Limerick, You're a Lady

Hello, Hello!

Welcome to my blog! Thanks for checking it out. I hope you continue to follow my adventures as I study abroad in Ireland. Wow, those opening sentences seemed extremely cheesy and cliche. Anyway, I've never had a blog before, so this should be an interesting experience. I tried to keep one while interning in DC last fall but I stopped. After a day. However, being in a different country holds a different experience. I can drive to DC in a little under 3 hours, so it wasn't a huge deal that I didn't write about my experiences. However, this is a completely different country. Across the pond. And I have never been to another country. So I'm excited.

I chose the title, "That's Arthur Guinness Talking," because it's Irish slang for "incoherent ramblings, or babble while intoxicated." Which is what my blog will be, ramblings from myself, minus the intoxicated part. Usually.

I've decided to create this blog because my German teacher, Herr Monk, told me to write down everything while studying abroad. Herr Monk is the man, so I obviously took his advice to heart. He told me that he regretted never keeping a journal of his experiences while in Germany, and that he wishes he would have. He told me to write something every day- so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I'm going to write something literally every day.

Not every day will be an exciting adventure, but being a first time traveler living in another country, the stories will probably follow a theme of awkward situations, terrible misunderstandings and good Irish fun. I've created a flickr account so that my pictures don't take up an ungodly amount of space on my page. Whenever I take new photos, I'll put the link up in the entry. If you miss posts and don't care about my ramblings or don't want to scroll through the archives, you just wanna see the pictures, click on the link under my picture and it will take you to my updated albums.

This first post is just an introduction to my blog. I won't post again until I'm in Ireland.

Just some background on my journey:

• I will be studying at the University of Limerick, in Limerick Ireland.

• Limerick is known as "Stab City" due to high crime rates. However, this name is outdated as Limerick now is very safe and holds some of the lowest crime numbers in the country. However, the reason it's known as "Stab City" is because there is an ongoing gang feud between the Ryan family and the Keane family in the South section of the city. I'll be on the North side, so no worries.
• Limerick is the home of author Frank McCourt who wrote "Angela's Ashes." The book was based on the challenges he endured growing up in Limerick during the 1940's, when Limerick was an impoverished, violent and dirty city.
• Limerick is also the home of King John's Castle. Yes, the King John from Robin Hood.
  
• Basically everything I currently know about Ireland came from Family Guy:

• I officially leave the states this Sunday, January 17th at 7:25 PM, from the Newark Airport. Because of the time difference, I will land in Shannon on Monday, January 18th, at 6:45 AM.
• I have never flown before. I'm pretty nervous about the whole ordeal. I have a window seat, if that means anything? I'm just really not looking forward to it.
  
• I only have to take 15 credits, a whole hell of a lot better than the 21 I just took last semester.
• I have no real focus area for my studies. I'm probably going to take some Irish dance class, a European politics course, an Irish folklore course, and maybe some Irish literature courses, since Ireland is the land of some pretty important authors.
• I'll officially be ending my college career abroad. So that's cool.
• The time difference between central PA and Limerick is 5 hours. So the Superbowl will be on at 1 AM for me.
• I plan on spending Spring break in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• I'll celebrate a birthday in another country. Weird.
• I knew I was studying abroad in Ireland since I turned 21 last February. I've refused to drink a Guinness until I got to Ireland.
• Shepherd's pie is my favorite food. Ireland is known for it's Shepherds pie. I'm pumped.
  

It's going to be very weird not seeing my family, girlfriend, friends and professors on a regular basis for the first time ever. But it's the experience of a lifetime. I'll still have facebook, and psu-webmail, and I just got skype so that should be interesting.

Keep in touch and be sure to stop by and "share a pint" with me once and awhile!

The next time I post I'll be in Eire...where next weeks forecast calls for weather in the 50's all week!

Cheers!