Irish for a Semester

Excited.

2010-05-04T20:51:00.001-07:00

It feels like time has all but stopped as I'm counting down to graduation. Some days I am SO ready to be done with undergrad. Other days I'm sad to think about leaving behind so many wonderful people and friends. Some days I am scared out of my mind at the thought of moving so far from home, leaving behind a place I'm so comfortable. Some days I feel a little lonely thinking about how much I'm going to miss my family in Iowa. But today...I'm excited. I'm ready to get back to Tampa and start getting to know my new city, find an apartment, and get a better feel for campus. I'm excited for my new job, excited for my grad school classes, just excited.

BACK IN IRELAND!

2010-04-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of the trip. I got to go back to Cork! (And Blarney, Kinsale, Midleton, and Dublin)We flew into Ireland on Christmas Eve. Our flight left London at 6am or something ridiculous, but by the time we got into Cork I was kind of like a little kid in a candy store. I wanted to see EVERYTHING again! We dropped our stuff off and went to the English Market to get everything to make Christmas dinner. The English Market has some amazing butchers, bakers, and lots of great produce. In short, it's the perfect place to shop for Christmas dinner. That night we went to one of my favorite pubs which I think is now one of John's too.

Christmas Day we got to sleep in for a change. We spent most of the day cooking dinner and then took a long walk around Cork. I've never seen Cork so quiet! It was beautiful with all the Christmas lights on.

London pictures

2010-04-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

Time to start adding some photos from all of my winter break travels!

These are all from my first day in London, wandering around while John was at work. I was doing my best to adjust to the time change...yuck.

The huge rabbit (because I don't know it's real name) is pretty close to where John works (near liverpool street station, etc) I think all of these pictures are within a few blocks of Liverpool Street Station and the financial district.

This last one is one of my favorite neighborhoods in London, close to the theatre district. We took the tube over for dinner my first night in town.

Growing up, moving on and all that other big kid stuff.

2010-04-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

I graduate from college about a month from today! How scary is that?! No definitive summer plans, but right now I think I just want to take it easy and enjoy my last few months in Iowa. That’s right…the last few. Not sure I’m ready to announce plans to the whole blogosphere but I am very very excited about what the future holds for me and for John as well. He’ll be home to visit in late May and home for good on August 8^th. FINALLY! I wish he could be here for graduation and some of the other big “senior moments” but I’m excited about next year and excited to see what it brings for both of us. I can say I've been accepted to a masters program and I've accepted a job offer that I'm SUPER excited about...now it's just dotting the I's and crossing the T's and hoping for no last minute snags! I’m going to miss some things about Iowa...but it is time to move on for a little while and see what else is out there.

It's a scary time, an exciting time, and a little sad too. I've made so many amazing friends in 4 years in Iowa City and a big part of me is sad to leave. But it's time to move on to some bigger and hopefully just as amazing things. No matter what though...I am a proud Hawkeye and will very soon be a very proud Iowa Alum :)

p.s. Hopefully I'll get the blog caught up soon...so much to post! Amazing pictures from London, Ireland, Athens, Rome and Venice (and lots of funny stories too).

What a difference a year makes...again.

2009-11-04T21:23:00.001-08:00

Senior is still a scary word, my thesis is cruising right along (although sort of on cruise control until graduate school applications are in the mail), and life is still going in all sorts of different directions.

The long awaited trip back to Ireland is going to happen over Christmas. Words cannot describe how unbelievably excited I am. John moved over to London in August and there is no way to really explain how hard it is being so far away from him. We get a whole month together over winter break, which sounds pretty amazing when you've been "skyping" for months. He's never been to Ireland and I cannot wait to get back. I'm excited to be able to introduce him to a place that means so much to me. The one thing I always struggled with after studying abroad was explaining the experience to other people...so I'm thrilled to be able to share it with him.

It's especially weird that John's not here tonight...if it weren't for Barack Obama I'm not sure we ever would have met. Crazy right? Sort of like Ireland, election night just seems like a really amazing dream anymore. But I will never forget that packed ballroom and crying/laughing/being deliriously tired but so proud of everything we accomplished. Congrats again to everyone from our little Iowa City Obama family, it was a wild and crazy ride but SO worth it.

After tomorrow I only have four weeks of classes left. Ah! Bring it on senior year! I can take it.

1 year...

2009-06-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

I sort of have to pinch myself when I say it, but I've been back for a whole year now. The funny part is that I didn't actually realize it until the day after the "one year" mark. I guess it's because Ireland just feels like a really good dream now and I have to keep reminding myself that it actually happened. I still miss it all the time and I'm waiting not-so-patiently for my chance to go back, but at some point this year it started to feel more like a really crazy dream than anything else.
As of a few weeks ago I'm officially a SENIOR at the U of I which is about the most terrifying thing I've ever heard. I keep hearing this nasty rumor that in about a year they'll kick me out of here and it'll be off to the real world for me. Yup. Only two more semesters and a completed honors thesis are standing in the way of me walking across that stage. Scccaarrryyy....
So far my favorite part of being a "senior" is not having to sign up for a single class that starts before noon. Next fall I'm going to get that long awaited chance to sleep in. My least favorite part is the fact that now everyone wants to know what the "plan" is. Well, everyone's just going to have to hold on and when I know what the "plan" is I'll be sure to share it. For now I'm keeping my options open and taking a few summer classes, because really, who doesn't love a good all night study session in the middle of summer. And past that...uuhhh....

Yes We Did.

2008-11-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

"Right now, organizers, full-time volunteers, campaign staff, and everyone else who gave single-minded effort toward November 4 are waking up and saying to themselves and each other, "what do I do with myself?" Their cars are messes, their rooms disaster zones, and they've been cut off from friends and family for God knows how long.
This was by far the longest and biggest election season in US history, and there is so much left to process. The elation that Democrats feel is mixed with the hangover of carrying so much emotional electricity in the body for so long. Its discharge is necessarily going to leave an exhaustion behind.
We feel it too. There will be moments in the coming days, randomly standing in line at the grocery store, driving down the street in contemplation, the sight of a door you knocked, catching a certain song, a glimpse of Chuck Todd, hearing someone tell a story... where these emotions will just come bursting through, the enormity of it all. Just think of how much effort went into this. How much sacrifice. How many things had to go right. How many people had to want it so badly, and how the masterpiece of a campaign structure that David Plouffe and cohorts engineered allowed all that effort to be channeled into the right places to maximize efficiency."
-Sean Quinn (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/)

For the rest of my life I will never forget watching Barack's acceptance speech, where I was or who I was with at the time. The enormity of the thing hit me all at once and I just started crying. I wasn't the only one either. Months of hard work, little sleep, and even less free time all came down to one amazing moment for me. And it was all worth it. All of the sleepless nights, early mornings, moments when I just felt like it was all so pointless, all of the "normal college stuff" I missed because there was work to be done, it was all worth it on November 4th watching our next president address the nation from Grant Park.

