Greetings!

Alright, I know I kind of dropped the ball so far, but the few days that I have had internet access I've been pretty busy.
So I just got back from my first class, a history lecture which seems like it will be pretty interesting- Government policy and economic development in Ireland since 1922, but it's mostly about the economy from what I could gather, which is cool since their economic policy is so different from ours. The system here is weird, you don't actually register for classes until 2 weeks into them, which basically means no one goes to the first week or so of class, which I guess explains why still only one of my Irish roommates has showed up. But if I can get into all of them, here's what I'm hoping to take:
Poli Sci- Ethnic conflict and territory
Poli Sci- Women in Irish society
English- Literature of the American south/19th century Gothic lit (weird combo for the same class)
English- 20th Century lit
English/Media Studies- European and American Cinemas in conversation

I wish I could have fit in a class on Irish literature, but they only allow you to take one seminar class, and I figured I should take the media studies one considering that's my major. I'm still planning on trying to read up on some of them though.

Living situation:
I'm sharing a room with another American girl named Clare who is from Connecticut and goes to Dickinson College. She's also on the Butler program with me, and she's really nice so I think we'll get along. Until last night it was just the two of us and Colin hanging out here which has been pretty fun. Last night Seana (sp?) got here and she seems pretty cool, but definitely a posh and well put together Irish girl. (Actually all the Irish girls are well put together. I've never seen so many heels and skirts while walking to class. I guess that's why we Americans in our brightly-colored jackets, sweatshirts, jeans and baseball hats stick out like sore thumbs.) I think one of the other girls is coming today and the third not till next week.

The house is really nice. It's basically a town house, three floors. Our room is on the second floor, and it's pretty big. The place seems pretty new and much nicer than the apartments I've had at U of I.

Galway in general I LOVE already. It's a pretty small city so walking everywhere is easy, I'm about 15 minutes from campus and city center each, which is nice. The people here that I've met so far are really friendly, and all the pubs are great. I've already had fish and chips and they were delicious. Yes mom, I've already had cod twice since I've been here, so I may come back a changed woman ;). I've hung out a ton with colin's friends who live here, as well as on new years when we were up in Carrick.

Speaking of which, Carrick, Colin's hometown, was a blast. I didn't over my jetlag for a while though since every night I was there we were up late going to the preferred club, Cartown, listening to Brian play music, and telling Mary all about the goings-on of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. New years was fun- Colin had a bunch of his friends over and we hung out and rung in the new year there, then around 12:30 we went out, which was smart since we skipped all the lines. The next day was rough though since we had to get on a bus and head down to Limerick for my orientation dinner (which was really bad food, by the way). I can't wait to go back to Carrick though, I think it's always a good bit of craic (how Irish am I now haha).

Well I hope that gets all of you caught up on my time here, upcoming events include:
-Homestay in Taum with a little old lady on a farm (!)
-Maybe Berlin the last weekend of Jan.
-Rag Week in February (i guess a weeklong unofficial- sweet!)
-Sweden February 23 for Colin's sister's wedding
-March 16 the whole fam comes over for Uncle Matt's wedding

I'll update more often now and fill you all in on the details- Slainte!