Ok, so I didn't really lose my heart to a Galway girl, but I did really love the city. And the title is a line from the famous Irish song, "The Galway Girl." You can't go to a pub in Ireland without hearing it at least once throughout the course of the night.
So, I'm back from my first backpacking adventure. Ok, so I didn't hitchhike or anything, but it was just me, my backpack, and whatever I could find in Galway.
My trip started yesterday at 7 am. I got up, got ready for my weekend. I packed a backpack with a pair of sweatpants, a tshirt, deodorant, hair wax, a toothbrush, and old spice spray. That way if I lost my backpack for whatever reason, everything was easily replaceable. So I called a taxi on Friday night to pick me up at 7:45, and I met this really nice cab driver. He was an Indian guy, we talked the entire 10 minute ride down to the bus station. He told me his family is living in New York City, and he can't wait to visit them next summer. He told me anytime I needed a taxi driver to let him know. He was a really nice guy.
So I got to the bus station and bought my ticket from Limerick to Galway. I bought a round trip ticket, which only cost about 17 Euros. The ticket is good for a month. So if I wanted to stay in Galway until the end of February, I could have, and then just hopped on a bus with the same ticket. The bus system here isn't such a pain in the ass like it is back home. A bus leaves every hour from basically every major bus station. You don't have to buy in advance, you don't have to have a tag on your bags, you don't have a predetermined bus. It's great. There's no rush or panic of missing a bus. The worst that could happen is you wanted to get on the 5:05 bus and missed it, so you have to wait until 6:05. That's it.
While I was at the bus station I ran into Meghan from CT, and Erin from Zona. They asked me what I was doing and I told them that I was going to Galway. They asked if I was going with anyone and I said no. They couldn't believe I was just going by myself. They immediately told me that I could tag around with them if I wanted to, so I wouldn't be so lonely or bored. So I said sure. There were 9 girls in the group. There was Meghan and Erin, and then there was Kia from NC, Stephanie from Rhode Island, Jenn from Illinois, Carly from New York, Ashley from Minnesota, Lindsey from Minnesota and Brittney from Utah I believe. So I grabbed a danish and a hot chocolate and boarded the bus at 8:25 for Galway.
The ride was great. We got seats to ourselves, the country side was beautiful, and I got to sleep. So we rolled into Galway around 10:30ish. We immediately stopped at this hostel that was right next to the bus station. The Galway Hostel. Inside we met some guy who really didn't know what he was doing, so we decided to look elsewhere. We walked toward town, through Eyre Square. Eyre Square is the big gathering center of the city. There was nothing special about it. I don't think I got a picture. It literally looked exactly like the little park outside my apartment in DC. Very small. So we walked into town not really sure where we were going. We ended up at Shop Street. The famous Shop Street. Galway is known for this street alone. It's of course...lined with shops. But not only shops, they have pubs, and and a market place and live music going on. It's great.
So we ventured down shop street. The girls insisted that we stop in an engagement ring store, and then proceeded to pressure me into buying one for Emily. Haha, I was like nah, I can't really spend 3,500 Euros when I only have about 2,000. I don't think so. Not now at least! So, we continued down the street and ducked down this alleyway. We came upon the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. It was built in 1320, and it was believed that Columbus had prayed there before heading to the New World. It was very pretty. It sits just behind the street, and peeks out over the roofs of the shops. As we continued down the alley we just walked along rows of vendors selling meats, grains, bread, baked goods, vegetables and art works. It was basically like any other outdoor farmers market you've ever been too.
We continued down the street. It was very beautiful. Different colors for nearly every business. Beautiful pub fronts and architecture. It was awesome. The street itself starts off straight, and then bears left. Once you take the left you hit a fork. You can go about a block more to the right and then the shops end, or you can go left and continue for another 2 to 3 blocks before you hit the River Corrib. We walked down to the right but there wasn't much down there. So we ventured down to the left and came across Thomas Dillon's, the original maker of the Claddagh Ring. So of course all the girls went in to pick out rings. I think almost every single girl got a Claddagh ring. Why not? It's the original makers of it! Galway is the home of the Claddagh ring. So the girls all picked out which one they wanted and the owners made the rings right in front of them. Some girls had to wait for sizing, but they just stopped back a couple hours later and they were finished. It was a neat little shop.
So after our venture into the ring shop we decided to look for somewhere to stay. I was originally planning on crashing on the floor of my friends on the trip, but I didn't know what was going on so I just decided to get a room. We went directly across the street to some little hostel, but it was full. So we got the woman who was working at the reception to call the first hostel we visited on our way in, and reserve our rooms for us until we walked back there. So we all walked back over and booked a hostel for the night. The guy was probably a huge stoner, he didn't seem like he knew what he was doing. I ended up purchasing a room for 13 Euros. Oh, and we got free breakfast. Woohoo! So 6 of us stayed in a 14 person room and 4 of the girls stayed in a 4 person room 2 floors up. It was an experience. We got into our room and it looked like something from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. (Too soon?) The walls are all purple. There's a single black and white picture of flowers on the wall? There are 7 bunk beds throughout the room, with red frames. It was hilarious. I got to sleep top bunk closest to the window. There was no one in the room when we got there, so I wasn't quite sure how the situation would get once it was time to go to bed, but it didn't seem to sketchy so we locked up our book bags and went back to explore.
For lunch we at this restaurant called "The Quays." It was awesome. It was this cool, small, yellow building that was built in the 1600's. Once you got inside it got even better. There was beautiful stone and wood work all over the place. There was also these awesome stain glass windows that overlooked the bar floor. Apparently, the inside was once a medieval French church, and once the church was abandoned, they restored the outside and left the inside as it was. It was in this restaurant that I finally had Irish stew. Holy crap it was amazing. For 10 Euros you got a huge, hot bowl of Irish stew, steaming cabbage, mashed potatoes, a cooked potato and assorted vegetables. It was amazing. It was the first time that I felt like, "Holy crap, I'm in Ireland."
Once we left, we headed toward the River Corrib. Here we just stopped to look out over the Bay of Galway. We also got to see "The Spanish Arch," which is a Galway must see. It is just a big stone arch that sits right along the river. It was built in 1584 to protect ships from looting. It got the name from the Spanish galleons that used to dock under it for protection. Then we proceeded over the bridge and walked to the bay. On our way we got to see the famous Galway swans that make their home at the Galway pier. I've heard that there are tons of swans near the bay and I wasn't disappointed. There were tons. It was a very pretty site. Then we walked down the coastline of the Bay and just took pictures. It was awesome. It was right where the bay meets the Atlantic ocean. It was quite a site.
After wandering out to the bay, we went back into town and decided to find a bakery to get something sweet. Me and Jenn decided to go halves on some kind of chocolate mousse cake thing. I don't know what it was, but it was amazing. There was about a half an inch of coco on the top of it. Which I didn't realize, and then choked as I inhaled on my first bite. We all grabbed something sweet and then decided that in grabbing a quick bite, it actually made us even more hungry. So we went in search of a restaurant. We tried to stop in at Tis Coli, this cool looking pub right at the fork, but it was packed. We went in, pushed our way to the bar, and then couldn't get at it. So we pushed all the way back out and left. We decided to head just across the street to the King's Head Pub. It was a pretty cool place. We walked in and couldn't find anyplace downstairs, so we went upstairs to sit. We didn't realize that you have to go downstairs and order everything yourself. The ONE waitress working didn't come around and grab orders. So we individually had to go downstairs and order our beers. I had a "Smithwicks" as usual, but was told that in Ireland you don't pronounce the "w". It's pronounced, "Smitticks." So after botching the local language, we just sat upstairs, drank our pints and watched the Chelsea FC game on ESPN Europe. As we drank we got even hungrier and decided to order food, which we again had to do individually. So we sent two girls down, and then two more, etc. I was in the 3rd wave to go down. As I got down there and paid, one of the cooks or a server came out and told us there was no more of basically anything on the menu. So we asked if we could buy McDonalds and bring it in. They said sure, that's not a problem. So we went back upstairs and told all the girls the game plan. Then the waitress came up and told us no, we can't do the McDonalds thing. So, we decided to send groups of girls in waves to McDonalds, which was just down the street. We sat there drinking our pints and talking as the first wave left. About 20 minutes later when they returned, the waitress came up and told us the exact table we were sitting at was reserved for the night, and that we basically had to leave. We then had another server come up 5 minutes later who told us that we had to leave now. I just don't think they liked Americans. I was starving, and so were the other girls, so we went to McDonalds. I didn't even care. My friend and long time boss Matt Helf told me not to eat any fast food when in Europe. Sorry Matt, I had to! It was the cheapest thing, and it was the only thing. Places stop serving food at like 6 in Ireland. Then it's just drinking all night long. If you want to eat, you better get there on time. So I consumed a Big Mac and fries in Ireland. I didn't care. We walked the entire day.
After our McDonalds excursion, we headed back to Quay's for a pint or two. We didn't stay very long. There were a bunch of creepy Irish dudes hitting on the girls. And by creepy I mean, they were trying to make out with each other and then get the girls to do the same. It was awkward. So we left and decided to head back to a bar called, "Coyotes." It was advertised as an American bar, and it sat right next to our hostel. We walk into this place, and it is tacky as hell. It's themed like Coyote Ugly. Literally, there is a huge wall with the characters of the movie staring at you. There are American flags everywhere, an mechanical bull downstairs, pictures of John Wayne, James Dean, Obama. It was just the tackiest thing. There was also all this Texas stuff all over the place. It was as if they were like, "Ok, when I think of America what do I think of. Texas." There were steer horns on the walls, "Don't Mess with Texas" signs, a skeletal bull skull. It was cheesy. So we went to the bar to do a shot, and the Irish guy sitting at the bar asked us if we liked Johnny Cash. We all said sure, and he started singing Johnny Cash. Apparently Irish people love Johnny Cash. In fact, the live band that started playing right after we got there played Johnny Cash. There's nothing like two Irish dudes with guitars trying to sing "Ring of Fire." We also got to listen to them botch "Summer of '69," "Brown Eyed Girl," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Way Down Sally," and "Evil Woman." Haha, it was hilarious. We stayed there for an hour or two and watched the crowds pour in. It was a bar for either 40+ or 18 year olds. It was such a weird demographic. Right before we left though, the band played "Galway Girl," which was really cool to hear the song actually being played in the city the song is based on. And then Jenn and Erin rode the mechanical bull. Good times.
Then we headed back to our hostel where we met two of our roommates. They were two girls who were studying abroad in Israel, but are currently on their winter break. The one was from Winnipeg and the other from California. They were both very nice. We talked to them for an hour or so about their journey and school in Israel. They said Israel gets a bad wrap, and it's a lot nicer than the media portrays it to be. They said not once since they've been there have they ever felt in danger. So that was cool to hear. I also had to ask the girl from Winnipeg if she was a Manitoba Moose fan, since they are based out of Winnipeg. She laughed and asked me how I knew that. I told her I was a Hershey Bears fan. She busted out laughing. She told me how the city was devastated after the loss, but they are still holding out hope that they are gonna get the Jets back from Phoenix. After our conversation they went to bed, and the girls I was with and I started talking about random shit. We couldn't fall asleep because there was a pub literally attached to our hostel. That pub also had a DJ there last night. So I had to listen to Lady Gaga for an hour until the place closed. It was terrible.
We woke up this morning at 8:30 to get ready for the day. I actually slept pretty comfortably after the music stopped. The hostel was actually warm, unlike my room here at school. I put on the same outfit I wore yesterday, rubbed on some deodorant, brushed my teeth and was good to go for day 2. Our hostel had breakfast, so I decided to walk over to the kitchen to get some. However, I was surprisingly greeted to Bob Marley music as I walked out into the hallway. It played all morning. I got to eat toast, in a hostel in Galway, listening to "Buffalo Soldier" and "No Woman, No Cry." It was an experience.
After our awesome Rastafarian breakfast that we shared with some Italians, Germans, and a Swede we set off for a tour bus. We had decided that we would take a bus tour that cost 10 Euros, stopped at the Cliffs of Moher and some other places, and then had us back by 5 pm. However, as soon as we left our hostel some shady dude approached us with brochures to another tour. He was really sketch. We didn't really want to hear anything he had to say at first, but then he started talking about the tour and it sounded pretty interesting. He told us the tour was 20 Euros. We all said, screw that. Jenn told him we found one for 10, and if he didn't bargain, we wouldn't consider his. So we worked him down to 10 Euros a piece. So we decided to take his tour. He walked us to the bus station around the corner and the entire time everyone was talking about whether or not this was a shady tour or a legit one. We saw the bus, and it was legit. We saw the driver, and he was legit too. So we decided to take the tour. But, not until Jenn somehow worked the price down to 8 Euros a person. It was amazing. A tour originally priced at 20 Euros, and we got it for 8!
The tour was amazing!
We drove out into the countryside of Galway, heading toward the Burren and the coastline. It wasn't until today that I actually felt like I was in Ireland. The scenery was amazing. I can't even describe it. It was everything you picture when you think of Ireland. Thatched roofed homes, big brown cows roaming literally everywhere, stone fences all over the place, castle ruins here and there. It was amazing.
After accidentally driving us right into the middle of a cycle race, our first stop on the tour was at this little house on the Burren. The Burren is a region of Ireland that sits along the coast. It's known for it's rocky limestone scenery. Me and a few of the girls decided to take the walking tour offered. The tour guide lived in this little house that sat just at the base of this mountain, and apparently his family owned all the land up the mountain. So, we got to walk on the Burren, up the mountain. It was gorgeous. You could see everything. It was green as far as the eye could see. Castles, little villages, churches. It was truly breathtaking. I can't even describe it. It's just something you have to see for yourself. The weather was perfect too. It was mid 40's, clear sunny day, one brief spitting rain cloud but that was it. It was unbelievable.
After the tour we went back into the guys house and warmed up for a bit. Down a long hallway that leads to the bathroom there are signatures and messages all over the walls. He leaves permanent markers in the hallway so people that take the tour can write messages to him. The walls were blanketed with red, blue and black writings. It was really cool.
We hopped back on the bus and then headed to the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way we stopped to take pictures of the famous Corkscrew Hill. It's exactly what it sounds like. A road that just weaves horizontally up a mountain. It was pretty scary, but the view from the road was awesome. We stopped there for 10 minutes and then got back on. We then proceeded through the amazing countryside to the cliffs of Moher. It was a really cool tour. The guy would spit out facts here and there, and when he wasn't talking, traditional Irish music played over the speakers. There's nothing like driving through the Irish countryside listening to a fiddle and some Gaelic singing.
