In this article I will report on my first weekend in Ireland...

I arrived on Saturday and first of all I had lunch with my Italian host sister. The weather was wonderful, unlike what I had imagined Ireland to be. Afterwards we went downtown and met up with other exchange students in a café, the "Milk Market". I was a bit exhausted from the flight, but it was still pretty amazing to get to know the other exchange students.

On Sunday, my Italian host sister and I went downtown again, as the weather was still nice. We met a few other exchange students, but then we went back. We were both a bit cold because we didn't take our jackets with us and when we told our host mum about it, she couldn't believe that we weren't hot. The Irish were all dressed as if it was 30 degrees and my host mother just had a dress on.

Afterwards, my whole host family went to a Gaelic Football match. Gaelic Football is a sport that is as far as I know only played in Ireland and it is kind of a mix of football, volleyball and rugby. As in other ball sports, there are two teams that have to get the ball into the opponent's goal. To pass the ball, you have to drop the ball from your hand onto your foot and then shoot, but the next person catches it again with their hand. It certainly looks very fun and I have the impression that it is faster than normal football. 

And the match was the Cork final, so there was a proper atmosphere in the stadium. First, the national anthem of Ireland was played, but nobody sang along because the lyrics are in Irish, so nobody knew it. But then everyone shouted the name of the team they supported and the match started. The players played very passionately and quite aggressively. Most of the spectators were also very passionate, some of them always shouted the first name of the player who had the ball cheered him on: "Come on, Steven!"/"Hold on, Conor!“.
At the end, we were all allowed to go onto the pitch for the award ceremony. Although I didn't really understand much of the game and don't usually watch sports, it was a unique experience because the Irish are really crazy about Gaelic Football. 

After the match, I went to a shopping centre with my host mother, a host sister and my Italian host sister. First my Italian host sister bought a necklace and then we went to the bookshop there. I bought a book called “Conversations with Friends” by the Irish author Sally Looney. 

Overall, my first weekend in Ireland was very good and although I was really tired afterwards, I was happy that so much had happened. 
I hope you enjoyed the article, please feel free to leave a comment or write to me privately via the contact form.