At the moment I'm catching up on homework...still processing...and still constantly asking myself "what now?". My car is a mess. My room is worse. And about half of my closet seems to have migrated to the back seat of my car. Finals soon...and then Christmas break. Anyone remember what I was doing a year ago? I'd just been officially accepted at UCC for spring semester. Weird right? I was getting ready to get on a plane for Ireland on New Years Day. What a difference a year makes.

p.s. The speech at Grant Park :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll5baCAaQU

You didn't think I'd forgotten about the blog did you??

2008-09-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I've done any kind of update on this, but it was a crazy summer between navigating the flood waters and navigating new responsibilities at sports camps.
I guess I can now say Ireland is fully done and dusted, even if I'm still in denial about it (my UCC student ID is still in my wallet, never know! I might need it for something...) My transcript from UCC finally landed stateside and everyone is moving back into Leeside... getting ready to start a new year at UCC :-( Someone say hi to Boole for me... (and The Old Oak, because I know you'll make it there before you ever find your way to Boole).
It is good to be back in Iowa City though, and as always there's more then enough going on here to keep me busy. New school year, new classes, and FIVE new roommates! Crazy right? They're all awesome and our house is a regular six ring circus most days.
I'm down to my last few credits at Iowa...getting ready to Graduate either this summer or winter of 2009. That also means I'm grad school shopping, studying for the LSAT and the GRE, and trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with my life. (Ideas anyone?!) Right now the tentative plan is to head back to Ireland for my masters (yes I love it and miss it that much) and I guess we'll see where I go from there?
Still working at the admissions visitors center - giving campus tours and working in the office. This will be my third fall of high school recruiting craziness, kind of hard to believe. While I was studying abroad I ran for STAR exec board, so I'm learning how to be Public Relations Chair too, yay!
AND...I'm an intern!! Working here in Iowa City to turn Iowa blue by November 4th.
Okay...well that's life right now, crazy as always but I wouldn't have it any other way.

ONE LAST THING!
If you're checking this out because I met you at the study abroad fair today...the application deadline for the Iowa Regents Spring Semester in Cork is October 15, so it's not too late! (take it from someone who turned her application in on October 15th last year) And if there's anything, anything at all you want to know about life in Cork...email me! I'd love to hear from you. alyssa-thomas@uiowa.edu My five months in Cork were some of the best of my life, there's nothing like it, and (in my seriously biased opinion) no better place to study abroad!

So...where are all the pictures?!

2008-06-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

I guess most of you know (or at least you know now) that taking pictures is kind of my thing. So here you go! My favorites from the last 5 months! Eventually they'll get photoshopped and cropped and all that good stuff...but this is a start anyway.

Out at Fota, I just like the color in this one.

Aran IslandsRight by my apartment

More Aran Islands

Kylemore Abbey

Cliffs of MoherBeth demonstrating the wind at the top of the cliffs for us
Coral Beach

Aran again

Dublin, Paddy's day parade
Blarney

Gaelic Football
Gaelic Football

Diana Memorial Fountain

Grafton Street (notice the little kid in blue and the street performer on the left!)

Dublin, near St. Patrick's Cathedral, Literary walk
Hyde Park, London
Aran again!

Connemara

River Lee, Cork

Begoa, UCC trad fest '08

River Lee, Cork
Connemara

Spire, Dublin

Blarney

Back at it

2008-06-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

One week back and I still try to pull out on the left side of the road. I look the wrong way when I cross the street. I am seriously a danger to the average person driving down the street. I am a serious danger to myself trying to cross the street. I still can’t remember the password to get into my voicemail. I wake up at 3 am every now and then because I think its 9am and time to get up.
I’m back at work already. Hooray Sports Camps. Despite my driving difficulties I’m behind the wheel of a 15 passenger maxi-van with people’s children in the back on a daily basis (parents - I truly am sorry, but cross your fingers that your kid got into someone else’s van). I guess you could say we're having a pretty normal start to the summer. I mean as normal as things ever get in a job that requires me to carry a walkie talkie and two cell phones at all times (Yes two. Don’t ask questions.) The hours are completely insane, and randomly waking up at 3 am isn’t really helping matters. This morning I asked Olympic champion and coach of the national championship Hawkeye wrestling team, Tom Brands, for his last name. Smooth. If anyone sees my brain laying around anywhere in the greater Cedar Rapids/ Iowa City area please return to Iowa Sports Camps, I’d much appreciate it.
For now we’re keeping track of middle school girl’s basketball players. Today’s major crisis was bed bugs (totally serious). Come Sunday mayhem and chaos ensue as high school football camp checks in. I’m armed with two bottles of Febreze air effects and a bottle of laundry detergent, I'm expecting both to be gone by the end of football camp. My boss is referring to it as a 10 ring circus. I think 10 is a rather conservative estimate.
The Head Counselor On-Call cell phone is quickly becoming the bane of my existence. I am convinced that the thing has a censor, it knows when I walk away. Every time I'm more then 10 feet from the phone- it rings. I jumped out of the shower today to answer the stupid thing, soap and water everywhere. And the worst part…half the time, when it rings, I don’t have a freaking clue what to do! Bed bugs were not in the counselor handbook. Being head counselor does not give me magical powers, I don't have a GPS locator on every camper, and I definitely don’t know where you put your keys.

Under construction...

