A New Friend

Before explaining my favorite weekend getaway, I must first explain our newest friend here in Ireland. As you all know, we do not have international mobile phone services, therefore we need to go into town and find some free wifi so that we can talk to our family and friends. After a busy day of placement, followed by a busy evening climbing Mount Knocknarea our first Wednesday in Ireland, we decided to shower and go into town so that we could catch the people close to us up on our adventures.

We had often walked past a friendly looking bar called Shenanigan's and were quite intrigued by it's appearance and possible drink selection. We were ecstatic to find out that the popular pub also provided free wifi to its customers; We were sold. It was only about eight o'clock in the evening, so the pub was quite empty. We were literally the only three people in the bar, Mandy, Sarah and I. We sat at a small table and booth combination to the left of the bar and talked about our placements, excitements, struggles and homesickness. There was a DJ setting up in the corner behind us who cracked a joke about us all being on our mobile phones. "Are you all messaging each other?" he asked as he walked past us to finish setting up his DJ materials. We all laughed and continued our conversations, right in front of the DJ table. We were all so involved in our mobile phones and our subtle conversation that the music was but a background distraction. As we began to listen, however, we paid attention to the fact that most of the music being played was American hip hop, pop and rock and roll; We had also noticed that all of the songs were at least a year or two old and quite a few were ten or more years old. We loved it - the upbeat, throwback music was exactly what we needed to hear in order to make us a little bit less homesick and a little more at home. However, the pub started to fill up with college-aged students in tight dresses and high heels. Since we were all in jeans and jumpers, we decided it was time to head home.

As we were leaving, Mandy decided that she wanted to let the DJ know that we loved his music; We enjoyed all of the throwbacks and his set list was exactly what we wanted to hear at that point in our trip. Sarah and I started walking toward the door as Mandy approached the DJ. A few seconds later, the three of us walked outside and Mandy shared a conversation with me that influenced the rest of my trip in Ireland.

Mandy had told the DJ that we really enjoyed his music and that we were interested in coming out again this week and wanted to know when he would be playing. He informed us that he played in Shenanigan's on Wednesdays, Thursdays and sometimes Saturdays. We were in luck! We were new in town and had no idea where to go out the next day, so at least being able to predict a good DJ in town was very comforting. Mandy told the DJ that we would maybe be back, but apparently he did not have too much faith in us; Next, the DJ said, "Well, tell your friend I think she's gorgeous. The blonde one," and when Mandy told me this, I knew we had to come back the next day.

Our professors had warned us and we had been in town long enough to know that Irish girls don't mess around when they go out - they dress extremely formally whenever they go out. Since we had recently acquired this knowledge, we decided to have a little bit of fun with it and go all out with our outfits, hair and make up. After spending a few hours helping each other get ready and sipping on our new favorite drink, Kopparberg cider, we went to Shoot the Crows with our professors. They had invited us out to a pub with them to catch up on our first week's adventures and we had invited them out to Shenanigan's with us afterward. However, they decided to stay with the crowd of people they're own age for the night and we honestly did miss them a lot. But after a beer and some interesting conversations, Mandy, Sarah, Christina and I headed across the river to Shenanigan's for a night of drinks, dancing and cute DJs.

The bouncers ID-ed us and quickly let us into the crowded bar; There were literally people from wall to wall, dancing, drinking and just genuinely enjoying themselves. We ran up the bar and grabbed a drink and lucky for me, the DJ spotted us from across the room. Throughout the night, he would turn the music down so that I would notice him and wink at me or blow me kisses. I spoke to him briefly a few times throughout the night, but since he was working I really couldn't have a full conversation. The DJ held our purses for us so that we didn't have to carry them around while we were dancing and he also put us in charge of watching his equipment while he took breaks of his own. At one point, I did get to tell him that I love Ke$ha; He used this knowledge to his advantage. He would play Ke$ha or mix a bit of one of her songs into another just to get my attention while I was out on the dance floor with my new best girlfriends. It was the perfect amount of romance for me: music and dancing.

We waited around the bar while it was closing so that we could introduce ourselves officially the the DJ and have a conversation or two. The bouncers actually kicked us out for waiting around too long, but luckily the DJ came outside just when we were standing in front of the bar. He stopped to talk to us and told us how happy he was that we came back to see him; He really appreciated that we loved his set list enough to come to the same bar two nights in a row. He also confirmed to me how beautiful he thought I was and charmed me a bit more, which I didn't mind one bit. He spent a lot of time talking to me and the girls outside of Shenanigan's. Finally, he handed me his iPhone and asked me to enter my Facebook information so that we could keep in touch. Little did he know, we'd get to see each other a lot more.

His name is Ryan. We Facebook messaged each other constantly from Friday; We were both very intrigued with each other. I had been keeping my professor updated with all of the conversations Ryan and I had throughout the weekend and she was very supportive of the entire relationship. After a weekend of getting to know each other via Facebook messages, we had decided to meet for a first date the coming Monday. Not only did Ryan invite me to meet him at Shenanigan's at eight o'clock the following evening, but he had suggested that I bring my friends along so I didn't feel uncomfortable meeting a stranger in a foreign country for a first date. Because of his suggestion, my professors and friends all felt that Ryan was a fine lad.

Naturally, I had to look my best for this fairy tale date. After placement on Monday, I met with Mandy in town in Sligo in order to pick up a few, last minute outfit options from Penney's and Heaton's (our favorite Sligo shops). I may have went a little overboard, whereas I purchased a few new shirts, shoes and a new purse.... But hey, it was a special occasion, right? Since we were in town, we did a little bit of grocery shopping before returning to our apartment and get ready for MY big night. Mandy, Sarah and I snacked on some cheese, crackers and Kopparberg while I fixed my hair, nails and make up for the event. I tried on a hundred different combinations of outfits and naturally disliked all of them. Finally, I had settled for the perfect jeans, heels, cardigan and scarf combination. After taking one last look at myself in the mirror, we were off for my first date with Ryan, the DJ.

