Called on account of music

So it's Rag week here at UCC, which quite honestly meant very little to me on Monday. But...now it's Saturday. I've seen hordes of Irish kids going out on a Thursday dressed like it's Halloween. I've seen a mechanical bull bucking students off in the middle of the Quad. I've had a class end early on account of the loud music, cheering, and fire alarms sounding right outside the window. There was also a giant pig parked in front of and sometimes inside of the O'Rahilly building all week. Turns out that Rag stands for Raise and Give. All of the different clubs work to raise money for different charities, and because we're in Ireland the pubs donate part of their Rag week profits to charity. It's basically one big competition to raise the most money and have fun doing it. Classes are poorly attended, campus feels like a big carnival all week, and needless to say the professors seem to wish Rag week would die a terrible and painful death. A little less then half of us showed up for government on Tuesday and our professor walked in and said "Wow, big group, everyone fully recovered? Anyone still drunk? Why so many? Did someone tell you lot I was giving a surprise exam?" It was fun, it was an experience, and I'm glad we were here for it.

For some other stuff...we all realized going into this that we weren't going to see our families for 5 months. And I was okay with that...until I started thinking about birthdays, Easter, that kind of stuff. Who makes sure your birthday is special if Mom's not there to do it?! And when was the last time I DIDN'T do a birthday dinner with my friends?! One of the other girls here from the U of I turned 22 this week, her golden birthday, and I apparently became a mom overnight. I made sure her apartment door looked pretty when she got up (see picture above) and tried my hand at baking in this country. Turns out we don't have measuring cups in our apartment...so I eyeballed everything, and somehow managed to make a birthday cake that everyone swears was great. We had a mini version of a birthday party that was a lot of fun :-) Beth says she felt really special, which is good. Because even if we're thousands of miles from our family and friends our birthdays should still be special. Like I said, I apparently became a mom over night.

One last thing, can we get a date check? I've been here for almost a month already...and it's going SO fast. Study abroad is such a strange experience...all of the sudden I've got a crazy new group of friends (and you go through so much, in such a short amount of time, that you get really close really quickly). I'm feeling at home in a city I'd never seen a month ago. I'm getting the hang of classes at a brand new school. But at the same time you never really quite forget what you're missing at home. For instance it feels really weird that all of my college friends went back to Iowa City this week and started classes, and I wasn't there. I find myself getting homesick for some things...but I love it here too. Just an odd feeling all around.

This is a D.I.F.T.S. moment

Because of the serious lack of blogging happening last week...I've got a novel tonight.

First off...classes. I've been to a full, real week of class now. Decided that Italian was a waste of time and brain power. Dropped it in favor of a history class taught by an awesomely cool Irish guy named Cormac. It's Geography of the Middle Ages, and two hours in that class felt like two hours watching the history channel. Absolutely loved it. So I went straight to the international office and changed my registration, and I'm totally excited about it. The other good news...is that my school week doesn't start until 3 on Monday, and it's over by 12 on Thursday. I also never have class before 11. I think about taking stats at the U of I at 7:30 in the morning and I just smile. The Irish like to sleep in, and I think it's brilliant.
Second thing...adjusting to life in Cork. I spent my first full weekend outside of Cork, and was actually starting to miss it by the time I got home. Home as in Leeside Apartments home...which is weird to say. I really like it here though, I like living in the city, even though I'm dying for the sight of grass and trees now and then. Cork is definitely less of a touristy spot and more of a business/ industrial center. But I think I like that, it makes me feel less like a tourist and more like I live here. Life's different here, people are in less of a hurry for sure, but I like it. I love that you walk to the grocery store (and bring your own bags! gosh don't forget that! 25 cents for a plastic bag? ridiculous!) I like sitting in my window and seeing all kinds of traffic. And the traffic doesn't even look so wrong anymore. Now I think it might be weird to see a car on the right side of the road. But the weirdest adjustment by far...every time I say the word sorry it comes out in an Irish accent. And I said cheers to the lady in the bookstore last week. It just slipped. Now that's weird. I must be starting to stick out a little less...the Irish kid sitting next to me in Government asked where I was from. He looked at me funny when I said Iowa, and then went "Oh gosh! You're American! Couldn't tell at first." I guess that's a good sign?

Now...about that weekend away from Cork.


