Module Shopping

Day two of class "shopping" completed. I am now VERY glad that they let us do this. I went to the Irish literature class I was going to take this semester. Let's just say, the room started out filled to capacity, with people literally sitting on the floor, and about 5 minutes in there was PLENTY of room. There were some implied prerequisites apparently. I probably would have been fine, it would have just taken a lot more work. 

So instead, I went to a class that I was more on the fence about (it fit into my schedule, but it was a sixth choice when we only take five classes). This one was an anthropology class (what they call the "culture" department), called "Cultural Studies 2: Language and Culture". Honestly, it is one of the courses I am most excited about now! It sounds really interesting, especially coming from the States, as we are going to talk about the differences in body language and cultural expectations  in the Irish culture, as well as in comparison to other parts of the world. It's basically a linguistic anthropology class, which Creighton doesn't offer, so it should be fascinating and different. I'll keep you posted on whether or not this class ends up being my favorite as we get further into the semester.

It is a big lecture class, and I didn't know anybody else (all my other classes I have at least one person I met this past week). I ended up sitting next to two international students from Spain. They are here for the whole year, so they have already been here for a semester, but it was fun talking to them about the class and Ireland in general (they are from the south of Spain, and therefore not quite used to the cold and rain). When they asked me what I was studying at home, I told them "It's a little hard to explain, but it is called Medical Anthropology." I was expecting to have to explain this in ways that they could understand (English obviously being a second language). As soon as I said it, though, they were both instantly like, "Yeah, bones and stuff." It was honestly the first time I didn't get a "What in the world is that?" I found it very amusing that those from Spain know more about it than people in the US. :)

Two more days of class "shopping" (I don't have any on Friday), still haven't been to European history and American Literature (that one should be entertaining :)). I think this semester is going to be a lot of fun, even class-wise ;)

Timetables, Trips and Tin Whistles

First day of classes: check. It wouldn't be a very good "first day" of classes on the Emerald Isle without a little wind and rain! It does worry me, though, that when there is a gust of wind outside my room, my shades blow around. Clearly not sealed windows. I have adapted, somewhat, to the chill that is constantly here.

My first two classes today included Ireland: Revolution and Independence (one of my history classes!) and Irish Traditional Music and Dance (this should be a lot of fun, designed specifically for international students). My music and dance class is hopefully going to be one of my favorites: I signed up to learn how to play the Tin Whistle (also called a Penny Whistle). I wanted to try something I had never done before, and that I could keep learning after the semester is over. It does look like everything will take a little getting used to, schedule wise. There are up to three possible components to each course (called "modules" here in Ireland, and the schedules are called "timetables"): lecture, tutorial, and lab. Thankfully, I am only taking classes that have lectures and tutorials. Most only have one lecture a week, and one tutorial, but some of my modules have two lectures a week. The interesting thing is that there is one time for each course's lecture, but then many options for tutorials. So I worked it out that I have no classes on Fridays (more room to travel!). 

I signed up for three trips today! Two of them were only 7 euro, and definitely worth the money. One was a day trip to western Ireland, I can't recall the specifics, but there is a chance for some cave exploring and tourist sites. The other trip was to Dublin, to be taken whenever we want. This one includes food vouchers and museum passes, so should be fun to explore a little of Dublin on a free weekend! The third was a bit more expensive, but is already coming up this Saturday! It is to the Cliffs of Moher and Burron. I am really excited to see more of Ireland already! 

P.S. I finally remembered to take a picture of my house:

Home Sweet Home!

Bugs and Budapest

Today was a "lazy day." I got to sleep in (yay!), but missed out on going to the Milk Market with friends. Turns out, you catch colds really easily when you stay up for 27 hours and are on an airplane for so long. I now have no voice, a stuffed nose, and watery eyes. New places, new viruses I guess! The no voice thing is getting incredibly frustrating, as I can't sing to myself to de-stress. We'll see how the week of classes ahead of me goes! 

Suleyman's Pin from Turkey

Last night is what the International Society here at UL calls "TGIF". It stands for the same thing here as it does in the States, but it is an interesting concept. To explain it shortly, it is basically one big international party at The Stables (the on-campus pub. I will refer to it frequently from now on, it is a great place to hang out). Last night's first TGIF was "speed dating". Everyone put on a name tag, and where they were from, and had two minutes to talk to someone they had never talked to before, then moved on for the next two minutes, and so on. I met a boy from Pennsylvania, a girl from Ontario, a boy from Turkey (so cool!), and an Irish boy. It was a lot of fun. The boy from Turkey, Suleyman (not kidding), at the end of the conversation gave me a little safety pin with a blue bead (it looked like it had an eye painted on it). He told me it was a tradition, that you pin it to your clothes and it symbolizes protection. It was really cool! 

