Where to begin!?
It’s been almost 2 weeks since my lastest Blog entry, and I don’t even know where to start.
Last weekend was the NUIG Surfing Intervarsities held up in Strandhill Ireland (Feb.13-14). Here some of the best (and worst) surfers in Ireland all gathered around to take part in the fun in and out of the water. The weekend turned out to be a blast, as we had nice weather, food, and friends. The entire contest was held on that saturday due to a decrease in the swell and small waves. Here I competed in the Longboarding division, surfed 3 heats, and managed to get 2nd place. The whole contest, at least the longboarding and beginner divisions, were a joke, as half the kids actually knew how to surf. The waves were ankle to waist high, but I didn’t mind because I ended up winning a 300 dollar Rip Curl world time watch. Pretty stoked about that! It worked out perfect, because just before one of my heats, I took off my ripcurl tide watch and left it on a friends car. After my heat I came back to the car only to find my watch had been stolen. Later that evening all the contestants, organizers, and spectators met in a local pub where they awarded the division results and prizes, over a few pints of course.
After the whole competition on Saturday, everyone let loose over a few pints, and ended up crashing early, just around 12 AM. Everyone had been exhausted from the long day and surfing. We stayed in really nice condo like apartments, where I roomed with 4 other Irish surfer lads. The places were all really nice, and instead of the 40Euros for accommodation for the weekend, the Surf Club told us that they were going to cover the accomodation fee after all! Everyone was stoked and thankful for this.
Here is the link that the ISA (Irish Surfing Association) covered for the contest: Check out the Longboarding results!
After that weekend away in Sligo, I figured I should get out this weekend and see more country. With that in mind, I made my way out to Roscommon, in the middle of Ireland, where I had stayed with my friend Grannia for the weekend. Grannia was nice enough to take a couple from California and myself out to her parents place to get a real irish and homestay experience. The first night we slept at her pops house which was this really cool, cold, historic, and fort-like house which was “older than the United States (1776). The windows were covered in steel bars, and there was an old jail cell beside the kitchen. Grannia’s dad later told us that the house use to be an old fort and holding point for prisoners and the local army. G’s dad was a big history buff and we ended up getting the whole history of Ireland and answers to any questions we had about Ireland. Later in the evening we ate some good traditional Irish food; beef, steemed veggies and potatoes, all of which were cooked to perfection! This was probably the best meal I have had since I’ve been here! That friday evening was a really good culture experience as we soaked in all the local tales, history, food and tea!
On Saturday, pops drove us down to mums house which was really cool as well. Mums place was a smaller, cabin like house, which was quiet and nestled away in the country. Her place overlooked a foggy lake, which reminded me a little bit of Washington. That whole afternoon we stayed in side playing board games and having good laughs amongst ourselves. Grannia and Mums dogs, charlie and willow, kept us pretty entertained and a bottle of wine later that evening topped off our nice chicken stir fry meal. Mum didn’t make it home tell the morning because she had been in morroco on a surf and yoga trip. In the morning I was woken by her when she said “get up already, there’s breakfast being eaten!” Mum had cooked us all pancakes, sausages, eggs, cereal, toast, pretty much all you could ask for, it was grande! Before we knew it, we were back on another 2 hour long bus ride back home to Galway in the after noon. The whole weekend was pretty quiet, but it was nice. Nice to get some reading, solitude, culture, and friend bonding time in.
The past 2 weeks have been a ton of fun and I am looking forward to the next coming weeks!
I have been back on the move, swimming and working out regularly. I am training for a triathalon.
On Tuesday 9th March the college is hosting a Mini Triathlon with includes a 5km run, 10km cycle and 500m Swim. I already have 2 similar triathalons under my belt and figured it’d be special to get my 3rd one over here in Ireland!
School is good, I have come to the conclusion that what the classes and courses come down to, and what all the kids dread and worry about is the end of the year examinations. Alot of Irish kids keep telling me that I don’t need to go to my lectures, and just study on my own time for the final exams. I figure why don’t do both.
Easter is coming up and I have been told we have 3 weeks off for it! Time to look into some Traveling!
That’s all I got for now, gotta run and make some good ol’ pasta with beef in it, maybe tomato soup? Who knows.
I will work on this more throughout the week and post up PICS!
ALOHA BEAR