The First Week

I moved into my apartment on Wednesday, August 30th.  I also took a tour of the campus that day and learned where the library and the main lecture halls were located.  That night I went out to a pub and met up with a few of the other international students, mostly Americans and Germans.  On Thursday I went to my first day of orientation were we talked about safety, Irish customs, and the other technicalities of being in Ireland.  Friday we talked about the courses for the upcoming year and what classes we want to sign up for.  I'm not officially registered for any classes, but here are the ones I'm planning on taking.  I might take a Gaelic for Beginners class, but I haven't decided:

1. Castles, Colonists and Crannogs
2. Public Archaeology
3. Europe in the Bronze Age
4. Landscape of Cult and Kingship
5. Aspects of Modern Irish History
6. Irish Art from the Early Iron Age to the 8th Century AD

If I decide to take Gaelic I will drop one of these courses, since its standard to take six courses a semester.  Today, Saturday, and yesterday I did a bit more shopping, picking up things like trash bags, food, and laundry soap, not very exciting, but very necessary.  Here are some pictures of Galway:

 This my Kitchen in my apartment.

 This is the view from the balcony

 Also the view from the Balcony.

 Again the view from the balcony.

 I walk along this canal on my way to school.

 This is my apartment complex.

 Another picture of the beautiful canal that runs through the city.

 This is the central building on the NUI Galway campus.

 Some other buildings on campus.

 This is the center for Gaelic studies.  It has a restaurant inside where you can only speak Gaelic

 A canal that runs through campus.

 The Galway Cathedral

 The River Corrib