This is not a ferry ride it's a rollar coaster

The first weekend that the parentals were here also happened to be the same weekend as my last API excursion to the Aran Islands which are these guys here:

They're stereotyped as the ultimate example of Irish culture, and I have to say, parts of it were like looking at a history book. I had a brain fart forgot my camera so I have all my parents pictures prominently featuring yours truly.

After the few nights traversing about Cork and grabbing a pint in a pub with the parental units (still feels weird for me too mom, don't worry), we woke up bright and early Saturday morning to make the 3 hours drive to catch the morning ferry to the largest island, Inis Mór (pronouned in-ish more). It was reeeally early:

Now, I often pride myself on how difficult it is to make my stomach upset and lemme say, that stomach of steel came in veeeery handy on the ferry ride. The waves didn't look all that rough but boy was it some ride. At one point the gangway, which not so wisely had wheels on it, rolled right across the room. We also weren't allowed to sit outside and for good reason too because not only would we have arrived looking (and feeling) something like this:

we probably wouldn't have even made it as we would've been thrown overboard instead. It shouldn't need to be stated at this point, but the pictures of me continued:

and I continued to ruin them.

This is definitely a place that I would've preferred to travel by bike. The island isn't all that big and you could easily bike around the whole thing as a day trip, which many travelers do during the summer and what these poor French teenagers did:

 I say poor teenagers because it wasn't summer. The weather was just barely beginning to think about spring and it was still close to freezing the entire time. It also was super windy. Like nearly blew people over windy. And the reason for my hair looking like this in every photo:

At least I'm cooperating in this photo even if my hair is not.

So the bikes weren't happening. I also was leaving early the next morning with the rents to go and do Galway before heading back to Cork while everyone else was catching the afternoon ferry and spending the second day on the island so even if it was nice enough to do so, I wouldn't have had the time.

Once we got there, it was clearly the off season because there were vans out the wazoo at the port offering tours. We had already booked one through API and my parents kinda wormed their way onto the tour with us. Deborah had already said it was fine since we had the space and were already paying for it anyway. Yay Deborah!

We saw horsies:

 And thatched houses:

and even too some nice pictures! I told you they existed!

And then the wind had to go and ruin it for us:

I should send in my application to be the next Medusa.

As part of the tour, we visited the ring fort called Dun Aengus that's literally right on the cliff's edge. It kinda looks like the baby Cliffs of Moher:

I could barely hear the tour guide but of course Señor was right up next to him asking questions. I was more interested in the literal sheer drop on the edge of the cliff that you could get right up too. To keep Deborah from having a heart attack at having someone fall into the sea, we were required to lie down if we wanted pictures over the edge. To keep my parents from having heart attacks at having their child fall into the sea, I decided to do the responsible thing (for once in my life) and just stand a few feet away.

I did get them worried when I sat here though:

But even I have to admit it was kinda a rush cuz that is literally the edge of a cliff RIGHT THERE.

We managed to keep anyone from falling away and even took a nice picture of everyone. Since my parents were there, Deborah even got to be in it this time:

I really think Tommy's hair got messed up the most by the wind. Hmm, yeah definitely him.

After that we visited The Seven Churches which are actually only the ruins of two churches but I forget why it's named that.

Look! Another nice one!

There's also a cemetery there:

And it's actually still in use. It was cool to wander around it and see headstones from the 1800's right next to ones from the 2000's.

We made a quick stop on the coast to look at the other two islands (I forget their names) but in the water were a bunch fo seals!

They kept popping their heads up for air and were probably looking as curiously at us as we were at them. It was like a game of whack-a-mole trying to predict where the next one would pop it's head up and eveyone would scramble to focus their cameras to get a picture.

After that, it was cold and had started to rain, so we decided to grab lunch at one of two pubs on the islands. It was fairly close to where my parents were staying so they wouldn't have a long way home. And of course, the pictures of me persist:

 I actually did take a cute one of them though:

After that I walked home with API people to our guest house which was about a mile and a half away. It was a nice walk, and would've been nicer if it wasn't so windy that sand from the beaches was being blown in our faces. The bed also at this place was like sleeping on clouds made out of sheep it was so comfortable compared to my on at Vic Lodge.

