First of all, we’ve had some beautiful weather this past week in Letterkenny! A lot of sun and not much rain at all, so I’m definitely soaking up those rays while I can! (See featured image above of a rainbow outside my window!!)
This week at school was “Freshers Week,” so each day there were different activities going on to kick off the beginning of the school year. Wednesday was clubs and societies day, so Kaylee, Dom, Manny, Niall, and I hosted the men’s/women’s basketball club table and tried to recruit some students for our college teams. It was really cool to see a lot of people interested in playing basketball (we even got our French housemates to sign up for the women’s team), so this year should be grand! I also think I signed up for about 6 different clubs…might have gone a little too far with that but hey, nothing wrong with wanting to stay involved, am I right?😂
There was also a petting zoo outside of school on the same day with all different kinds of animals – llamas, sheep, goats, chickens, bunnies (so cute!), snakes, tarantulas…you name it, it was probably there! I never thought I would’ve been even remotely close to touching a snake or a tarantula, but when in Rome, right? See below for proof!
On Saturday, we decided to have another fun night out at Arena 7! There are 2 other student houses on either side of our house, so some of our neighbors joined in on the fun, too! We did some bowling and played laser tag, which was super fun with a big group. (My team won by the way, just had to get that in there😬)
Our first game of the year for the National League was on Sunday against the UL Huskies. We took a tough loss only losing by 3 points, but we really played hard and will learn a lot from the game! Afterwards, Ed Cassidy (best landlord you could ever have!) took me, Kaylee, and Dom home from the game. On the way back, we stopped at his sister’s house in Donegal Town…and it. was. STUNNING. I felt like I was in an actual castle! While we were there, Ed’s brother-in-law had just come back from a fishing trip with his friend. They had caught 2 squids and a few small Mackerel. I’ve never seen a real squid before, so you could imagine my astonishment when I realized that this is what calamari starts out as!!😱 (See picture below)
Then, he continued to show us different items around the house that he found while scuba diving. This porthole and telescope (pictured below) were both recovered from the H.M.S. Raccoon shipwreck off of the Northcoast of Ireland during World War I! How cool?!
So, I’d say we made a pretty neat pit-stop on the way home – there’s never a dull moment around here! It seems like every day I am learning something new or meeting someone with an interesting story; I can’t wait to see what comes next!
Traveler Tip #10:
Be prepared to experience all kinds of weather here in Ireland whenever you venture out – it could be beautiful and sunny one minute, windy and rainy the next, and you might even see a sunshine/rain combo! I went for a 20-minute run the other day and I felt like I ran through just about every season!
Until next time…👋🏻
-Dana D.
