so it's saturday. getting close to time to leave. we got so much snow yesterday we had to shovel the car out twice. we got stuck. couldn't go back to our house so we stayed at gareth's family home. today we're going shopping in a neighboring town, i'm going to get gareth's mom something. i'm writing her a card too. on thursday i went bowling with andrea. friday we visited gareth's grandpa ward. he was hilarious. reminded me of my grandpa :) he didn't offer me any twizzlers though. just brandy and whiskey. hahaha. anyway, ill see u all soon. unless they don't let me leave because of the snow.... LOVE U GUYS!

hey! well its wednesday already! ill be back in zanesville in a week. i've been hanging out around the Ward household the last couple of days, just having some quiet alone time. we were on the road all last week and it's nice to just sit around haha. gareth is working every day so he comes home pretty worn out, so we usually just hang out and talk at night which is fun. i keep thinking that even though he is at work most of the day, i would have given ANYTHING to be able to see him for the amount of time i see him every day now when i was in ohio. so i'm very thankful. anyway, not much going on, no new pictures, sorry! but on friday we are going to a local bar with some of his uncles. hahaha. that should be fun. then, i'm not sure what we will do the rest of our last couple days. see ya!!!!!

us in front of queens.

the graduate!


ON THE EDGE

castle at the cliffs

the cliffs of moher!!!!!!



the amazing walls! they go all the way up the mountains. it was their way of separating land instead of hedges. people still use them for cow pastures and stuff

there are lots of swans here.

castle we explored on our way to the cliffs

hey everybody! we just got back from belfast a little while ago. we have been travelling EVERYWHERE!! i feel like a gypsy (there are tons of them here.. they even have a gypsy king and they all marry their first cousins...) but today was gareth's graduation from queens university in belfast. we left here early and got there a little late.. he was the last one inside, and as soon as we sat down it started! they almost didn't let us in hahaha. afterwards we went to lunch, i had a turkey and ham dinner on top of potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes. all covered in gravy! yummmmm. we went to the huge mall there, victorias square.. it is COOL. so many stores. but we've been there a million times before so we just went to a movie. we saw the tourist with angelina jolie and johnny depp.. HORRIBLE! we have not had great luck with movies lately. but anyway, this week has been crazy! we were in gallway which was AMAZING. every bar had live irish music, every street was cobblestones, and we were on the most beautiful coast. there are hundreds upon hundreds of miles of ancient stone walls, still standing. castles, churches, and old houses made of stone, too. i cannot believe the amount of amazing history there is here. all of it is untouched, undisturbed. people really preserve history here. we were leaving gallway and i saw a crumbling building and gareth stopped. no one was there, we were free to just look around. it is just one of many, many ancient beautiful buildings. it turned out to be a monastery. i kept thinking about the people that used to live there and what happened to them. there were a lot of graves. a couple from the 1400s. our country wasn't even around then. haha. before that we were at the cliffs of moher.. WOW. i have never seen anything so huge and so beautiful before. i crawled to the edge and stuck my head over- it was by far the scariest thing i've ever done. there were memorials for all the people that have died there... i made it out alive. i read about how before ww2 people used to hunt seagalls and their eggs on the cliff edges, and would be attatched to a guy at the top with a rope, while he lowered the other guy downwards. HOLY SHITE. anyway, were going back to belfast tomorrow to hang out at the christmas market with some of gareth's old friends and one of ours from otterbein. we will be there until sunday. hope everyone is having a good week :) all the snow is finally melted here and it is green again!! love you all.

