"Not all who wander are lost.": 16 Hours Later

As part of my Geology major requirements, I have to attend what is known as "Field Camp." This is essentially a multi-week trip to somewhere in the world with a lot of exposed rock outcrops to sketch, describe, analyze, and map. In the States, this usually means out west, for me, it means Ireland.

Tuesday, my friend Hannah and I headed down the mountain to Charlotte to catch our 3:00 flight up to Newark. 16 hours later, at 7:00am, we both found ourselves in the Shannon airport in Ireland and so began one of the longest days of my life. Thinking it would help me get sleep on the plane, I stayed up through most of the night before our flight. It is important to note for future reference that this only ends well if you actually follow through and get sleep on the flight. Needless to say, the Hobbit that was available for viewing made it impossible to follow through on my initial intentions...

Once our whole group had met up at the airport, we piled into our 3 vans and drove about 2 hours to the small town of Clonbur, Ireland in County Galway. We’re staying right outside of town at the Petersburg Outdoor Education Center nestled amidst tall green mountains next to Lough Mask (Lake Mask). We are staying in rooms with 4 people split amongst 2 bunk beds with our own bathrooms AND shower. A shower per every 4 people is more than I expected and although it is quite small (the size of your body, that's it) and has relatively low water pressure, it's a luxury i'm pretty thankful for.

After we all got settled in, we ate some lunch and walked around outside of the center doing a few field exercises. None of it was too strenuous, but it was all I could do not to fall asleep standing up. I will say that the 10 minute hail storm halfway though one of our exercises managed to wake me up well enough. Eventually we ate dinner cooked by the new chef straight out of Italy (I wonder if I'm the only one that thinks it weird to have an Italian cook my dinner in Ireland...) and a bunch of us headed down the street about 2 km to one of the pubs in Clonbur and I got my first ever Guinness! Below are some of the pictures from the 1st day...