After another half hour of driving, we reached the Cliffs of Moher. Apparently a couple people die each year from getting too close to the edge to take a photo. As recent as a couple of months ago a Hungarian guy slipped while taking a picture and fell to his death. But they have a couple feet of grass separating the cliffs from the walkway, and the walkway is walled in, so you have to climb up over the wall to even get close to the edge. Just follow the rules. Anyway, the Cliffs of Moher....the most amazing thing I've ever seen. It's just such a powerful site. You don't realize it until you actually see it in person. I can't even describe it. Once your there, you just know that what you are looking at is this amazing act from God. It's just a powerful place. That's all I can really say about it.
After our stop at the cliffs, we stopped at Fitzgerald's pub right along the coastline. I got yet another amazing meal. Unlike in the states, the Irish people don't try to jip you when it comes to food. They give you more than your money's worth. For 10 Euros I got 3 huge slices of hot Turkey, 3 or 4 decent sized scalloped potato's, carrots and squash and a big helping of steamed cabbage. It was incredible. Nothing like a good hot plate of Irish food to start the afternoon.
We left the pub and then headed back down the coastline toward Galway. Along the way we stopped at the coastline part of the Barren. You'd recognize the rocky cliffs and ground if you saw them. We had another 30 minutes to walk around and take pictures. It was so gorgeous. You could get right up to the edge of the cliffs here. Which I did. Of course I got vertigo, but it was such an awesome view. You could see all the way out to the Cliffs of Moher, the Atlantic ocean stretched for miles in front of us, and the Aran Islands seemed like they were only a stones throw away. Once we hopped back on the bus, we drove another 45 minutes and made our final pit stop at the Doolin Castle. We got to walk right up to it. It was great. The surrounding area was magnificent. It just felt like Ireland. It was the prime example of what Ireland is supposed to look like.
After we returned we waited for just about 15 minutes and then caught the 6:05 bus back to Limerick. It was the bus ride from hell. A two our journey turned into nearly a 4 hour journey because of an accident. The roads are so tiny that it's hard to clear a lane after an accident. So essentially they just kept letting each side take turns. We waited for about an hour and a half in stand still traffic.
This weekend was a great experience. I definitely want to go back to Galway again before I leave. I'm excited to take my friends and Emily there to show them all that Ireland has to offer.
Before this weekend I really didn't feel connected to Ireland. I didn't really know what to expect. Would it be green? Would it be as amazing as people say it is? Would I fall in love with Ireland?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Ireland did not dissapoint.
I can't wait to see more!
31 January 2010
30 January 2010
With or without you...With or without you ahhhoh
Ok so, I didn't write last night because it was a long night.
Every other Thursday night at the Stables, our big pub on campus, they have late nights. The pub is open until 2, there's a live band, it's good craic (fun).
Ok so I had stuff I wanted to say yesterday and then never got to.
So to begin, no one wears headphones to class here. It's like a 20 minute walk onto campus from some areas, and all these kids just walk. No headphones in. In the states, everyone has headphones in. It's so weird. I think I'm usually the only person I see listening to an Ipod.
Yesterday for lunch I had a chicken, lettuce tomato, and butter sandwich. I wanted mayo, but apparently butter and mayonnaise sound exactly alike over here, because when I said, "I'd like may" she started spreading butter. I'm just going to start saying the opposite when ordering food, and then maybe I'll get the right thing. It actually wasn't half bad, but I'm pretty sure all my arteries are now clogged. Butter on sandwiches is big over here. Ham and cheese sandwich, they'll ask if you want butter. PB&J, they'll ask if you want butter. It's ridiculous. Also, corn is big on sandwiches. This is the 3rd day in a row I've seen people get sandwiches on rolls, ham or turkey, whatever, and get corn on it as well. It's just odd. Apparently the big sandwich over here is tuna and corn. Maybe I'll try it?
So after class last night, I just came back to the apartment and hung out. Pierre and Jeremie came back with a 24 pack of Stella, and we drank that for a little. Theo joined us, wearing the same shirt as always. I found out Theodore is 27. And he is only in his 2nd year here, not his 3rd. I don't really think he did anything between that gap of high school and college though. Whatever. He of course got out his violin and played for us. He told us he has been playing violin for 18 to 20 years. Jeremie then said, "I want to know precisely how long. Zo, google zat shit." It was glorious! He's learning quickly.
Then the girls came over, we ate salad, made a pizza. Theodore goes crazy after like 2 beers. You can't control him. Then he shook up a can of Guinness and that pretty much ended up a disaster. So after calming him down, we went out to the Stables for late night. They had a live band playing last night called "Naked Beer." They were really good. They played a ton of popular stuff; Beyonce (yeah, it was good), U2, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse. It was great! So we had some pints and danced the night away to "Naked Beer."
Seeing as how I don't have Friday classes, I woke up at 11:30, got ready and then at 3 Jess, Katie, Kara and I decided to go into town. After waiting 30 minutes for the bus, Jess and I finally got on at our stop. So then the bus goes through campus and picks up people at a main bus stop. That's where Katie and Kara were going to get on. So we roll up, and the sidewalk is packed. We saw Katie and Kara for a split second and then they vanished. The next time we saw them was as they waved to us as the bus pulled away. So Jess and I headed off without them. We got into the city, took some pictures, looked around in the Munster Rugby store for awhile. I bought a green Irish National Rugby Team jersey. It's pretty sweet. Then finally Kara and Katie showed up and we hopped next door to eat at "Eddie Rockets." This was basically the equivalent of "Johnny Rockets." So I ordered a BLT and a coke. Of course the coke came out warm. And the BLT was less than appetizing. Bacon is not crisp over here. It's flappy, and almost half cooked? Either way, it was not a very good BLT. So then the girls went grocery shopping and we caught the bus back to the university.
Tonight a couple of us went out the Stables, but we ended up staying for like half an hour because we have to get up early tomorrow.
I decided that instead of staying here this weekend to do my laundry, which I really need to soon, I'm gonna go to Galway. That's why I'm here, to see this place. I didn't get signed up for the trip through the International Club, so I ordered a taxi to pick me up this morning at 7:45, and then I'm going to take the 8:25 bus out of Limerick to Galway. By myself. Whatever. It's gonna be like 15 Euros. It's a 2 hour bus ride. It shouldn't be too bad. I just packed my backpack with some underwear and toiletries. It's only a one night stay. And I have no idea where I'm staying either. I'll probably just crash on the floor in someones room who actually got a spot on the trip. Then on Sunday a bus leaves every hour to return to Limerick, so I'll probably leave Galway at around 4 or 5. Transportation is going to cost me about 30 Euros, but I won't have to pay for a hotel room which should be good. I plan to take a ton of pictures, so I got my batteries charging now.
I won't be able to post tomorrow because I won't be around a computer at all. But I'll be back on Sunday night and I'll put up pictures from the last few days, etc.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Every other Thursday night at the Stables, our big pub on campus, they have late nights. The pub is open until 2, there's a live band, it's good craic (fun).
Ok so I had stuff I wanted to say yesterday and then never got to.
So to begin, no one wears headphones to class here. It's like a 20 minute walk onto campus from some areas, and all these kids just walk. No headphones in. In the states, everyone has headphones in. It's so weird. I think I'm usually the only person I see listening to an Ipod.
Yesterday for lunch I had a chicken, lettuce tomato, and butter sandwich. I wanted mayo, but apparently butter and mayonnaise sound exactly alike over here, because when I said, "I'd like may" she started spreading butter. I'm just going to start saying the opposite when ordering food, and then maybe I'll get the right thing. It actually wasn't half bad, but I'm pretty sure all my arteries are now clogged. Butter on sandwiches is big over here. Ham and cheese sandwich, they'll ask if you want butter. PB&J, they'll ask if you want butter. It's ridiculous. Also, corn is big on sandwiches. This is the 3rd day in a row I've seen people get sandwiches on rolls, ham or turkey, whatever, and get corn on it as well. It's just odd. Apparently the big sandwich over here is tuna and corn. Maybe I'll try it?
So after class last night, I just came back to the apartment and hung out. Pierre and Jeremie came back with a 24 pack of Stella, and we drank that for a little. Theo joined us, wearing the same shirt as always. I found out Theodore is 27. And he is only in his 2nd year here, not his 3rd. I don't really think he did anything between that gap of high school and college though. Whatever. He of course got out his violin and played for us. He told us he has been playing violin for 18 to 20 years. Jeremie then said, "I want to know precisely how long. Zo, google zat shit." It was glorious! He's learning quickly.
Then the girls came over, we ate salad, made a pizza. Theodore goes crazy after like 2 beers. You can't control him. Then he shook up a can of Guinness and that pretty much ended up a disaster. So after calming him down, we went out to the Stables for late night. They had a live band playing last night called "Naked Beer." They were really good. They played a ton of popular stuff; Beyonce (yeah, it was good), U2, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse. It was great! So we had some pints and danced the night away to "Naked Beer."
Seeing as how I don't have Friday classes, I woke up at 11:30, got ready and then at 3 Jess, Katie, Kara and I decided to go into town. After waiting 30 minutes for the bus, Jess and I finally got on at our stop. So then the bus goes through campus and picks up people at a main bus stop. That's where Katie and Kara were going to get on. So we roll up, and the sidewalk is packed. We saw Katie and Kara for a split second and then they vanished. The next time we saw them was as they waved to us as the bus pulled away. So Jess and I headed off without them. We got into the city, took some pictures, looked around in the Munster Rugby store for awhile. I bought a green Irish National Rugby Team jersey. It's pretty sweet. Then finally Kara and Katie showed up and we hopped next door to eat at "Eddie Rockets." This was basically the equivalent of "Johnny Rockets." So I ordered a BLT and a coke. Of course the coke came out warm. And the BLT was less than appetizing. Bacon is not crisp over here. It's flappy, and almost half cooked? Either way, it was not a very good BLT. So then the girls went grocery shopping and we caught the bus back to the university.
Tonight a couple of us went out the Stables, but we ended up staying for like half an hour because we have to get up early tomorrow.
I decided that instead of staying here this weekend to do my laundry, which I really need to soon, I'm gonna go to Galway. That's why I'm here, to see this place. I didn't get signed up for the trip through the International Club, so I ordered a taxi to pick me up this morning at 7:45, and then I'm going to take the 8:25 bus out of Limerick to Galway. By myself. Whatever. It's gonna be like 15 Euros. It's a 2 hour bus ride. It shouldn't be too bad. I just packed my backpack with some underwear and toiletries. It's only a one night stay. And I have no idea where I'm staying either. I'll probably just crash on the floor in someones room who actually got a spot on the trip. Then on Sunday a bus leaves every hour to return to Limerick, so I'll probably leave Galway at around 4 or 5. Transportation is going to cost me about 30 Euros, but I won't have to pay for a hotel room which should be good. I plan to take a ton of pictures, so I got my batteries charging now.
I won't be able to post tomorrow because I won't be around a computer at all. But I'll be back on Sunday night and I'll put up pictures from the last few days, etc.
Have a good weekend everyone!
27 January 2010
I've seen better days
Eh, not sure how long this blog will be.
I'm just really stressing out right now. This whole Teach For America thing has me really upset. I don't want to do anything. All I want to do is call overseas and get everything straightened out. I'm in limbo thousands of miles away. I have no idea what's going on right now. I got an email back today saying, we are contacting your region to discuss your options. What options? Me being denied from the program, me not being able to participate, me having to reapply next year? I just want to know what's going on! This is my future! This job means so much to me. The night I got accepted, I felt at peace. I could stop worrying about whether I got in or not, and I could just enjoy my time here. Now, I'm playing email tag with tons of people who expect me to respond right away, but because of the time difference, it takes away my nights. If someone emails me at 3, it's 8 here. It's just really bummin me out. At this point I just want to know whether my position is safe. That's it. I emailed TFA to ask them if they can just give me that. Am I still in the Corps? Am I still going to be part of this organization? If they said yes, you can attend training but may have to wait a little longer to be hired, I'm fine with that. Honestly at this point, I don't know what to tell people. I guess I'm 50% in? I don't know what to think? I just really don't.
And if you want to know why I'm in limbo, basically the story is...
So I went over to Spar, grabbed a sandwich and a coke and ate some lunch. I decided to watch some TV since I hadn't seen anything in a long time. I somehow came across Nickelodeon and watched an hours worth of Sponge Bob. It was good. TV in general is throwing me off over here. I'm still not used to new episodes being aired later in the week because of copyright from the US and what not. For example, new episodes of the Simpsons air on like Wednesday nights. The girls watched a new episode of Greys Anatomy and Desperate Housewives last night, Tuesday. New episodes of Modern Family air on Thursday, House and 24 on like Wednesday nights. Everything is a couple days behind. It's still cool to see those shows though.
While I was eating Theodore came in to make tea or something. Pants missing, as usual. So he sits down and starts to talk to me. He decided to tell me a joke that is really big in Greece. It took him some time to say it in English, but here's what I got of it. There was a man in a Casino on a ship. The guy starts hiding cards up his sleeves. There's a parrot that's also near the table, squawking about it. "He's hiding an ace, he's hiding an ace!" So then he starts hiding another card. The parrot again tells on the man again. Then the man hides yet one more card, and the parrot again yells about it. Then the ship randomly crashes into an iceberg and sinks. The only two survivors are the man and the parrot. After waiting several hours in the water, the parrot says to the man, "Where are ya hiding the ship." It didn't quite come across like that when he told it to me, but I think that's what he meant.
So after my boring afternoon I went to class. We got out early again. Then we went to hang out in the cafeteria and waste an hour before we had to sign up for a trip to Cork in February. The study abroad office arranged 3 trips for us, but they are first come first serve and you had to be top 50 for the trip we wanted. I was #50 in line. Thank God we got there when we did. I also don't know if I'm going to Dublin this weekend anymore. I just think it may be awkward. Plus I want to hang out with my friends who are going to Galway. The trip to Galway sign-ups were last night and I missed them because I was at practice. I skipped practice tonight so I could get to this sign-up. But the club that is hosting the Galway trip has booked rooms for more students as long as we can find our own ride there and back, so I'm gonna hop a bus I think early Saturday morning. Since all my friends are going to Galway, they may not want to return. And I want to see that. I'll see Dublin enough.