Yesterday also, Andy Steves (the son of the travel expert Rick Steves) came to talk to us about his company, Weekend Student Adventures. Basically, he organizes trips specifically designed for students studying abroad to various cities throughout Europe. They are inexpensive and a lot of fun, it sounds like! It is cheaper to organize my own trips, which I will be doing throughout the semester, but for the cities that I am less familiar with (culturally, etc), it is safer to do it this way. Therefore, we got a big group together that decided we really want to visit Budapest through this program. I was also interested in maybe going to Prague with them, but we'll see what I can work out. I never even thought about visiting Budapest, but it sounds so amazing! This is the link to the information about it! If we can get ten of us on the same trip, we also get a group discount, and finding two more is all we need! 

Today I finally met one of my Irish housemates. She lives at the end of the hall and is a fourth year here at UL. Her name is Orla, and she was super nice and friendly. Being in her final semester at school, she warned me that she is very busy (I believe her, she has been here for two days and I hadn't seen her yet). The Irish boy directly across the hall from me is named Kevin, and I was told he will be here tomorrow. We will then have a full house! The two Irish contacts will be so helpful, and Orla has been living in this same house for two years and has had mostly American roommates, so she knows what's up! She joked that she has more American friends than she does Irish because she always lives with them. It will be interesting to talk to her more throughout the semester! 

Rainy Days of Orientation

So the last few days have been action-packed. Well, not ACTION packed, but they have been extremely busy! We had two days of orientation, and let me tell you...waking up at 8:00 am while still adjusting to a six hour time difference is no easy feat! It was much easier today, as I went to bed at a reasonable hour last night. The only reason I was able to do this, though, was that none of the electrical outlets in our house worked! I thought I was going to go insane. My computer had died during the day, so I couldn't check email, Facebook, or anything else. I didn't have my cell phone yet (I had to pick it up from the International office). How did people used to live without these things? I would never have survived. 

Today it finally rained, the Irish way. As I type this, I can hear the rain coming down just outside my window. I love rain so much! I don't know if that will change as the semester progresses, I may get tired of it, but for now, I am in love! 

***

Ok, maybe not in love...we went on a bus tour of Limerick City right after I typed the above. We sat on the top, despite the rain, of the open double-decker bus. You can pretty much guess how that one ended up. If you would like an image to take with you: 

Before the bus tour!

After the bus tour...

I feel like I will never be warm, ever again. But the tour was fun despite the freezing cold rain whipping us in the face. We got to see the city, all the old buildings and such. We crossed over the River Shannon, and saw a bunch of old churches, buildings, and homes. I would tell you the specifics, as the driver was talking about everything we saw, but we were outside and so I heard very little of what he was actually talking about...

I won't put all the pictures on here, but I will put up a few of the better ones! 

Fort/Castle (couldn't hear which) on the banks of the River Shannon. 

Pretty homes in Limerick City.

Limerick City on the banks of the River Shannon.

This house still has bullet holes in it from the Irish Revolution!

New Friends, Aldi, and Guinness

Today was pretty interesting! I woke up at 2:35 local time, thinking it was just noon. I figured out that my alarm clock, which I brought with me, was clearly not working (for some reason it goes really slow-a digital clock that runs slow...). I had my outlet converter on the "lo" setting, so I switched it to "hi" thinking that was the problem...nope, then it changed two minutes every time a minute passed. So I just unplugged it. It takes a battery, a 9V, so I put that in...doesn't work at all then. So I just gave up altogether and am not using my ipod as an alarm for the time being.

I ended up going to the grocery store with my housemate, Tara, and a friend of hers. Turns out, this friend (his name is Joe), is a sophomore at Iowa State, and went to Rosemount High School. He knows (and is friends with) a kid named Tyler, who I was told to find because his mom works with my dad...I am starting to get creeped out. Anyways, he lives a few houses down, and his parents came with him for a little mini vacation (his dad works for Delta, so they had free flights -they were also given all day bus passes, 4 of them, so I didn't have to pay the bus fare). We went to Aldi. That is honestly the first time I have ever been in an Aldi, but I might try the one in Woodbury when I get back, the prices were pretty decent. It was actually really nice outside, the sun was out, and everything was green like I pictured it. I will get a picture of our house tomorrow and put it in my next post. 

