Straying away from the timeline...

MACBETH WAS AMAZING.

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAojuVbKQtg

It's a scene from the play... Everything about it was amazing.

That is all.

What I'm Doing When Not Blogging.

The answer is simple. I'm reading this book.... Grapes of Wrath. Which is 600 pages. I read 160 pages yesterday, and I'm so close to being done..... So close!

And I'm also going to be watching one of my favorite YouTubers, John Green (he created the fantastic movement, Nerd Fighters *does the hand sign for nerdfighters*). The goal of that group is to decrease world suck.

But anyway, he's a writer and he's doing an analysis of The Great Gatsby in his videos as the new little project. So I'm going to go watch what he has for the first few sentences :) And I'm going to read the book at some point...

Video from Curran

Setting the scene:

Sarah was our driver and we had no idea where to go to find my great Aunt Julia. So basically we were told to go up a big hill. And we find a big hill, try to go up it, and the engine stalls. Sarah's freaking out, we're on a steep hill, and it's very narrow and the flipping ocean and a cliff behind us. And then Annie starts screaming. And I, being the one with perfect timing, whip out the camera. BOOYAH.

Video from the Restaurant

Bad Restaurants and the Trip to Mayo

Don't ever go to this restaurant. My family was throwing up and they had other assorted and unpleasant symptoms. DON'T DO IT.

In fact, just don't go to American themed restaurants ever.

And this is where the pictures from our really long, 5-hour trip to Mayo starts. Also in the region are Ballycroy and Curran, where Annie's dad's relatives and my dad's relatives are from, respectively.


CANDYYYYY!!! CANDYCANDYCANDY!
He was being ostracized....
The "Wesht"! These are not rolling green hills.
The view from our AMAZING hotel.

The seaaa. Now, in between these two pictures, we had visited Annie's granny and my great aunt from my dad's side. It's funny, there was a picture of a cousin of my dad's on the wall and he looked like a Mexian boy just like my father. Haha.


And the cliffs. Also, interesting anecdote from these particular cliffs. I was getting REALLY excited about all the sheep on the road because I THINK SHEEP ARE ADORABLE *hyperventilate*

And Uncle Dominic should have been there because he would have wrestled one for me to pet :(

But anyway, we stopped so Michael could get me a sheep. But he's afraid of the rams, the big baby. So we were just stopped and enjoying the view. All of a sudden someone calls me over to look at this little sign post on the pull-off. It talked about the Spanish armada crashing on the cliffs and then they intermingled with the locals.

WE FOUND WHERE MY DAD GOT HIS BIG BLACK BUSHY 'STACHE FROM!!! I'M A SPANIARD!

And from there on in it's been a running joke that I'm an adopted Mexican child.



I took this picture in honor of my favorite fiddler, Mairead Nesbitt of Celtic Woman.

Graveyards and Gaelic Football

Irish graveyards are a lot different than US graveyards. It's not just a "Stick 'em in the ground and throw flowers on it every year" thing (though I find that weird anyway because I know the decomposition process and it's gross to think of it). Each grave has it's own gigantic square of gravel and they're kept pretty clean. There aren't any small ones that can't be seen because grass is covering it, and the inscriptions are different.

It's the same church we went to a mass at for a funeral a week later - the amount of flowers covering the graves was amazing.

And it was kind of funny to trail my grandma around the cemetery; she makes a lot of comments. We got to her mother's and father's grave and she stopped and said, "There's only one person in there that's happy."

We went to a different part of the cemetery where you could look off at the town and gram said, "Where did all the people come from?" And Annie thought she meant the people in the graveyard... So she walks over and says, "Well, Grandma, when a boy loves a girl..."

I do love my family.

This is a grave from the 1800's - I can't quite remember the exact date.
This is just a vicious child.

I also have some videos of a Gaelic football game but it might take a bit to get them up as Annie's computer is touchy!

Beginning the Vacation, My 15th Birthday, and Frank and Cliona's

I WAS IN IRELAND :D

So we pulled up to our little houses and Makenna goes, ".....We're staying HERE?"

Girl's got sass.

But yeah they were a little bit rundown. But they were warm and clean and I had a room to myself! LOVELY! This is my room, and I think I kept it nice and clean the whole time:

We were there and we decided to go eat some substances that were Irish (HOORAY IRISH). I found the venue really pretty and took some pictures. And this is also the place we went to a bar around the last day. I think it would make a really nice painting.
But anyway, it was pretty nice inside even though the music was RIDICULOUS. It was old, old music that could be called groovy, honestly. And I found that I started to really like Sarah's sense of humor when she started boogying out in her chair (oh, and by the way, you try fitting a billion people in a booth and some chairs).

P.S. they don't have honey mustard and sometimes ketchup so try the garlic mayo, it's pretty good but a little rich.

Annie Bananie likes candles.
Aaaand then the rain came. Of course. This is right by the river outside the cabins.
And this was the first trip to Tesco's - the Irish WallieWorld!!! It was also the mall. And we got a surprise at the mall....... STORMTROOPERS!

The first sighting:
Michael, the first passerby to go up to them.
Here are the boys Dominic, Colin, and Liam doing their thang.
And here's my FAVORITE COUSIN WHO MAKES ME FOOD EVERY NIGHT UNLESS IT'S SARAH'S NIGHT. And I.
And then our next trip was to Frank and Cliona's. To be honest, I can't remember if they're related. But I know that everyone likes them and we act like they're family. They also throw good parties. They also have a pretty house!
The guys were playing a card game and I think I was just chilling on the couch. And I fell asleep (this would be the fourth or more time on this trip). Sarah and Annie took the time to show their love for me.

Oh, yeah, look at me with that beer. I'm so cooool.
Haha. Well I actually learned after my grandma woke me up that this was a birthday party, soooo....
And here's Nan and grandma.
This is Michael doing something probably awesome. He and Annie actually taught me how to play cards so I need to be nice sometimes.
This is the view from Cliona's backyard.
And her frontyard!
Yaaaay blogpost.