Also, Emily booked her tickets for Ireland last night! However, she's showing up May 6th, Thursday, of the week we don't have any classes. I wish she read this blog so she could have came earlier and we could have traveled more. I have finals all the next week so we are stuck in Limerick. And I mean stuck. It's in the middle of nowhere. Oh well.
After sign-ups we ate at Subway, talked for a little while and then returned to our apartments. I hate drinks in Europe. I ordered a drink from the lady. She asked if I wanted a drink, I said yes. Mind you, I didn't say what I wanted to drink. I just said I'd like a drink. She starts pouring me a coke and says, what do you want. I was like, "I guess a coke now," as she is sliding it to me over the counter. Thanks for the options communist Russia. Not only did I not have a choice, but there was again no ice (I hate that) and it was filled up 3 quarters of the way. Not even remotely close to the top. She did the same to my friend Neal from Canada, and he asked if she could top it off, she told him they can't do that. Makes nooooo sense to me. But little here does.
Just an update on Jeremie's English. Today we taught him a couple new phrases. A few days ago the girls taught him "chivalrous," so he's getting very good at that. Also over the past couple days I have taught him "nap" and "power nap." He's getting really good at the understanding of both. Nap is longer than an hour, power nap is 15-20 minutes. I've also taught him, "chilly" (As in, "It's chilly outside) and "nippy." I broke it down into stages for him. "Nippy" is the first level of cold, then it starts getting "chilly" outside, and then it's just "cold." We also taught him "soaked," "damp," and "drenched" today. He wanted to know what to say when his clothing got wet. We told him "damp" is just a little wet, and "soaked" and "drenched" are extremely wet. I also taught him, "That's what she said." He's been working on it. I have a feeling he's gonna be a pro in no time.
Now I'm on here writing this. I had to come back here to play email tag again so I didn't go out tonight. Plus it's a Wednesday. Like, it just stinks here. If you aren't a big drinker, there is nothing to do. It's not like I'm in Dublin, London, or Paris. Those kids can just go out into the city and walk around and see the sites. There are no sites here, and the closest city is a half an hour away. Limerick at night isn't what you'd call a great time. There are two night clubs and a couple of pubs. Oh, and they all close at around 11:30. Yeah, that's pm. Everything closes so early around here. I just want to get off this campus but it's damn near impossible to do. I just wish this city was bigger, and I wish we lived closer to the city. We are a 30 to 40 minute walk outside the city. Buses stop running pretty early. Taxi service gets expensive. I just need everything to get straightened out or else I'm really going to start hating everything over here. I feel like everyone was expecting these wonderful stories of travel and site seeing, but where I'm at is far from it.
Oh well, I need to start looking up bus tickets for Saturday.
Goodnight.
I'm just really stressing out right now. This whole Teach For America thing has me really upset. I don't want to do anything. All I want to do is call overseas and get everything straightened out. I'm in limbo thousands of miles away. I have no idea what's going on right now. I got an email back today saying, we are contacting your region to discuss your options. What options? Me being denied from the program, me not being able to participate, me having to reapply next year? I just want to know what's going on! This is my future! This job means so much to me. The night I got accepted, I felt at peace. I could stop worrying about whether I got in or not, and I could just enjoy my time here. Now, I'm playing email tag with tons of people who expect me to respond right away, but because of the time difference, it takes away my nights. If someone emails me at 3, it's 8 here. It's just really bummin me out. At this point I just want to know whether my position is safe. That's it. I emailed TFA to ask them if they can just give me that. Am I still in the Corps? Am I still going to be part of this organization? If they said yes, you can attend training but may have to wait a little longer to be hired, I'm fine with that. Honestly at this point, I don't know what to tell people. I guess I'm 50% in? I don't know what to think? I just really don't.
And if you want to know why I'm in limbo, basically the story is...
- TFA training starts June 13th. They need a letter saying I will definitely be graduating in August. That's it, one letter stating that.
- PSU refuses to give me a letter until after June 14th when my grades from Limerick come in.
- Some idiot in the registrars office told me this fall that I'd officially be graduated by late July early August.
- I told TFA that.
- Turns out, I'm officially graduated August 14th.
- TFA needs me to be graduated by late July early August.
- Now I'm in limbo, waiting to see if I still have a job or not.
- Thanks PSU registrars office for never having your facts straight, and refusing to help students in need!
So I went over to Spar, grabbed a sandwich and a coke and ate some lunch. I decided to watch some TV since I hadn't seen anything in a long time. I somehow came across Nickelodeon and watched an hours worth of Sponge Bob. It was good. TV in general is throwing me off over here. I'm still not used to new episodes being aired later in the week because of copyright from the US and what not. For example, new episodes of the Simpsons air on like Wednesday nights. The girls watched a new episode of Greys Anatomy and Desperate Housewives last night, Tuesday. New episodes of Modern Family air on Thursday, House and 24 on like Wednesday nights. Everything is a couple days behind. It's still cool to see those shows though.
While I was eating Theodore came in to make tea or something. Pants missing, as usual. So he sits down and starts to talk to me. He decided to tell me a joke that is really big in Greece. It took him some time to say it in English, but here's what I got of it. There was a man in a Casino on a ship. The guy starts hiding cards up his sleeves. There's a parrot that's also near the table, squawking about it. "He's hiding an ace, he's hiding an ace!" So then he starts hiding another card. The parrot again tells on the man again. Then the man hides yet one more card, and the parrot again yells about it. Then the ship randomly crashes into an iceberg and sinks. The only two survivors are the man and the parrot. After waiting several hours in the water, the parrot says to the man, "Where are ya hiding the ship." It didn't quite come across like that when he told it to me, but I think that's what he meant.
So after my boring afternoon I went to class. We got out early again. Then we went to hang out in the cafeteria and waste an hour before we had to sign up for a trip to Cork in February. The study abroad office arranged 3 trips for us, but they are first come first serve and you had to be top 50 for the trip we wanted. I was #50 in line. Thank God we got there when we did. I also don't know if I'm going to Dublin this weekend anymore. I just think it may be awkward. Plus I want to hang out with my friends who are going to Galway. The trip to Galway sign-ups were last night and I missed them because I was at practice. I skipped practice tonight so I could get to this sign-up. But the club that is hosting the Galway trip has booked rooms for more students as long as we can find our own ride there and back, so I'm gonna hop a bus I think early Saturday morning. Since all my friends are going to Galway, they may not want to return. And I want to see that. I'll see Dublin enough.
Also, Emily booked her tickets for Ireland last night! However, she's showing up May 6th, Thursday, of the week we don't have any classes. I wish she read this blog so she could have came earlier and we could have traveled more. I have finals all the next week so we are stuck in Limerick. And I mean stuck. It's in the middle of nowhere. Oh well.
After sign-ups we ate at Subway, talked for a little while and then returned to our apartments. I hate drinks in Europe. I ordered a drink from the lady. She asked if I wanted a drink, I said yes. Mind you, I didn't say what I wanted to drink. I just said I'd like a drink. She starts pouring me a coke and says, what do you want. I was like, "I guess a coke now," as she is sliding it to me over the counter. Thanks for the options communist Russia. Not only did I not have a choice, but there was again no ice (I hate that) and it was filled up 3 quarters of the way. Not even remotely close to the top. She did the same to my friend Neal from Canada, and he asked if she could top it off, she told him they can't do that. Makes nooooo sense to me. But little here does.
Just an update on Jeremie's English. Today we taught him a couple new phrases. A few days ago the girls taught him "chivalrous," so he's getting very good at that. Also over the past couple days I have taught him "nap" and "power nap." He's getting really good at the understanding of both. Nap is longer than an hour, power nap is 15-20 minutes. I've also taught him, "chilly" (As in, "It's chilly outside) and "nippy." I broke it down into stages for him. "Nippy" is the first level of cold, then it starts getting "chilly" outside, and then it's just "cold." We also taught him "soaked," "damp," and "drenched" today. He wanted to know what to say when his clothing got wet. We told him "damp" is just a little wet, and "soaked" and "drenched" are extremely wet. I also taught him, "That's what she said." He's been working on it. I have a feeling he's gonna be a pro in no time.
Now I'm on here writing this. I had to come back here to play email tag again so I didn't go out tonight. Plus it's a Wednesday. Like, it just stinks here. If you aren't a big drinker, there is nothing to do. It's not like I'm in Dublin, London, or Paris. Those kids can just go out into the city and walk around and see the sites. There are no sites here, and the closest city is a half an hour away. Limerick at night isn't what you'd call a great time. There are two night clubs and a couple of pubs. Oh, and they all close at around 11:30. Yeah, that's pm. Everything closes so early around here. I just want to get off this campus but it's damn near impossible to do. I just wish this city was bigger, and I wish we lived closer to the city. We are a 30 to 40 minute walk outside the city. Buses stop running pretty early. Taxi service gets expensive. I just need everything to get straightened out or else I'm really going to start hating everything over here. I feel like everyone was expecting these wonderful stories of travel and site seeing, but where I'm at is far from it.
Oh well, I need to start looking up bus tickets for Saturday.
Goodnight.
26 January 2010
Here comes the sun...
Hello everyone! It was sunny today! No fog, no rain. This is a rare occasion in Ireland. At least that's what all the locals say.
So, today started a bit rough. I got up for class at 8:50 because class starts at 10 for me on Tuesdays. It takes forever for my water to get hot, and forever for me to walk to class. So I got ready, did my thang, and then headed to class. So I walked the 20 minutes to class, got there about 10 minutes early and headed up to my room. My room is on the top floor of my building. So I get there and I enter the room. There are two Irish guys sitting in a row by themselves. The rest of the room is empty. I didn't think anything of it giving that it was 10 minutes until class and Irish kids don't do the whole class thing in a timely manner. So I get up and look out the wall of glass at the back of the room. It's amazing. You can see over the entire university into town. In the center of town you can see this huge structure standing out. It's Thomond Park, the Munster Rugby teams home stadium. It's massive on the horizon. It was great. I'll have to take a picture. Anyway, back to the story. So I look out the window for a little, then go back to my seat. I just kinda look at my watch, check the doors. Still 5 minutes, no problem. Well then the crowd starts to roll in. It took the edge off. Three guys stroll in. Two more guys stroll in. One girl walks in followed by 4 boys. I'm starting to see a pattern. Now, if you remember from yesterdays post, I said that my first class was entirely dominated by females. So upon seeing all these guys walk in I'm thinking, wow, a ton of guys must have just added this class and all the girls dropped it. It just didn't seem right. So I look around, and I look at my watch. A minute until class. Okay, something's going on. I thought I went to the wrong classroom. So I ask the kids in front of me if they could tell me what class they were here for. "Ey lad, Java programming." What the hell! I was sitting in a class about Java. I know nothing about Java. It's a drink. Coffee I think? But the computer Java, not a clue. I know Nate Swanger once pissed on Wayne Brunkhurst's Java book senior year of highschool (like that shout out Nate? I gotchu.). But yeah computers, no. So I got up and booked it out right as the professor was entering the room.
So I leave this class thinking what the hell did I do wrong. I specifically remember my schedule saying 10. In fact I saved a draft of my schedule as a text in my phone. Definitely said 10. So I went down to the international students office to see if they could help me. So I went down and talked to Jenny. So Jenny types away on her computer, yada yada, and she comes back with my info. Turns out, my class started at 11. I have absolutely no idea why I was set on it being at 10. I literally read over the schedule of courses online like 50 times (because you have to fill that much stuff out) and I swore it said 10. But I guess it didn't. So I had an hour to kill before my class. I didn't eat breakfast because I was running behind, so I decided to go grab some at this little cafe in the building. This is where I found out that cafes on campus don't accept "cards" only cash, and I couldn't buy anything cause I couldn't find an ATM. Unreal.
So I sat around for an hour listening to my ipod outside of the classroom on a bench, yeah, I'm "that" kid. And then I had class. It was boring, I can already tell it's gonna be one of those "Can't focus" classes. So after class ended some girls that I met from the states yesterday invited me to lunch with them. There is Kara from Austin/San Antonio, Amanda from New York, Kaitlin from Ohio and Danielle from Ohio. So I said why not and we went to the cafeteria on the same level. There we met Meghan from Connecticut and Erin from Arizona. So we decided to eat at Subway, which had just opened up in the University yesterday. Kids were flipping out about it. It was like they saw Jesus himself. Apparently Subway is very popular in Ireland. Who'da guessed? Also, right next door was a Starbucks, first one to open in or around Limerick. People were literally having nervous breakdowns. I overheard some Irish girls talking, and they all said the same thing. "What'sa Starboks?" "I dunt know, lyke coffeee I tink?" I guess I'm just so used to corporate America controlling everything that I don't realize that they aren't "EVERYwhere."
So it's my turn to order my sandwich. (By the way, no 5 dollar or 5 euro footlongs. What the hell?) Anyway, so I get up to order my sandwich. I get ham and turkey on Italian. The lady asks me what type of cheese I want. Without hesitation or second thought I said, "American." She gave me a blank stare and then asked me what I wanted as spread. As if she was trying to process it and then revisit it at a later date. So I tell her my spread and then she looks at the cheese again, I said "American" again. She looks at the cheese, the American cheese, and puts her hand on it with an unsure look on her face. Her body language is tense and it's one of those situations where you have no clue so you just kinda hover your hand over things like you sort of know what they want but not really. So I say "Yep that's it!" Immediately she smiles and she says, "Okay! Playn cheese lad!" I took a mental note. When in a foreign nation, it's not American cheese. Good to know. Then I got my fountain soda. There's no ice. I always forget that! God it drives me crazy! Nothing like a flat warm soda to quench your thirst. Mmmmmm.
Interesting fact of the day that I learned from Kara. We were talking about how the sun sits so low in the sky here. It sits just above the horizon the entire day then sets at like 3:30/4ish. However, she was talking to her Irish housemates and she found out that by May, the sun will not set until 11 pm! How crazy is that! The sun will be out until 11 pm! I can't believe it! It's going to spoil me. I'm going to come back to the states and be pissed when it goes down at around 9.
Speaking of the sun, it does sit very low here. You can tell. It's always cold here. Much colder than I expected. But it's not just outside, it's in every room. Constantly. In their classrooms, it's just a concrete or cinder block wall. There is hardly any heat ventilation anywhere. You have to keep your jacket on at all times here. It's annoying.
