara, and I took an early morning bus from Galway to Sligo, and then spent a bit of time exploring Sligo before we caught the bus from Sligo up to Donegal. The views on the trip were incredible – the mountains in Sligo are unlike any I’ve ever seen before.

Gorgeous, huh?

Once we arrived in Donegal Town, I fell completely in love with the place. The quaint town centre, called “The Diamond” is filled with shops, tea houses, pubs, restaurants, and chippers. As soon as we got off the bus and oriented ourselves, we decided to stop in a tea house, called Blueberry Tea Room. We filled our stomachs with the most amazing lunch dishes and plenty of tea before heading out into town to do some exploring.

Within the town centre itself, we visited Donegal Castle, which was an amazing experience due to our ability to explore, learn, and interact with the castle and grounds.

Donegal Castle!

The beauty of the exterior was only heightened when, at night, the Castle was lit up by a green spotlight against the darkening sky. But some of my favorite parts of the castle were inside – the intricate fireplaces, the gorgeous wooden dining tables, and the stone stairs, rooms, and passageways were mysterious and fascinating. The O’Donnell’s, who owned Donegal Castle, sure were lucky to be surrounded by such beauty! I had a lot of fun exploring – there seemed to be surprises everywhere we turned!

Me with deer antlers just behind my head

Oh deer!

We also stopped in Saint Patrick’s Church, where we all admired the beauty of the building and said a prayer. After that, we stopped in a small sweater shop, where we befriended the elderly man who owned it. Mary bought a beautiful light blue sweater, Amara bought a gorgeous teal sweater, and Nicky bought a lovely green infinity scarf. Since I already bought a sweater at the Blarney Woolen Mills, I didn’t allow myself to splurge, but I’m glad my friends all found things they liked! Little did we know that their decision to buy warm clothing would definitely pay off the next day.

Saint Patrick’s Church

We partook in the pubs, the chippers, and even did a bit of shopping in the town before heading back to our lovely B&B, called Ardlenagh View, which was only a five minute drive from town. Our hosts, the Mulherns, were so welcoming and kind – traits we noticed in many people we met in Donegal. Their B&B was absolutely stunning, as it was surrounded by beautiful mountains, valleys, and the breathtaking Donegal shoreline.

After a good night’s rest, the four of us awoke to a scrumptious Irish breakfast with plenty of tea to keep us awake for the day. As we packed up our things and got ready to check out, we noticed the sheep that filled the field just beyond the balcony of the B&B. I jumped at my chance to ask if we could go see the sheep – a prospect which our hosts, Tony and Eileen, found immensely entertaining. They gladly granted us permission to see them, and soon enough, both Eileen and Tony were watching us out the window, happy to see how much fun we were having. I even got the chance to make one of my dreams come true, as I called some sheep. If anyone is in need of a shepherd, you know where to find me.

After we said goodbye to our sheep friends and our wonderful hosts, we headed back into town on a pleasant Mother’s Day. In America, Mother’s Day falls in May, but in Ireland, it is celebrated in March. Luckily for us, the Donegal Bay Waterbus was sailing on Mother’s Day, and we were just in time for the 11:00 AM sailing. Because it was a chilly day, the four of us were the only ones on the top deck of the boat in the open air – everyone else opted to stay warm in the inside of the boat. Needless to say, as soon as we established ourselves at the top of the boat, we threw extra layers on and bundled for the remainder of our sail. Nicky and I even indulged in a pint of Guinness to warm up a bit while we all took pictures of the ridiculously incredible views. Donegal is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in all my life – the beaches, the mountains, the water, the ruins and castles, the people, the culture – it all paints a picture of what life should be like and how it should be lived.

Sail away, sail away, sail away…

As we were sailing, I noticed shapes bobbing up and down in the water – upon closer look, I realized some seals had come to say hello! I yelled to the other girls to look at the seals, and to my surprise, Mary wowed us all with her seal call. The rest of us just stuck to waving to our new friends! We saw more seals on the beaches we passed – they seemed curious, so we waved to them as well!

Our seal friends!

We enjoyed sailing and singing some Irish songs that were played through speakers to the four of us chilly passengers up top! We even did some dancing on the boat, which I’m sure the captain found amusing. It was a great boat ride and we all really enjoyed ourselves!