2008-05-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
The rumors are true, after 5 amazing months I'm back in Cedar Rapids. Thanks so much to everyone who emailed, left me comments here, and sent letters/packages/ all of that fun stuff.
URL for my blog may be changing shortly, and there are SO many more Ireland blogs to post, just haven't gotten there yet! So hang in there with me and I'll get them up as soon as possible.
But for now I'm stateside again, safe and sound and back to work on Tuesday. The adventure is no where near over though, you can bet I'm on my way back to Ireland as soon as possible :-)

Washington Street Primary

2008-05-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

I’d like to congratulate Senator Barack Obama on his latest primary win. Last night Obama claimed victory in the Cork, Ireland Washington Street Primay. Obama defeated Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain 11 to 4 to 3. A new candidate named John McLain also received one vote.
Voters fell in the 18-25 age group and most are students at University College Cork. There is some dispute over the validity of the results. The primary was conducted rather informally and just after pub close. Due to the high number of non respondents and slightly or severely intoxicated respondents...and the fact that all of these voters hold Irish citizenship the 0 delegates at stake may not be seated by the Democratic Party later this summer. But the results of the primary are intriguing none the less.
The primary coordinator, Dennis (who may have just forgotten his own name), from County Kerry (if in fact he was capable of remembering what county he hails from) held the primary in front of the Washington Inn and voters were asked to make their selection by shouting the candidates name. Voters cited “a focus on economy” and a “need for change” as their reasons for selecting Senator Obama. Clinton supporters cited such reasons as “Bill rocked!”

Oh, and there aren’t actually people here, just leprechauns

2008-05-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

“So how’s Ireland? The Irish, they’re like all- merry and singing and dancing and laughing all the time right?”
Uh. Right. They wear green all the time and dance through the streets with their red hair blowing in the wind wielding a pint of Guinness. And did I mention that everyone pins a fresh shamrock to their lapel daily just for good measure? Oh, and there aren’t actually people here, just leprechauns.
Sorry everyone, but the Irish are not THAT fond of Guinness, people just walk down the street (except after pub close but we won’t get into that). There is not an abundance of red haired people. There is no dress code requiring the wearing of green at all times, and most of the shamrocks are sold in tourist shops.
I am truly sorry if my dispelling of bad Irish stereotypes ruined anyone’s vision of the Emerald Isle forever. But I feel like the distinction between real Ireland and post card Ireland is an important one.
However, now that I’ve stuck up for Ireland, I’m sticking up for the states. No we are not all blonde and I don’t want to be Paris Hilton when I grow up. American girls are not required by law to be high school cheerleaders and not all American boys were on the football team. My high school experience was nothing like “Bring it on” or “10 Things I Hate About you”. I am not from New York City and I didn’t vote for George Bush. And no. I don’t spend my summers at the beach. I’m from Iowa people, that’s in the middle.
It’s been interesting to see what everyone expects when they find out I’m American. The shock and awe on their faces when they find out I don’t especially like New York City…and the confusion when I try to explain where Iowa is! I met a Geography major last week, and my jaw literally dropped when he said “Oh! Iowa! Capitol is Des Moines right?” He takes the prize for being the first person in Ireland to be able to locate Iowa on a map. He also gets bonus points for not asking if that’s where we grow all the potatoes. (Idaho people! Geez!)
Basically it’s been a 5 months study in how people the world over view other parts of the world. I’m sorry to have ruined so many Irish people’s view of America, really I am. But imagine how sad I am to be going home not having seen a leprechaun! The travel books and TV shows…they lie to you!

Theories of dating evolution

2008-05-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

When we hit middle school our parents made the mistake of giving us cell phones “for emergencies only”. What this really did was open up the dating world. Granted it was a seriously uninvolved form of dating with relationships lasting a week tops and not requiring much more then the exchange of phone numbers and standing within ten feet of each other between classes. They usually began with a truly superb pick up line something like “my friend thinks you’re cute and wants to know if you have a boyfriend”. But it was dating none the less, we all experienced our first crushes and our first heart breaks as we discovered the founding principles of dating.
And then there was high school. Your position on the high school social dating hierarchy wasn’t so much dependant on your personality or “inner beauty”. Your dating value was more dependant on your status as a varsity basketball captain or yearbook editor, French club president or marching band member. Having a steady someone in high school had all kinds of benefits. Increased social standing, guaranteed dates for all the major events- prom, homecoming, football season bonfire. Plus there was the coveted cutest couple title up for grabs every spring.
Post graduation though, everything seemed to change again. This was college after all. Dating still had a lot of benefits- you always had a date to that one party at that one person’s house that no one really wanted to go to anyway. But after year one it seemed that the dating world evolved again…everyone started getting engaged, having kids, somehow dating had evolved into something much more serious.
Me on the other hand, about the time the rest of my graduating class decided to settle down I decided to dive back into the dating pool. That’s right, 2 ½ years of tied down and I decided to plunge back into singleness. After a rather auspicious beginning it occurred to me that the last time I’d been single was…high school. No wonder it felt like all the rules had changed. Dating had apparently come a long way since “hey my friend thinks your cute and wants to know if you have a boyfriend”. Now all of the sudden there were all sorts of dating rules. And different kinds of dates! There were meeting for coffee dates and dinner out dates and you him and ten other friends in a bar dates. Apparently which kind of date you were asked on said all kinds of things about how much the boy liked you. Who knew! It was a strange confusing world and I realized that the mating habits of people my age had evolved rapidly in the two and a half years I’d been off the market.
Then I made the semi crazy decision to pack up and move halfway across the world. Well- if you wanted to throw a monkey wrench into the whole dating scene that was it. All of the sudden my boring flat Midwestern accent or rather lack of an accent is foreign and apparently kind of sexy. Cool. That helps.
So my first real “date” in Ireland. I’m supposed to meet the guy for drinks. He picked the pub across the street from my apartment- creepy, felt a bit like I’d been stalked, but decided to play along. After one pint and a serious lecture on his profession (which we’ll call accounting for the sake of confidentiality) I realized that this date was going nowhere but downhill quickly. I escaped to the bathroom, called a friend, and the second she answered said “you’re going to call me in about 45 minutes with a very serious personal problem”. I then hung up and walked back to the table as calmly as I could. After about one more drink my phone lit up with “Dermot slept with someone else! Why aren’t you answering?! Ring me!” Have to hand it to my friend- that was a pretty good story. Especially considering Dermot is the name of the stuffed monkey that lives on her desk. Unfortunately the idea of Dermot the happy smiling stuffed chimp cheating on poor Siobhan was so funny it took everything in my power not to burst out laughing. I must have put on a sort of concerned face, because my date bought the story. I apologized up and down, agreed to have one more drink, and then told him I simply had to go help my friend with her crisis. I can only picture the conversation with the lads back at his flat.
“You’re home early”
“Ah you know birds, always a crisis, had to go help her friend”
"Yea? And what was the crisis”
“Friend’s boyfriend- Dermot or something like that, is a cheating ass”
“Dermot eh? I’ll bet you a pint of beer Dermot is someone’s teddy bear.”
In fact it would cost me a pint of beer and several nights of wingman duty to alleviate myself of the debt I incurred forcing my friend to come up with an on the spot crisis. It’s been several weeks and we’re still laughing about Dermot’s “indiscretion”.
So anyway, went to London with a friend last weekend. I walk up to the bar and while I’m waiting a guy walks up to me. Sweet! What does he says? “My friend thinks you’re cute and wants to know if you have a boyfriend”. So much for dating evolution.