Oh, later on I attended my Irish music class. It was real simple. We sat there, got a syllabus, listened to an Irish woman talk for 10 minutes, left. Great class!
So tonight was the first ultimate frisbee practice. I didn't know what to expect. I figured, I'd go, we'd just hop right into a game like back in the states and play for 2 hours. WRONG. Very wrong! So I get there and meet a couple people immediately. They asked me where I was from and I said Penn State. They said I have a lot to live up to because apparently there was someone who played on their team last semester from PSU and he was savage. (Savage means awesome or great). It's freezing outside mind you. So everyone gathers in a circle and we begin "practice". There are about 25 people on this team. Again, I'm thinking, ok we're going to start the game. Nope. We jog a few laps around the field. Then we do all the stretching exercises I did on the cross country and track team. All of them. We don't have a coach. We just have a kid who likes fitness and frisbee. So we do all these stretches. Then we break into 4 lines. We do lead passing drills. Two lines work together. Line one has the frisbee. A guy from line runs a slant route 10 yards out and the guy in line one hits him with a pass. Then the thrower immediately takes off and runs a slant the opposite way and the guy from line 2 who now has the frisbee, throws a pass back to him. We did this for 10 to 15 minutes.
Then... we ran plays.
Yes. We ran plays at ultimate frisbee practice. I couldn't believe it. They are hardcore. We did all these plays where the guy with the frisbee is engaged and the other two do crossing routes to get open and what not. It was insane. Then we did drills in stacking formation. Basically, when a guy has the frisbee, people "stack" or line up behind one player down the field. Then they all swing out in different directions in order to get free. Almost like a stacking inbounds play you see in basketball. Either way, crazy. So after all these drills we played for an hour and a half. We played by real rules though. Seven people from each side on the field at once. Out of bounds throw ins, everything. It was pretty fun. But I have to buy cleats. Apparently all the games are played on grass, and it gets very slick. There are 5 tournaments this semester, and if we win one, we could have a chance to travel to Britain and play in the national tournament there. Apparently my team is really good, so that's be sweet.
Already this weekend, we have a tournament! There is a beginners tourney this weekend in DUBLIN! The bus leaves Friday at 5, sleep over, play all Saturday and then bar hop Saturday in Dublin. For free! The whole tournament is set up for teams all around Ireland who have new guys on the team who have never played before. I'm really excited, it should be fun.
Tonight after practice Jeremie and I had the girls over for dinner. And then they ended up making dinner for us. They cooked this awesome pasta with vegetables on top and then we topped it off with Italian dressing. It was really good. I was surprised. Nelson joined us for dinner as well. We all talked and laughed about our experiences so far. We also had to laugh as Jeremie told us that Pierre was going out again tonight. This makes it the 6th night in a row that guy has gone out drinking! Haha he is hard to keep up with. Apparently he was drinking this afternoon at like 2. Haha I love him! Jeremie and Pierre are freaking hilarious. They absolutely 100% blown every stereotype I've ever had about the French completely out of the water. I love them! I love the French! Viva la France baby! Also, over the past two days I've taught Jeremie the words, "bromance," "ballin," and "Oh snap." And, he has been saying "google that shit" non stop! It's great! We just sit here with our doors open and talk back and forth to one another. Last night I gave him a quarter, dime, nickel and penny. He was so happy! I told him I'll get him a 1$ bill. He said if he gets one, he is going to frame it and put it in his room. Haha, crazy kid.
So that's it for now. Watching American Idol on live stream right now. And Theodore is playing his violin. Tonight, he walked into the kitchen and told us "I'm coming from a crazy party man!" But he had his violin case in his hand. Sooooo, not really sure how "crazy" that party was. Who knows?
Theodore, a man of mystery.
Goodnight 'yall!
So, today started a bit rough. I got up for class at 8:50 because class starts at 10 for me on Tuesdays. It takes forever for my water to get hot, and forever for me to walk to class. So I got ready, did my thang, and then headed to class. So I walked the 20 minutes to class, got there about 10 minutes early and headed up to my room. My room is on the top floor of my building. So I get there and I enter the room. There are two Irish guys sitting in a row by themselves. The rest of the room is empty. I didn't think anything of it giving that it was 10 minutes until class and Irish kids don't do the whole class thing in a timely manner. So I get up and look out the wall of glass at the back of the room. It's amazing. You can see over the entire university into town. In the center of town you can see this huge structure standing out. It's Thomond Park, the Munster Rugby teams home stadium. It's massive on the horizon. It was great. I'll have to take a picture. Anyway, back to the story. So I look out the window for a little, then go back to my seat. I just kinda look at my watch, check the doors. Still 5 minutes, no problem. Well then the crowd starts to roll in. It took the edge off. Three guys stroll in. Two more guys stroll in. One girl walks in followed by 4 boys. I'm starting to see a pattern. Now, if you remember from yesterdays post, I said that my first class was entirely dominated by females. So upon seeing all these guys walk in I'm thinking, wow, a ton of guys must have just added this class and all the girls dropped it. It just didn't seem right. So I look around, and I look at my watch. A minute until class. Okay, something's going on. I thought I went to the wrong classroom. So I ask the kids in front of me if they could tell me what class they were here for. "Ey lad, Java programming." What the hell! I was sitting in a class about Java. I know nothing about Java. It's a drink. Coffee I think? But the computer Java, not a clue. I know Nate Swanger once pissed on Wayne Brunkhurst's Java book senior year of highschool (like that shout out Nate? I gotchu.). But yeah computers, no. So I got up and booked it out right as the professor was entering the room.
So I leave this class thinking what the hell did I do wrong. I specifically remember my schedule saying 10. In fact I saved a draft of my schedule as a text in my phone. Definitely said 10. So I went down to the international students office to see if they could help me. So I went down and talked to Jenny. So Jenny types away on her computer, yada yada, and she comes back with my info. Turns out, my class started at 11. I have absolutely no idea why I was set on it being at 10. I literally read over the schedule of courses online like 50 times (because you have to fill that much stuff out) and I swore it said 10. But I guess it didn't. So I had an hour to kill before my class. I didn't eat breakfast because I was running behind, so I decided to go grab some at this little cafe in the building. This is where I found out that cafes on campus don't accept "cards" only cash, and I couldn't buy anything cause I couldn't find an ATM. Unreal.
So I sat around for an hour listening to my ipod outside of the classroom on a bench, yeah, I'm "that" kid. And then I had class. It was boring, I can already tell it's gonna be one of those "Can't focus" classes. So after class ended some girls that I met from the states yesterday invited me to lunch with them. There is Kara from Austin/San Antonio, Amanda from New York, Kaitlin from Ohio and Danielle from Ohio. So I said why not and we went to the cafeteria on the same level. There we met Meghan from Connecticut and Erin from Arizona. So we decided to eat at Subway, which had just opened up in the University yesterday. Kids were flipping out about it. It was like they saw Jesus himself. Apparently Subway is very popular in Ireland. Who'da guessed? Also, right next door was a Starbucks, first one to open in or around Limerick. People were literally having nervous breakdowns. I overheard some Irish girls talking, and they all said the same thing. "What'sa Starboks?" "I dunt know, lyke coffeee I tink?" I guess I'm just so used to corporate America controlling everything that I don't realize that they aren't "EVERYwhere."
So it's my turn to order my sandwich. (By the way, no 5 dollar or 5 euro footlongs. What the hell?) Anyway, so I get up to order my sandwich. I get ham and turkey on Italian. The lady asks me what type of cheese I want. Without hesitation or second thought I said, "American." She gave me a blank stare and then asked me what I wanted as spread. As if she was trying to process it and then revisit it at a later date. So I tell her my spread and then she looks at the cheese again, I said "American" again. She looks at the cheese, the American cheese, and puts her hand on it with an unsure look on her face. Her body language is tense and it's one of those situations where you have no clue so you just kinda hover your hand over things like you sort of know what they want but not really. So I say "Yep that's it!" Immediately she smiles and she says, "Okay! Playn cheese lad!" I took a mental note. When in a foreign nation, it's not American cheese. Good to know. Then I got my fountain soda. There's no ice. I always forget that! God it drives me crazy! Nothing like a flat warm soda to quench your thirst. Mmmmmm.
Interesting fact of the day that I learned from Kara. We were talking about how the sun sits so low in the sky here. It sits just above the horizon the entire day then sets at like 3:30/4ish. However, she was talking to her Irish housemates and she found out that by May, the sun will not set until 11 pm! How crazy is that! The sun will be out until 11 pm! I can't believe it! It's going to spoil me. I'm going to come back to the states and be pissed when it goes down at around 9.
Speaking of the sun, it does sit very low here. You can tell. It's always cold here. Much colder than I expected. But it's not just outside, it's in every room. Constantly. In their classrooms, it's just a concrete or cinder block wall. There is hardly any heat ventilation anywhere. You have to keep your jacket on at all times here. It's annoying.
Oh, later on I attended my Irish music class. It was real simple. We sat there, got a syllabus, listened to an Irish woman talk for 10 minutes, left. Great class!
So tonight was the first ultimate frisbee practice. I didn't know what to expect. I figured, I'd go, we'd just hop right into a game like back in the states and play for 2 hours. WRONG. Very wrong! So I get there and meet a couple people immediately. They asked me where I was from and I said Penn State. They said I have a lot to live up to because apparently there was someone who played on their team last semester from PSU and he was savage. (Savage means awesome or great). It's freezing outside mind you. So everyone gathers in a circle and we begin "practice". There are about 25 people on this team. Again, I'm thinking, ok we're going to start the game. Nope. We jog a few laps around the field. Then we do all the stretching exercises I did on the cross country and track team. All of them. We don't have a coach. We just have a kid who likes fitness and frisbee. So we do all these stretches. Then we break into 4 lines. We do lead passing drills. Two lines work together. Line one has the frisbee. A guy from line runs a slant route 10 yards out and the guy in line one hits him with a pass. Then the thrower immediately takes off and runs a slant the opposite way and the guy from line 2 who now has the frisbee, throws a pass back to him. We did this for 10 to 15 minutes.
Then... we ran plays.
Yes. We ran plays at ultimate frisbee practice. I couldn't believe it. They are hardcore. We did all these plays where the guy with the frisbee is engaged and the other two do crossing routes to get open and what not. It was insane. Then we did drills in stacking formation. Basically, when a guy has the frisbee, people "stack" or line up behind one player down the field. Then they all swing out in different directions in order to get free. Almost like a stacking inbounds play you see in basketball. Either way, crazy. So after all these drills we played for an hour and a half. We played by real rules though. Seven people from each side on the field at once. Out of bounds throw ins, everything. It was pretty fun. But I have to buy cleats. Apparently all the games are played on grass, and it gets very slick. There are 5 tournaments this semester, and if we win one, we could have a chance to travel to Britain and play in the national tournament there. Apparently my team is really good, so that's be sweet.
Already this weekend, we have a tournament! There is a beginners tourney this weekend in DUBLIN! The bus leaves Friday at 5, sleep over, play all Saturday and then bar hop Saturday in Dublin. For free! The whole tournament is set up for teams all around Ireland who have new guys on the team who have never played before. I'm really excited, it should be fun.
Tonight after practice Jeremie and I had the girls over for dinner. And then they ended up making dinner for us. They cooked this awesome pasta with vegetables on top and then we topped it off with Italian dressing. It was really good. I was surprised. Nelson joined us for dinner as well. We all talked and laughed about our experiences so far. We also had to laugh as Jeremie told us that Pierre was going out again tonight. This makes it the 6th night in a row that guy has gone out drinking! Haha he is hard to keep up with. Apparently he was drinking this afternoon at like 2. Haha I love him! Jeremie and Pierre are freaking hilarious. They absolutely 100% blown every stereotype I've ever had about the French completely out of the water. I love them! I love the French! Viva la France baby! Also, over the past two days I've taught Jeremie the words, "bromance," "ballin," and "Oh snap." And, he has been saying "google that shit" non stop! It's great! We just sit here with our doors open and talk back and forth to one another. Last night I gave him a quarter, dime, nickel and penny. He was so happy! I told him I'll get him a 1$ bill. He said if he gets one, he is going to frame it and put it in his room. Haha, crazy kid.
So that's it for now. Watching American Idol on live stream right now. And Theodore is playing his violin. Tonight, he walked into the kitchen and told us "I'm coming from a crazy party man!" But he had his violin case in his hand. Sooooo, not really sure how "crazy" that party was. Who knows?
Theodore, a man of mystery.
Goodnight 'yall!
25 January 2010
"Back to School, Back to School"
I definitely do not have a case of the Monday's. I actually love this Monday. Maybe I'll love every Monday? Probably.
I'm in such a good mood because today I saw the Irish university system of education first hand... and it's glorious!
Ok, to start, I had 3 courses today; Issues in Irish Culture, European Society and Governance, and European Union. Syllabus week can be very overwhelming to students. I know that over the past 4 years of attending PSU, professors love to give out the big syllabuses that outline what is going to happen every single day, when every test will be, when you will read this, etc. You end up staring at the thing and have that immediate, "Ugh, I need to drop this" reaction. It just seems like so much work, and it's just sitting there, staring at you from the confines of it's neatly placed margins.
In Ireland... syllabus week is a joke. In one of my classes, I didn't even get a syllabus! The teacher just put where the points would be distributed on the powerpoint and described the course out loud. That was for my Issues in Irish Culture class. In my European Union course, the professor was still on holiday, so some girl passed out the syllabus for her and said, "See you next week." I was busy reading it when I heard her say it. I was honestly baffled. I looked up and looked around. Everyone was leaving. A blond Irish girl sitting a few seats down for me caught my confused eyes and laughingly said, "Haha, that's it! It's okay! You can go!" I wasn't complaining. Again in my Euro Soc. & Gov. course the professor did not show up. So a fellow teacher passed out the syllabus, joked around for 5 minutes, picked fun at us study abroad students (haha in a good way) and then let us go 20 minutes into class. Unbelievable.
This semester should only get better. There are assigned readings sometimes, but the teachers give them to you. You don't have to buy any books depending on your major. I lucked out! No quizzes or chapter tests. No short essays, presentations, group projects or online homework. No late policy, no attendance at lectures. However, all final exams are essay questions only. No multiple choice or true and false. Just essays. In my European Governance class, the final is 6 essays, choose 2. The breakdown of grading is so slanted toward the final over here. Take a look.
