The Curse of the Swans

Ok, so here is my final installment about Galway, then I'll be all caught up and can make a few quick comments about this week and plans for tomorrow/this weekend.

On Sunday we all strolled around the town to see the important sights, which included the hooker boats in the bay, the Spanish arch, and the main church. Galway is relatively small for a "major" city, so we did these activities in a short span of time. Jamie once again couldn't join us because she was so sick, which was sad, but at least I should see her soon in Dublin! She had told us that before we bought Claddagh rings (Galway is the Kingdom of Claddagh), we had to feed the swans, which are super nice unlike normal swans and supposedly are the dead ancestors of people in the village come back to life.

We were walking along the bay and all of a sudden we see these two swans being carried backwards by the currents in the waterway. We all started laughing, until they decided to swim right up next to us! Jackie apologized, explaining to them that we didn't have any food for them. One swan then turned its head and quacked at us! (Do swans quack or honk?) Then they swam away. So now we're pretty sure we've been cursed by the swans. We were so upset about this curse that when we bought our claddaghs we totally forgot to by them for each other (buying one for yourself can curse you). Now I'm Irish cursed twice over, so I asked Frank, my sociology teacher, how to get rid of curses. Apparently the only way is to go to Catholic mass and pray.

Looking back on this trip, the people you travel with makes a huge difference. I can honestly say that overall I had a great time with the people I went with, although all of them, with the exception of one person, managed to get on my nerves at one point or another. I would also say that while Galway is great for a visit, Dublin is a more suitable place for me to be living. I like the big city vibe better!

That concludes Galway. This week has been very low-key. I've been trying to not get sick. The weather here is so damp everyone is getting ill. Tomorrow the program is taking a trip in to Dublin in place of our usual history class so that Caroline and a historian friend of hers can give us a thorough tour of Dublin's sites.