Nirvana in Navan? Not quite... (But close)

Greetings, friends and neighbors! Well, this past weekend, all of the study abroad students (including, of course, your humble narrator) had a "homestay" in the wee town of Navan, down south of the border in the full-fledged Republic of Ireland. A homestay, for those of you who don't know, is a period of time - sometimes as little as 2 1/2 days (like ours) sometimes as long as a year, or longer(?) - that a foreign student stays with a native family in their study-abroad location. Pretty self-explanatory, really. Anyway...

So, Navan and the homestay. Well, it got off to a rough start when the bus taking us down to Navan got lost and didn't pick us up for 40 minutes. Meh; it happens. Upon arrival, though, things got crazy - and awesome - pretty quickly. I was staying with a family of three, which also happened to be hosting a year-long German exchange student. So, all told, it was me, the four of them, and two other students from my program. A lot of people, that! The family was incredibly, incredibly nice. First, the father showed me his music room. Bloody wonderful! With the exception of a good electric guitar, he had all of the musical toys that I'd ever dreamed of: recording equipment, great amps, guitar pedals, a twelve-string (drool...), drum machines, and, best of all, a bloody guitar synthesizer! (Note: a guitar synthesizer can make a guitar sound like any instrument - glorious!). Now, he was away for the weekend, but, with the simple advice of "Don't break my shit, dude!" he left me to play around to my heart's content. My crowning achievement of the weekend was playing Bach's "Toccata in Fugue" with the guitar synth set to "organ." Bloody beautiful! One of the other study abroad students was in the shower at the time and claimed that it sounded like Dracula's castle. Ha, ha! Well, I do what can...

Anyway, on to the mother. Sooooo nice! Not only did she feed us (that is, a LOT), but she was also full of advice, cooking ideas, and other useful bits of knowledge. But wait, there's more: she also took us to the nearby town of Trim, where there's an absolutely gorgeous castle (which, for those of you are movie buffs, was actually used in the movie Braveheart). Fun times! But wait, there's more: she gave me an egg poacher. A bloody egg poacher! Can you believe it? I had been telling her that I was going to look for one at the store, and she just pulls an old one out of the back room and gives it to me! Bless her heart! Like I said, soooo nice...



Finally, the wee girl, Emma. Six years old. You know, that age where they have an infinite supply of energy. Oi! She was certainly a cute and nice little girl, but after playing with her for several hours... Well, let's just say it was exhausting.

So, in short, it was a good time in Navan. It only goes to show that having a good homestay can definitely increase your appreciation for a place. The inverse of this statement also applies, and there were certainly some people who didn't have such good experiences...

Well, perhaps I'll get some more detail on these things later. For now, cheers for reading, and I hope that you're all enjoying the updates!