Shameless Promotion

2008-04-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

I’m done! The end! No more classes at UCC for me (hush yourselves Smart Alecs, I’ve been to more then one class!)…Handed in my last paper today and went to my very last class. Next week is study week, and then we have finals all through the month of May. I honestly can’t believe it’s almost May, that seems crazy. I guess this is the part of the “study abroad experience” that the brochures called “adaptation”. It’s when we all stop thinking this place is so weird and finally start to settle in and really live life in a different country. When we first landed on the Emerald Isle we couldn’t stop talking about what we were going to do when we got home, all the things we missed, all of the places we wanted to go out to eat, all of the people we couldn’t wait to see. We couldn’t shut up about how the cars were on the wrong side of the road (leading to many near misses while crossing streets), the food was funny (what do you mean you don’t have mac and cheese here?!), the professors were weird (did he really just tell us to take a 15 minute tea break?!). Heck I couldn’t figure out how to send text messages on my new phone for the first 3 weeks or so, and even when I figured it out it still felt funny- where were all the friends in my phonebook, I didn’t know ANYONE in Ireland! Ah!
But the thing is…nothing feels too terribly weird or foreign or bewildering anymore. I know my way around the UCC campus as well as I know my way around the U of I campus. I do a lot of the same stuff I do at home- homework in the library, going to movies and the mall with my friends, last week we attempted home made pizza in the flat. Some things are different, weekends for one. No Hawkeye football here. Last weekend we took the bus over to Limerick for the GAA Hurling finals. Had to be loud and proud in support of the GALWAY TRIBESMEN! I know I know, I'm living in Cork, but I was adopted in Galway, so my hurling loyalties lie now and forever with the Tribesmen. (If you have no idea what Hurling is as I suspect at least 95% of the people reading this don't, youtube it and prepare to be entertained). Anyway, other weekend stuff...we go to a lot of concerts, something I almost never do at home- Cork just has a really great free music scene if you know where to look. Class is a lot different. No assigned readings really, we’re meant to go to the library, and actually do research. What do you mean you’re not going to spoon feed us information?? Isn’t that what college is for?! It’s a different system that’s for sure, but I like it. Some weird twisted part of my brain likes hanging out in the library doing research finding the answer for myself instead of having a professor tell me what to think. I know…now that that comment is on the world wide web I’ll never live it down. I’m off to find a rock to hide under until the laughing stops.
But before I head off to find my rock to hide under, I feel I should address another point that concerns me greatly, I’ve been accused of using this web address to take the piss (or as we Yanks would say, “make fun”) of anyone and everyone I’ve come across in these last few months. So, to make up for my sometimes brutal sarcasm- some shameless promotion of a few of the people I’ve met here who have made me laugh, gotten me to dance, and are looking for as much exposure as they can get .
First up- Gary O’Toole. We met him on the bus to Limerick, this guy kept us entertained for two straight hours with his antics. He claims to be an actor, but having seen his film debut we’ll leave that to you to decide.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=890HXzyQT6A
Second- The Marvels. A Cork staple. I truly believe it is impossible to watch their act without jumping up to dance at some point. And you have to respect any guy with the guts to go out in public wearing that hat.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u-t-CHOSGQY

Language barrier

2008-04-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hola! (That pretty much expends my knowledge of the Spanish language.)

One of the fun parts of study abroad is having other friends studying in far off places. Last weekend I got to jet off to Spain to see what my buddy Mick has been up to all year. I was greeted by a Spanish band as soon as I got off the Metro. Mick said it was “all for me” to welcome me to Spain. I’m going to venture a guess he’s full of sh*t. But, either way, pretty cool. Thursday night we went to a really small tappas place. It was literally shove your way through, stranding room only crowded, but the food was fantastic and it was kind of fun to be right in the middle of so many Spanish kids my age. I woke up Friday morning and was shocked to see…no one. Madrid seemed to have emptied out overnight. I gave my self the Sol walking tour and found coffee. I also found yet another country where my name produces some problems. In Ireland people tend to think it’s spelled Elisa. In Spain they think it’s Alice. All of these new aliases…what fun. I started walking back to the hostel and someone stopped me to ask for directions, in Spanish! I was so happy about being confused for someone who might speak Spanish that it took me a few seconds to realize there was no way I could break out enough Spanish to help the poor girl. I even knew how to get to the metro stop she was asking about! Sad! I headed back to the hostel and shocked Mick with my ability to order coffee “how did you do that?!” (I’m resourceful!)
So anyway, apparently Spain doesn’t really wake up until 11 or 12. Which is why I felt like no one was out and about. I mastered Madrid underground…via Madrid’s ridiculously extensive metro system. We went the Prado, which is a very very cool art museum. The royal palace (King of Spain gets a pretty sweet set up, let me tell ya). And wandered Madrid above ground. Found the US embassy, Real Madrid stadium, and the national library! (Was that a dead give away that I’m a nerdy English major??)
Saturday we went to Segovia. A very small, very cool Spanish town about an hour outside Madrid. There’s an amazing Roman aquaduct, an absolutely beautiful cathedral, and the castle that Disney land based Snow White’s castle off of. You can climb all the way up to the top and it looks out over the whole city of Segovia and the mountains. That’s right, mountains, real, snow capped mountains. I missed the majority of winter in Iowa, so seeing snow, even from far away, was actually kind of exciting.
Sunday was an adventure all in itself. Mick’s brother in law is from Madrid, so his parents still live there. I got to see the more “residential” part of Madrid which was neat, there’s a really pretty neighborhood right in the middle of the city. They made lunch for us, having any sort of home cooked food when you’re studying abroad is wonderful, but when you get to try something new it’s even better. Only downside was that I don’t speak any Spanish at all, and they don’t speak any English! Funny thing though, is that even though I have no idea what they said, I could still tell that they were amazingly nice. Weird how that works right? Mr. Gutierrez gave us a ride to the airport, with a detour to point out the bull fighting arena. Turns out Spain drives on the right hand side of the road (Ireland and the UK drive on the left). I’m now thoroughly confused about which side of the road cars belong on and which side of the car drivers belong on. American drivers…beware. I’ll be home June 1st and I’m guessing it’ll be awhile before I’ve got the whole side of the road thing figured out again.