Killarney is about an hour and a half train ride from us, so we got up insanely early (by Irish standards, by US standards we just didn't sleep in like bums) and made the 25 minute hike to the train station in the dark (it's not really light out here until 9ish). Got off said train, and realized we had a name but no address for our hostel. I swear hostel was not on my to-do list. I was train tickets and schedule. So, we wandered through Killarney, found some nice shop owner who pointed out the Neptune Hostel. Marvelled for a bit at our wonderful 5 star accommodations. (That was totally sarcastic - if you didn't catch that. We paid 16 euro for the night, for that much, I'm shocked we had hot water.) So our little group packed it into one tiny little room with tiny little bunk beds, thank goodness we were just sleeping there. It felt a little like summer camp, or 6th grade having a sleep over with all of my friends. The lady working the front desk was kind enough to direct us to Ross Castle and the Muckross Abbey and Muckross House. There was also a waterfall in there somewhere. So, hiking we went through Killarney National Park. ::Singing to the tune of the Wizard of Oz:: We're off to see the castle...

Now we are all about the castles, let me tell you. ALL about the castles. Through hell or high water we wanted to see that castle. I'm not joking about the high water.
We're trekking it down a lovely wooded path that seems to match the description the lady at the hostel gave us, and we come across a bright orange sign that says ROAD FLOODED. Now, normal people would turn around, but not us, we're all about those castles. We go a little further and discover the road to be, in fact, flooded. Just as the sign predicted. Funny, they didn't just waste money on a random sign. Two young men are headed our way on the path, so we ask if they've been the Ross Castle. They said yup, couple hundred meters that way. We asked if the water was deep, they said not too bad, up to your shins maybe. We asked if it was worth it, they said yes. We declared it to be a D.I.F.T.S. moment. Do it for the story. So, off came the hiking boots, rolled up the jeans, and into the water we went. I don't want to hear any cracks about the intelligence of this particular decision. A few hundred meters later, we realized something very important.

The Swiss lie.

About half a mile later (that's close to a couple hundred meters right?) we emerged onto dry land, to find a castle that looked a whole lot like the last one we saw, except this one was closed for the winter. Somewhere, a couple Swiss guys are sitting in a pub, drinking a beer, and laughing at the dumb Americans who trekked half a mile through knee deep water to see a closed tourist attraction.
One of our happy travelers took one look at the place and immediately declared "F*ck you castle!"

So, at this point, we're soaked, towel less, bathroom less (due to the castle being closed for the season) and not sure what else to do. So we continue our journey, hiking about 5 more miles to Muckross Abbey. In case anyone is planning a trip to Ireland soon, Muckross Abbey is under renovation at the moment, they're trying to preserve it. At this point we were considering having a drink at every pub we came across on the way back to the hostel. But we realized how expensive that was going to be, and how long of a walk we'd be in for on top of that. So we made it another mile or two (?) to Muckross house, which apparently shows up in some Nicole Kidman movie, but is also closed for the season. At least we were able to sit down, use a phone (yup, no cell phone reception in the middle of nowhere), and call a cab. For 2 euro each a very nice taxi driver brought us back into town, but only after taking one look at us and going "What on earth are ye doing on holiday out here this time of year? Place will be packed in the summer, but not now, never stops raining!" We noticed.
He directed us to a pub/restaurant close to our hostel. We had our first warm meal in quite awhile (we're study abroad students, we live on cereal and peanut butter sandwiches). We sat around and watched the rugby game (I think I'm starting to become a fan, it's fun to watch!) and made it back to our hostel slightly dryer, and in much better moods.


Day two was the Ring of Kerry tour. It was kind of like a 6 hour roller coaster ride, I think I might have gotten whiplash. But we saw some pretty scenery, the ocean, and got rained on some more. We had our second warm meal in two days, which is a record for us. And marvelled at how pretty the water is when you're not hiking through it. We saw the waterfall we missed yesterday, however, as Liam put it "Waterfall?! I've seen water fall all freakin' day!". When we were done our tour guide dropped us off at the mall next to the train station. We sat, had coffee, shopped, and made it to our train on time (some of us might have arrived at 8:49 to catch an 8:50 train on the way to Killarney). We had a delayed but otherwise uneventful trip home, and we're all now marveling at how nice our beds look, and how great a hot shower is going to be.
Really though, despite how bitter and sarcastic this blog may sound, it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I'm not sure I've ever laughed so hard, and hey, we're studying abroad for the experience right?

That's a whole lot of Blarney

Absolutely breathtaking. And the picture doesn't really do it justice. It was pouring down rain, and cold, and generally a not nice day to be climbing to the top of castles in rural Ireland. But that view made it totally worth it. We ended up wandering around some of the trails in Blarney, and spent some time just being generally amazed at how green everything is. This country really is beautiful when you get out of the city.

And yes. I kissed the Blarney stone, I should now be blessed with eloquence. We'll see about that...but at least that's what the cute old Irish man at the top of Blarney castle told me - as he was holding me up so I didn't fall 120 feet and kill myself bending over backwards to kiss a stone.

Now for some less exciting scenery. Remember the combination washer/dryer in our kitchen? Well...it seems to struggle with the drying aspect. One of my roommates called home and was told to purchase a drying rack...we now have rope strung all around the apartment so that we can dry our clothes. Classy right? If we run out of room we'll just call up our land lady and tell her to please come get the curtains, we don't need them anymore, but please leave the curtain rods.

