Home Alone

I'm home alone right now, writing this very early in the morning (I spelled "writing" wrong at first, so clearly it's time for bed). It's really nice to be here without other people for once. I don't think I'd want to live like this all the time, but I can walk around and be as loud as I want to and turn on whatever lights I want and wash the kitchen and not have it immediately trashed. It's pleasant.

I woke up this morning pretty early, especially considering I didn't get to sleep until about 1:30 a.m. After showering and throwing some laundry in the washer, I left to take a long walk around Galway. I ended up taking the usual path to school, then walking along the river and going in to town.

On the river path, the water was empty today. This is a shot from under the bridge.
This is also from under the bridge, but you can see the houses that line the road on which I walk to school every day--even days that I don't have class, it seems.

This is the bridge itself, a lovely concrete highway.

And the path that runs under this side of the bridge. I've not yet walked on the path on the other side of the river.

The usual swans were floating around today.

Farther along the path, these random stones are set up all fancy. I don't remember them being here a few days ago, but I probably just didn't notice them.

This is part of Canal Road, where the canal from the river to the ocean runs between two rows of houses. It's a really beautiful walk, especially on sunny mornings like today.

The water currents right after the canal deepens.

This used to be a working loch (spelled like that?) on the canal, but now it just holds back the water so it doesn't flood all of the buildings later down the road.

See? Big important gates are missing now.

That's how beautiful little yards and houses like these stay dry.

A final view down the canal. This leads out to the area where the kayak polo tournament was a couple weeks ago.

I've never been out to visit the bay in the morning, I guess, so I was really surprised when I saw how low the tide was this morning. Normally these boats are way up in the water, floating several meters above the ground. I was quite confused when I first walked by. Usually I have to be careful not to walk too close to the edge so I don't fall in to the water, but today I had to try not to fall on to the rocks.

This is where a lot of famous pictures of bright Galway houses and boats are taken. Not so impressive when there's no water to hold up the boats...

So many birds. Gotta watch out for the swans.

The bay area at low tide. Bizarre.

Lobster traps, I believe? A whole mess of them.

There are a lot of fields down by the bay, used for soccer or rugby or what-not.

Looking out towards where the bay opens to the Atlantic Ocean. It was really bright and windy today.

There's a lighthouse in the distance in this picture.

Again, the tide is really low. I would have found lots more seashells today had I been looking.

On the way in to town, I saw several monuments like this that were erected for mariners or fishermen lost at sea.

In town, I walked past the weekly Saturday market and the statue man who has been hanging around for several days, then saw a special display in the mall in the city center. It was all of these individually decorated, 6 feet tall angel statues that were supposed to be raising money for something, I believe.

After I got back from the walk, I started to clean the house and cook some lunch. I mopped the floors after sweeping them and cleaned the counters and dishes, but didn't get a chance to do my room and bathroom. I'll have to catch up with that tomorrow.

Afterward, I walked over to Courtney and Alice's apartment, where we dyed Courtney's hair a light chocolate brown. While we were at Dunne's buying the dye, we had to go to the bakery and get a snack to keep up our shopping stamina...yum. My three miniature gingerbread men were delicious. Alice and I met up with Miriam in town while Courtney's hair dried. We went to Coyote's, a bar with a mechanical bull to ride (we didn't get to, alas) to watch the rugby game--Ireland beat England, but it was close. I was rooting for England, but obviously couldn't show it in a bar filled with Irish people.

In between that trip and the get-together later, I made supper and watched as much Olympics coverage as I could find. I'm still watching them at 1:30 in the morning...

So the party we had was only 8 people (a 9th came for a little while), and we played Twister, Never Have I Ever, watched the Olympics, ate sausage rolls, listened to Miriam and Ryan sing and play guitar, and otherwise just relax. It was really low-key and pleasant. At first, no one was showing up, so Alice and I went around the apartment complex and invited as many of my random neighbors as we could find, but none of them ended up showing up. Oh well.

Anyway, these are the sausage rolls ( so delicious!):

Twister board/BBC announcer for the Olympics.

Miriam singing and playing.
Inaki, the Spanish exchange student, Alice, Courtney, and Ryan in the background.

Ellie and Lena, two other American girls who aren't in API.

And that was basically today! Good night, finally!