Cead Mile Failte Connemara

2008-04-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the sticks. (Name that Julia Roberts movie). I’m currently camped out in the seaside village of Connemara, Ireland spending the first two weeks of my spring break driving around the Irish countryside, hiking, climbing mountains, and playing a lot of card games. No internet out here you see, and as my cell phone only works to call Ireland, I’m pretty much cut off for the week (if you’ve emailed, don’t feel bad, I’m not ignoring you). So I’m getting lots of fresh air, hanging out on the beach, and tomorrow morning I have every intention of getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise over the water. (The Devaney’s told me to go ahead but I better not wake them up). It’s kind of a good feeling though, and living in an Irish house in a small town is an experience. We were back in Connemara’s favorite pub, Hughes, a few days ago. Siobhan started laughing and told us the old men at the bar were talking about us in Irish. Something along the lines of “I know that one, one of the Devaneys- but I don’t know the other two.” Muahaha, the mysterious Americans strike Spidal again. Word must be getting out that we’re here though, I’ve seen more Devaney’s in the last few days then I ever thought possibly existed. Apparently they’re all turning up to meet the guests. I’ve met 7 or 8 aunts and uncles already, but Siobhan’s parents come from families of 11 and 14, so my guess is that I’m no where near done yet.

We spent a day on the Aran Islands. I climbed all the way up to the top of a cliff and the proceeded to cling to the edge of it and look straight down. Beth and I found our dream house on Inis Mor island- we’re hoping we can make some money off of it if we dress it up and tell tourists it’s the birthplace of St. Patrick. Aran is also where I met the lovely horse pictured below...there was an apple in my pocket and he definitely knew it. We spent one morning going through a cave and that afternoon at the cliffs of Mohr. We’ve been to Kylemore Abbey- which is beautiful, and apparently Madonna almost sent her kids to boarding school there. We also went out to Achil, another small Island off the coast of Mayo County. We hung out on one of Europe’s 3 coral beaches for a morning and we also made the long steep climb up Croac Patrick mountain, between driving and hiking we were gone most of the day, but by the time we got to the top we were literally up in the clouds, pretty amazing. I’m sure my legs will forgive me for the climb someday.
Aside from that we’re teaching the Irish all of our silly American card games, we made dinner one night so they could experience American food. I baked chocolate chip cookies today- an interesting adventure considering they don’t have measuring cups in Ireland. I had to guesstimate everything- but it still worked out, Siobhan used “weighing scales” to measure everything while I was baking so that she can replicate my cookies later- so if you want my chocolate chip cookie recipe I can send it to you in ounces- Irish style.
The Devaney’s are teaching us a lot about life in Ireland too. My favorite new story…in this very catholic community they hold mass in a family’s home twice a year. Siobhan’s mom said it’s to bless the house. It turns into a day long thing with tea and socializing, and one of the rooms in the house set up so that the priest can hear confession. Mrs. Devaney said that when it was their turn her brother joked about hiding a tape recorder in the wardrobe so they could finally figure out who stole the goat. No one’s really sure if he actually did it, but maybe that’s a good thing.

The St. Patrickans

2008-03-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

Our friends love us and came to see us! My little Cork crowd had company last week and it was SUPER exciting to see familiar faces on our side of the pond. We decided there was no better way to introduce them to life in Ireland then by taking them to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day weekend. Crazy? Yes. Completely memorable? Most definitely. I’m more in love with Dublin then ever before- however, I’m discovering an odd dislike for tourists. I say odd because I guess I am technically a tourist, it’s just that I don’t feel like one so much anymore. I’m not sure when this dislike for tourists started, or why, but I’m not a fan of the massive hordes of people who spilled into Ireland this week. The walk from the Abbey Street Luas stop to Nassau Street told twice as long as usual, the line at the Guinness factory probably stretched at least 5 miles (hooray for knowing how to cut it), and AIB stopped traffic on Grafton Street with their huge moving advertisement which all the tourists then stopped traffic to gawk at.
But anyway…the moment you’ve all been waiting for, just how crazy is St Patrick’s day in Dublin? Well, first of all the Paddy’s day parade is apparently “just for tourists and kids” ouch. Let down number one. And apparently the Irish don’t necessarily wear green on St Patrick’s Day. Let down number two. But, however touristy the parade is, Paddy’s day is still a full on, banks closed, no classes, no work, and sure as heck no postal service holiday in Ireland. So that does mean the Irish celebrate in full force. It’s a little tough to come up with an appropriately edited summation of our Paddy’s day that won’t embarrass anyone too terribly. (Considering that even that little bit of legal jargon embarrasses me!) But I’ll give it a shot.
Touristy as it may be we went to the parade decked out in green with shamrocks painted on our faces and some truly stylish green hats. (I was told by an Irish person later in the night that I should really just take the hat off and abandon it somewhere.) After the parade we hiked over to Croke Park (a short walk when the parade isn’t going on, but when it becomes impossible to cross one of Dublin’s main streets due to the parade the walk to Croke Park becomes a very long one.) We got to see the club hurling finals and the club Gaelic football finals. So because we sprinted to the stadium and then saw two different sports I’m dubbing it the Croke Park Triathlon. Oh, and yes. The former yearbook person in me snuck out and I took a million pictures of the hurling and Gaelic football. After the match we made our way to “Ireland’s oldest pub” where we met everyone from a 40 year old from Florida to some 20 something attorneys from Dublin. And of course we spent a fair part of the evening laughing at the crazy St Patrickans (Beth’s term, thanks Beth!).
Besides the Paddy’s day silliness that took over Ireland our friends got to see a lot of Dublin (I’ve become a pretty good Dublin tour guide since my last adventure to Ireland’s fair city.) I managed to cram the Guinness Factory, the Jameson Distillery, Dublin Writer’s museum, Garden of Remembrance, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, a whole lot of shopping and of course our favorite Dublin pubs and restaurants into two very touristy days – so no matter what “setbacks” we may have had, we still managed to see and do a ton. More updates to come, I'm just all typed out of the night, so stay tuned!

