This blog is overdue, I have been so busy! Happy Birthday to my brother Johnny from last week and Happy Birthday this week to my Yiayia and Mom! I have had a good week since my last blog. The time is really starting to go fast as I knew it would.

 

This past weekend I stayed with the O’Sullivan family in County Mayo, specifically in Castlebar, Ireland. Castlebar is about an hour north of Galway. As a part of my program, it was required that we participate in a family homestay weekend, organized by families who volunteer to have study abroad students spend the weekend with and sleep in their home. For the most part, I was very excited to spend some quality time with an Irish family and it made me appreciate the Irish and how they live much more than before.

 

Here was my location for the weekend

 

On Friday January 18^th, a coach bus picked all the Americans up outside of our apartment village around 6 pm and we set off as a group for Castlebar. We met our families at a gas station and from there they drove us back to their home. The area of Castlebar is very rural, much different than Galway. What was fun for me is that in my classes, I have been learning about the “rundale villages” of before the potato famine and how they are identified by the stone walls that separate them. When you see endless manmade stone walls in Ireland, they were actually territorial markers as to which farmer owned what farm land. Castlebar has many of these old farm lands and beautiful sites of the mountains and country side.

 

The O’Sullivan family lives on a country road, much similar to Route 5 in Le Roy. Their house is lovely, see picture below. It looks smaller than it is; the inside is very modern and just as you would expect a modern American home to look like. There is a fire place in every room because there is no heat inside the house. At first, I did not feel that cold, but during the night, I was the coldest I have ever been in my life! (No fireplaces in the bedrooms) It was my fault for not thinking it through and bringing warm pajamas with me; I assumed my everyday t shirt and shorts would be fine. To keep warm the first night, I put all my pillows on top of my body to keep the heat in. Thankfully, it was only two nights and Mrs. O’Sullivan gave me extra blankets for Saturday night. That was my only complaint of the weekend.

 

Kathleen and Eddie O’Sullivan have 5 children, 4 boys and 1 girl, who are all grown up and moved out of the house. I only met 2 of their sons briefly that weekend. Eddie O’Sullivan works in construction and Kathleen works part time and enjoys walking, knitting, and cooking. On Friday night when we arrived, she made me frozen pizzas and French fries, accompanied with ENDLESS, and I mean ENDLESS cups of tea. It is very important to the Irish to invite their guest in for tea, so it was a good thing I like tea in general.

 

They are a very casual, welcoming family. On Saturday, Kathleen took us into the town of Castlebar which did not lack for its small size. My friends and I enjoyed the day shopping and eating at the pubs. The host families do this frequently so they probably figure that everyone likes to get out of the cold house and shop with their friends. On Saturday night, Kathleen made us chicken stew and mashed potatoes and vegetables. It was delicious and so nice to have a home cooked meal. Throughout the night, we sat by the fireplace and enjoyed talking about America and the children of their family. Eddie was very quiet and did not come out and socialize much. Kathleen mentioned that before they came to pick us up on Friday, they received a phone call as a reminder and had thought the homestay weekend was a week in April. So we (I keep saying “we” because there was another girl with me) caught them off guard, but luckily did not disturb their weekend.

 

Town of Castlebar

 

Kathleen’s friend Jean lives down the road and has two kids, Cleo (9) and Jack (5). Jean also had girls staying in her house, so she picked us all up from shopping on Saturday and brought us back for some tea and to meet her children. Cleo and Jack were a lot of fun and very well behaved. Jack was crying when all the girls said goodbye and told us that he was going to miss us.

 

Sunday was a relaxing day spent watching TV with Derek O’Sullivan, their 26 year old son. He is out of college now for 5 years and just lost his job, so he is currently organizing a new direction in life. He has never been to America, and does not know if he would like to go. He gave me his contact information in case we are back in Castlebar and need to know of a few good pubs.

 

Overall, the weekend was very relaxing and humbling. Kathleen keeps a lovely home and fed us well. Anyone in my family would do the same I know if a foreigner came to stay with them for the weekend. The cultural differences continue to be subtle. This week I am diving into my school work which has exploded with a bang, a presentation Monday about the Rundale Village and Potato famine and a paper due. Next weekend, February 1-3 I am going to ROME! My two friends from Penn State are there studying for the semester and I am really excited to see them. Even though I have already been to Rome, my other girlfriends coming with me who have not been and I would rather travel to places with friends and to see friends then to go somewhere by myself. It is only a short weekend anyway, and I cannot wait for some gelato and Italian dinners. After I come back from Rome, I have an exam on February 4^th, and then Mom and Yiayia will be here Thursday! They will be here before I know it and I can’t believe January is coming to an end. Next week I register with the Garda Immigration office, it will be good thing to be legal while I am here. Currently I have chicken in the oven; I am trying really hard to find some new things to cook. Pasta and grilled cheese all the time is going to catch up to me. Last night I went out with my friends so I am a little “tired” today….

 

I will blog next week about my presentation and my Rome trip! Looking forward to the next few weekends traveling and seeing my family. Sorry I do not have pictures of the family, Kathleen would not let me take her picture!

 

Let us finally not forget that today marks the 1 year anniversary of Joe Paterno’s passing. We are Penn State.

Location: Castlebar, Ireland