Is that sun we're seeing?

Stop the presses!

It has not rained in Cork, Ireland since WEDNESDAY. That's right, Wednesday. How amazing is that? (At least in our experience two whole days without rain is sort of the Irish equivalent of a 60 degree day in Iowa in January.) So, we took advantage of our rain and class free days and did some major exploring of Cork. We found (uh oh) the mall, and a lovely place called St. Patrick's Street that is literally JUST shopping. Our other fun find was the English Market, which I've heard all the Irish kids talking about but have until today been unable to actually locate. It's sort of like a farmers market back in the states but it's indoors and it's HUGE! There's a grocery store right around the corner from us that's a lot like where we'd go at home, but now we have one more place to go when it's not pouring down rain and the wind isn't blowing hard enough to carry off small children and we feel like walking a little further. (Cork is right on the coast...so we get a lot of rain and a lot of wind at the moment, but...they promise this will stop in February.)

Next week we start classes for real...no more going to whatever we feel like and trying to decide which professors don't seem totally crazy. It was kind of fun that we got to do that though, and it saved me from being stuck in a 20th century history class taught by an 80 year old Irish man who spoke in a constant whisper with the heaviest Irish accent I've heard yet. Not only was I almost totally unable to understand him, he will spend the next 12 weeks lecturing on World Wars I and II while operating under the assumption that everyone taking his class has at least a masters degree in world history. Okay...so he didn't come right out and say that...but I was there for his first lecture, and that's certainly the way I felt.

We think we've finally decoded the bus schedule, and we're going to Blarney tomorrow! Our first little trip out of Cork! Hooray!

Wait...this says Brookfield

Anyone driving down College Road tonight at about 6:15 must have had a pretty good laugh. Why? Because about 30-40 international students were headed down the street in one BIG group. Even though we all speak perfectly good English, apparently our reading leaves a bit to be desired. They have an Irish History class for visiting students, in the Visiting Student Class Guide it says that it meets on Tuesdays, 6-8, in Boole #2. So, there we were...waiting...and finally, someone pipes up and says they have the History department class guide "wait...this says Brookfield". So, all 30-40 of us make the hike to Brookfield, arriving about 30 minutes late and totally embarrassing ourselves. C'mon! I didn't even do that when I was a freshman at Iowa! Checked again though...there was a definite typo, there are two different rooms down for Irish History. For future reference...Brookfield, is where my class will be held, not Boole. Could have been worse. One of my roommates set off the fire alarm in one of her classes. I was at least embarassed with company.

One of the fun parts of being a visiting student is that they let us try out a lot of classes before we actually have to pick a few. So far I've been to Romantic Lit (yuck), Victorian Lit (only slightly better), Shakesperean Drama (AWESOME!), Government - Citizanship and Human Rights (for sure sticking with this one), and Irish History (late, but totally worth showing up). On tap for tomorrow...Medieval History (yay!), History of 20th Century Europe (woo!), and another round with good old Bill Shakespeare. Now I just need to pick...I need three or four classes plus Gaelic and possibly Italian :-).

So, all in all, a pretty good first two days of classes, it's been fun to see how everything works, and it's nice to "shop around" before we actually have to pick something.

Picture for the day, call it the "first day of school" picture if you want. We discovered the pub across from our apartment building has live music on Mondays! I swear we didn't have homework yet.

That'll be 3,000 Euro, please.

Small personal victory today...I went grocery shopping and to a book store today and no one said anything to me about being American! Okay...so it was Sunday, and cold, and rainy, and quite possibly no one cared where the heck I was from. But it was nice to go somewhere without instantly being pegged as American. Not they anyone is necessarily mean or rude because you're American, there's just a kind of "oh...you're one of THEM" attitude. But, I try to think about how we treat people in our country who are obviously foreign and obviously haven't quite gotten the hang of things yet. In comparison, they are far nicer to Americans in their country then we are to foreigners in ours. So far everyone has been very patient with my inability to decipher between euro coins and obvious inability to understand exactly what's being said.

Another interesting tidbit we've picked up in the last few days. Smoking in any public place will cost you 3,000 Euro. For anyone unfamiliar with the exchange rate, that's a little less then $4,500. That's no smoking in public buildings, restaurants, bars, etc. The fine, a whopping 3,000 Euro. They REALLY mean, take it outside.

Now the fun stuff! Pictures! Same drill as yesterday, click on the picture for a bigger view.

