Social Life

The wife and I

  Before this trip I was extremely worried about how people would treat Jessica and I. Would they include the married couple or just think we were boring? Would people invite us to go out and do things? I wanted to make some good friends while on this trip and be included. The result was better than I ever imagined and being on this trip I have so many memories that I will cherish forever. Our group is a total of 17 people. You live with these people, go to class with them, drink with them, you literally do everything with these same people. So it would be hard not to grow quite close with them. I mean even going to get a bite to eat includes a half hour walk to Spiddle, so you have some time to really get to know everyone.
 

The group!

Since we are around 30 minutes from town when we do go to town we spend a few hours there. While in town we get to know some of the locals pretty well. One in particular that we have go to know is a guy around our age named Seamus. Seamus is a bartender in Spiddle so he has got to know us from stopping by the restaurant and a few late nights. Spiddle being the small town it is there isn't a ton to do, but we make do with what we can.
    Honestly, this trip is one wouldn't be half as fun without the people I have met along the way. We really have bonded in way that is only possible, because of this. Whether it was being lost in Rome trying to find our hostel, nights of playing cards, or even a surprise 21st birthday party.

Language Barriers

        For those of you that do not know, the official language of Ireland is Irish. Which is nothing even close to the English language. Lucky for me the second national language is English. And everyone I have talked to has spoken English. But where we are staying in Spiddle is one of the few parts of Ireland that speak Gaelic on a day to day basis. It is the language of choice for the schools and the children have to speak Gaelic in class. While, in places like Dublin most people prefer just to speak English instead of Gaelic. Most people consider Gaelic a dying language, because most people in Ireland would prefer to just speak English. A person could make it in Ireland by just speaking English, but not by just speaking Gaelic.
        There is three parts that make staying in Ireland hard for me. One is people with thick accents, two is the fact that I'm hard of hearing, and three a mixture of one and two. John Paul the owner of the Park Lodge Hotel where we are staying has a very thick accent and I honestly don't know what he is saying about 90% of the time. I have to turn and ask someone with me "what and the hell did jp just say?" While most of time I get by just fine there are the select few times that it is hard.

Colosseum

         One place that I have visited where I really felt the language barrier was in Rome. Trying to figure out how to get from place to place and asking people for help was honestly one of the hardest things for me to do. In the subway I asked an attendant if he spoke english and he didn't, but thru a

Jessica and I at the Roman forum 

mixture of few english words, a map, and hand signals we got to the platform we needed. I never felt so out of place as I did in Rome trying to navigate when I got lost. But enough with the bad about Rome I'll tell you I really did love the colosseum and the Roman forum. And the it was the best day I have had in Europe so it worked out perfect. That was by far one of my favorite things that I have ever got to see. Also, the pasta in Rome was to die for!

Academic Life-Kings Head

    Now, I know most of you just think that I'm just taking a three month vacation from being an adult, but seriously I am actually taking classes. I am even doing homework right now! Writing this blog is one of the main requirements for my special topics class. So in this post I'm going to discuss a little about each class I'm taking and some of the things we get to do for each of them.

Making scones

    First off is Irish culture and Gaelic. In this class we get the opportunity to learn the native language which we call Gaelic, but in Ireland the people just call it Irish. The first phrase that we learned is how to greet people and it is Dia dhuit the direct translation being may be god be with you. For the Irish culture part of this class we do a few different things. One that I was able to be involved with this week was cooking a traditional Irish meal.
I, Michael Daake, was involved in the making of a traditional Irish lamb stew and scones. Geraldine the lady who taught the class in charge of all the meals for the hotel and any events that they have.
The next class we have is our Irish Lit class. We have to do a lot of reading of poems and short stories from Irish authors. I'm personally not of fan of all the reading, but I am a big fan of when we read Irish plays and he assigns us all a role. One of the plays we read was called The Importance of being Ernest by Ocsar Wilde and I enjoyed it immensely. Our professor who is a male did the voice of an elderly lady and it was one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
    Our third class we have to take is Irish history. In the first part of this class we usually talk about something in American history and have small debate amongst each other. Then talk about something in Irish history and our professor Dr. Marley brings the two together and we may again have a debate. Depending on the subject it may get a little heated. One of the more interesting things was we got split into two group each side had a point to debate, and we did this debate in a pub called the Kings Head. The reason we debated in the Kings Head is because back in the day the man who owned the building was the one who decapitated King Charles I. The building itself is also a historic landmark.

Fireplace in Kings Head.

    The last class we take is the special topics class, which is mainly our weekly blogs that we do. Otherwise we meet once a week usually Wednesday nights and discuss our blogs

What happens when I go to write my blog....

and any filed trips we have coming up. And about every other week we do a pot luck meal and watch a movie that has something to do with Ireland.