Gone Hurlin'

2008-03-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I’ve caught a bit of slack the last few days or so for not blogging lately, believe it or not I kinda like that, lets me know that someone besides me is actually looking at this thing.
Right now I’m sitting in my window wondering if the River Lee is about to overflow it’s banks…we’re experiencing a “gale” or the Irish version of severe weather. Lots of wind, lots of rain, very high tide. Not fun! It was a long walk back from the bus stop tonight.

So, that said I suppose the bright sunny picture to the right doesn't make a whole lot of sense? Well...we spent the weekend in Connemara with the wonderful Devaney family (Beth is one of my fellow Hawks in Ireland, Siovhan is her roommate and her family lives in Connemara.) We got to be “really” Irish for a weekend. Friday we took a fantastically awful four hour bus ride up to Galway (Connemara is about 45 minutes outside of Galway) and our mom for the weekend met us there. Siovhan’s mom played tour guide during the drive to their house, I’ve officially seen the first house built in Connemara, but the coolest part? They get to see the ocean EVERY DAY! We were driving alongside the water the whole way to the Devaney’s house, which means they get a lot of rain…but also means they get a very scenic drive home.
Friday night the Americans conquered the local pub, Hughes’…or rather the pub conquered the Americans. Saturday we went into Galway to do what girls do best, shopping! Galway has a really cool market every weekend with food stands, crafts, all that kind of stuff. One of my friends (whose name I won’t use for fear of inflating his ego) has his very own crepe at the crepe stand in the Galway market, which made me laugh...and shake my head at the same time. You can get the Big ____ or the Vegetarian ____ (editing out friend’s name in order to keep his ego in check, although Siovhan tells me there is probably no chance the crepe was actually named after my friend in particular, he just has a very common Irish name.)
My one purchase from our shopping excursion, which I’m very excited about…is a Claddagh ring I found in an antique shop in Galway. If you’re not sure what that is…the Claddagh is two hands holding a heart with a crown on top, which is supposed to represent friendship, love, and loyalty, “let love and friendship reign”. You wear the ring on your right hand facing out if you’re single or your “heart is free” and facing in if someone has “captured your heart”. The Claddagh ring originated in Galway, so Beth and I now have Claddagh rings right from the source, pretty cool right? The picture isn’t my ring…but looks a lot like mine. The ring in the picture (and my ring) have the Irish holy trinity where the hands would normally be, same meaning, just a slightly different, less common design.
We went back to Connemara and walked down to the ocean (a whopping 10 minute walk from their house). I forgot how pretty the Atlantic is while the sun is going down.
The Devaney’s made a HUGE dinner for us Saturday night, which Siovhan swears is just a normal Irish meal (yes, there were multiple kinds of potatoes). It was absolutely wonderful, and I now understand why the Irish kids go home on the weekend so often. Saturday night was a concert/birthday party. The music was amazing, but the dancing, oh my gosh the dancing. Real, traditional Irish dancing is amazing (forget Riverdance here folks, that’s not real Irish dancing, it’s a pretty modern invention, and the Irish don’t want you to forget it.) Real Irish dance is very close to tap dancing, which means I was in heaven all night long. Only tough part of the night…Connemara is a mostly Irish speaking village, no English road signs, pubs have Irish names, shops have Irish names. So the introduction to the concert…all in Irish. I know that at some point the lady introducing the group said welcome, music, friends, and thank you. Past that I’ve got no clue.
We woke up Sunday morning and experienced our first full Irish breakfast. I’m not sure I’ll ever need to eat again. Again, so that’s why the Irish kids go home for weekends so often, I don’t blame them! It was SO nice to have a real bed, in a real house, and real food for a weekend. The Devaney’s even have a dog! Lassie walked down to the ocean with us Saturday afternoon.
After the marathon that was breakfast we went to a Galway hurling match. Picture soccer with football goal posts and baseball bats and something close to a softball and you’ll about have the idea. It’s one of the oldest Irish sports and the people in Galway LOVE it, after today I think I’m falling in love with it too! Still not quite sure what all of the rules are…but we’re going to attempt to get tickets for the Galway/ Dublin hurling match in Dublin on St. Patrick’s day. Hooray!
One minor complaint…next time I’m in Galway I want a better back story. All of Connemara now knows me as “one of the Americans the Devaney’s have”. Can we please come up with something a little more exciting? Can we be part of the witness protection program? Discovery channel reporters? Beth has suggested we call ourselves the Bobbsey Twins…but unfortunately they never made it over here, so no one really gets the joke. We’re working on it though, and when we’re up in Connemara over Easter we’re determined to have a better back story for ourselves, so that we can be called something other then “the Americans”.
Well…that’s the most recent news from Ireland. I’m going to attempt to keep the blog more up to date…especially after Friday when I’m done with my Gaelic final. Funny thing about the Irish kids we were with in Connemara this weekend…they’re good Irish teachers, my Irish is slightly improved thanks to them, but I have a feeling I’m failing my final if I repeat most of what they taught me to my teacher during the final.

Oh. And my favorite picture from the weekend. Lassie on our walk by the ocean.

Homework, boo.

