Irish Celebration: RAG Week!

The last week has been chaotic, but so much fun! For starters, it was rag week here at NUIG. RAG (Raising And Giving) week is a week of charity where students go to pubs and clubs all over town and the proceeds go to different charities. However, at NUIG, many of the students use it as an excuse to miss class and party all day every day. On Monday, we noticed that things were a little different in our apartment village, Gort Na Coiribe. There were gates up by the entrance and security guards manning them. Apparently, the last two years got so out of hand with destruction and partying that only students who lived in the apartments would be allowed in and out of the village. This was a slight problem because my friends who are studying abroad in London, Hanna and Kelsey, were visiting us on Wednesday. However, we talked to our reception office and they told us that they would put the girls on a VIP list so they could stay with us. Phew!
So Monday, we went to our class then gathered at the college bar to reconnect with other Arcadia students and begin our rag week. We went out Monday night and it was a LOT busier than normal, and the Irish students seemed to be even crazier than usual. A crowd of hundreds of students packed outside of Supermacs (a local fastfood restaurant), apparently it is tradition to rage outside after bar close. I couldn't believe how many people were out and how it was no problem that they were outside chanting, dancing, and climbing the light posts. Definitely a sight to see!
Tuesday was "Donegal Tuesday." I'm not exactly sure what the history behind this day is, but the tradition is for hundreds of students to put on green and yellow Donegal jerseys and flock to a tiny pub, the Hole in the Wall where they queue up at the pub around 10am. A few of the girls and I walked into town after class at 11:30am to witness the tradition. We got lunch afterwards and then I came home to do homework. That night, we went out and ended up at a pub called The Skeffington Arms or "The Skeff" for short. Krissy and I made friends with some Irish lads and we spent the night talking with them about differences and similarities between America and Ireland and dancing (by "dancing" I mean attempting to Irish jig and being swung around do-si-do style) to Irish music!
On Wednesday, Hanna and Kelsey came from London to visit Jenni and I! It was so much fun to pick them up and show them Galway since we had visited them at their school in London. It was great to see the familiar faces of some of our good Gustavus friends! We got them settled in our flat, then went to dinner at the King's Head with our friends Scott, Josh, Prin, and Scott's friend from home, Nathan. We went out with that group after and had a super fun night at the Front Door, where we met up with another 10 or 15 Arcadia students. Jenni and I finally are starting to recognize Irish students when we go out, and it was really fun to be able to say hi and talk to people at pubs that we know! The Front Door played so many American classic songs like Brown Eyed Girl, Livin' On A Prayer, American Pie, Twist and Shout, I Want You Back, Wagon Wheel, and lots of others so we had a great time singing them at the top of our lungs.
On Thursday, Jenni and I had class early so we met Hanna and Kelsey for lunch. During lunch, we ran into our first surprise medical crisis - Kelsey had chipped her two front teeth when she was in fourth grade and has inserts that have never fallen out. Kelsey was opening her Powerade bottle with her teeth and all of a sudden, she freaked out because one of the inserts had fallen out so she had a large chip in her front tooth. We spent the afternoon making calls, and trying to figure out where Kelsey could find a dentist back in London. After she talked to her mom, her study abroad advisor, and her dentist, she figured out that she would be fine for the weekend and since the root wasn't exposed or anything, she would be able to eat normally. It was quite the shock and not how any of us expected to spent our Thursday afternoon, but Kelsey was a champ and recovered well. We also learned a lot about what to do in emergency situations! While Kelsey was making phone calls back in the apartment with Jenni, I took Hanna to explore Galway in the daylight. We walked down to Nimmos Pier to take the classic "colorful houses on the water" selfie then looked in a few different shops while Hanna perused the Claddagh rings and other Irish souvenirs. We got giant mocha carmello coffees at my favorite coffee shop, Elle's, while we waited for Jenni and Kelsey to join us for dinner. We ate at a cute restaurant called The Cellar where we sampled a variety of different yummy pastas. We then came back to our apartment and met up with some of our friends to go out. We wanted to show the girls traditional Irish music so we went to Taaffes, a local pub that always has a great trad music band. A bunch of the other students met us there and we had a great night. I'm so happy that I know the words to so many of the Irish songs now! We came back at a decent hour because Friday was our Cliffs of Moher day! I'll blog about that soon :)