Adventure Weekend with IFSA!

After being bogged down with essays and coursework for the past few weeks, I am now officially finished with classes (except for a review session and a rescheduled lab, but I'm not really counting those) and I finally have a chance to post about what I've been up to lately.

So let's rewind to the last weekend in March...my study abroad program took all their exchange students in Ireland to Killary Harbor, Ireland's only fijord. It's in Connemara, a very picturesque and beautiful part of County Galway.

There are also a lot of sheep:

On Friday evening, we signed up for our Saturday activities. I had checked out what the center had to offer earlier in the week, and I definitely wasn't thrilled about the prospects. I figured I would just spend my time at the archery range and leave the bungee jumping and high ropes courses to adrenaline junkies. That was not to be the case...

Saturday morning I was signed up for - and I quote - 'kayaking / gorge walking.' I was under the assumption we would choose which activity we wanted to participate in, and I planned on spending the entire time kayaking (how could you pass up the opportunity to kayak in such beautiful surroundings, even if the water is insanity-inducing cold?). We walked down to the water and were given wetsuits, life vests, and old sneakers (I chose a pair that were less sturdy than Converse and missing laces in one foot. Since I would just be walking my kayak into the water, there was no need for good, solid shoes, right? Wrong.). Sign number one that this was going to be an interesting morning: a bucket of helmets to choose from. Clearly this was not going to be a nice, relaxing kayak ride.

We're ready to go: (photo courtesy of Meg!)

A group of about 16 of us start walking towards the water, but we were split into two groups before we got there. The guide with my group had us start doing some warm-up stretches and jumping jacks (because 'the water's pretty cold today'). Then we slipped and slid through some woods (remember my shoe situation) as we followed the guide - towards the cliff. Which we then jumped off. Directly into the freezing water. Apparently, since the tide was quite low, we got an even bigger drop than normal. What a way to start the day!

I then found out through experience exactly what gorge walking is - essentially, we hiked up a large stream. This involves navigating over and around algae-covered rocks using low-hanging branches and jutting rocks as hand-holds, splashing through pools of water and occasionally wading through pools up to your waist. It was fun, but I couldn't think of anything besides how much my feel hurt from the cold (my hands had gone numb after I climbed up from the cliff jump). Any time we paused for people to catch up or to go through a particularly tricky section, I would shake violently and involuntarily. At one point I remember thinking that what I was doing would be a ton of fun on a hot, humid day in August. However, it was March 27th and somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees F, so I wasn't upset when we finished the gorge walk and were brought over the the kayaks.

Try to kayak when you can barely feel your hands since they're so cold. It's hard. Add to that strong currents and brisk wind. This was not a simple afternoon at Owenego. However, the energy needed to stay on course did warm me up a bit, and we played some games that kept our minds off of the cold. First up was a trivia game where for some reason or another I had to Eskimo kiss my kayak - in other words, touch my nose to the nose of the boat. We then played Rocks, Papers, Scissors, where the losers had to kneel on their kayak. If they then lost again, they had to stand. I only had to kneel for a bit, but my friend Erin managed to stand up and sit back down without tipping over (at least, I don't think she did. My focus was pretty firmly on keeping myself right-side up though). We then 'rafted together,' so we all lined up and held onto the boat next to us. Our guide split us into two groups of every other person and had us sing a song. While standing. I performed 'I'm A Little Tea Pot' complete with motions.

And that was all before lunch.

After changing into some dry clothes, I headed out to the archery range. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but thanks to the UL club, I'm at least familiar with the safety equipment generally used when shooting - none of which was available. I often manage to hit my arm even with an arm guard on (to protect the arm you hold out in front of you from the string as it snaps past), so I collected a few nice bruises that afternoon. It was still good fun though, and it was a nice break after the adrenaline-filled morning.

Like 'kayaking / gorge walking,' the activity I had signed up for was actually 'archery / zip-lining.' So I put on a harness and trekked up a hill to the platform. Two people go at once, and as my friend Eliza and I got closer to the platform, we contemplated how we actually get to the top since no stairs were visible. Once we got close enough, we saw a skinny ladder leading up to big staples in a telephone pole. I am NOT a fan of climbing up ladders, but there was no way I was chickening out at that point. I made it up without a problem, thought the instructor who was clipping me into all of the equipment was pretty entertained that I was perfectly OK with the idea of jumping off the platform but not happy about ladders. Oh well. It was completely worth it - zooming down the wire was a ton of fun, and the views from up high were awesome. Caitlin got some pictures of Eliza (left) and me (right).

Once we were at the bottom of the hill, we had to lower ourselves down a rope using a ratchet. I waited while Eliza went down first:

The next day I did the Killary Challenge, which sounds much more exciting than it actually was. We hiked around the bogs completing various team exercises, but since we weren't racing any other teams (and all the guys were either hung over or still tipsy), no one really cared all that much.

At first we thought we were going to have to go through the mud puddle on the wooden skis. Luckily we only had to go from one red post to the next.

I forget the name of this one, but it involved using three boards to get from one platform to another. We'd all get on two of the boards, then pass the third one up to the front to make another bridge to the next platform.

Mission accomplished!

That afternoon I went to Dublin since I was flying out early the next morning to start the first part of my Spring Break journey. Needless to say, it was not difficult to fall asleep at 9:30 that night, nor did I wake up once, despite being in a 20 person dorm room at the hostel.