Hi everyone and welcome to Gareths blog entry, Shanelle gave me permission to fill you all in for today so here goes ...
After months and months of me talking about the cliffs of Moher we are finally getting to go together!! It'll be my 3rd time going there and I cant wait ... I remember years ago listening to my parents talking to an American who said that he thought it should be the 8th wonder of the world. I dunno if Id go that far, but its a breathtaking sight for sure. After we are done with the cliffs were probably going to go back into the city and spend some time walking around the stores and the xmas market that they have here. The weather is seriously cold at the minute so we'll be wrapping up to stay warm, and we might be forced into one of the local bars to warm ourselves with a hot port or 2 too.
But its time for us to begin the journey ... bye for now!!!

drinkin' a Guiness!!!!

hotel in Belfast

On the way to Belfast

Spiderweb covered in ice


After seeing Canice as Eugene in Grease

Gareth's mom Eileen, Gareth, Calinn (16), and Canice (14)

Hi! We just arrived in Galway after a 6.5 hour road trip. In Irish the name sounds like Gollum. hahaha. And look up the song Galway Girl by Steve Earl! The sun pretty much blinded us the whole entire time, and the roads were kind of icy! Or 'slippy' as they say here. We're staying at a gorgeous B&B called the Amber Hill. It's nicer (and cheaper) than a hotel! I mean it is REALLY nice! And we get breakfast, a dvd player, and a TEA KETTLE (i love tea now)! So we are getting ready to go into the city soon, then see the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow!!! SO SO SO excited! I'll take lots of pictures. Hope everyone is having a great December at home, here it has snowed so much I only saw green on my first day here hahaha. Love you all!

going to belfast in a few minutes!! we're staying two nights. i love it there. can't wait!!! so i'll take lots of pics and update the blog soooon!!

hi! today i went to gareth's aunt and uncle's house to visit while he was at work. aunt fiona (poe) and uncle pete, andrea and dahvaid. it was fun. we just chatted all day. that was all for today, sorry i don't have any pics up, i can't find my camera cord! its around here somewhere...

Hi! It's Wednesday. I've almost been here a week now. I'm still not used to the cold, thats for sure. I am NOT a fan of radiators, they do not work. my little space heater works better than they do. i finally got my money exchanged yesterday. 600$ to 370 pounds. and the girl working was a friend of Gareth's cousin Andrea that took me, so she gave me an extra 20 and it was still only 370! ugh. at least i'll have my credit card if i need it. hahaha. but anyway, it's still SO snowy here, no one plows the roads and the roads just stay bad. i guess i never fully appreciated ohio's efficient road clearing. yesterday Andrea took me shopping and into the town. we had fun. she's really nice. sorry i didn't get back to anyone yesterday! we were shopping for a long time. some people over here have died recently because of carbon monoxide poisoning. they light fires in their chimneys and there have been bird nests in there that block the smoke. i guess that's never happened here before. all the stores are out of carbon monoxide detectors. so check your chimneys before you light a christmas fire!! tonight we are going to go see the play Grease! Canice, Gareth's little brother, and Andrea are in it. Canice is Eugene. I'm going to dress up. Gareth's mom says my clothes are beautiful. I just want to blend in with all the other girls here ha ha. well tomorrow i'm going to be sitting around the house again. i can't wait for friday, gareth only works until 3 and then he's off the whole next week. i get to go to his graduation ceremony from college! I'm excited. he's not. Grandma, i have been meaning to thank you for the peach rings.. gareth can't stop eating them until he's sick. he has three left and it hit him that they will soon all be gone, so he's rationing them. don't know what else to write now, so i'm going to go. love u all! -Shanelle Lynne Lewis

hi! today i got up at 7am. gareth went to work and dropped me off at his mom's house. i went back to sleep. hahaha. i'm sitting with his brother Canice watching FRIENDS. apparently they're taking it off the air here.. they usually have actual channels devoted to only showing friends all day every day. we watched that new movie with colin farrell last night.. HORRIBLE. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY!!!!! love u all! see yaaaa

At the wedding!

After the ceremony

View from my room!

