ireland rocks

the pounding of the keyboards here in the local library is almost overwhelming.  this is most people's first chance to use email in a week, and I know that I was feeling seriously cut off myself.
Ireland has been amazing.  The people in the program are kooky but great.  There are eight of us staying in the house I'm at.  five of them are girls around my age, and it's almost like having sisters.  The host family is amazing.  Mom (Triona), Dad (Noel, pronounced Knoll), and seven kids.  Three of them live at home: Katie (15) and the twins, Darra and Dunnah (18).  They're all really friendly and nice and they don't make fun of our pathetic Irish skills.  I guess that when only 40,000 people know the language, they realize that they need all the help they can get.
Class is hard, but entertaining.  Our teacher, Fionntan, kind of reminds me of Mr. Bolos, from AP US History, but he's a crazy Irish man who lives in Canada and dances around whenever we're singing.  I knew that Irish would be hard, and so far I've been right.  It's not close to English the way that German and Latin are.  They also don't pronounce all the letters, and at times they just skip over words.  It's hard to get used to, but with four weeks to go, I think I should be able to manage some level of comprehension.
Yesterday we went to the coral beach, which I think is one of the few in Ireland.  I took off my shoes and waded into the ocean.  It's amazing how different the ocean seems from here.  The water is clear and cold, and we can see the little inlet that we live on from my bedroom window. 
On Sunday we went to Pearse's House; Pearse was one of the leaders of the Easter Rebellion, so he's a bit of a legend around here.  The lady who spoke was the most boring Irish person I've ever met.  She droned on so much that there were times when I couldn't tell whether she was speaking English or Irish. 
Tomorrow we have a half day, so in the afternoon we're going to go into Galway, and Karen, one of my house mates, is going to show some of us good places to shop for sweaters and stuff like that (Karen spent the last year here at NUI Galway).  It's not been very warm so far, and I'm glad I brought so many long sleeved shirts.  It's interesting talking to the Irish people about pop culture, since they kind of have their own version of the same stuff.
I'vee been trying to send postcards out to people, so if you want one, send me your address.
cheers,
kate