Rugby Match

Since I stayed up so late last night, I slept in until 9:45 ish this morning and then got up, took a leisurely shower, ate a small lunch, then headed to the library for five hours. I am determined to write my final essays before classes end so I can travel instead of worrying about them, and the one I am focusing on first has 9 required articles that we have to use, each of which is very long (the shortest was 48 pages, and the longest is somewhere around 150 pages). I managed to get through 4 of them between yesterday and today, but I'd like to read and annotate them all by the end of this weekend so I can start banging out the essay.

Otherwise, today was pretty uneventful. API organized a "cultural event" for us, which was attending the Connacht versus Glassgow rugby match in the city. It was about a 20 minute walk from my apartment, so maybe I'll try going again sometime to see other games or races at the stadium.

Here's some pictures from the game (I understand the basic rules, but it was still confusing...rather than take too many pictures, I focused on trying to follow the action!):

This is the Scottish team meeting on the field right before play started.

The Irish team doing the same.

Some action.

A blurry shot of the referee starting up play.

Sure looks brutal in there. It's like a big game of soccer plus American football plus lots of extra people on the field minus protective gear.

Rather than take more blurry pictures, I shot a video of the ref starting up play. Watch for when the guy throws in the ball--both teams lift up a player to catch it. They do that every time. It's so bizarre!

And that's that! It was lots of fun, but quite cold standing in the bleachers for two hours. Rather than going to the pubs with everybody, I walked home with Bethany, another girl in the program, and cranked up the heat in my room. I meant to do homework, but talking to Mom and Dad instead was perfectly acceptable.

Oh--I keep forgetting to mention this! Every time I've walked on the bridge to get to school over the past two days, there is a crew team rowing down the river. It's been different people every time, and sometimes they're followed by a boat timing them. It's so interesting to stare and watch, but I'm not sure why it's happening so often lately! It has happened before, but maybe training is really getting underway. Dunno.

As a final note (since you all probably think I'm a candy-holic anyway), this is a new type of candy that I had about a week and a half ago. It's basically like a Kit-Kat, only shaped differently.

And this is a snack I got this week. Heck yes, Australian gummies. They were good except for the nasty blackcurrent ones. I just don't like that flavor--and it's EVERYWHERE here! Ugh.

So that's all, folks! Good night.