Home Stay

My home stay was amazing! I was with Breda (pronounced Breeda) and Sean Ansbro in Tuam. They have three children, their oldest, Carol is studying in Australia right now, but we met their two other children. Adam attends the NUI at Cork and was home for the weekend, and Grace is 17 or 18. Grace's friend Sarah was also staying for the weekend. Sarah is from Hamburg, Germany, and is studying in Ireland this year. I'll try to keep the chain of events in order soas not to confuse anyone, including myself!
We left Galway at 6:00 pm and arrived in Tuam at about 7:00. We were paired in two's. I was a little nervous because I hadn't seen the girl I was supposed to be with, but it turns out she's studying, through Butler, at the art school in Ballyvaughan, which is across the bay from Galway. Sean picked us up and drove us out to their house, which is just a little outside the city. Supper was waiting when we got there and was delicious! Breda always fixes something the first night that we can fix ourselves when we return to college - how great is that! We then watched tv with Sean and hung out with Adam, Grace, and Sarah.
On Saturday we got up early because we heard them say Adam had a rugby match at noon. We got downstairs about 9:30 and Sean was the only other one up! It ended up being really windy and rainy all day so we didn't go watch the rugby match, although we did you with Breda to pick Adam up. Last night we watched Mamma Mia, P.S. I Love You, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
This morning we decided we didn't need to get up as early as we did on Saturday! We went to the Cathedral in Tuam for church, which was really cool! Mass wasn't too different than what we have at home, but it was hard to say the responses because the congregation didn't really say them together. Plus, Irish people kind of mummble and talk fast (that's where I get it!) so they were probably saying what we say, I just couldn't follow it. Before Mass, Breda drove us around Tuam and showed us a plaque put up by the city for a local girl killed in 9/11 and the seat of the last high king of Ireland (which was really tiny!) When we got back in her car after Mass, I found a Garth Brooks CD! I don't think I've heard country music since I've gotten here (other than my own iTunes)! The CD also had a DVD with it (the ultimate hits collection) so we watched that while Breda made dinner. We then departed for Galway at 3:00.
I had such a good time with the family! They were a little hard to understand at times, but we got by :) I kind of wish it had been a long weekend since it seemed like the time just flew while we were there!