Our house! I call it The Fanny

Sup! I just got back from the wedding! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! It's about 1 pm here. There is snow everywhere, the roads have been really bad but are ok now. I am sooo cold.. I just told Gareth that I don't think I've been warm once since I got here hahaha. The wedding went like this: First we went to the church and had the ceremony, it was really serious and religious and I guess it was a mass. So that was a new experience! The ceremony was pretty long, with people reading things (Gareth did too) and there was a communion part too. At one point we had to shake everyone's hands around us in the pews for good luck!! I was seriously confused, they all knew what was going on but I just kept thinking it's going to take forever to shake EVERYONE's hands. It was funny though. It was all nice, everyone was really happy. In Ireland the girls wear like prom dresses to weddings. The women were REALLY fancy! There were a lot of crazy hairstyles and feathers. Anyway, after that, we all got in a big line to congratulate the bride and groom, to hug them and tell them to be happy etc. When we got there, the bride (who I've met before) said that she was telling people that I came all the way over from America to come to her wedding! haha. After that, we drove to the reception, about an hour away in a really cool hotel. It was really antique and cozy. So we sat around having drinks for a while, then the dining room opened and we kept drinking in there while waiting for the food. I got chicken wrapped in bacon, with vegetables and a roasted potato, mashed potatoes, and looottttsssss of gravy!! yum. Then after that were speeches.. UGH. they took forever. The first speaker was this old spacey priest, he told these jokes that were kind of racy which was good. then he started singing some song.. I guess that doesn't usually happen!! haha it was so awkward, everyone was laughing at him. He may have been drunk. After the food, we waited for them to clear everything out for the dancing. We went back in and the dance floor was set up with a band playing Irish songs. I am not kidding.. as soon as they started, EVERYONE GOT ON THE DANCE FLOOR. People were jiving like CRAZY! I took a video of it, its just a lot of fast spin dancing, so hilarious. I mastered it by the end of the night! They had all these funny tradition dances (kind of like how the electric slide is always busted out in America). After the traditional dancing was over, at around 11 or 12 the "disco" started.. that's when Gareth and I went crazy. We became dancing fools, every song was a really popular oldie, the first one was Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight. We had soo much fun! THEN they had a buffet for everyone in the middle of the dance! It was sweet. Perfect for all the drunkies. After that we all danced till about 2am, then people left or went to bed in the hotel. SO. MUCH. FUN. Definitely best wedding I've ever been to!

HI! So far I've been learning more about Irish culture. Gareth told me that at work all the guys talk about "tits and fannies." I always thought a fanny meant a butt, but no. If you're wearing a fanny pack in Ireland, you're actually referring to wearing a female-lady-part pack. I'm sure you'll enjoy that Dad. So today we have a wedding to go to!!! pretty excited. I'm living in a sweet little house (lots of spiders though.. AND FRUIT FLIES.. probably a blizzard in the freezer or something since Gareth's involved..) I have pictures of it but i havent been able to be online for very long, i only have internet at gareth's house and i have been visiting mostly. im sorry i haven't called yet MOM, im hearing your complaints from all the way over here! (jennifer emailed me haha) i'll call as soon as i have a chance. so i forgot to say that i almost missed my flight in atlanta.. i sat down and listened to some old man playing piano outside my gate and then heard my name being called... oops. love you all!

OH- AND I PASSED MATH! WITH A C+!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'M HERE! It's 8:45 and I'm sitting in Gareth's kitchen wit his brothers. So far all I've done is sleep and eat, i got sooo sick on the plane and didn't feel good at all! It was surely the gross plane food. ANYWAY, Happy Thanksgiving all! More tomorrow.. I'm tired!!

WELL, i'm currently for the first time experiencing plane internet!!!! I wanted to make a snakes on a plane joke but i couldn't think of one. Anyway, I had a little trouble getting through security in Cbus.. I'm dumb and put shampoo and perfume in my carry on which could have been bomb materials or who knows what. So they took me aside and tried to make me pay 50 bucks to check that stuff! I sweet talked the man at the desk into letting me go find my already checked bag downstairs in the baggage claim, and they let me put my stuff in there and just check it in again! ahh a little flirting goes a long way. So now I'm looking out at blue skies and huge clouds under me. LATER DUDES

Well.. I'm taking off at 2:56! I'm soo ready to see Gareth but NOT ready to fly for 10 hours. I hate it. I'm really freaked out I won't make my connecting flight in Atlanta but there's nothing I can do about it now. I have an hour and twenty minutes (if my first flight is on time) to get to my gate on the busiest travel day of the year. UGHHHHHH! Maybe I'll see the Real Housewives of Atlanta while I'm there.. that would make up for it

I'm going to Ireland in 5 days!! WOO!!