Week 8: Storm Emma

It seems as though I brought a little bit of Minnesota to Ireland this past weekend. The whole country went into Code Red shutdown as Storm Emma and the Beast from the East pummeled the land with snow. In reality, we only got a few inches, but to an Irish person, this was unheard of. All of the bread disappeared from grocery stores as people stocked up and NUIG cancelled college for Thursday and Friday. Snowball fights and snowmen littered Galway as most shops closed up for the storm. I was just happy to see some snow. My friend Adrienne and I built a snowwoman named Patricia outside my house, but she didn’t last very long! All of the snow has already melted to reveal the green grass and daffodils underneath.

While I am thankful the weather gave me a few days off of class, it also wrecked some plans. On Sunday my ISA group was scheduled to visit the Cliffs of Moher, but an hour into the bus ride we received a phone call saying that the cliffs were closed. In order to not waste a trip, we stopped in The Burren to see the limestone plateau. There I was still able to sit on the edge of a cliff and gaze across the ocean. The limestone was such a unique feature, and we were able to explore as much as our cold feet and fear of heights would allow us. Ireland is full of such beautiful landscape, but it is nice to know that staring across the ocean, I am looking toward home.