2008-02-22T15:10:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it’s been awhile. But we actually had homework to do! Believe it or not that’s kind of a big deal here. I wrote an Irish history paper this week worth 50% of my grade! Yikes! And to follow that up I got to write ANOTHER essay for my Middle Ages class. “Critically discuss Judaeo-Christian influences on Medieval geographical though.” I know. You’re all dying to read it. I’ll be sure to get copies in the mail soon. (In all honestly I’m kind of proud of that paper, I was TERRIFIED to write it, but maybe I’ve actually learned something about the Middle Ages in the last month and a half.) And at least that paper isn’t worth so much…I just have to take a final in May for that class worth 80% of my grade. No big deal right? Kinda like my Shakespeare final worth 100% of my grade won’t be a big deal? Yeah…now I get why they give us a month to take finals. Nothing like the US that’s for sure. The good news though, is that I will have NO 7:30 am finals! Whoever created that finals block is just evil, thank goodness the Irish don’t believe in making you take exams worth 100% of your grade at the crack of dawn. And hey! Our Shakespeare professor DID tell us exactly what’s coming. We’ll be identifying and explaining quotes from King Lear for a good hour on May 9th. He read us one of the quotes from last year’s exam, and then told us that “anyone who missed that question deserves not only to fail but to be stripped naked and made to run about the quad.” Thank you professor, that’s semi-comforting. Sort of.
So anyway, I’m done with two of my papers, but still have a HUGE government project and a paper for that class to look forward to. Jumping for joy over that one. And two days after we come back from Spring break…another Irish history paper, worth the other 50% of my grade. Yuck.
So anyway, with all the paper writing and project doing that has been going on we haven’t gotten out to do a whole lot of fun stuff lately L bummer. But this weekend we’re getting the heck out of here! Watch out Cobh! The crazy American students have gone stir crazy writing papers and we’re ready to go DO something.
Valentine’s Day came and went in Ireland and I barely noticed. It’s just not a big deal here? Looks like Hallmark hasn’t taken over the WHOLE planet. A bunch of us got together, donned our pink and red and celebrated as a group. We had chocolate, I baked brownies, and the Irish kids were totally and utterly confused as to why we were making such a big deal out of it. “Valentine’s is only for people in a couple? So why?” Why? Because we’re silly Americans and we’ve decided to let Hallmark dictate which days on the calendar cannot pass without fanfare. Notice the red outfits and the paper hearts on the walls....
We also kind of sort of attempted the Barrack Street Challenge. There are 13 pubs on Barrack Street. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what the Barrack Street Challenge might involve. A few in our group did the whole thing properly, hats off to them. We just showed up in the middle to laugh at the damage.
So, despite the lack of super exciting stuff happening lately, we have a lot of stuff coming up! March 5th I’m going to Dublin for the day to check out a few Grad schools! Ahhh! How scary is that? It’ll be good for me though, I’ll have to be all independent and stuff J I’m taking the train up by myself and checking out Trinity College and that afternoon is University College Dublin.
That weekend we’re going to Galway for the Trad Fest there. And the week after that my Mom and Christine are coming over! Yay for friends and family from home. I’m SO excited to see them. We’re going to be in Dublin over St. Patrick’s day, then they’re coming back to Cork to see what I’ve been up to here! I think they both have to kiss the Blarney stone while they’re in Cork. Although, I’ve been told that “having kissed the Blarney Stone- doesn't make you more eloquent, it reduces the chances that you'll ever be quiet- which for you, may be a problem!” Thanks Evans.
When Mom and Christine head back to the states Beth and I are heading home with her roommate Siovhan for the first part of our Spring break. Siovhan’s from Galway and has a mile long list of things she wants to take us to do, the beaches, the Aran Islands, the Cliffs of Moher (google Cliffs of Moher. Really. Do it. SO pretty.) Stay tuned for details on the rest of Spring break.
Our break is March 20- April 21st, and after that it’s one last week of class and then a month of finals! I ended up with a big break between exams, so one more friend is flying into Cork for a few days and we’re going to London for a few days after that!
And the scariest part of today’s blog…it’s almost March. Which means my time here is going SO much faster then I ever thought possible. So, mentally, I’ve been making a list of all the things I’ll miss in Ireland. (In no particular order)
-Irish accents
-9 am is REALLY early
-if you have a 9am class no one really expects you to be there
-Getting packages, or anything in the mail, it’s seriously like Christmas. No one sends stuff by mail at home, and we really should.
-Cadbury chocolate is EVERYWHERE
-Trad sessions
-The free notebooks they hand out while you’re walking to class
-My Shakespeare professor and my Middle Ages professor. They are completely hilarious.
-Irish slang (eejit, for example)
-The Old Oak, and everything else on Oliver Plunket Street
-Most of all, the people. If you can look at this picture and not smile there’s something wrong with you.

Gold star for you if you actually read through all of this!

That's Quay with a K

2008-02-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

Turns out cash evaporates in big cities. Cities like, oh I don’t know, Dublin? And being poor little study abroad students we don’t have a whole lot of cash to begin with! So, no grand adventures this weekend…we decided to lay low and hang around Cork. Which was actually a great idea, because last week was Trad Fest 2008! And now you’re all going “Great Alyssa…what the heck is that?” Trad is Traditional Irish music. And Trad Fest is a week of concerts, dancing, and something they call Trad Disco. This week I went to one big concert, several “sessions” (aka a bunch of students get together, hang out, and play their instruments) and I got to try Ceilí dancing! But let’s not talk about my Ceilí skills. The Irish kids grew up with this stuff…I did not. Overall though, Trad Fest gets an A+ in my book.
Other big stuff going on this week…Rugby! Ireland vs. France! Ireland lost, but I think you could have gone just about anywhere in Cork on Saturday afternoon and found the game on. Turns out soccer is not the biggest sport on the Emerald Isle. It’s Rugby all the way over here. Soccer is big too (and they actually call it soccer) along with something called Hurling that I’ve only ever seen a few minutes of on TV. Gaelic football is big too…from what we can tell it’s a combination of volleyball, soccer, basketball, and American football. Our Irish history professor showed us part of a game in class last week…it looked like fun! Now only if we’d had any idea what was going on…
After last week’s wacky half hour of snow fall we’re finally starting to get nice weather over here. I haven’t seen it rain for a few days (and now that I’ve jinxed myself I should go put my umbrella in my backpack). Last night we got ice cream and took a walk around Cork after our movie. Yup. It’s that nice out.
We also discovered that sometimes movies come out in theaters here before they come out in theatres at home…hooray Ireland! But before you get too jealous - keep in mind that with the exchange rate going to a movie costs us about 1.5 times as much as it costs you. Oh wait…everything costs us about 1.5 times as much as it costs you. That includes groceries. Unfortunately. We've finally started to cave though and we're shooting for doing "family" dinner once a week. Yup. That means actually cooking. Turns out study abroad students cannot live on peanut butter and cereal alone. As hard as we might try. So once a week we cough up the money to make a real meal and try not to gasp at the exchange rate. Darn dollar. I even read an article last week that some stores in New York have started taking the Euro. How crazy is that?
Oh, and my last thought, how cool is the internet? Not only does Skype let me call home…but I found out yesterday that Skype does conference calls. I got to talk to my Uncle Brad in Kuwait and my Aunt Julie in Connecticut at the same time. Calling home is kind of tough when you're this far away, so you appreciate things like that more then you can imagine. My little cousin Hailey made it even better by typing messages to us while we were talking. “ggygyuyuguuuuhyuytgyyuuuuuuuuuuuuttgthjyggyg” She’s getting pretty good at the typing thing :-)

*pictures are of the big concert we went to, an Irish group called Beoga, look them up on youtube…the Irish kids weren’t lying to us, they’re awesome. And the other picture is the street I live on – Bachelors Quay. Which is pronounced “key”. Don’t try it any other way or the cab drivers will laugh at you. Just trust me on that one. My building is the pink one on the right (the taller, lighter pink one. Have I mentioned that the Irish seem to enjoy painting their buildings fun colors?)

