Greetings from a Snot Goo Ball

Just got back a few hours ago from doing my homestay with an Irish couple who live in Tuam. As I write this Liza is gagging at my breathing- purty sure I have the flu. Symptoms including extreme congestion, heavy head, achey body, and eeeeeh goin to the eeeeh bathroom. I felt a bit crummy getting on the bus that was driving me 40 minutes north to Tuam and by Saturday I felt real sick. Before going into detail I'd like to say that the family was so nice. That being said I'll continue my tale.

So I get there Friday and Caroline and Joe pick Miranda and I (a girl from my program) up and drive us to their house. Caroline is recently divorced and she and Joe just moved into their house with his 14 year old son Ryan and she has 4 other kids who don't live with her. We had a BIG dinner: a heaping portion of mashed potatoes which she said she makes every single morning and some kind of meat slathered in some kind of gravy always served with colorful beans or cooked vegetables which I never ate (its a texture thing). They chain smoke (kids included) in the house but as a guest I don't want to impose (although I'm asthmatic and eeeh frankly find the smell shtanky). They asked us if we go to church and I said I do at home but not on my own time but I was looking forward to experience it in Ireland. They asked us if we drank and we said yez and they said Saturday night they would bring us out to the pubs in town which I was also looking forward to.

Next morning we have a nice breakfast but she says she has some things to do but that we should walk into town and explore. We do and its adorable and then find a cafe to relax in and so I can git some reading done for class but are soon surrounded by so many people from our program whose homestay families told them to explore the town also. I didn't wanna be rude buuut I felt like I should be spending more time with my homestay family rather than the people I always spend time with, so we walked home only to read and watch t.v until about 10 pm (although we did eat another heaping portion of potatoesmeatandvegeatalbes somewhere in there and I was feeling sicker and sicker). I almost thought we weren't going to the pubs which at that point my groggy head wasn't totally against. I asked if she had any meds for me which she supplied only to soon offer me an irish coffee. I asked if i could drink after taking medicine to which she enthusiastically responded with "OF COOOURSE DEARY". I didn't wanna be rude so I slowly drank it but decided I would refrain from drank the rest of the night. We finally got to the first pub around 11 pm and went to two more after that (Joe's sister Peggy joined us at the second, a real doll, as well as other assorted friends, including one elderly man I danced with to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" and Tina Turner's "You're Simply the Best". I used my best moves on him considering being sickly. Even the flu can't keep me off that dance floor). I was getting weaker and whiter as the night wore on and we finally got home around 2 am when I ran upstairs to fall into bed yet Joe and Caroline didn't go to bed until 7 am (they were busy downstairs listening and singing along to some ditties). As you can imagine, we missed Sunday mass because Miranda and I didn't wake up til noon and they didn't wake up until about 1:30. We got the bus at 3:30 and we exchanged numbers with them and they told us we could come back annnnytime.

I really did enjoy my time with them but I would have liked to spend more time with them getting to know each other instead of watching weird European reality shows or the equivalent to ESPN (I don't even like watching those things in America!). But it was certainly an experience and I thank them for their hospitality and a night out on the town (boy did we paint Tuam red!)

On another note, last Thursday I attempted to visit Seamus in his office (he works in the oldest building on campus that looks like its straight out of Harry Potter) but I literally felt like I was trapped in a labyrinth and 40 minutes later and 7 fruitless attempts of asking people around me where to find him I walked home and emailed him for directions to his office. When I figure out how to post pictures on this thing I'll show you how beautiful the building is yet terrifyingly maze like (oh I documented my rat-in- a-maze moment alright). But I have fluids to drink and books to read so I'll say goodnight. Hope erryone is well!