Here is the breakdown of grading for my Issues in Irish Culture:
Tutorial(lab) Attendance: 10% (There are 7 tutorials throughout the entire semester. You have to go to 5 in order to get the full 10%. Tutorials last 50 minutes.)
Tutorial Exercises: 10% (Before every tutorial, she's going to give us a journal article to read and we have to respond in a paragraph or two what we think of it.)
Annotated Bibliography: 40% (She's giving us all the sources.)
Final Exam: 40% (Answer 4 essay questions)
Wow. Pretty straight forward. This course may be my hardest one. The other two courses I had today base grades off of a final exam, one essay of 2,000 words, and tutorial work.
My days of homework are pretty much over.
Tomorrow I will start my Irish Music course, but I know that will be cake. The guy who teaches the course came in and spoke to us at orientation. As long as we show up to class, we get an A. Sounds good to me. And apparently Irish Folklore, which I start on Thursday, is 2 hours of story time with a test at the end of the course. I really hope this is true. I'm gonna bring popcorn and a pillow to class if this it is like that.
As I sat in Irish Culture today I noticed that I was basically the only guy in there. I tried to count and there were around 7 guys out of probably 40 or 50 people. A very female dominated class. It wasn't just that class though, it was every class. Every course I attended today seemed to have rows and rows of girls with a few lads thrown here and there. I didn't notice this lopsided demographic walking around today, so maybe it's just the courses I'm in?
After my second class, (the one that ended after 5 minutes) I ran into Pierre and Jeremie. We went back to our village, grabbed a bite to eat at Spar, and sat around talking until our class together at 1. I met Pierre's roommates Melissa and Patty(a guy). Guys and girls live together in the same apartment here. Both of them were very nice Irish natives. I didn't have a chance to speak to them for long, but Patty is studying business and Melissa was telling me that she lived with a girl from Pennsylvania last year. The two of them left and for some reason Pierre and I started talking about national anthems, and Pierre started to sing his. He then translated it for me, and I was surprised at how gruesome the French national anthem is. Something about army men coming to kill your wives and children, we should kill them too and fight against them. I had to laugh when he told me this, because so many people complain about how terrible and warlike our national anthem is. Until we have men chopping up babies and women in our national anthem I'm pretty sure there's no need to change it. We then somehow started talking about rock and roll I think, and I asked Pierre if he knew "Sweet Home Alabama." There's nothing cooler than listening to a French guy sing that song. As soon as I said it Pierre yelled, "Ah, Lynard Skynard!" And then we both agreed that Kid Rock did a pretty decent job taking the rhythm of that song and turning it into his own.
So we went to class, stayed for 20 minutes and then left. On our way back Pierre shouted, "You want to av a beer?" Jeremie immediately started laughing and said no. I also declined. Pierre was like, "Ah, come on man! You think I'm crazay now, I'm just getting warmed up!" Jeremie then told Pierre that "Every time iz beer time for you." Haha, I just can't continue to drink beer randomly throughout the day. I think I'm kinda beered out for the week. That happens when you have a friend who comes over at 1 in the afternoon and asks if you'd like a beer, and then maybe in the evening, and then wants you to go to the bar with him. Haha, I can't keep up with him!
So tonight I stayed in and made pasta for Jeremie and I. It was pretty good.
Now I'm playing email tag with about 10 people trying to figure out when I actually graduate because....
I may not be able to be in Teach For America now.
Yeah, you need to have a degree by the hiring process in late July/early August. I won't have mine until middle of August. Great! I finally get something amazing and I may not even be able to do it. To add the awesome cherry on top of the entire situation, I'm in a foreign country, thousands of miles away, 5 hours ahead of US business hours, trying to meet people but can't because I have to constantly check email, and I can't call the US. This whole situation sucks.
Goodnight.
I'm in such a good mood because today I saw the Irish university system of education first hand... and it's glorious!
Ok, to start, I had 3 courses today; Issues in Irish Culture, European Society and Governance, and European Union. Syllabus week can be very overwhelming to students. I know that over the past 4 years of attending PSU, professors love to give out the big syllabuses that outline what is going to happen every single day, when every test will be, when you will read this, etc. You end up staring at the thing and have that immediate, "Ugh, I need to drop this" reaction. It just seems like so much work, and it's just sitting there, staring at you from the confines of it's neatly placed margins.
In Ireland... syllabus week is a joke. In one of my classes, I didn't even get a syllabus! The teacher just put where the points would be distributed on the powerpoint and described the course out loud. That was for my Issues in Irish Culture class. In my European Union course, the professor was still on holiday, so some girl passed out the syllabus for her and said, "See you next week." I was busy reading it when I heard her say it. I was honestly baffled. I looked up and looked around. Everyone was leaving. A blond Irish girl sitting a few seats down for me caught my confused eyes and laughingly said, "Haha, that's it! It's okay! You can go!" I wasn't complaining. Again in my Euro Soc. & Gov. course the professor did not show up. So a fellow teacher passed out the syllabus, joked around for 5 minutes, picked fun at us study abroad students (haha in a good way) and then let us go 20 minutes into class. Unbelievable.
This semester should only get better. There are assigned readings sometimes, but the teachers give them to you. You don't have to buy any books depending on your major. I lucked out! No quizzes or chapter tests. No short essays, presentations, group projects or online homework. No late policy, no attendance at lectures. However, all final exams are essay questions only. No multiple choice or true and false. Just essays. In my European Governance class, the final is 6 essays, choose 2. The breakdown of grading is so slanted toward the final over here. Take a look.
Here is the breakdown of grading for my Issues in Irish Culture:
Tutorial(lab) Attendance: 10% (There are 7 tutorials throughout the entire semester. You have to go to 5 in order to get the full 10%. Tutorials last 50 minutes.)
Tutorial Exercises: 10% (Before every tutorial, she's going to give us a journal article to read and we have to respond in a paragraph or two what we think of it.)
Annotated Bibliography: 40% (She's giving us all the sources.)
Final Exam: 40% (Answer 4 essay questions)
Wow. Pretty straight forward. This course may be my hardest one. The other two courses I had today base grades off of a final exam, one essay of 2,000 words, and tutorial work.
My days of homework are pretty much over.
Tomorrow I will start my Irish Music course, but I know that will be cake. The guy who teaches the course came in and spoke to us at orientation. As long as we show up to class, we get an A. Sounds good to me. And apparently Irish Folklore, which I start on Thursday, is 2 hours of story time with a test at the end of the course. I really hope this is true. I'm gonna bring popcorn and a pillow to class if this it is like that.
As I sat in Irish Culture today I noticed that I was basically the only guy in there. I tried to count and there were around 7 guys out of probably 40 or 50 people. A very female dominated class. It wasn't just that class though, it was every class. Every course I attended today seemed to have rows and rows of girls with a few lads thrown here and there. I didn't notice this lopsided demographic walking around today, so maybe it's just the courses I'm in?
After my second class, (the one that ended after 5 minutes) I ran into Pierre and Jeremie. We went back to our village, grabbed a bite to eat at Spar, and sat around talking until our class together at 1. I met Pierre's roommates Melissa and Patty(a guy). Guys and girls live together in the same apartment here. Both of them were very nice Irish natives. I didn't have a chance to speak to them for long, but Patty is studying business and Melissa was telling me that she lived with a girl from Pennsylvania last year. The two of them left and for some reason Pierre and I started talking about national anthems, and Pierre started to sing his. He then translated it for me, and I was surprised at how gruesome the French national anthem is. Something about army men coming to kill your wives and children, we should kill them too and fight against them. I had to laugh when he told me this, because so many people complain about how terrible and warlike our national anthem is. Until we have men chopping up babies and women in our national anthem I'm pretty sure there's no need to change it. We then somehow started talking about rock and roll I think, and I asked Pierre if he knew "Sweet Home Alabama." There's nothing cooler than listening to a French guy sing that song. As soon as I said it Pierre yelled, "Ah, Lynard Skynard!" And then we both agreed that Kid Rock did a pretty decent job taking the rhythm of that song and turning it into his own.
So we went to class, stayed for 20 minutes and then left. On our way back Pierre shouted, "You want to av a beer?" Jeremie immediately started laughing and said no. I also declined. Pierre was like, "Ah, come on man! You think I'm crazay now, I'm just getting warmed up!" Jeremie then told Pierre that "Every time iz beer time for you." Haha, I just can't continue to drink beer randomly throughout the day. I think I'm kinda beered out for the week. That happens when you have a friend who comes over at 1 in the afternoon and asks if you'd like a beer, and then maybe in the evening, and then wants you to go to the bar with him. Haha, I can't keep up with him!
So tonight I stayed in and made pasta for Jeremie and I. It was pretty good.
Now I'm playing email tag with about 10 people trying to figure out when I actually graduate because....
I may not be able to be in Teach For America now.
Yeah, you need to have a degree by the hiring process in late July/early August. I won't have mine until middle of August. Great! I finally get something amazing and I may not even be able to do it. To add the awesome cherry on top of the entire situation, I'm in a foreign country, thousands of miles away, 5 hours ahead of US business hours, trying to meet people but can't because I have to constantly check email, and I can't call the US. This whole situation sucks.
Goodnight.
24 January 2010
Lazy Sunday
Hello everybody!
Happy Sunday! Today, I did absolutely nothing for the first time since I've been here in Ireland. It was really nice to just kind of lounge around in the apartment all day and wear my sweatpants. You have to wear them inside here, cause if you wear them out, people call you a "Knacker." This basically means, "Trailer Trash." People here dress up to go everywhere. I have to put jeans on to walk a half minute to the store just so someone doesn't laugh at me or mock me. It's a hard life.
So, today I "picked" my courses. Remember, I have a two week period to basically bail on any of these courses without even letting the professor know. I like what I have though, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with my courses. I needed 1 art, 1 humanities, a 400 level course and some kind of cultural course. I'm going to get everything I need. Seats don't fill up over here. There's no panic to schedule courses, or courses that have no room left. You always get what you want.
So basically, here is what my schedule looks like:
As you can see, I'm taking 5 classes, plus playing a sport. No classes before 9. Be jealous fellow Nittany lions. All classes like I said, end at 6. Then my sport starts at 6 or 6:30 depending on the day. The courses in color are my core 5 classes, and the times they regularly meet. The boxes in white with red writing are tutorial days that I am thinking about taking. I only take one tutorial for each class. The boxes in white with black writing are tutorials set in stone because it is the only time I can go to them. Also, notice how I have no classes on Friday. Awesome! I did that for traveling purposes.
So here are my course descriptions:
HI4082 Europe: Society and Governance
HIS 2-1-0
War, revolution, restoration 1914-24;
democracy/dictatorship and war 1924-44;
American money and reconstruction;
decadent decade? depression and sobriety;
political mobilisation and violence; authority
restored; conservatism/fascism/Stalinism; the
twenty-year crisis: international relations; the
Nazi new order and total war; Holocaust;
reconstruction and Cold War; 1945: Europe’s
‘zero hour’? re-establishing order: the
European economy and culture; the ‘second
sex’: youth, political protest and cultural revolt;
the post-post war society and state; rebuilding
the European house: Thatcher and Gorbachev;
race, ethnicity, and memory; after the Wall: the
return of ‘Europe’.
GA4105 Irish Folklore 1
LCS 2-2-0
An introduction to Irish folklore with special
reference to the following areas: definitions
of folklore; folklore collection and
classification; verbal arts and minor genres;
story telling and narrative genres; indigenous
and international tale-types in Ireland;
traditional custom and belief including
calendar customs. A case study in folklore
collection based on field recordings made in
county Limerick in 1980.
MU4136/MD4022 Irish Traditional Music, Song and
Dance
Regional styles in instrumental and vocal tradition;
Irish song tradition - repertoire and style; tradition
and change in the music of the Irish harp; traditional
music and society in contemporary Ireland.
Practical instruction in traditional music, dance, and
/ or song performance. This module will be taught
as a beginner’s module for students attending in
Spring semester only.
SO4016/4096 Issues in Contemporary Irish
Society*
SOC 2-1-0
Power, control and legitimacy in Irish Society;
social differentiation, exclusion and
marginalisation; social control and social conflict;
ideology-dominant and submerged discourses;
the nature and reality of consent and resistance.
PO4015 Government and Politics of the EU
PPA 2-1-0
Examines the development of the European
Union as a political system from the aftermath
of the second World War onwards; the
institutional system of the EU including decisionmaking
procedures; the policies of the EU and
their effects on member states; the ongoing
debate on institutional reform and the question
of a European Constitution.
A few politics and Irish culture courses. It should be fun. And the two European politics courses will probably just be a refresher from the stuff I did sophomore year. I'll have European Society and Government with Pierre and Jeremie, so I'm excited about that, and I'll have Irish Folklore and music with the Penn State girls! It should be a fun semester!
Also, if you want to find out more about the frisbee team I'm joining, just follow this link to their page. It's great to actually see an organized frisbee team that plays other schools!
http://ul-ultimate.110mb.com/main.php
Tonight, around 5, Pierre and Jeremie came back to the house bearing gifts! Ya see, I forgot to pack a towel. So, I've been drying off with t-shirts after I take a shower. It's terrible, because they get soaked immediately and the bathroom is probably the coldest place in the house. It's all concrete and tile, and the heater is broken. So I've been freezing. Earlier today I asked Jeremie if he had one, and he said yes, and he would wash them for me tonight. What a great guy! But, upon their return, Pierre brings me back a towel! Haha, he told me, "I heard about your troubles. I had an extra. Don not worry about it." What great friends! I'm sure Pierre won't forget about the gesture though, and I won't either. The towel has Pierre emroiderd in cursive across the top! Haha.
So after giving me a towel, the two invited me for a drink upstairs. We sat around the kitchen table and drank Kilkenny Ale. Verrrry thick, but good nonetheless. We chatted about our schedules and Jeremie got out Nutella and bread. I have never had a Nutella sandwich before, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Nutella on white bread is amazing. Probably gonna be my new snack from now on. So I had a beer and a Nutella sandwich for "dinner" as the two of them joke. They find it so funny that we eat between 5 and 6 in the states. They can't believe it.
As we talked we got on the topic of school and research. They told me that in France, they use Wikipedia for everything. Literally every citation within a paper is Wikipedia. I was floored. I told them that in the States, it isn't a legitimate source, and we can't use it. They told me in France, they don't care. They can also use Google as a legitimate source too. I then told them that in America, we have the term, "Google that shit", whenever someone cannot provide us with an answer to a question, or when two people are having an argument about something. Hopefully it sticks with them!
