Charity Week

Alright so it's been a little while since I've updated you all on what I've been up to. The past two weeks have mainly consisted of doing things right on-campus. With our St. Patty's Day trip to Dublin coming up we all decided to just stay on-campus for the last couple weekends, which worked out nicely since this last week was what is known as Rag or Charity Week.  But before I get to Charity Week I would like to tell you about Pancake Tuesday. Let's see I guess it would be two weeks ago now that we were able to experience Pancake Tuesday.  This holiday takes place on Fat Tuesday or the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  Prior to that day we had been receiving emails about these dinners on campus serving pancakes and we just thought it was something fun the campus did, however then in one of our classes that day our lecturer commented on how he was going out for Pancake Tuesday with his niece. It was then that we realized this was not just some fun campus activity but a nation wide celebration that everyone looks forward to. When I asked my Irish roommate about it he couldn't believe that we didn't do this sort of thing in America. I told him no we do not dedicate a day solely to eating tons of pancakes. I asked where this all started and from what I have been told it goes back to when people stopped eating eggs, flour, and milk for lent.  So before those things went bad they had to use them all up and they decided to do that by making lots of pancakes; and since then the Tuesday before lent starts is known as Pancake Tuesday where everyone eats pancakes for at least one of their meals if not more.  We did partake in this celebration by going out and getting some pancakes for dinner and they were delicious.  I believe Pancake Tuesday was really the only excitement of that week.
This past week we have been partaking in Charity Week. Every college campus in Ireland has a week where they put on lots of different events and all money raised during this week goes to a chosen charity.  We started the week off by going to a UV Paint party at a night club in town. The club was lit up with all black lights and they had people going around splattering UV paint on you that glowed under the lights. By the end of the night our faces and upper bodies were covered in paint! It was a good way to start off our Rag week. Each day during the day they had all sorts of things going on in the campus courtyard, like trampolines, a bull riding machine, beer pong tournaments, and lots more.  Most Irish students just don't go to lectures during this week and attend all the different activities and spend the day drinking. You all know me though, I couldn't skip class if my life depended on it so I did not attend any of the daytime events and just stuck to the night ones. Tuesday night was the Farmer's Ball at the campus pub, Stables.  We all dressed in whatever we had that was closest to farming attire, I wore my rain-boots or as they would call them here, wellies.  Wednesday night was UL Fest.  They had something going on at both pubs on campus as well as a life band set up in the campus courtyard between the two pubs.  Most of the night was spent dancing and having some good craic.  Thursday night we decided to take a break from all the festivities and stay in for the night. Then we ended off Rag week with international night at Stables.  All us girls got dressed up in skirts and they even straightened my hair because they all wanted to see what it would look like and how long it was straight, lol. They were all pretty surprised at how long it got once it was straight. We had a fun night of dancing and then had to walk home in the pouring rain, but it was still a night for the books. There is rarely a time when I go out with all my friends here that we don't end up having tons of good craic.  Yes, Charity week does sound like just one big excuse for all the students to basically be drunk every day of the week but all money they raise does go to a good cause. Each night event has a cover charge and all other donations and funds raised go to the chosen charities.
But yeah Charity week is definitely not something that would happen back at home. I mean here they cancel lectures so students can attend events, they move due dates of papers and assignments, they pretty much expect the students to be out drinking instead of in class.
That has pretty much been the only excitement for me in the last two weeks. In the coming weeks I'm looking forward to doing some more traveling around Ireland, we are hoping to get to Belfast at some point and we will be going to Dublin for St. Patty's Day.  We are also trying to find weekends to plan trips to London and Scotland, I'm really excited for those two trips. Till then that's all I have for now.