Four star floor space!

2008-02-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

New study abroad lessons for this week...

1. You ALWAYS need your passport
2. The world is smaller then you think
3. You’d be amazed how comfy the floor can be when it’s free
4. Your tram ticket does not work forever.
5. While your tram ticket does not work forever, the stupid American ticket just might.
6. 6 girls, 4 sleeping bags, and 1 couch means that someone is going to be cold.
7. 9 college students and 1 shower means you just do not get to wash your hair. Deal with it.
8. You can watch the Super Bowl in Ireland…but it won’t have commercials!

We went to Dublin this weekend! I might have a new favorite city. It has a really cool mix of historical stuff, literary stuff, and fun stuff. Literally one of those places that has something for everyone.
We decided to Ryan Air it to Dublin this time around…arrived about an hour before our flight to check in…and learned a very important lesson about our American drivers’ licenses. They are NOT a valid form of ID for Ryan Air. So…in the midst of the small snow storm that was taking over Cork (yes snow, don’t get me started on the snow) Beth raced from the Airport to Leeside back to the Airport via taxi to get her passport…and managed to check in just in time to make our flight. So let’s review, one forgotten passport and the first snow Cork has seen in years. And we’re still at the airport. Yes this seems to bode well for the weekend ahead.
We got into Dublin safe and sound and grabbed the bus in town, from there we checked into our four star accommodations. Otherwise known as Buckly hall…otherwise known as my friend Ryan’s apartment. Aka… we brought blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, and had a slumber party in the living room. Ryan and I haven’t really seen each other since high school…but we realized we’re both studying in Ireland for the semester! Like I said, the world is smaller then you think. He offered us a place to stay in Dublin and…well...study abroad lesson number 3 of the week. You’d be amazed how comfy the floor can be when it’s free. I can’t even begin to explain how lucky we were to have such amazing hosts in Dublin. Ryan and his roommates were great; I’m still amazed at how willing they were to put up with all six of us taking over their living room.
We went out for lunch after we dropped our stuff off and then Ryan and Mike went with us to “The Old Jameson Distillery”. The tour is cool, but at the end of every tour a few “volunteers” are subjected to the unimaginable torture of being forced to sample a few different whiskeys (please note the sarcasm). I’m fairly certain Ryan has never raised his hand faster for anything in his life. After that we went back to the apartment for dinner…only to realize every traveler’s worst nightmare – one of us had lost a wallet. So- again with the fabulous host thing, Ryan took us back to the tram station to look, we took the tram back to Jameson to look there, and while we didn’t turn up anything, we learned a lesson about how the tram works! Every so often officers get on board to check tickets…well…we hadn’t seen them do that yet. Turns out the tram tickets we bought after lunch were not still good at 7:30 at night…especially since we bought one way tickets…and were going the wrong way. Hence, my next lesson. Your tram ticket doesn’t work forever. But, we explained what we were doing, they believed us that we didn’t know exactly how the tram worked, punched the tickets we had, and let us keep going…they even took down information about our missing wallet and promised to call if anything turned up. So, while your tram ticket does not work forever, the stupid American ticket just might. Nothing like nearly being thrown off a tram to bring old friends back together right? (Yes, I did keep the ticket, it’s going in my scrap book). So…no wallet, but a good lesson about the Dublin tram system. Thankfully credit cards can be cancelled, debit cards can too, and the time change meant it was still business hours at home, and in a few weeks we'll be able to sit back and laugh and go "hey! remember that one time, in Dublin? When they almost kicked us off the tram and gave us a huge fine?". (We’re silver lining kind of travelers). So, all things taken care of, the boys took us out for the night in Dublin, we met their friends studying here and got to see more of Dublin, always exciting.

We woke up the next morning sprawled in various corners of the living room and Maggie announced “I don’t know whose sweatshirt I’m wearing, but I was cold so I put it on!” Okay…so team UCC was a little short on sleeping bags when we headed up north to take on Dublin. We’ll work on that. The logistics of 9 people and 1 shower with European hot water supplies just aren’t great either. I think I timed my shower at about 3 minutes flat. Impressive right? And I’m not even sure I set the record for fastest shower on Saturday morning.

The boys went on their school trip to Belfast and the girls set out to conquer Dublin. We went out for breakfast, headed to City Centre, and started exploring. We went to the Guinness Factory, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and then hit Grafton Street for some shopping and dinner. After dinner we did Dublin’s Literary Pub Crawl. Two actors take you to four pubs in Dublin where some of the country’s best known writers hung out. They do skits along the way and the goal is that you’ll come out a little smarter in the end. I can now say I’ve been to the same pubs as the likes of Joyce, Beckett, and Wilde. Cool huh? Maybe some of their talent rubbed off and you'll all start seeing a drastic increase in the quality of the blog. (Uh huh, sure Alyssa, you keep telling yourself that.)

Sunday we went to the Dublin Zoo, Modern Art Museum, out for dinner, and then it was Super Bowl time! You have no idea how funny it is to see Tom Brady running out of the tunnel while listening to an Irish announcer saying “The match is about to begin! The players are taking the pitch!” They’re taking the what to start the what!? We had a good laugh that the Irish attempt at explaining American Football. No wonder it hasn’t caught on over here, they had us confused about the rules and we knew what was going on! At about 3:30 the game finished up and the few troopers who made it through headed for bed. And when I say bed I mean our sleeping bags. Did I mention we had to leave at 6:45 to catch our flight? I might be nuts. I stayed up for the whole thing and they didn’t show one commercial!
It was a crazy weekend, and we might have had a few setbacks, but we had a blast. I cannot say enough good things about our hosts or Dublin in general. And now I'm totally excited for round two in Dublin- St. Patrick's Day!

Called on account of music

2008-01-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-20T00:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-01-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

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!"

2008-01-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-04T18:40:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

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 :-)