I hate libraries. At Penn State I never go to them, in fact, the only times I've gone to libraries were on mandatory class-assigned trips or scavenger hunts, or maybe to stop Annie from drooling on herself during one of her two-night stays. I've never seen the stacks and I don't intend to before I graduate. But here in Ireland, I NEED THE LIBRARY. Gort na Coiribe (my apartment complex) has been without internet for three weeks now, and even when we did have it, it was 1997 AOL dial-up slow. Then about a week into not having internet at Gort, whatever powers the wireless internet in my computer decided to quit, rendering me lost, hurt, confused, out of touch, and unable to perform basic google searches like "how to store celery" or "galway post office hours" and the like. Since then I've been using other peoples' computers, various PC suites around campus, and the nearby McDonalds for internet access. It's actually gotten to the point where I have included "internet use" as part of my daily schedule, like I have to set aside hours of time to go to college/McDonalds and just zone out on Facebook. I don't know how much longer my mom (or Kevin) will last without seeing me on Skype.
Internet gripes aside, I spent Valentine's Day in true isolation on the Aran Islands, which are situated in the Galway Bay about 30-40 minutes from the coast. There are three islands; Inis Mor (Big Island), Inis Meain (Middle Island), and Inis Oirr (East Island), but we spent the whole day biking around Inis Mor. Inhabitants of the island speak Irish as their first language as well as English (for tourists like me) and are very kind from what I experienced. The main attraction is Dun Aonghasa (Dun Aengus in English), a prehistoric fort on the edge of a 100m high cliff, which my friends and I had fun falling off of and climbing up all day. Here are some pictures!
Breathtaking, I know. Note a) Connor's sick wheelie, b) the true fear behind Connor's smile near the cliff, and c) how Emerson that grass photo is! The link to see more pictures (I promise I'll get them all uploaded by April at this rate) is: [http://picasaweb.google.com/mikehrom] There are great shots of Mike with his hand in his pants and various other romantic scenes from the day. Nothing of Sam (the girl one - I'll explain the tale of two Sams later) being seasick though, that would be mean.
Ireland seems like a very mysterious place, full of ancient sea stories, grass type pokemon, and shitty internet.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I need skype to survive, I'm spiraling downwards into depression and isolation (not really, but maybe I will later).
It just occurred to me that one of those shots is a classic Sarah shot. Way to be original.
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