So I am sad to report that the charger cord to Tori's laptop has shorted out, so until further notice we do not have access to any of the pics or documents on it. Sorry to all of you who are waiting for pics of the fun spring break that we had traveling around Europe. Sad for me because my Event Management portfolio that I have been working on all sememster is now locked in the dead laptop. I now have the happy task of redoing it by Monday morning, just the way that I wanted to spend my weekend, NOT. Anyway needless to say I have been quite busy with school work and projects this last week, and I was starting to get quite stressed out. So that makes what happened today such a great boost for me. I was in my Irish studies class and we have just started the section on music. I was sitting there thinking how fun it would be for me to get a book of sheet music of traditional Irish tunes. Then of course reality hits that I have no money, and I would also have no idea what to look for. As class is ending though, our teacher says that he has actually had a book published of a compilement that he has made of some traditional Irish tunes, then he pulls three copies out of his bag and says he is going to give these copies to the first three people that were in class today. Luckily the Irish ways have not completely rubbed off on me and I am still running on my Utah time schedule, so of course I was one of the first three people in class. So I am now the proud owner of my own copy of Pale Rainbow: Gaelic Folksongs with English Translations by Brian O'Rourke. YAY for me. I am so excited to go play the tunes. I know it is really lame that this made me so happy, but seriously it could not have happened at a better time. Aside from all approaching deadlines for school projects, life here in Ireland is great. I am having great fun. I really like my school and I love the people, they are soooo nice. The weather is even warming up, so maybe I can hit the beach soon. The Irish are a lot tougher than me, and they have already hit the beach. I however cannot get myself to get in the water with the others when you see people walking along the trails completely bundled up in pants and a big coat. I see something wrong with that picture.
The pics are from our little day trip to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. Enjoy!
The "Quiet Man" cottage.
For my Event Management class we had to form a team and plan and organize an event. We became the A-Team, and our event was a King and Fools sports day. The goal of the event was to raise as much money as possible for the Alan Kerins Foundation. Alan Kerins is a hurling player here in Ireland, and he organized the African project where they go down to Africa and build schools and such that the people need. I volunteered to be the assistant chairperson because no one else wanted the job. Well I never thought that the chair would get sick and end up in the hospital the week of the event. I had to quickly step up to the challenge of assuming the head chair position, kind of scary, but all in all everything worked out great. We started off the event with HUG WEEK to get the word around. Alan came and we wore bright orange aprons around the college and gave hugs for 2 euro. At first it was a bit intimidating going around to people I didn't know and asking them to pay me 2 euro for a hug, but it turned out to be great fun. The actual event took place on March 31st, and it was a huge success. The weather was perfect, and we had a fair turnout. The main event of the day was a five a side soccer tournament that 13 teams participated in. Some of the other highlights include a tug of war with the lecturers vs the students, a penalty shoot out, novelty races, and a puc fada tournament. Papa Johns provided pizza and it was a great day. The biggest job of the day was the clean up (some of the team members took off right after the games ended). We had 6 goal posts that we had borrowed from a soccer club that had to be returned by 6:00. Boy was that a big job. We had to get two people to carry the goals about a fifteen minute walk down the street. I ended up making 3 trips, and boy did we get some funny stares from all the people in their cars that we passed. I guess it would look funny if you saw a goal post walking down the sidewalk toward you. The guys that I was carrying the goals with were sure impressed with how tough I am, and they even said they owed me a pint at the afterparty that night. My shoulders and legs were sure sore the next day though. Cleanup finally finished a little after six and I hurried back to my apt. to shower and eat before heading to the city center to decorate for the after party. At the after party we awarded the winners of the day with their prizes, and we also had a big raffle of all of the sponsorship items that we collected. After the raffle we presented our lecturer with flowers. We ended up making over 3000 euros, and it was a great day. I am sad that the event is over, I had so much fun getting to know all of the team members and it was a great experience. GO A-TEAM!!!
The pics are from our little day trip to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. Enjoy!
