Lazy Jess

Today was a long, lazy, relaxing day. I slept in late--9 a.m., oh the craziness--then played on my computer until lunchtime. I made myself a lovely meal with lots of ketchup, then Alice got bored so we went for a walk. Originally we intended to just walk on the path next to the river that goes by the campus, but while we were walking by the edge of the city (near the bay) we saw some crazy kayakers competing in the Intervarsity League, which NUIG's kayak club was hosting this year.

Basically, this canal boat docking area was set up for these athletes to play water polo in kayaks. I asked a woman walking by what exactly it is called, but she wasn't sure. They had five people on each team in at a time, with two or three on reserve outside of the lines, and they had to shoot a basketball-esque ball into a hoop at their respective ends to score goals. The matches were timed, but it was so cold out today that I was amazed the players could last that long in the water.

When we first got there, the first match was starting. The yellow team, from Limerick, won the first two matches on our side of the canal, but lost in the final turn against Galway. I should have been cheering for the home team, but I had actually started to learn the names of the Limerick crew by that time because they were such a vocal team, so I rooted for them. Alice turned traitor and cheered on Galway, conveniently winning...

It was pretty funny at times and shocking that they could stand to be in that cold water for so long. We stood there watching for at least an hour, and I was freezing in my million shirts and layers of pants. The athletes shook like crazy when they got out, and even from the water you can see how red and chapped their hands got. It seems like it would be a nice sport to play in a warm climate during the summer--February in Ireland, not so much. It was really exciting to watch, though!

You can see the other match going on on the far side of the waterway, but the Limerick crew are the ones in yellow at the front here. By the second match, we had figured out who was named Emer, Barry, Simon, Shawn, and Roan.


Go go go! Not only did they have to be good at throwing the ball, they had to be able to do so while manipulating a kayak. They weren't allowed to travel with the ball in their hands constantly, especially since they needed to row, so they often would catch the ball then throw it a little ways in front of them in the water, then row up to it and repeat the gesture. It got really messy near the goalposts when they all crowded in and the kayaks got tangled. We saw several people get flipped or rammed in the chest that way.
See? Brutal down by the goal. They put their paddles up to guard the goal.
Number 6 is Shawn. He was crazy. And loud. The second team they played was talking about him when they had a timeout, and we heard them say that they could have it in the bag if they just focused on taking out Shawn. That certainly gives you a hint about how he acted.
The ball was easy to lose hold of in the water. Look at how red their hands are.
Alice's favorite player, from the team that beat Limerick.
This is a shot of when they're shooting for the goal.
After the matches finished, we walked down to the end of the pier to look at the bay. It was colder than before and windy, so we didn't stay too long, but the views were still gorgeous. This is facing in towards the city. These colored houses are used on tons of postcards, but especially when the docks are filled with boats during the summer.
A lot of the houses in the city center are like this: attached but distinguished from one another by bright colors. Outside the city, it gets much more cookie cutter and McMansioned.
I could never be a model. Behind me is the bay and, eventually, the Atlantic Ocean.
After seeing that part of Galway, we walked back towards the college and headed down to the path by the river. We eventually went home after walking for three hours--it was nice to be in a warm place again!


One of the funny things I noticed today while watching TV was that for lots of American shows here, they will re-record the narration with an Irish speaker. For instance, Myth Busters has an Irish guy in the background here, even though he's saying the same stuff. Also, the Febreze commercial where the mother makes the son clean his room before he has two girls over came on today--they had Irish voices set to match the lips of the American actors. That's certainly a first.

After a nice bowl of veggie soup and PBJ sandwich, I went over to Alice and Courtney's house and traded music, got these pictures, and watched YouTube videos for a couple hours. Like I said before, certainly not a productive day, but very enjoyable and relaxing. I don't know what's going on tomorrow, but hopefully it'll involve some homework!

It's late now, so I'm heading off to bed. Hooray for the first pictures in a couple weeks! Slainte and good night.