America in Ireland

It's funny the amount of American culture I'm encountering while outside America. Though a lot of it is older stuff. I watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch on tv a few days ago. I heard Eagle Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" in a grocery store. House is starting new with season 1 on tv this week. I never expected to come to Ireland and see Will Smith's face plastered everywhere on advertisements for the movie Seven Pounds, but there ya go. I also just finished watching a movie on tv called Orange County. I really liked it! It's really funny--Jack Black, Scarlet O'Hara, John Lithgow, and others. Great coming-of-age story. :P

Last night, a group of us (Maureen, Jon, Kate, Holly, Allie, Patrick) went out to a couple of pubs (Preachers and Counihan's), and we passed a guy playing didgeridoo. That was kinda random and cool.

The beer here is really good. I never really liked it much before, but that's probably just because a lot of beer in the US is just bad quality, and I had only tried a few different kinds. Fosters is my favorite so far.

I have to admit that I'm already starting to miss home a little. I think that might be partly because I didn't get much time to chill between finals and my flight. I was working constantly the last few weeks of school, and then any free time I had I was spent sort of frantically trying to see all my friends before leaving. I did a pretty good job of that, and I'm glad, but I wish I had had a little more time to just sit back and relax before leaving. Oh well. I can look forward to doing that this summer (though I'm sure I'm going to be working a lot since I'll be broke when I return).

At least I won't have to worry about school when I get back. As for school here, I don't think it'll be too bad. I think the uilleann pipes and bodhran will be fun, though I will have to practice, and I've heard that Intro to Irish Traditional Music is super easy. The rest of my classes are lectures that have one longish essay and one exam at the end. Not too bad at all, but after having just finished a semester that was all projects, it'll take me a little while to get back into the groove of listening to lectures, taking notes, and writing papers.

Here's the website for the photos, by the way (I also added a link to it on the right under "Links"):

http://pics.livejournal.com/caseylowry/gallery/0000cbs9

It isn't completely updated because it's taking me a really long time to upload all of the photos. I'm gettin' there, though.