After we got back, we were introduced to all of Joe's housemates. One was from Texas, one from Michigan, one from New York (the city even haha), one from Sweden (I asked her a bunch of questions, after I told her I was Finnish :)), and one from Hungary. All international students in that house, but from some pretty cool places. We all went out to The Stables, the pub/restaurant on campus. It was fun! We mostly compared Europe to the USA, with the Swedish and Hungarian girls. We compared pop culture for the most part (we ranted about Twilight equally, who was cute and who wasn't-we disagreed about Chuck Bass from "Gossip Girl". Antonia, the Swedish one, thought he was the cutest of the boys...I respectfully disagreed. haha), but we also learned a lot! Turns out, "lutefisk" is not pronounced the way we hear it in the US ("loot-uh-fisk"), it is actually said "loot-fisk". When we asked Antonia about it, she didn't even know what we were talking about until I spelled it for her. I have officially had my first Guinness, a must-have in Ireland. Not a fan of beer in general (not that I would know... ;)), but it was required of me. I don't expect to have many more of those while here, still not a big fan haha.

It was another enlightening and great day! Orientation is tomorrow and Friday.

And it begins...

At this point, I don’t know whether to feel scared, excited, nervous, or happy. I am sitting in the airport gate, waiting to board my plane (the first one, to Chicago from MSP, then on to Dublin). Packing was easier than expected, but I am sure that I have forgotten something (the only thing I can think of right now that I forgot was a water bottle, but there is bound to be more). I tried to keep a detailed list of what I packed where. All my shirts, pants, shorts, and other items I listed in a document that I color-coded to keep track of things. It started out being just a general packing list, but has since evolved. 

            I was informed that the switch at Chicago is going to be a bit more complicated. My plane flies into O’Hare at terminal 2, and I have to take a train (I am guessing it is like a light rail, but I am not sure) to terminal 5, where my flight leaves from, approximately 4 hours after we land. The only memories I have of O’Hare are…interesting, to say the least. We had a layover there on our way to France when I was 8, and I remember getting lost trying to find the food court, but my mom remembers the airlines just changing the gate so many times we were running all over the place. The other was with my high school drama club, on our way back from NYC. Our plane had been delayed there, so we missed our connection in Chicago. Since it was the airline’s fault, we were put up in the Crown Plaza at O’Hare and given a coach bus to drive back to Woodbury the next day. The only benefit in that situation is that we got to miss another day of school.

            At this point I am just anxious to go somewhere. I have been sitting here for almost 2 hours, and have about an hour until we leave. What is cool is that I think there is another girl who is studying abroad in Ireland sitting across from me. She is writing in a journal, which is what I am doing pretty much, just electronically, and wearing rain boots. Definitively studying abroad. There are two women sitting nearby who are also most likely going all the way through to Dublin as well. A mother and a young adult daughter, they are speaking with British accents (or at least the area, I am not familiar enough with the distinct accents yet to know for sure). It will be interesting to see how many more times I see these three people. I have made a note of what they look like.

            I have already gotten bored of reading my kindle (right now I am reading The Perk of Being a Wallflower-I usually like reading the books before seeing the movie, but I saw the movie first (even though I had the book, I couldn’t get into it). Once I got used to the writing style (it is pretty different), I started to like it better. It isn’t a long book, but I know the story since I already watched the movie. So far, the movie seems to follow the book really well. I would recommend it, it is poignant but so honest.

 ****

            So I am writing this (or rather, typing) on the plane from Chicago to Dublin. My flight from MSP to Chicago was really short (only an hour). Two interesting things happened on it, though. The first, was the person I was sitting next to. I had noticed her in the airport at the gate, and noted that she had really skinny legs (they were VERY skinny). She had the window seat, and I had the aisle, and since I reached the row first, I stood to let her go past me. As I loaded my bag into the overhead compartment, she set hers on my seat while she sat down. I glanced at her bag, and it said “US Olympic Team” on it. I then looked at her more closely and noticed that her knit hat had the same logo, and in tiny print said the same thing. I sat down next to her, and asked her outright if she was a member of the Olympic team. Turns out, she was on the Paralympic team. Still cool, right? I thought so. She then pointed at her legs and I looked more closely. She was wearing skinny jeans and knee high boots, but sitting next to her I realized her legs were unnaturally skinny. Turns out she is a double amputee, on the US Paralympic rowing team. I never asked her name, but she was very nice and we made small talk for the first part of the flight.