Dun na nGall! (AKA, Donegal)

Afterwards, we visited the ruins of the Donegal Friary, where we admired the old architecture and walked around the cemetery. To my surprise, I found headstones marked with the surnames Martin and Gallagher, which are two of my family surnames! I was overwhelmed with excitement – I knew from what my great aunt told me that the Martins and Gallaghers from our family were from Donegal, and it looks like she was right! I couldn’t wait to email Aunt Esther to let her know about my discovery. Up until that moment, I had felt a particular draw to Donegal, but seeing the prevalence of my family surnames in the cemetery there made me feel an even deeper connection.

Sitting among the beautiful ruins.

After our visit to the friary, we were ready to refresh with some lunch and tea. We stopped in a quaint cafe, chatted with some locals, and then took a taxi to the nearest beach, called Murvagh Beach. It was a cold day, but the sights were still incredible. Walking along the shore brought me such peace. Hearing the seashells crash against each other as the waves carried them in and out was captivating. I couldn’t have been happier with our decision to explore such a pretty place.

The heavens opened up and shone down on Donegal.

As we all walked along at our own pace, we lost track of time – it wasn’t too long before we were all separated and enjoying our solitude. Breaking away from the business of daily life to experience natural beauty is one of the most therapeutic experiences… which isn’t a difficult thing to do in Ireland. I walked along the shore and collected interesting seashells, but eventually I met up with Mary and Nicky who had climbed to the top of a cliff which marked the end of the sandy beach and the beginning of the rolling hills just beyond it. Needless to say, I climbed right up there to meet them!

The view from the top!

Nicky went to find Amara, so Mary and I sat on the cliff and had some deep life discussions. It felt as if we were on top of the world – in every direction, we saw beauty, and we did our best not to take a second of it for granted. Naturally, we took pictures of us sitting on the edge of the cliff with beautiful Donegal in the background.

Me sitting on the cliff edge with the beach in the background

Taking it all in.

We didn’t want to leave Murvagh Beach by any means, but we knew we had to get back into town and eat dinner before catching our bus back to Galway. Before we left the beach, however, all four of us stood on the cliff and took a few group photos to remember our amazing trip to one of our favorite Irish counties!

Me and my friends posing with Donegal in the background

Never forget Donegal!

G’WAN DONEGAL!

Location: Donegal Town, County Donegal, Ireland

Field Trips and Rugby

This is way over due but geoblog/ possibly the internet provider here has not wanted to let me upload pictures lately. It just sits there forever and doesn’t process my request for some reason. I’ve been able to put a few pictures on but that’s all. But anyway…

I’d have to say last week was rather tame minus a few hick-ups and fun activities.

The first fun event to take place involved a field-trip in my Management class to a dairy farm to check out their water usage and to see how they are using the river that cuts through it to generate their own power. On this little excursion to the end of the 10 kilometer long farm we traversed some less than safe and rather narrow unpaved roads of sand and dirt in a bus. Up and down several hills with no guard rails with a river on one side and a gully on the other. But the fun didn’t happen until we come down one hill onto a patch of road of pure sand. Though the bus had managed to make it way that far the sand provided unstable enough ground for its left side to slip down into a sizable ditch and completely beach the bus.

Of course I happened to be sitting on the left side next to a friend of mine, who was closest to the window, and proceeded to jump into my lap when the bus started to go down. With everyone screaming and the emergency alarm going off the professor simply told us to get off the bus via the main door and we would continue the field trip…

Needless to say I was completely shocked that the trip continued because I know in the States that would have been the end of it for sure. Instead we left the driver with the bus and continued on for four hours around the farm before one van showed up taking only 15 guys, who all rudely rushed forward without a caring that they were the only ones who got to leave, before taking off. It was another hour until another bus showed up to take the rest of us and a backhoe belonging to the farm owner came to pull out the first bus.

But before we left I did get a glimpse at the bus flipped on its side completely in the ditch. The sand had given way under the pressure of the bus so the bus had kept going. The professor was not too keen on us getting shots of the bus in that condition though.

This past Saturday I got a chance to go to a Canterbury Crusaders game. The stadium was irreparably damaged in last year’s earthquake so the team had nowhere to play until this temporary stadium was made. (There are currently plans being made to build a bigger permanent stadium in another location) It was really interesting to get to see a live game and the differences in how kiwi’s act at sporting events compared to Americans.

