Howdy,
This really should be renamed my Ultimate travel Blog. I have been away from little old New Zealand for little over a month and this is my first post. So far I have been to many a city and meet some amazing people. Although I haven't posted up here, I have been keeping my diary up to do date and I have done quite a few Video blogs just none of them have had the pleasure of making it up onto this. Hopefully over the next couple of days I will get a chance to put them up and give all you back home and else where and update into really what I have been up to far the last 38 days.
Firstly, I would like to apologize for being so slack. For those of you who are on Facebook you have no doubt seen a brief summary of what I have been up to. Mostly it would have been me going on about how amazing this trip has been thus far. That is basically the whole truth, this trip has been amazing... It still rather hard to believe that I am actually on the other side of the world all by myself and yet I still have the ability to keep in contact with people at home so easily. Whether this is through the before mentioned Facebook or Skype it makes living over here a lot easier because I know all of you are only a button click and time difference away.
Now onto the good stuff. Where I have been and what I will be getting up to while over here... Right now I want to focus on my time in Ireland, and in later posts I will be putting up the Video blogs which will hopefully give a decent summary of the places that I have been too, and failing that I will be writing about those also.
So Ireland. For all the people who have said that it is beautiful, you were correct. It is amazing but the thing that most shocked me about being here is how easy it is to travel from one side of the country to the other. Already while being in Ireland I have traveled to Dublin, Cork and Limerick, all of which are just simple 2-3 hour bus rides away from each other. Comparing this to New Zealand and the even bigger contrast of the States, where it takes much longer to get between big cities. The Irish people that I have encountered so far are amazing, and even encountered as a word doesn't really do the justice. Made friends with probably would have been a better choice, they are all so nice. With in my first couple of day of being in Ireland I would the donor of countless charitable deeds which I was incredible grateful for. It seems though this is nothing out of the normal, it's just how the Irish are.
UL or the University of Limerick so far as been a fabulous home, the campus is modeled after the style of an American College and as a result it has a really connected feel to it. Which again is in stark contrast to what I am used to back at Victoria. The ground are just luscious and green and all the building just tie into each other it is quite a good example of brilliant campus design and architecture. My flat mates are all international students so we clicked quite well as we are all in the same boat. I have one from Switzerland, one from Japan, two from Australia, an American and another Kiwi. Together we form the crew of flat 11.
While covering my time in Ireland you cannot forget Ultimate. The local team here are the UL ninjas. Although we aren't the most skilled team I have come across all the lads have a great attitude and are mean fun to party with. With in the first week of being here I had gone to practice with them, meet the coach and gone to several house parties and the highlight to finish the week went to a beach tournament just outside Cork. 'Beaches Be Crazy', which was kinda similar to what I imagine Nelson Beach would be like, a hat beach tournament with lots of Ultimate and lots of partying and not much else. It was a great weekend and a nice introduction into the semi-competitive scene of Irish Ultimate.
Over the next couple of weeks after that I fully embraced the Irish culture, mainly the drinking and partying, with highlights being, my trip to Dublin and Glendalough, Freshers week which featured a foam and paint party along with S Club 7 and Five concerts, and finally my various pub crawls. In the weeks ahead I plan on turning my attention to my studies which so far, for lack of a better word, have been a joke and Ultimate. I have the Irish Nationals Championships next weekend and the following weekend I will be attending EUCF in Bruges to play with Nick Pannu's team Ragnarok. All and all a 'grand' couple of weeks ahead.
'Sound', Look forward to those updates and until next time. Catch ya!
-Lauchlan
