When a new place becomes another home

Life here goes on as usual. Nothing amazing or incredible to post on, but I guess that's the point of living in a different country. You begin to live like the people there. Every minute might not be something fantastic, but it just becomes ... life. The new place where you are becomes another home. I have a lot of homes. Chester, State College and now Galway. This city really is great, small, and clean. It has a sort of character that Boston and NYC lack. And I don't think I've been this unstressed in a long time. Ireland is the 5th happiest nation in the EU, and I can believe it. It's just in the little things. People don't walk around with huge smiles on their faces 24/7, but they take life at a slower pace. They make time to go grab a pint at a pub for an hour or so. The pubs are restaurants, meeting places and you can even grab a cup of tea and sit outside of one. Also, most businesses (besides ones that sell food) and offices close down from 1 to 2 for lunch. Even here at the university most employees that aren't professors take the lunch break.

People here retain their youth I think, more than in America. Sure they have jobs and responsibilities and worries of their own, but that doesn't mean sacrificing the little joys in life. Like last night, I went to this crepe place in Centre City with some friends and we sat outside to eat and there was a man playing bongos on the street (there are ALWAYS street performers out, it's great) a group of middle aged couples was walking down the street when one man went up to the drummer and asked if he could try it out. So they played together for about 10 minutes. And everyone in his group and those of us outside really enjoyed the drumming.

We also went to the Crane Bar last night, which is the cutest little pub. Almost every Tuesday students and locals gather to play trad music. There were about 10 people playing last night, with every instrument from violins, tin whistles, an acoustic guitar, a harmonica and our friend Paddy on the Ulliean pipes.

I haven't really done to much as far as school work goes because there's not much I can do besides reading. I've so far read one book, Lolita, and written two short essays. I have an exam in Castles on Friday which I am going to study for today and tomorrow, but our teacher told us even if you guess on all of the questions, you'll still probably be able to pass. But I will have a bunch of essays in the next few weeks as mid-term week comes.