I found it interesting that they've never heard of Gatorade. Not very important, but I just thought it was crazy.
Tonight we went to the Stables and had a pint. They played the Colts and Jets game on a projector screen. It was kinda blurry but it was still football! It was great. We ordered Domino's to the bar and then ate there. It was a fun evening.
Now, all the Irish kids are returning to campus now. It's gotten so much louder. It's literally like a Friday or Saturday night at State College here right now. Music blaring, someone has a megaphone, and I walked by 4 guys sitting on a couch outside drinking beer. I'm really shocked at how immature the majority of kids living around me are though. If you stood outside the dorms at an American college and shouted, "MARCO" on the top of your lungs for a good 15 minutes, someone would yell at you or tell you to shut up. You would be deemed immature. My friends would probably say, "You were the man in highschool." Thing is, here, they'd take that as a compliment. It's cool to be loud and immature, yelling "MARCO" for 15 minutes in the courtyard. Like some girl has been doing for the last 15 minutes. Not like this in the US at all. Very annoying. I'm now listening to some kid yell at this girl (in joking) from 2 apartment complexes down. I know it gets crazy when everyone returns after break, but these people would get a verbal ass kicking if they went to Penn State and yelled the way they are. I'm tempted to walk out and say, "I remember my first time returning to college after a long break."
The culture over here is just so different. Even the biggest party animals in the states know when it's time to study. Over here, not the case. They take pride in slacking off. It's like their thing. Classes start tomorrow and everyone is flipping out. As I walked home tonight, there was a girl walking toward me in a dress holding a cocktail in her hand. A car comes slowly by us and a guy yells out of his car, "I'm gonna rape you!!!! Tonight you're getting raped!" And then they proceed on. I was shocked. Like in the US, you don't joke about that. You don't just tell a girl you're going to rape her. And the girl didn't even look or flynch. Like it happens all the time. Just blows my mind.
So I guess I am going to get ready for bed because I have to wake up early tomorrow so I can have extra time to find my classes. Ugh, school.
Alright, take care everyone.
Hopefully you don't have to fall asleep to the sound of a guy yelling "Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi!" over a megaphone tonight.
Happy Sunday! Today, I did absolutely nothing for the first time since I've been here in Ireland. It was really nice to just kind of lounge around in the apartment all day and wear my sweatpants. You have to wear them inside here, cause if you wear them out, people call you a "Knacker." This basically means, "Trailer Trash." People here dress up to go everywhere. I have to put jeans on to walk a half minute to the store just so someone doesn't laugh at me or mock me. It's a hard life.
So, today I "picked" my courses. Remember, I have a two week period to basically bail on any of these courses without even letting the professor know. I like what I have though, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with my courses. I needed 1 art, 1 humanities, a 400 level course and some kind of cultural course. I'm going to get everything I need. Seats don't fill up over here. There's no panic to schedule courses, or courses that have no room left. You always get what you want.
So basically, here is what my schedule looks like:
As you can see, I'm taking 5 classes, plus playing a sport. No classes before 9. Be jealous fellow Nittany lions. All classes like I said, end at 6. Then my sport starts at 6 or 6:30 depending on the day. The courses in color are my core 5 classes, and the times they regularly meet. The boxes in white with red writing are tutorial days that I am thinking about taking. I only take one tutorial for each class. The boxes in white with black writing are tutorials set in stone because it is the only time I can go to them. Also, notice how I have no classes on Friday. Awesome! I did that for traveling purposes.
So here are my course descriptions:
HI4082 Europe: Society and Governance
HIS 2-1-0
War, revolution, restoration 1914-24;
democracy/dictatorship and war 1924-44;
American money and reconstruction;
decadent decade? depression and sobriety;
political mobilisation and violence; authority
restored; conservatism/fascism/Stalinism; the
twenty-year crisis: international relations; the
Nazi new order and total war; Holocaust;
reconstruction and Cold War; 1945: Europe’s
‘zero hour’? re-establishing order: the
European economy and culture; the ‘second
sex’: youth, political protest and cultural revolt;
the post-post war society and state; rebuilding
the European house: Thatcher and Gorbachev;
race, ethnicity, and memory; after the Wall: the
return of ‘Europe’.
GA4105 Irish Folklore 1
LCS 2-2-0
An introduction to Irish folklore with special
reference to the following areas: definitions
of folklore; folklore collection and
classification; verbal arts and minor genres;
story telling and narrative genres; indigenous
and international tale-types in Ireland;
traditional custom and belief including
calendar customs. A case study in folklore
collection based on field recordings made in
county Limerick in 1980.
MU4136/MD4022 Irish Traditional Music, Song and
Dance
Regional styles in instrumental and vocal tradition;
Irish song tradition - repertoire and style; tradition
and change in the music of the Irish harp; traditional
music and society in contemporary Ireland.
Practical instruction in traditional music, dance, and
/ or song performance. This module will be taught
as a beginner’s module for students attending in
Spring semester only.
SO4016/4096 Issues in Contemporary Irish
Society*
SOC 2-1-0
Power, control and legitimacy in Irish Society;
social differentiation, exclusion and
marginalisation; social control and social conflict;
ideology-dominant and submerged discourses;
the nature and reality of consent and resistance.
PO4015 Government and Politics of the EU
PPA 2-1-0
Examines the development of the European
Union as a political system from the aftermath
of the second World War onwards; the
institutional system of the EU including decisionmaking
procedures; the policies of the EU and
their effects on member states; the ongoing
debate on institutional reform and the question
of a European Constitution.
A few politics and Irish culture courses. It should be fun. And the two European politics courses will probably just be a refresher from the stuff I did sophomore year. I'll have European Society and Government with Pierre and Jeremie, so I'm excited about that, and I'll have Irish Folklore and music with the Penn State girls! It should be a fun semester!
Also, if you want to find out more about the frisbee team I'm joining, just follow this link to their page. It's great to actually see an organized frisbee team that plays other schools!
http://ul-ultimate.110mb.com/main.php
Tonight, around 5, Pierre and Jeremie came back to the house bearing gifts! Ya see, I forgot to pack a towel. So, I've been drying off with t-shirts after I take a shower. It's terrible, because they get soaked immediately and the bathroom is probably the coldest place in the house. It's all concrete and tile, and the heater is broken. So I've been freezing. Earlier today I asked Jeremie if he had one, and he said yes, and he would wash them for me tonight. What a great guy! But, upon their return, Pierre brings me back a towel! Haha, he told me, "I heard about your troubles. I had an extra. Don not worry about it." What great friends! I'm sure Pierre won't forget about the gesture though, and I won't either. The towel has Pierre emroiderd in cursive across the top! Haha.
So after giving me a towel, the two invited me for a drink upstairs. We sat around the kitchen table and drank Kilkenny Ale. Verrrry thick, but good nonetheless. We chatted about our schedules and Jeremie got out Nutella and bread. I have never had a Nutella sandwich before, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Nutella on white bread is amazing. Probably gonna be my new snack from now on. So I had a beer and a Nutella sandwich for "dinner" as the two of them joke. They find it so funny that we eat between 5 and 6 in the states. They can't believe it.
As we talked we got on the topic of school and research. They told me that in France, they use Wikipedia for everything. Literally every citation within a paper is Wikipedia. I was floored. I told them that in the States, it isn't a legitimate source, and we can't use it. They told me in France, they don't care. They can also use Google as a legitimate source too. I then told them that in America, we have the term, "Google that shit", whenever someone cannot provide us with an answer to a question, or when two people are having an argument about something. Hopefully it sticks with them!
I found it interesting that they've never heard of Gatorade. Not very important, but I just thought it was crazy.
Tonight we went to the Stables and had a pint. They played the Colts and Jets game on a projector screen. It was kinda blurry but it was still football! It was great. We ordered Domino's to the bar and then ate there. It was a fun evening.
Now, all the Irish kids are returning to campus now. It's gotten so much louder. It's literally like a Friday or Saturday night at State College here right now. Music blaring, someone has a megaphone, and I walked by 4 guys sitting on a couch outside drinking beer. I'm really shocked at how immature the majority of kids living around me are though. If you stood outside the dorms at an American college and shouted, "MARCO" on the top of your lungs for a good 15 minutes, someone would yell at you or tell you to shut up. You would be deemed immature. My friends would probably say, "You were the man in highschool." Thing is, here, they'd take that as a compliment. It's cool to be loud and immature, yelling "MARCO" for 15 minutes in the courtyard. Like some girl has been doing for the last 15 minutes. Not like this in the US at all. Very annoying. I'm now listening to some kid yell at this girl (in joking) from 2 apartment complexes down. I know it gets crazy when everyone returns after break, but these people would get a verbal ass kicking if they went to Penn State and yelled the way they are. I'm tempted to walk out and say, "I remember my first time returning to college after a long break."
The culture over here is just so different. Even the biggest party animals in the states know when it's time to study. Over here, not the case. They take pride in slacking off. It's like their thing. Classes start tomorrow and everyone is flipping out. As I walked home tonight, there was a girl walking toward me in a dress holding a cocktail in her hand. A car comes slowly by us and a guy yells out of his car, "I'm gonna rape you!!!! Tonight you're getting raped!" And then they proceed on. I was shocked. Like in the US, you don't joke about that. You don't just tell a girl you're going to rape her. And the girl didn't even look or flynch. Like it happens all the time. Just blows my mind.
So I guess I am going to get ready for bed because I have to wake up early tomorrow so I can have extra time to find my classes. Ugh, school.
Alright, take care everyone.
Hopefully you don't have to fall asleep to the sound of a guy yelling "Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi!" over a megaphone tonight.
23 January 2010
Thick as Pea Soup
Good evening all.
It's been literally foggy all day here. Literally all day. Thick, dense fog. You can't see 20 yards in front of yourself. It's as thick as pea soup. Or peanut butter, depending on whether or not you side with Herbie or Yukon Cornelius in Rudolph.
So the last two days have been kinda hectic/boring/entertaining?
Thursday and Friday we had orientation. Thursday's orientation went from 9 AM to about 6 or 7 PM. And everyone at Penn State complains when we have orientation from 8 until 2. Suck it up.
Thursday we learned about our classes and got a tour of the campus. We also learned about GPA and how hard the classes here are. The woman who went over orientation with us basically said, "You people are all very smart, that's why you are abroad. If you'd go here, you'd all be in the top of the class." Apparently, an 80% here is very good and basically stands for an A. If you have a 3.4 GPA, it's basically first honors, and it's like making Dean's list. The woman told us that we shouldn't be too surprised if half our classes are empty the first 2 weeks here. Apparently, the Irish kids don't go to class until the 3rd week. Some don't even start going until week 7 or 8. She calls it the "trap", and basically said that students here are lazy and don't do much. This ultimately rubs off on the US kids and they start becoming slackers too. I know I have a job already but I'm not about to kill my GPA and start skipping classes etc.
Classes here are set up very weird. For starters, the first two weeks of school, as a study abroad student, we can attend as many classes as we want. So if I want to sit through 15 courses, I can. So for the first two weeks it's like renting a car. You get to test drive your courses and make sure you like them. Then after two weeks you have to finalize your schedule. It's pretty strange. The courses themselves are all lecture. Each class is 50 minutes, twice a week. Classes here don't go past 6 PM. Ever. I had quite a few 6 to 8:40 classes at PSU throughout my time there. It'll be nice to know I don't have to worry about class after 6 ever again. Along with the two lectures, you have a tutorial for each class. This lasts like an hour. Each class has a ton of tutorials throughout the week, and then you pick which one you want to attend. So basically, 5 courses, 2 lectures each, and a tutorial. So around 15 classes a week.
The coursework is much different also. Practically no homework. THANK GOD!! Also, papers are far and few between. If there are papers, it's like 3,000 words. I think I've wrote longer blog posts than that. You have around 3 or 4 quizzes a semester, but they are all outlined on the syllabus. They never give pop quizzes. The majority of the grade weighs on a single final exam at the end of the year. However, if you go to every class, you are pretty much guaranteed and A. Also, you can prepare for final exams much easier here. At the library, they save all the past final exams of every teacher, and for a couple of cents you can buy a copy of it to study. Some teachers don't even change their exams from year to year! Penn State would kill people. Haha, they also allow two weeks for final exams rather than one. However, they only let you know your schedule the week before final exams. It's not like at Penn State where you know months in advance. It's great though, because although the final exam period is two weeks, you only have exams scheduled on the second week. The first week is a "prep" week. So basically if you went to all your classes, that's a free week to relax and travel. What an idea!
Also, college here is only 3 years. Three years and you get a degree, two years and you get a diploma. If you go three years, you automatically are allowed another year which is called a Masters year. So the third year is the senior year here. I wish it was like this in the US. We have to go 4 years minimum and then tack on like 2 to 3 more for grad school. No thanks.
The campus here is huge. The buildings are very confusing. And it takes about 20 minutes to walk onto campus. I feel like a commuter student. The days of me having an hour and a half break in between class and going back to my room are gone. Now I guess I'll just go to the library and work on the little work I have? Woo.
I'm joining some clubs here though. I'm joining the international society, which was rated the best university club in all of Ireland last year. They take the students on trips all over Europe for around 10-20 Euros. Very great deals. I also plan on joining either the softball club or the ultimate frisbee club. The softball club meets at an odd time, like 2-4 on Tuesdays, so that may not happen. Ultimate Frisbee meets at 6:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday. Much smarter, schedule your club after classes. Not during. Ultimate Frisbee sounds fun though. It's actually a team. We travel to Dublin, Gallway, etc. And we host a huge tournament in the Spring here in Limerick. I'm excited for that. Oh and here, certain clubs make you pay to join. I had to pay 3 Euros just to be allowed to go to the softball team meetings. How dumb is that? Do some fundraising cheapskates.
Now I have to figure out what courses I plan on going to on Monday. We picked 10 before we came and now I have to pick my top 5. No way I'm going to 10 courses this week. Whichever classes I pick, that's it. I'm sticking with those. I'm definitely taking Irish folklore, Irish music and Issues in contemporary Irish Society. Then I'll probably take either local government, government and politics of Ireland or Issues of European Integration. I feel like the international global politics course I had is exactly like the Euro Integration class. Soooo, I may just take that for the easy A.
