Connacht vs Dragons

They lift those guys really high!

Friday, September 23rd: Today I caught up on some serious sleep and essentially did nothing until about 4pm when I made breakfast/lunch/dinner and then got ready for the "day" before Emily, Elizabeth and I went to the Connacht (our county in Galway) verses the Dragons (some other county) Rugby game! Before we left we map-quested where the Galway Rugby/Greyhound racing stadium was however we ended up taking an extremely long route and didn't necessarily get lost...we just took the longest way possible to get there (like an hour of walking to get there....and then only 20 minutes to get back to the apartment once we figured out where we were).

By the time we got there the game was about a quarter of the way through which was totally fine because the stadium is standing room only so all 80 minutes of the rugby game probably would have been a little much. None of us know how to play rugby so we just decided to cheer when Connacht (aka the people in green) cheer and boo when people started yell about Dragons. Additionally, there was an eagle looking mascot walking around which the Dragon fans were calling a pigeon and the Connacht fans were yelling an unintelligible word that we couldn't figure out. Most of what Irish people say at sporting games is so slurred by all the beer coursing through their veins that you are lucky if you can figure out anything they are screaming besides "F**K". Quite hilarious.

Right before the smack into each other as hard as possible

At one point two guys totally collided and we all hear a really loud bone crushing type sound and one guy was laying on the floor while the paramedics (stretcher and all) game to the field. He ended up being fine but when he stood up one eye was already swollen shut and looked extremely black and blue...which is definitely going to hurt tomorrow. Another thing we realized about rugby is when a player gets hurt; no matter where they are on the field the game continues and everyone just plays around the paramedics and the player on the ground. Luckily no one got tripped over but they don't stop until the player is ok, the game just continues while he lies on the ground getting help... very strange.

 Then half time came during which there were two mini games of rugby with 7-10 year olds and it was really adorable! Then the second half kicked off and finally one fan decided to enunciate what they were trying to say and yelled "Go Griffin!" Which is when we realized the eagle/pigeon was a griffin which made a lot more sense. Close to the end of the game Connacht made a "touchdown" and a "field goal" bring the score from 3 v 10 to 13 v 10. Therefore we won the game and everyone was extremely excited!

GO CONNACHT/GRIFFINS/GREEN TEAM!!!!

On our much shorter walk back to the apartment we decided to stop at McDonalds because we were all craving McFlurries. I got mine with "Smarties" which originally I thought were like sour skittles, only to thankfully find out they were just like mini m&ms. So good!

Tomorrow I have to clean my room and do laundry and study/get my work done for the week because MOM AND SCOTTY ARE COMING ON SUNDAY!!!! I can't wait!!!! <3