30/5/2010
Tonight is the last night I will spend in Galway, Ireland. Tears do not roll down my face as I write this, but I have a strong feeling they are coming. At least for a while, I will not be able to walk or skate the Salthill prom, yell at the mute swans in the bay, walk down shop street either during the day or at night (both very different), see my favorite bums, dance at the Roisen, Cuba, or GPO, watch the dancing at Monroe's, take off on spur-of-the-moment day trips to random towns, head to Murvue Rec Center for a Wednesday night hockey session, stare at people from my window, or fit in with my very badly burned nose and forehead. These activities, and things unlisted, will be dearly missed and the memories created in these experiences treasured for the rest of my life.
I did get to end my Ireland experience with an amazing inline hockey tourney weekend in Kilkenny, Ireland with my city team the Galway Bay Lightening. I hopped a bus yet again this past Friday and met up with the team who was scattered across Kilkenny in B&B's and hostels.
Yesterday, we arrived at the tourney to find that unlike our dear ol' Murvue gym, this gym did not have fold-able seats (that did not allow for wall bounce passes) and it had a wooden floor. The gym was in a building next to a hurling/rugby field, and had changing rooms for each team. As there were only two other girls in the tournament of seven teams other than those on my team, we were obligated to change and shower with da boys. This was hilarious as our team in a mixture of all ages, sexes, and nationalities. The locker room had one side of showers with curtains which served as changing rooms as needed.
As the Lightening are a new team, we only won one game (that was this morning), but we had a great weekend and were not beaten too badly. This brought back memories of the early Falcon varsity days. Last night, The tournament organizers reserved an area of a pretty cool pub for a mixer after the games. I think that drinking after hours of exercise and before another long day of exercise that drinking to excess is no the best idea, but MANY others did not have my same feelings. The music was great and getting to know people from the other teams was a riot. My favorite character of the evening was the Russian ice hockey player, the scariest looking person you will ever meet, and known throughout the day as the badass guy who can make amazing shots and but cannot stop as he was not used to inline skates yet. He later befriended our goalie and then danced the night away to GAGA and anything that came on with either a nervous partner or himself. HILARIOUS. I also enjoyed seeing my hockey friends outside of hockey and Galway let loose a little bit.
Today was a little rough in the morning with a bad, sloppy loss in the first game. Throughout the day it was great talking to the people we had hung around with at the bar last night. We played (AND BEAT) a group of them later in the day and had a great time rubbing it in. The last part of the day was sad as I had to say goodbye to people I had the best time with this weekend and this past semester. I really had a great time this weekend, but all the goodbyes ruined the afternoon. I am really going to miss all of the amazing people I have had the privilege of getting to know, this includes all of the goodbyes I had to say earlier to all of my Galway girls. Again, the memories I have made with everyone here will be something I will treasure for the rest of my life.
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