First Glimpse

Hello, everyone!

So this is my first little episode of Glimpses of Galway, courtesy of my month-long international medicine elective at the Galway Clinic. I'll send some every few days, and I realize not everyone will be THAT interested so feel free to pick and choose what you glance at. For those who haven't got an update thus far, this is day 5 (if I include day of arrival) and life is getting into something of a routine. The alarm goes off at 5:30am, we're up shortly thereafter and on the road by 6:30am. The first couple days we didn't have bikes and it was raining - i.e. intermittently pouring - so we did the brisk 25min treck to Eyre Square and hopped on the bus to the Galway Clinic. Today, however, was gorgeous and we finally biked the whole distance. It's about 45min right now since we aren't used to the hills. The way back is substantially easier and faster, so I took all sorts of detours today and biked along the harbor (see next email). We are usually home between 5 and 6pm for a great dinner. It's always good, homemade by Margaret (the mom of the house), and includes dessert and coffee. Aiden, her husband, also enjoys cooking and we usually reap the benefits of that at breakfast, in terms of fresh-made scones. Since lunch is light (fruit with cheese sandwiches, supplemented by a morning snack of scones which appears in the operating theatre tea room every morning), the heartiness of the other meals is welcome.Below is a glimpse of the cheery attic room that Tania (also a fourth year Loyola medical student) and I share. It's a good thing we are on the short side!

I wish I could capture the view through our window, but I'm still working on the through-the-glass photography.

Thanks for the notes everyone has been sending...