The Crusaders played against the Cheetahs from South Africa. I could safely say that I did not see a single person in clothes representing the South African team. There was just a field of red and black and the whole stadium was sold out. Before the game started a Calvary of knights on horses (The Crusaders) came galloping across the field, waving their swords about and pumping up the crowd. Free team flags had been handed out at the gate so it was a challenge to get a good shot of the riders without catching a corner of a flag, everyone was really excited.

The big differences between American sporting events and New Zealand ones game about when the other team made a try (goal). At Penn State football game, for example, if the other team scored everyone would have booed and shouted how awful the other team was. But here when the other team scores everyone claps. Like saying “good job on getting closer to beating us,” but really it’s just amazing sportsmanship. The same thing also happened when the referee would make a call against The Crusaders. At a Penn State game everyone would have booed and shouted obscenities but here everyone claps.

In the end The Crusaders won (28 to 21) and fireworks/ celebratory torches were shot off and everyone was quite happy and filed out in an orderly fashion. There was no rush, no fights and no yelling. When people bump into one another they say “sorry” and give way. The atmosphere just seemed so calm and relaxed.

Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

Classes and Akaroa

Classes started this week and honestly it has been hectic. I’m only taking 4 classes but trying to figure out which ones I want to take and what they could possibly count for back home is really difficult.

Since this is a specialized agriculture school they don’t have general education credits or just a class you can just take for fun like astronomy or skiing. Every class people take counts toward their major and people don’t take classes outside their major. They also generally don’t change their major so it’s not possible to ask one person about classes in a several different disciplines. Instead I’ve taken to sitting in on lectures for classes that interest me this first week just to get a taste of what I want to stick with.

In my last post (which for some reason isn’t showing up in my achieve but can be found here http://geoblog.psu.edu/2012/02/1-week-down.html) I mentioned the setup of classes and how there are large blocks or full days where there are no classes, this is because they have a lot of outside class time for the classes which they call ‘papers’. There are things called “tutorials” which set up through the instructor on your own time where you meet up with other students and talk about the class topic. They’re mandatory but not on your schedule till your sign up. The labs for classes are also set up on your own time and aren’t put on your schedule until you sign up for them. There are also days where certain classes have field trips so classes for students that don’t have field trips are cancelled for the day.

Times of classes can sometimes overlap, meaning they will be at the same time so you have to watch for that because their scheduling program doesn’t keep you from doing it.

Students and teachers are also on a first name basis which I learned very quickly when I accidently called one Professor and he gave me the oddest look. The instructors also tend to know their students of hand and recognize them outside of class because the campus and classes are so small. My largest class this semester is 70 people but I have heard of someone having a class as small as 5. Thus, people tend to be blown away when I tell them there can be hundreds in a class at Penn State. But the odd thing is that they don’t put caps on how big the classes can be. Instead people can come and go for two weeks and after that you are not allowed to switch classes anymore without it being on your record. After that teachers have to put in a request for a bigger or smaller room depending on what their class size ended up being. Many classes are also team taught by multiple people that will cover a very specific area of the course.

As far as grading goes they do many more projects and paper for grades instead of test. Written exams are also more common or at least partially written and the have to count for at least 40% of your grade according to the school rules. Needless to say I was flabbergasted and plan on studying like mad in order to ace the exams since due to the grading scale it is hard to get an ‘A’ but nearly impossible to fail. I’d rather pull of A’s just to be safe.

But to be honest this week hasn’t been all work. The halls tend to get together after classes and watch movies, eat dinner together or plan trips around the island. Yesterday I had the pleasure to travel just an hour away from here to Akaroa with my RA, who was playing in a touch rugby tournament, and a girl in my flat. We were only there a few hours but it was really beautiful on the water and we got the best advice from a local, my RA, on the best fish and chips and town. I’m determined to go back there and get more because it was that good.

We stopped up over a ridge to take a look over the peninsula first before going down and the sky manged to open up and provide some good shots of everything below us. It was a little cold so we didn’t go down on the beach but we did get some pictures next to the water and get to walk the streets.

It was the perfect time to be on the water because once the sun started to set it looked like the sky was on fire over the mountains. It was completely worth the cold weather.

