So for the past week, I've been lying on my butt here in Galway while Zach's been hitting the books to get ready for his finals! (he only has one left today!) The first few days I was kind of feeling a bit meloncholy having just left Spain and such. It was just weird and I definitely needed this time to process it, so I literally didnt leave his apartment for 3 days and watched a whole lot of Pretty Little Liars, drank a lot of hot chocolate, and read my spanish book! haha.
On the Sunday we got back we had Thanksgiving dinner with all of his friends! Everyone made a dish to share and let me tell you, we had everything you'd expect to see at a dinner table in the states! We had green bean casserole, turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, apple pie and on top of that a German friend of Zach's made German meatballs and two Spanish girls brought a Spanish dish called tortilla, which i love :) But yea we definitely had a great thanksgiving dinner!
Zach and I were told we were in charge of the ham, which we had no clue how to prepare... so we went to the store and only could find a raw ham because there are no precooked ones here in Ireland apparently, and went home and Googled how to cook the bad boy. It was a pretty funny process I must say. We actually ended up skyping my mom lol and we showed her our ham and the pan and she gave us a few pointers. Thanks mom :) So we shoved the ham in the oven and let him cook! While it was cooking, we decided we should probably make a glaze too... so we threw brown sugar, maple syrup, apple juice, honey, and cinnamon into a pan and hoped for the best.
We had zero expectations for the end result being that 1) neither one of us had ever cooked a ham in our lives 2) we didn't have a thermometer to know when it was done and 3) We had no mom in sight to guide us
so three hours passed and we decided it either had to be done or dried out.. so we took it out, poked a knife through it to see if it was hot all the way through and poured our glaze over it. We sliced it up, looked and each other with apprehension, and said screw it as we took a bite to see how well we fared. And damn was that ham good! We both just started laughing because we were expecting the worst, but it was a hit and everyone loved it! So yea, we will be for sure making that again! Here is Zach's dinner plate after he tasted it.
Finally on Thursday I decided I should probably get out of the apartment and get some fresh air, besides going to Dunnes, the local supermarket. My friend Becky Martens from high school is studying in Limerick and told me she would be coming to Galway to do some Christmas shopping so I agreed to meet her in town! We spent the day looking at ornaments, I bought new boots, Becky bought a beautiful nativity set handmade in Ireland for her mom, and we also perused through the christmas market and just talked about our abroad experiences. Downtown Galway is the picture perfect place when you think about what Ireland should be like. Cobblestone streets, welcoming pubs, claddah ring store, and street singers playing traditional irish music for everyone to hear. I can't help but feel like im in the movie P.S I Love You everytime im walking around. It's so heart warming and welcoming, definitley puts you in the holiday spirit. I have been so lucky to have had the chance to see so many familiar faces while I've been abroad. It has for sure made my trip that much more amazing than it already would have been :) So Thursday was the day I decided to stop being sad about Spain and to get back in the exploring mood!
I've been spendng my remaining days looking for places to Couchsurf, planning our travels, blogging and making cookies and banana bread! It has been a good week in Galway :) But now the travel bug is baack and I'm ready to go!
Rachel
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