They take forever to load, so you're only getting a few at a time. But the top picture is the view from Molly and Marissa's balcony (they live on the top floor of my apartment building). Next is the path from the main gates of campus up to where we have class. And lastly, this castle like structure is the Main Quad, we actually have class in here, on the inside it looks like Hogwarts :-) But don't walk on the grass! At least that's what they told us at orientation, apparently that's how they know you're an international student and they'll make fun of you. Figures, in America we would have put up a million ugly signs that say don't walk on the grass. In Ireland they'll just laugh at you.

"Team USA? Boo!"

I finally got my bags last night! A very nice, very cheerful delievery man brought them to our apartment. There are about 12 stickers on one of them that all say "RUSH". Now if only we really knew for sure how they ended up in Shannon, Ireland...


We're meeting all kinds of new people, my favorite so far...
Irish guy in Pub: "Team USA? Boo!"
Me: "Is it really that obvious?"
Irish guy: "It's the North Face coat sweetie."
Irish guy's friend: "Don't worry dear, we like ye all just fine!"

Looks like next time I'll go with a different jacket...we'll also keep working on decoding what everyone is saying...turns out the bartender was not asking which dorm we live in, he was trying to tell us that his name is Aidan. Explains why he looked so confused when we said we were in Leeside Apartments.


Speaking of Leeside Apartments...this is our apartment! Living room and kitchen and my room (if you click on the pictures you can see a bigger version). And you're not seeing things, that's an Iowa Hawkeye pendant on my wall, did anyone really think I could go five months without anything Black and Gold in my room?? That is a washer in our kitchen, but it's a dryer too! Or so they tell us...our land lady swears it will do both, but no one's been brave enough to do a load of laundry yet. We were also told that electricity is cheaper from 12am - 8am, so if we could do our laundry then that would be great. We're also adjusting to the idea of cold showers. One bathroom, three girls, 15 minutes of hot water at a time, you do the math. When those 15 minutes run out, you have to wait...or go with a cold shower, which only one of my roommates has been brave enough to try. We're not sure yet if this is common all over Ireland, or just one of the added "benefits" of Leeside :-)

We wandered campus today...we're determined to not look like lost little freshman when we show up for class on Monday. I'll put pictures of that up soon!

Caucus Fever

Anyone know what the Irish Government was up to today? Because they certainly know what's going on in the US. I've had five, yes five, different people ask me about the Iowa Caucus. "You're American? Are you from Iowa? What did you think of the caucus?" They all knew who won, how everyone finished, and where the candidates are headed from here. The Iowa Caucus was front page news in a few of the newspapers here. Sounds like it's time for me to pick up an Irish Newspaper...
We're finally going to have time to really explore Cork tomorrow, expect lots of pictures after that :-)

It's take-a-what?

Hi everyone!
I'm in Ireland until June 1, 2008, studying at University College Cork in Cork, Ireland.
I've decided that this will be a whole lot more fun, and a whole lot easier, then sending emails to everyone while I'm gone. Plus this way you can all see pictures and keep up with me :-)

I got into Cork January 2nd after spending wwaayyy too much time in airports, airplanes, and airport security lines. Only to find out...my bags hadn't crossed the pond yet. At least I had a change of clothes and my toothbrush, but hopefully I'll have luggage soon!

There were about a dozen other kids on my flight from London to Cork who are also studying at UCC this semester. Five of them are living in my apartment building too, so we took our first Irish cab together. We were quite convinced at several points in the 15 minute drive that our lives might be in danger, but of course we're still wondering why every one's driving on the wrong side of the road.

We ventured into City Centre as soon as we checked in to find a place to eat. And at a small sandwich shop called Murphy's we learned our first very important lesson. It's not carry out here, it's take away. It took the poor lady behind the counter a few tries and a little bit of charades to convey that one. We also learned that some Irish accents are stronger then others. We spent the rest of the day walking around, trying to find campus (which is about 15 minutes from our apartment going the short way, but about 25 when you try it our way). We successfully found the grocery store (note to self, bring your own bags!) and a few other places to shop in City Centre. I'd like to say we had a wild crazy first night, but jet lag caught up...we were in bed by 10 :-).

Day 2 was our first day of UCC orientation. We've been warned to never engage in a discussion of politics under Bush versus Clinton with a drunken Irish person in a pub. Apparently they'll believe they know more about American foreign policy since Vietnam then Kissinger. "In fact, just tell them you're Canadian, everyone loves Canadians". A few of us are going take Introduction to Modern Irish together. That's right, we'll know a little bit of Gaelic (the official first language of Ireland) when we get home. We did our first grocery shopping in Cork. We found a lot of the same things we'd find at home and a few things that we'll have to get someone to explain to us later. We also managed to make our first significant purchase in Ireland, cell phones!

And tonight, slightly more recovered from Jetlag, I think we're trying out the pub outside our window. Yes, I said it. I look out my bedroom window straight at the entrance to "The Fransiscan Well". Welcome to Ireland :-)