            The second event: I confirmed that the before mentioned girl writing in her journal was, in fact, studying abroad in Ireland (not at the University of Limerick, but still fun).  Her name is Megan, and she is a senior at St. Norbert’s in Green Bay, but she is from Hudson. She is less experienced with flying than I am, which is saying something, so we made our way from terminal 3 to terminal 5 at O’Hare, went through security again (this one was way more intense, as it was at the international terminal; I overheard at least 3 other languages besides English as I waited in line). Making new friends is fun!

            I expected the layover to be the worst part of the trip, as it was 4 hours. Megan and I were the first ones to reach the gate (the TV monitors weren’t even turned on, but we didn’t have anything better to do). We sat around and chatted for about 45 minutes before other people started joining us at the gate. All around the same time, three young guys (college aged, all three) sat down across from us. Megan stepped out to make a phone call, and I asked two of them (they seemed to know each other, were friends) where they were studying. Turns out, they are both studying at UL! Not only that, they are staying in the same village as me (what UL calls dorms, but are more like a bunch of town homes, hence the “village”), Kilmurry Village. Both are sophomores, from Chicago, and go to school at, wait for it…St. Norbert’s. We live in a tiny, tiny world. The third kid, we later found out, is studying at the same school just outside Dublin as Megan. So many connections! Megan came back from her phone call with another girl, who is also studying at the same school as her, and she is from a small town in central Minnesota and goes to UMD. Needless to say, there was plenty to chat about in our little group, as others filled in the seats around us at the gate.

            This flight, through Aer Lingus, is very comfortable. There aren’t very many people on it (that, or this plane is huge, probably a combination of the two), so there aren’t very many people sitting directly next to each other. There are three sections, two, four, and two seats with aisles in between. I have a window seat, with an empty aisle seat right next to me. On the backs of the seats in front of us are personal TV monitors, touch screen navigating, and we can watch movies, TV shows, listen to music, play video games, follow the flight maps and look up flight information. All the flight attendants, and even the pilot, speak with really awesome Irish brogues (sp?). Turns out they serve dinner, which was really good, actually. I got pasta with sausage in it, there was a roll, a stick of cheese (I didn’t eat that), zucchini and tomatoes (I think, I didn’t eat that either, but it was cold), a little packet of crackers, and a brownie. I was only hungry enough to eat the pasta and the roll, but I saved the brownie for later. We are currently flying over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between the Canadian mainland and Newfoundland, at an altitude of 36,999ft, and it is -56 F outside the plane. Just over 4 hours until Dublin!

 ****

            Adventures, adventures! I am now on my 5^th (and final!) mode of transportation this trip (car, plane, light rail train, double decker bus, and now coach bus!). We are taking the more scenic route all the way across Ireland from Dublin to Limerick. When I say “we” I am referring to me and my two new friends, Sean and Jim (the two I met at the gate). We split off from Megan and went our separate ways! The biggest problem thus far is having to wait at the bus station for the current bus, at about 25 degrees it was much improved from the -25 windchill experienced in Minnesota, but still cold eventually. I feel very strange, as locally it is 10:15 AM, but back home on my time it is 4:15 AM. The day is just beginning.

            My first glimpse of Ireland was almost surreal. The timing was very interesting, it was about 7 AM local time, so the sun was rising. There was just the slightest hint of light in the distance, a pink, orange, yellow, light blue strip that hugged the dark land below and was surrounded by the deep navy of the night sky. Most of the land we saw it was still dark out. By the time we were fully landed and got through customs, it was full blown daytime. For this last two-hour leg, I popped in a movie: Sweet Home Alabama; got to go with a classic (mostly so I don’t have to pay attention to that, and instead look out the windows). The country is not as green as I was expecting, but that is due to the frost that is covering all the grass. We’ll see if that changes throughout the day.

 ****

            All checked in (not settled yet, but in the house!). Turns out, they assign your house by when you arrive. New housemates= Jim and Sean. Final tidbit for you: to get to campus, we drove through “The Mackey Roundabout”, just outside Limerick. :)