Easter, Connemara, and Inch Island

Easter Sunday I went to mass at the Galway Cathedral with a few other Auburn Students. The cathedral is known as one of the last European rock cathedrals. It was a beautiful structure located next to the river and had a very nice Easter service. One of the main differences between this mass and the typical mass that I am used to was Communion. In Galway, when it came time for Communion everyone just got up and went to the altar with no order whatsoever so we just stood up and slowly made our way into the line and up to the altar. They also kneeled for Communion here and there was no wine, both of which I am not used to. After mass we stopped at a little cafe to get a nice lunch because we all realized that we were missing a feast with our families that day.

Throughout Sunday people had been talking about going on a tour to Connemara on Monday because we didn't really have anything to do and we were also without a chaperone telling us what we needed to do each day. When I woke up Monday morning in time for the tour only one other person had gotten up for the tour. Everyone was still asleep, most likely from the previous night's activities. So just Taylor and I went on the bus tour. It actually wasn't a bad day to be sitting on a bus because it was cold and rainy outside, so our pictures weren't the best but we still got to see everything. The main site was the Kylemore Abbey, a beautiful mansion set in the mountains next to a lake. It used to be someone's home but now the Benedictine nuns live there and make pottery.

Tuesday morning we packed everything up and got on a bus headed towards Inch Island. Our fist stop was in Sligo for lunch and a lecture from someone at the Sligo Institute of Technology. After that we stopped at W.B. Yeats grave site, then at Donegal Castle. I slept on and off the entire bus ride, as did everyone else until 5ish when we stopped at a grocery store to get food for the week. 20 minutes after the grocery store we were at the Inch House on Inch Island, a very small place about 5 miles from the border of Northern Ireland. Tony, the owner here, gave us a talk about the differences between Ireland and Northern Ireland and didn't really mean to alarm us, but he did.

Today has been kind of a slow-paced day for everyone here. We all slept in and are starting to work on our sketch project. Randy, the professor that just left, gave us a sketch assignment to keep us occupied until the next professor gets here. We are designing a tape dispenser and the first step is to come up with 5 designs, then we pick the best out of those and do 3 iterations of it and then we pick the best of those 3 and do a final sketch and these are due on Saturday. After sketching for a little bit I decided to take a break and go running. There are many roads here so I just took a left out of the driveway and went for awhile, taking in the beautiful scenery all around me.