But, my program, Arcadia, set up a really cool weekend were we get to stay with a local family in a small town for the weekend. Everyone on my program went down to the town of Gorey and spent the weekend there. We were all paired up with someone else on the program and then paired up with a family. My host mom's name was Linda and she had two boys. The first thing the youngest one said to us upon arrive is do we like to play soccer! He was so adorable and was constantly asking us questions. Unfortunately, the boys were staying at their father's for the weekend, so we didn't get to see much of them. But, it is common for these family's who set up the homestays with Arcadia to host other international students as well. At the time, there was the funniest, worldly young boy staying there. His name was Andres and he was 13 years old. He lives in Spain, but he has citizenship in Greece, America, and Spain. He has traveled so much and he was constantly asking us questions.
The homestay wasn't quite what I thought it would be like. I thought we were going to spend all our time with the families and them have activities planned for us to do with the kids and all. It was nothing like that. We arrived Friday night and when we got to the house Linda had an AMAZING lasagna ready for us. Lasagna was Andres favorite food, so he had it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then after that Linda asked us what our plans were and if we were going to meet up with everyone else to go out. We were shocked, but we messaged everyone and we all met up at a local pub named McGovern's. It was a chill night and there weren't may people out.
It was SO nice to be able to sleep in. Linda didn't have any plans for us, so we slept in until 11:30. Two other girls for my program's family was living literally right across the street from us and their mom offered to drive us down to the beach. I'm really bad and I can't remember the name of the beach. It was a very beautiful beach, but it was extremely cold. Despite that there was someone surfing and others taking a dip. We ended up going to the Grandmother's house that she grew up in and met her parents. They were so funny. The Grandfather had thought he had one 5,000 euros off a scratch ticket and was so excited talking about it. The Mother checked the ticket and it turned out that he one nothing. It was something about there being to many zeros. It was great craic! See my great use of Irish lingo. Great craic pretty much means a good time. We sat there talking to the Grandparents for an hour or so drinking tea and eating biscuits. How Irish/British of us!
For that night someone else's host family told us about this pipe band that was going to play, so we decided to check it out. They all were dressed up in kilts and walked down the street. We followed them and ended up in the hall. They played a few songs and then started to give speeches. It turned out to be a ceremony ended their season and a celebration for them winning some competition. They started giving speeches about each member and that is when we realized it was only families in the hall. We all felt a little bit uncomfortable, so we by twos left. We ended up back at McGovern's to meet up with the rest of the group. It was a totally different atmosphere then the night before. The pub was jammed packed. There was so great throwback music that we enjoyed singing along to.
Irish pipe band
Again, we slept in on Sunday. We really hadn't seen much of Linda up to this point. But, she made us a great breakfast and told us she was going to take us on this great walk. The girls who we went to the beach with the night before joined us along with Linda's boyfriend and Andres and his friend. They said it was a "hike", but it was like a casual stroll uphill. Linda says she always likes to bring her American students up there, and I understand why. It was called Tara Hill and you got to see a great view of the countryside and the coast. It was a beautiful day, so we spent most of the day there.
Tara Hill view
The weekend was a great experience and a great change of pace for everyone. It was great to get out of the city for once and see the countryside. I finally got to see all the cows and sheep that everyone talks about. I am so mad at myself because I, the girl who loves talking pictures, forgot to get a picture with Linda. So instead i leave you with a nice picture of two people and we can all pretend it is me and Linda! Also that I guess wasn't as short as I thought it would be.
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