The walk into town had never seemed so anticipated. Mandy, Sarah, Christina and I all strolled at various paces toward Shenanigan's, which me checking back at everyone every few seconds to make sure that we were all in line: I was nervous. Fifteen minutes late, we arrived at Shenanigan's. Awkwardly enough, the bar was empty, with two bar tenders behind the bar, three bar tenders sitting at the bar and Ryan, sitting at the last chair of the bar with a coffee and his laptop, where he was looking up the top ten music charts for the week. Us four girls just stood there waiting to be noticed when, finally, Ryan looked up and saw us all. Everything about our first date at that point had been awkward. Mandy, Sarah, Christina and I ordered Bulmers cider and sat at a round table with five seats and expected Ryan to follow. When he finally sat with us, we all tried to start conversations, reminiscing on our trip thus far and laughing about our past experiences in Shenanigan's. Things became less awkward throughout the night and I walked Ryan to his car around eleven o'clock or midnight. It was sprinkling; He mentioned that he was from Galway and that he had driven two hours in order to meet me. He had a long drive ahead of him and he would Facebook message me when he could. We really didn't think that we would ever see each other again.

After countless Facebook messages and plans to run into each other throughout my last two weeks in Ireland, we were blessed with the chance to see each other at Shenanigan's Wednesday and Thursday night. He was DJing and Mandy, Sarah, Christina and I all loved to dance, so it was the perfect situation. Since Ryan new that we were travelers and could not talk to our families without the use of wifi or internet, he gave us a mobile internet device to use in our apartment. This was honestly the nicest sentiment any of us could expect; He had provided us with social networking and countless other entities provided through the internet. Wednesday night we sort of just stopped in to say hello before going out to a few other pubs in Sligo, but Thursday we decided to go to Shenanigan's lastly so we could dance and wait for Ryan to be done DJing for the night. I think all of us girls were a little bit star struck that evening. We did not have to show our ID whenever we entered the bar because the bouncers had recognized us hanging out with the DJ and Ryan had us on a VIP list for a local night club. After Ryan finished putting all of his DJ equipment into his car for the evening, we had asked him what he was doing afterward. Mind, it was about one thirty or two in the morning at this point. He answered that he would love to take us out to a night club, but we had other ideas. He invited him to our apartment for tea, frozen pizza and Ke$ha in exchange for nothing other than a ride home. He accepted.

Ryan came over to our apartment and was such a typical, Irish man. The first thing he asked was if he could make himself a cup of tea. Mandy, Sarah, Christina and I couldn't help but laugh for a while, but we told him that he was welcome to anything and everything in our apartment since he has given us so much throughout this trip. We made a few frozen pizzas and sat around listening to bad Ke$ha music and reminiscing about our evening and trip in general. Ryan made himself at home on our couch and was extremely respectable of all of us. He stayed for a little bit, but left around four o'clock in the morning since he had a two hour drive home to Galway.

We had to suffice with Facebook messaging and random tweets to each other again for a little while, but the fact that we now had internet in our apartment because of him made that so much more bearable. There was definitely a spark between us, though.

Now onto the actual assignment for this blog: Describe one of my most memorable weekend getaways.

On our last Saturday of our adventure, we traveled to Galway, Ireland. Ryan had read our itinerary when he was at our apartment, so he knew that we would be visiting his hometown for the day. Because of this, he suggested we meet up with him after an hour or so of being there so that he could show us some things that only Irish residents would know about. We accepted his offer and met up with him after we finished up a little bit of souvenir shopping. He took us through Galway town and showed us some of the less tourist-y stores, such as his friend’s candy shop, which only sold American snacks and candies. He also showed us a few of the local’s favorite clothing stores, which all of us girls loved; While we were shopping, Ryan just simply stood at the front of the store and waited. He did not want us to rush through our day in Galway and he wanted us to enjoy the time we had. Eventually, however, we became exhausted of all of the shopping and asked him what he had planned for us next. Ryan took us for a walk by the water, where he introduced us to a water polo game that took place on kayaks. Next, he walked us to the Claddagh, which is the part of Ireland in which the popular ring is modeled after. He also told us the story of the Claddagh and what each of the symbols mean. Ryan also explained why the ring is shaped the way in which it is: the land where the Claddagh is located is shaped similarly. Ryan had suggested that there was a beach only a short drive away, so we decided that that should be our next stop. We got into his mustard yellow Volkswagen and drove through intense traffic in order to finally reach a car park outside of the beach. Since it was extremely rainy and overcast that day, Ryan simply explained the horizon to us and allowed us to discover the landmasses around us. Next, we crossed the street and went to an authentic Gaellic soccer game, which we stood in the crowd of and experienced. We had about an hour and a half left before it was time for us to be “collected” (for some reason, Ryan kept asking us when we were going to be collected by our bus and we thought the expression was hilarious), so we decided that it was time for some dinner. Of course, Ryan knew the perfect place. He took us to the restaurant in which first employed him when he was fourteen years old. It was so special to us to have had a native Irish tour guide show us around Galway, especially when he was so passionate about the place in which he grew up.

Consequently, the Saturday in which we spent in Galway was my favorite getaway during my study abroad experience. I must also say that meeting Ryan, the DJ, made this experience so much more memorable and I can’t thank him enough for showing us around to places beyond the itinerary and making our journey so much more complex.