The next day I woke up earlier than everyone else and hiked my way back to the port and my parents' inn where I thankfully was able to snitch their breakfast since I had left before mine was served. We then took another roller coaster ride to the mainland and went about Galway for the day. I won't post any pictures since I already was there. OH wait except this one!

The river was waaaaay lower than last time I was there and surprise! There were these cool rock things in the river bed that someone had put there. Not exactly sure why they wrote "Get Free" or what they are getting free from, but it still looked cool with circle designs and stuff.

After that it was a pretty uneventful trip back to Cork only that we got there about 1 in the morning but what else is new in my life.

Mama B and Señor make an appearance!

At the end of March my parents decided to take a trip out to visit me. My mom had bee to Ireland before...VERY before, like 30 years ago before (not to make her feel old or anything) and my dad had never been. While it did legitimately match up with my mom's spring break and they didn't really have time off in the fall, I find it hilarious that they chose to visit me and not Erika who studied abroad last semester in Ghana. I guess they would rather have experienced this:

than this:

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ghana wouldn't be as fun as Ireland, because I'm sure my parents would've loved playing with monkeys and having adventures (I know I would). However, I don't know how keen my parents would be to hitchhike on top of cars and be hot and sticky and sweaty the whole time. Especially since we are basically a family of polar bears when it comes to how well we can handle heat.

aka not at all.

ANYWAYS they came to visit on the Thursday (21st I think?) and stayed for just over a week. I still had classes so they split their time between doing their own thing and spending time with the dear little buttercup. Ironically, the entire time I've been in Ireland I've seen snow all of twice and it didn't really last either time while my parents were here for about 10 days and saw snow 4 times. I don't envy them having to drive on the other side of the road, in a foreign country, for the first time, on wet snowy roads, in basically the only blizzard Ireland has ever seen. I felt bad because, hey, who wants to have crappy weather while on vacation? Thankfully, it cleared up for the rest of time and even if it wasn't sunny and gorgeous  it at least wasn't raining most of the time even if it was frigid temperatures the whole time. But we're polar bears remember? So we don't mind that.

They came for a few days to do things in Cork which I surprisingly haven't done yet being here for 3 months at the time. Unfortunately for me, someone who likes to take pictures rather than be in them, my parents must have had some pent up "we miss our child" syndrome and would literally not stop taking pictures of me the whole time.

 Standing in my kitchen. SUCH a great photo-op!

Rummaging for food! What a memory!

As you can tell I might not have been the happiest camper about it. I would like to point out that even if I did ruin (most but not all!) of the pictures, at least I was in them. And there are some nice ones. Surprisingly.

First on their list was squeezing the massive rental car up the winding streets to get to the Cork Butter Museum. Yes there's a butter museum and yes it's a real thing:

 It was actually pretty interesting for nerds like us and it was about how it was such a booming export and still kinda is and how they made it and yada yada yada.

My folklore lessons came in handy too as I added even more nerdy bits about a festival (St Brigit's Day) in which parts of the celebration are basically worshiping dairy products, including butter. Something about building a doll around a butter dash (which is the stick in the churn) and going fake trick-or-treating. Aaaand my parents continued to take pictures of me, trying to get me not to make a face:

Tough luck. Even when I'm not trying to look weird, I still somehow manage to look weird.

Afterwards, we revisited the Cork Gaol (jail) even though I had gone with API. It was actually nice to see the place when it was light out as last time had been at night and some things were hard to see. It also was prime ground for stupid funny photos which are a family specialty:

 Charlie the Enforcer everyone.

 Well at least we found mannequins that matched each of us.

 The guidance counselor guiding the way (hardy har har I'm so funny).
And of course, the unavoidable:

I also gave the the obligatory tour around campus which was good cuz I've yet to take pictures of where I actually spent most of my time here:

Da main quad. So pretty!

The chapel that you can get married in that's on campus. Hmm I'm getting a sense of déjà vu...

I would've taken photos sooner but I was waiting for a nice day since campus is actually stunning in good weather. Only problem is that I would always forget my camera on nice days and also because I don't commonly have "camera" on the list of things I need for class. Promise though, I will get them!