Homestay Weekend In Tuam

This past weekend, I had the very special opportunity to go on a homestay, where you spend the weekend with an Irish family, living in their house and seeing how they live. My roommate Brian was also with me at the Boyle residence. The Boyle family consists of John, Regina, and their two boys: Sean, 7 and Dara, 4. We arrived on Friday evening and immediately found the family to be incredibly welcoming. They live in the small town of Tuam, about 45 minutes outside Galway City. On Friday night, we watched movies with the two boys and had a lot of laughs as they asked us all about America and where we are from. Everyone is always excited to hear that you live near New York City and they always tell you that it is their dream to go there one day.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we went out in the yard to play some soccer and admire the scenery. They live across the street from the beautiful Irish landscape featuring rolling green hills and an abundance of sheep and cows grazing in the fields. It must be pretty nice to wake up to that every morning.

The main event on Saturday afternoon was our trip to Knock Shrine. It was a very spiritual and peaceful little town that revolves around the shrine. I'm sure you all know about it. When we walked into the shrine, mass unexpectedly started which was nice. After a very abbreviated mass, we walked around into the two other chapels there. Unfortunately I did not buy any Knock holy water but I did use some in the church so feel free to shake my hand when I get back and become a lot holier (is that a word?) On the way back from Knock we also made a stop at the peat bogs and John explained to us how the peat is cut and transported to homes around Ireland.

We spent the rest of Saturday exploring the town. Actually, we spent about two hours on Saturday exploring the town because that is all you need. There are only a couple of streets surrounding the center of the town. Their nephew Dean was our Tuam tour guide. We played pool at one of the local pubs during the afternoon, and then meandered in and out of the many shops. After dinner we met up with their niece Amanda who took us downtown to a few pubs. First up was "The Brogue," then "MacDonagh's," then finally "Harpy's." MacDonagh's was by far the strangest pub I've seen so far. In truth, MacDonagh's is primarily a grocery store. However, at night, if you walk through the shop to the back room, a full pub is waiting. It was quite unusual but very enjoyable, even if we were packed in there like sardines.

Sunday morning was yet another bright and sunny day and after breakfast, guess what we did? Went to mass of course. The Tuam Parish Cathedral was another beautiful church. Sunday afternoon held another unexpected treat for us. We traveled over to the Tuam GAA Stadium for a gaelic football match between Galway & Sligo! It was such a cool experience and it was a good game too. Seeing as my ancestors came from both counties it was difficult to root for one side, but I had to go with Galway since it is my home for the next few months. Luckily for me, Galway won the match 10-5. The Irish people love their gaelic football and were screaming and cheering throughout, even if it was only a warm-up exhibition match.

At the end of the game it was time to head back to our houses in Galway. We said goodbye to the Boyles and thanked them for a great weekend. They live in a really beautiful house and they were very welcoming and helpful to us. They also fed us very, very well. Also, I have never drank so much tea in my life. It seems that tea never stops flowing in an Irish household. During meals, just after meals, morning, night, doesn't matter. The tea is always available. It's not a bad thing by any means, I just never drank tea back home. I guess I'll have to get used to it though.

Overall it was a great experience, albeit a very short one. Just when we were getting to know the family, we had to pack up and leave. They did tell us we could come back any weekend though. Might have to take them up on that offer for some more home cooking!

Hope everyone's enjoying the blog. Sorry the posts have been so spread out. Hopefully I'll start to do some traveling soon and the posts will be coming more frequently. Hope all is well with everyone back home!