Tonight I'll probably just lay low and hang out with Pierre and Jeremie. Maybe grab a bite and talk for a couple hours. They are great guys.
Today I went to the store with Jeremie, and apartment hunted online. I've been looking up stuff on San Antonio all day. I'm so excited. I never thought I'd live in Texas. Not in a million years. At least now I can actually say "Don't mess with Texas" and have it personally mean something. And I can sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" as a proud Texan.
Wow, I'm legitimately going to be a "Texan". I should buy cowboy boots! I'm going to.
Also, living in San Antonio gives me the opportunity to have my parents visit. This excites me for one reason. Ya see, my Dad and I can't get enough of the movie, "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." In the movie, Pee Wee searches all over the US for his lost bike. Early in the movie, a psychic tells Pee Wee where his bike is "At the Alamo...In the basement!" So Pee Wee goes to the Alamo to find it. While there he enters a rodeo, gets knocked out, and delivers this classic line that my Dad and I quote constantly around the house:
(Fast Forward to 6:17)
Hahaha the greatest movie line ever. Now that I'll be living within minutes of the Alamo, my Dad and I have to go there and quote the movie. It also gives us an opportunity to take a tour and ask some pretty interesting questions:
Gotta love Texas.
Tomorrow night, Jets vs. Colts. I'm pumped. It's gonna be on at 8:30 PM here. I'm excited, I really hope the Jets win. So then I can say, "The Dolphins beat the Jets TWICE this year." I'm hoping for a Vikings and Jets Superbowl, just because when they hell do those teams ever make the Superbowl? Never. I'm rooting for the Vikings from here out though because my Uncle Bruce is a die hard fan. Plus Brett Favre has had such an awesome year I can't even hate the guy for his constant media dramatics anymore.
That's it for now!
Au Voir!
Edit:
Tonight I went over to Katie's for dinner. We ate spaghetti. It was really good. Then some of her roommates came back, and we somehow ended up talking about Disney movies, match.com, and conspiracy theories. After that we went over to Pierre's house and just hung out for the evening. I met this really cool new guy named Neal, from Toronto. He's actually in his third year of law school there. We talked for a couple of minutes about the law process and how it differs here in America. It's all very similar. Only in Canada, they specifically tell you not to specialize in any on type of law or else it's harder to find a job. Neal and I also talked about Toronto sports. I asked him if the Raptors were big and he told me they sell out almost every game. People in Toronto enjoy basketball. I then asked him about baseball and he said they get good crowds on ticket special nights. So if they advertise a game that has $10 tickets and beer specials, they'll get 40,000+ fans. If not, it's around 15,000. He also told me he was a huge Dolphins fan! At this point we did the manly double high five. He said he hates how Toronto is trying to take the Bills from Buffalo. He said the fan base isn't there and they'll probably flop if they move the Bills there. If the US. and Canada play each other at all in hockey in the Winter Olympics we agreed to watch it together. He thinks the Swed's are going to take the gold though.
Tonight the group surprised me with cupcakes that Jess bought yesterday. I was with her at the time of purchase but didn't realize they were for me getting my new job! They looked for cake mix but it's nonexistent over here. Kara, Jeremie and Jess left the room for a couple minutes and Katie was like Matt close your eyes. I had no idea why, and all the sudden I hear Jeremie singing, "Happy New Shob to yooouuuu! Happy new shob to yoooouuuu!" Haha, happy new job to me! Jess, Kara and Jeremie walked the cupcakes over to me and presented them to me! It was really sweet of the girls to do that for me. Haha, they asked Jeremie if he knew any songs to sing and he told them the only two songs in English he knew were, "Happy Birthday" and "Jingle Bells." Great improvisation on his part.
We also spent the night watching Pierre dance to pretty much every song that came over his laptop, and got Jeremie to teach us some swear words in French. It was a great time. Pierre was showing me the ropes of being a good DJ, as he has a huge DJ mixing program on his computer. He taught me the difference between club mixes to warm the crowd up, and euro dance, which is what everyone dances to. Then everyone decided to go into town and drink a bit more, but Kara, Jeremie and I decided not to. Jeremie and I walked Kara the half an hour across campus and then walked back. I taught Jeremie the first part of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" or as he says, "Deep in ze art, of Texass." It was fun. I also taught him how to say, "I have to take a leak", "Thankfully", and "Unfortunately." He's a funny guy. Now I'm eating a ham sandwich and watching TV online.
Goodnight!
It's been literally foggy all day here. Literally all day. Thick, dense fog. You can't see 20 yards in front of yourself. It's as thick as pea soup. Or peanut butter, depending on whether or not you side with Herbie or Yukon Cornelius in Rudolph.
So the last two days have been kinda hectic/boring/entertaining?
Thursday and Friday we had orientation. Thursday's orientation went from 9 AM to about 6 or 7 PM. And everyone at Penn State complains when we have orientation from 8 until 2. Suck it up.
Thursday we learned about our classes and got a tour of the campus. We also learned about GPA and how hard the classes here are. The woman who went over orientation with us basically said, "You people are all very smart, that's why you are abroad. If you'd go here, you'd all be in the top of the class." Apparently, an 80% here is very good and basically stands for an A. If you have a 3.4 GPA, it's basically first honors, and it's like making Dean's list. The woman told us that we shouldn't be too surprised if half our classes are empty the first 2 weeks here. Apparently, the Irish kids don't go to class until the 3rd week. Some don't even start going until week 7 or 8. She calls it the "trap", and basically said that students here are lazy and don't do much. This ultimately rubs off on the US kids and they start becoming slackers too. I know I have a job already but I'm not about to kill my GPA and start skipping classes etc.
Classes here are set up very weird. For starters, the first two weeks of school, as a study abroad student, we can attend as many classes as we want. So if I want to sit through 15 courses, I can. So for the first two weeks it's like renting a car. You get to test drive your courses and make sure you like them. Then after two weeks you have to finalize your schedule. It's pretty strange. The courses themselves are all lecture. Each class is 50 minutes, twice a week. Classes here don't go past 6 PM. Ever. I had quite a few 6 to 8:40 classes at PSU throughout my time there. It'll be nice to know I don't have to worry about class after 6 ever again. Along with the two lectures, you have a tutorial for each class. This lasts like an hour. Each class has a ton of tutorials throughout the week, and then you pick which one you want to attend. So basically, 5 courses, 2 lectures each, and a tutorial. So around 15 classes a week.
The coursework is much different also. Practically no homework. THANK GOD!! Also, papers are far and few between. If there are papers, it's like 3,000 words. I think I've wrote longer blog posts than that. You have around 3 or 4 quizzes a semester, but they are all outlined on the syllabus. They never give pop quizzes. The majority of the grade weighs on a single final exam at the end of the year. However, if you go to every class, you are pretty much guaranteed and A. Also, you can prepare for final exams much easier here. At the library, they save all the past final exams of every teacher, and for a couple of cents you can buy a copy of it to study. Some teachers don't even change their exams from year to year! Penn State would kill people. Haha, they also allow two weeks for final exams rather than one. However, they only let you know your schedule the week before final exams. It's not like at Penn State where you know months in advance. It's great though, because although the final exam period is two weeks, you only have exams scheduled on the second week. The first week is a "prep" week. So basically if you went to all your classes, that's a free week to relax and travel. What an idea!
Also, college here is only 3 years. Three years and you get a degree, two years and you get a diploma. If you go three years, you automatically are allowed another year which is called a Masters year. So the third year is the senior year here. I wish it was like this in the US. We have to go 4 years minimum and then tack on like 2 to 3 more for grad school. No thanks.
The campus here is huge. The buildings are very confusing. And it takes about 20 minutes to walk onto campus. I feel like a commuter student. The days of me having an hour and a half break in between class and going back to my room are gone. Now I guess I'll just go to the library and work on the little work I have? Woo.
I'm joining some clubs here though. I'm joining the international society, which was rated the best university club in all of Ireland last year. They take the students on trips all over Europe for around 10-20 Euros. Very great deals. I also plan on joining either the softball club or the ultimate frisbee club. The softball club meets at an odd time, like 2-4 on Tuesdays, so that may not happen. Ultimate Frisbee meets at 6:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday. Much smarter, schedule your club after classes. Not during. Ultimate Frisbee sounds fun though. It's actually a team. We travel to Dublin, Gallway, etc. And we host a huge tournament in the Spring here in Limerick. I'm excited for that. Oh and here, certain clubs make you pay to join. I had to pay 3 Euros just to be allowed to go to the softball team meetings. How dumb is that? Do some fundraising cheapskates.
Now I have to figure out what courses I plan on going to on Monday. We picked 10 before we came and now I have to pick my top 5. No way I'm going to 10 courses this week. Whichever classes I pick, that's it. I'm sticking with those. I'm definitely taking Irish folklore, Irish music and Issues in contemporary Irish Society. Then I'll probably take either local government, government and politics of Ireland or Issues of European Integration. I feel like the international global politics course I had is exactly like the Euro Integration class. Soooo, I may just take that for the easy A.
Tonight I'll probably just lay low and hang out with Pierre and Jeremie. Maybe grab a bite and talk for a couple hours. They are great guys.
Today I went to the store with Jeremie, and apartment hunted online. I've been looking up stuff on San Antonio all day. I'm so excited. I never thought I'd live in Texas. Not in a million years. At least now I can actually say "Don't mess with Texas" and have it personally mean something. And I can sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" as a proud Texan.
Wow, I'm legitimately going to be a "Texan". I should buy cowboy boots! I'm going to.
Also, living in San Antonio gives me the opportunity to have my parents visit. This excites me for one reason. Ya see, my Dad and I can't get enough of the movie, "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." In the movie, Pee Wee searches all over the US for his lost bike. Early in the movie, a psychic tells Pee Wee where his bike is "At the Alamo...In the basement!" So Pee Wee goes to the Alamo to find it. While there he enters a rodeo, gets knocked out, and delivers this classic line that my Dad and I quote constantly around the house:
(Fast Forward to 6:17)
Hahaha the greatest movie line ever. Now that I'll be living within minutes of the Alamo, my Dad and I have to go there and quote the movie. It also gives us an opportunity to take a tour and ask some pretty interesting questions:
Gotta love Texas.
Tomorrow night, Jets vs. Colts. I'm pumped. It's gonna be on at 8:30 PM here. I'm excited, I really hope the Jets win. So then I can say, "The Dolphins beat the Jets TWICE this year." I'm hoping for a Vikings and Jets Superbowl, just because when they hell do those teams ever make the Superbowl? Never. I'm rooting for the Vikings from here out though because my Uncle Bruce is a die hard fan. Plus Brett Favre has had such an awesome year I can't even hate the guy for his constant media dramatics anymore.
That's it for now!
Au Voir!
Edit:
Tonight I went over to Katie's for dinner. We ate spaghetti. It was really good. Then some of her roommates came back, and we somehow ended up talking about Disney movies, match.com, and conspiracy theories. After that we went over to Pierre's house and just hung out for the evening. I met this really cool new guy named Neal, from Toronto. He's actually in his third year of law school there. We talked for a couple of minutes about the law process and how it differs here in America. It's all very similar. Only in Canada, they specifically tell you not to specialize in any on type of law or else it's harder to find a job. Neal and I also talked about Toronto sports. I asked him if the Raptors were big and he told me they sell out almost every game. People in Toronto enjoy basketball. I then asked him about baseball and he said they get good crowds on ticket special nights. So if they advertise a game that has $10 tickets and beer specials, they'll get 40,000+ fans. If not, it's around 15,000. He also told me he was a huge Dolphins fan! At this point we did the manly double high five. He said he hates how Toronto is trying to take the Bills from Buffalo. He said the fan base isn't there and they'll probably flop if they move the Bills there. If the US. and Canada play each other at all in hockey in the Winter Olympics we agreed to watch it together. He thinks the Swed's are going to take the gold though.
Tonight the group surprised me with cupcakes that Jess bought yesterday. I was with her at the time of purchase but didn't realize they were for me getting my new job! They looked for cake mix but it's nonexistent over here. Kara, Jeremie and Jess left the room for a couple minutes and Katie was like Matt close your eyes. I had no idea why, and all the sudden I hear Jeremie singing, "Happy New Shob to yooouuuu! Happy new shob to yoooouuuu!" Haha, happy new job to me! Jess, Kara and Jeremie walked the cupcakes over to me and presented them to me! It was really sweet of the girls to do that for me. Haha, they asked Jeremie if he knew any songs to sing and he told them the only two songs in English he knew were, "Happy Birthday" and "Jingle Bells." Great improvisation on his part.
We also spent the night watching Pierre dance to pretty much every song that came over his laptop, and got Jeremie to teach us some swear words in French. It was a great time. Pierre was showing me the ropes of being a good DJ, as he has a huge DJ mixing program on his computer. He taught me the difference between club mixes to warm the crowd up, and euro dance, which is what everyone dances to. Then everyone decided to go into town and drink a bit more, but Kara, Jeremie and I decided not to. Jeremie and I walked Kara the half an hour across campus and then walked back. I taught Jeremie the first part of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" or as he says, "Deep in ze art, of Texass." It was fun. I also taught him how to say, "I have to take a leak", "Thankfully", and "Unfortunately." He's a funny guy. Now I'm eating a ham sandwich and watching TV online.
Goodnight!
22 January 2010
Do you realize, that you are a champion?
Hello everybody!
Today I had orientation. A lot is different here. Crazy stuff. Too much to write right now, I'' explain more later...
I met three new friend from Paris: Julie, Clara and Peirre. All great people. Peirre and I really get along very well. We talked for like 2 hours over dinner. He kept asking me what we thought of France, and I said people don't like France too much. I told him we call them wussies and pansies. He laughed and was like "Ahhh we get zat alot." And then he asked, "What did you think of Chirac not supporting American in Iraq." I said, oh, people were pissed about it. Saying, we bailed you out in WWII. And he threw his hands up laughing and said, "OH MY GOD, STILL WIT ZE WORLD WAR TWO!" We then talked about politics in the US, and he told me him and many French people support us going into Afghanistan. He says he wishes we would have went there first. He said people in France just like to feud with America because it's fun to do. We also talked about soccer. He said the French people don't understand why there are only 2 white guys on the entire team. He also said they still think they were cheated in the last World Cup and the Ireland game was just payback for that. We then asked him what they thought of Lance Armstrong. Peirre said he is innocent until he is proven guilty. He said he understands that he had "ze ball cancer" and he probably was taking medicine for that, which was banned in cycling. Jeramie said, "He iz a cheater." And Julie said, "I think everyone in ze sport does it." I've always wanted to know a French persons perspective on Lance Armstrong.