Iplan on doing a video soon on some of the words and pronunciations used in New Zealand. I have a lot of them so it may end up being a two part thing. So keep an eye out for that!

Location: Akaroa, New Zealand

1 week down

I’ve been here a few days and it has definitely been a really interesting transition. Not too many massive differences but enough to make it so weird so I’m going to share some of them and the flow of the last couple days.

I live in Stevens hall and my flat (like an apartment/ floor) consist of only 5 people including myself. 4 girls and 1 boy. There was supposed to be another boy moving in but he never showed up. Oddly enough everyone in this flat ended up being Americans even though the rest of the whole building is either kiwi’s (natives) or Europeans. This school does not do roommates which is a little different from Penn State where you have to request a single. So there are a little over 2,000 students here about 50% being international and everyone has a single room. Each room has one power outlet which I thought was rather interesting, I ended up needing to buy a power strip, and it has its own switch that is supposed to be turned over when not being so used so power stops flowing to it entirely.

Lincoln is also really big on recycling and composting used materials and food. There are recycling bins everywhere you look and at meals all food and drinks go into a bucket and is then carted off to be composted.

Public transit is really big around here so as soon as we got here the RA (Claire) suggested we get a pass to get into town. There aren’t even school buses around here, either kids ride bikes or they get onto the public bus in large groups. It’s well-known that the school kids all sit in the back all together and adults sit in the front when school is let out. It’s also not uncommon for the driver to let kids off right at their driveway.

I have always considered myself a big environmentalist and want to improve the way people treat the world around them so to see that in New Zealand that so many environmentally positive things are a norm is really refreshing.

I’ve spent the past couple of days attending events on campus that the school organizes so people can get to know each other (one of the benefits to a small school.) The one I enjoyed the most had to be the “Silly Sports Day” yesterday where all the halls made up teams and played football (soccer), ultimate frisbee and volleyball. My hall did really well and we managed to take 3^rd in ultimate frisbee, 2^nd in volleyball and 1^st in football.

I also managed to find myself in a rugby tournament this week with another girl from my hall. We ended up being the only girls there and because of us they had to change it to be a touch rugby game. It turned out not to be that hard to figure out how to play but hard to be good. Thus, the boys ended up playing around us more than with us and I still ended up getting hit pretty hard a few times by boys twice my size and will be feeling it for days.

(Don’t worry I did catch the ball)

It’s also rather common for people to walk around barefoot. Kids get on the bus barefoot, go to meals, stores, class and play sports all without shoes or socks. I’ve tried it a few times but without built up callouses it can get a little painful walking along the sidewalks or gravel.

The school also organized a little bus tour around Christchurch and some of the neighboring towns to help us understand more of the layout of the area. We got a chance to see one of the beaches where they give surfing lessons, which I plan on doing very soon, downtown Christchurch and some of the damage that took place last year.

Flowers in the cones in honor of those lost in the earthquake a year ago.

This area sustained the most damage from the quake last year. It caused the cliffs to fall apart along the edges and thus brought the backs of houses down with it.

Classes start tomorrow so the hope is that it will be a great chance to meet some more people and make some good friends. Oddly enough I’m considered a sociology and tourism major here since they don’t have Community, Environment and Development. I must say I do enjoy the way their schedule is set up because Monday, Tuesday and Thursday are the only days I have all my classes, Wednesday I only have one and Friday I’m free which I have learned is not abnormal.

So I will be sure to post soon and talk about classes and meeting more people here.

Till then stay beautiful everyone.

Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

Holy Rugby

I went to my first Rugby game on Friday night. The game was Munster (my team!) vs. Edinburgh. Munster won!

Let me tell you, the men who play this game are TOUGH. They don’t wear any type of protection and play pretty much the whole game without stopping. Talk about a manly man’s sport. It was tough trying to learn the rules at first, but I caught on rather quickly.

Photos! All except for the first were taken by my friends, because I didn’t want to bring my nice cameras in the rain.

^The stadium is pretty new. And awesome.

^Intense. I believe we scored after this.

^Action shot.

Went to a dubstep show last night, which ended up being three different DJs in the three different rooms at a place called Dolan’s. It was a little bit nuts, but a ton of fun.

This weekend has been really relaxing. Trying to decide where I want to go next weekend.

Cheers,
Melanie

Location: Limerick, Ireland

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