After dinner I went back to the apartment and chilled a little bit. Then Jeramie and I went over to Peirre's and drank for a little bit with the Penn State girls. It was a good time. After that we went to the pub on campus and shared a couple pints and danced with all the other Americans. The DJ wouldn't play "Down" by J-Sean because "It wasn't upbeat enough." What the hell? Then some doucher Irish guy tried to sexually harass one of our Penn State girls and there was almost a fight because I was pissed.
Now I'm just back chatting away on Facebook and Skype.
Oh, by the way...
I WAS ACCEPTED INTO TEACH FOR AMERICA!
Wow. I've been waiting for what seems like forever for this. I'm going to be teaching elementary school in San Antonio starting fall 2010! I'm so excited! I feel like a champion. Like I won a huge prize! Wow, what a weight off my shoulders!
Ok, I'm going to bed!
San Antonio! Don't know anything about it! But awesome!
Today I had orientation. A lot is different here. Crazy stuff. Too much to write right now, I'' explain more later...
I met three new friend from Paris: Julie, Clara and Peirre. All great people. Peirre and I really get along very well. We talked for like 2 hours over dinner. He kept asking me what we thought of France, and I said people don't like France too much. I told him we call them wussies and pansies. He laughed and was like "Ahhh we get zat alot." And then he asked, "What did you think of Chirac not supporting American in Iraq." I said, oh, people were pissed about it. Saying, we bailed you out in WWII. And he threw his hands up laughing and said, "OH MY GOD, STILL WIT ZE WORLD WAR TWO!" We then talked about politics in the US, and he told me him and many French people support us going into Afghanistan. He says he wishes we would have went there first. He said people in France just like to feud with America because it's fun to do. We also talked about soccer. He said the French people don't understand why there are only 2 white guys on the entire team. He also said they still think they were cheated in the last World Cup and the Ireland game was just payback for that. We then asked him what they thought of Lance Armstrong. Peirre said he is innocent until he is proven guilty. He said he understands that he had "ze ball cancer" and he probably was taking medicine for that, which was banned in cycling. Jeramie said, "He iz a cheater." And Julie said, "I think everyone in ze sport does it." I've always wanted to know a French persons perspective on Lance Armstrong.
After dinner I went back to the apartment and chilled a little bit. Then Jeramie and I went over to Peirre's and drank for a little bit with the Penn State girls. It was a good time. After that we went to the pub on campus and shared a couple pints and danced with all the other Americans. The DJ wouldn't play "Down" by J-Sean because "It wasn't upbeat enough." What the hell? Then some doucher Irish guy tried to sexually harass one of our Penn State girls and there was almost a fight because I was pissed.
Now I'm just back chatting away on Facebook and Skype.
Oh, by the way...
I WAS ACCEPTED INTO TEACH FOR AMERICA!
Wow. I've been waiting for what seems like forever for this. I'm going to be teaching elementary school in San Antonio starting fall 2010! I'm so excited! I feel like a champion. Like I won a huge prize! Wow, what a weight off my shoulders!
Ok, I'm going to bed!
San Antonio! Don't know anything about it! But awesome!
21 January 2010
Irish Beer > American Beer
Happy Hump Day!
Let me start by saying the water system in Ireland could use a pick me up. We have an emulsion tank upstairs instead of constant hot water in the house. If we want to take a shower, we have to go upstairs, press a switch that says "bath on" and then wait half an hour for the tank to boil the water, so we can take a hot shower. This is very different from school back at home, where people let the shower run for 30 minutes before even getting in it, and the water stays hot the entire time. Here, make good use of your time in the shower or you'll freeze. Why would you freeze? Well, the heat only comes on from 6 to 9 in the morning. After that, no heat for the rest of the day. Kinda sucks, by midnight I'm freezing.
So my day started with a luke warm shower, and I still have yet to find a towel so I've been drying off with a tshirt. Yea, roughin it.
Last night I posted late saying I found an American broadcast of the Caps game online. It was great, I got to watch the Caps in Ireland. And they won too! So it was double the greatness. So around 1 am this morning I was like, "Crap, I'm missing American Idol." I don't care what anyone says, I love that show. So I searched trying to find some place to watch the episode live. And I found a live link on Justin.tv! So I got to watch Idol in Chicago last night. It was a nice slice of home. When I woke up this morning I searched for ESPN and found a live stream of ESPN2, so I've been playing it non-stop in the background for noise. It makes it seem like my dorm room back home, where the TV was always on. I just need my sports and my background noise. Just knowing that my friends could be watching the same thing back at home makes me feel a little more connected to America.
So today Jeramie, yes it's with an ie, went into town. We took the bus, which costs 1.60 E one way, and rode it into the city center. On the bus I talked to two juniors from small colleges in 'Scansin. Both were Ag majors. The bus ride took about 10 minutes and then we were finally in the city. I didn't take any pictures because I have 4 months to do that, and trust me, you have to go into the city. It's where everything is.
As we walked down the streets I saw a girl in a PSU sweatshirt! I was like holy crap Penn State! So I yelled out, "YEAH PENN STATE!" and the three girls laughed and approached. Turns out those are three of the 6 PSU girls in the program. We ended up talking for 15 minutes about our experience so far. There was Katie from Erie, Kara from Erie, and Jess from Pittsburgh. Kara and Katie go to Erie and Jess goes to UP. They all flew out from Boston and lost their luggage so they were looking for clothing in the city. They asked me and Jeramie if we would like to go out with them tonight so we said yes. Then they left and Jeramie and I took on the city.
So we got lost for a bit. No biggie though. The people here talk so fast. Apparently they are notorious for it in Ireland. I asked a butcher for directions to an ATM and understood nothing. But we found it so it was all good. They love Rugby in Limerick. Munster is the home team. There are a couple blocks that are just decorated in their colors. People all over the streets wearing their jerseys and apparel. It's pretty cool. I want to become a Rugby hooligan. They have a huge match coming up Friday night at 7:30, it's a "must win".
As we strolled around we decided we were a bit hungry and we needed to eat. We walked all over and couldn't find a place. Probably because we were lost and walked away from the food district. So I turned to Jeramie and asked him if bars in Europe serve food. He said yes. I was like great, cause bars in the US serve food throughout the day. So I said, "Oh look, Patty Nicholas Pub," let's go there. Very European pubish on the outside. Black and white paint job.
So we enter. Immediately I realize they do not serve food here, as everyone is seated at the bar only and drinking Guinness. If there was an Irish Mafia, which I'm sure there is, it was probably these guys. Like something out of a movie, everyone stops talking, turns and looks at us. Literally staring. Giving us that look like, "What the hell are you doing here." So realizing our mistake Jeramie and I stand there awkwardly for a few seconds and then I felt obligated to get a beer. I couldn't just turn and walk out at this point. It'd be too awkward. So we approached and the gentleman behind the counter said, "What can I getcha laddies?" I pulled out my ID card and without even looking at it he says "Oh yea, you're ova 18." So, I said, "Uh, Smithwicks." I'm waiting for my Guinness. So he pours our drinks and we sit in between all these old guys who looked like they were part of the IRA. Everyone just stared at us. So we got our drinks, 4 Euro. Whatever, as long as we don't get stabbed at this point. So Jeramie and I drink.
Holy lord was it good.
I had a Smithwicks right before I left the states. It was like a Yuengling. Not too rich but dark and bitter. This drink was from God's beer lake. It was so smooth. Not bitter at all. Like a beer milkshake. I can't wait for another one. As we sat and enjoyed our pints we watched horse racing. Whatever. But I got a feeling it was a "betting" pub. I kinda got this feeling after a guy came in the front door, handed a folded up slip of white paper to an old guy at the bar, and ran out the back door. And they were really into their horse races. So, that was a shady ass adventure.
As we sat there we started talking to one of the old Irish dudes. He was very nice. Talked to us about Limerick and rugby. Told me I need to go to Strikers Pub on Friday for the match. Swore by it. So I guess Friday I'm going to Strikers for the Rugby match. I'm pumped. I'm gonna feel like such a hooligan. I'm buyin a jersey!
And you don't have to tip the bartender here. A-mazing.
Then we hopped next door and grabbed a quick bite. Had a ham on white, cost 3 euros. Jeramie told me in France even though they try to keep the TV stations completely French, no one likes French shows. He said he watches The Big Bang Theory, How I met your mother, Dexter, House, 24 and Kyle XY.
Jeramie made dinner once we returned. Pasta with bacon in it. Theodore joined us tonight. As usual when I first saw him in the kitchen before dinner, he had no pants on. There's always some article of clothing missing from him. Before dinner I got out my laptop and showed Nelson and Theo some of my pictures from home. They couldn't believe all the snow in my pictures. They were also very shocked when I showed them the farm show pictures. Wow, look at all those animals! Over dinner we talked about television and music. Apparently Lady Gaga is played everywhere, and people everywhere hate her. So it isn't just me and 98.56% of all Americans. The three of them said they enjoy South Park, especially Theo who then began to quote Cartman. However, Theo and Nelson both said they hated Family Guy. Jeremy has never even heard of it. Nelson said it was a joke and Theo said he didn't understand the jokes. I believe that. Many of the Family Guy jokes are hard for even Americans to understand. So then we talked about concerts and music. Nelson asked me what the last concert I attended was, and I told him it was Journey in October. None of them knew who Journey was. Haha. So then I started to sing "Don't Stop, Believin" and they all said, "Ohhhh, YES!"
After dinner. Theo got out his violin and began to play for us. I had to help him with the sheet music because he didn't know what the word, "improvisation" meant. He plays beautifully. For such a huge, loud, and kinda unhygienic guy it shocked me. Apparently he's been playing for 18 years and is a member of the Athens National Orchestra. He's traveling to NYC in March to play a concert. Pretty cool. I can still hear him playing upstairs. It's kinda neat, it's like I have the radio upstairs set to the classical music channel.
I just returned from the PSU girls apartment. It was fun. We just sat around, drank some really cheap French beer and talked about how different it was here.
Now I must sleep. I have orientation at 8:50 tomorrow morning!
Cheers!
Let me start by saying the water system in Ireland could use a pick me up. We have an emulsion tank upstairs instead of constant hot water in the house. If we want to take a shower, we have to go upstairs, press a switch that says "bath on" and then wait half an hour for the tank to boil the water, so we can take a hot shower. This is very different from school back at home, where people let the shower run for 30 minutes before even getting in it, and the water stays hot the entire time. Here, make good use of your time in the shower or you'll freeze. Why would you freeze? Well, the heat only comes on from 6 to 9 in the morning. After that, no heat for the rest of the day. Kinda sucks, by midnight I'm freezing.
So my day started with a luke warm shower, and I still have yet to find a towel so I've been drying off with a tshirt. Yea, roughin it.
Last night I posted late saying I found an American broadcast of the Caps game online. It was great, I got to watch the Caps in Ireland. And they won too! So it was double the greatness. So around 1 am this morning I was like, "Crap, I'm missing American Idol." I don't care what anyone says, I love that show. So I searched trying to find some place to watch the episode live. And I found a live link on Justin.tv! So I got to watch Idol in Chicago last night. It was a nice slice of home. When I woke up this morning I searched for ESPN and found a live stream of ESPN2, so I've been playing it non-stop in the background for noise. It makes it seem like my dorm room back home, where the TV was always on. I just need my sports and my background noise. Just knowing that my friends could be watching the same thing back at home makes me feel a little more connected to America.
So today Jeramie, yes it's with an ie, went into town. We took the bus, which costs 1.60 E one way, and rode it into the city center. On the bus I talked to two juniors from small colleges in 'Scansin. Both were Ag majors. The bus ride took about 10 minutes and then we were finally in the city. I didn't take any pictures because I have 4 months to do that, and trust me, you have to go into the city. It's where everything is.
As we walked down the streets I saw a girl in a PSU sweatshirt! I was like holy crap Penn State! So I yelled out, "YEAH PENN STATE!" and the three girls laughed and approached. Turns out those are three of the 6 PSU girls in the program. We ended up talking for 15 minutes about our experience so far. There was Katie from Erie, Kara from Erie, and Jess from Pittsburgh. Kara and Katie go to Erie and Jess goes to UP. They all flew out from Boston and lost their luggage so they were looking for clothing in the city. They asked me and Jeramie if we would like to go out with them tonight so we said yes. Then they left and Jeramie and I took on the city.
So we got lost for a bit. No biggie though. The people here talk so fast. Apparently they are notorious for it in Ireland. I asked a butcher for directions to an ATM and understood nothing. But we found it so it was all good. They love Rugby in Limerick. Munster is the home team. There are a couple blocks that are just decorated in their colors. People all over the streets wearing their jerseys and apparel. It's pretty cool. I want to become a Rugby hooligan. They have a huge match coming up Friday night at 7:30, it's a "must win".
As we strolled around we decided we were a bit hungry and we needed to eat. We walked all over and couldn't find a place. Probably because we were lost and walked away from the food district. So I turned to Jeramie and asked him if bars in Europe serve food. He said yes. I was like great, cause bars in the US serve food throughout the day. So I said, "Oh look, Patty Nicholas Pub," let's go there. Very European pubish on the outside. Black and white paint job.
So we enter. Immediately I realize they do not serve food here, as everyone is seated at the bar only and drinking Guinness. If there was an Irish Mafia, which I'm sure there is, it was probably these guys. Like something out of a movie, everyone stops talking, turns and looks at us. Literally staring. Giving us that look like, "What the hell are you doing here." So realizing our mistake Jeramie and I stand there awkwardly for a few seconds and then I felt obligated to get a beer. I couldn't just turn and walk out at this point. It'd be too awkward. So we approached and the gentleman behind the counter said, "What can I getcha laddies?" I pulled out my ID card and without even looking at it he says "Oh yea, you're ova 18." So, I said, "Uh, Smithwicks." I'm waiting for my Guinness. So he pours our drinks and we sit in between all these old guys who looked like they were part of the IRA. Everyone just stared at us. So we got our drinks, 4 Euro. Whatever, as long as we don't get stabbed at this point. So Jeramie and I drink.
Holy lord was it good.
I had a Smithwicks right before I left the states. It was like a Yuengling. Not too rich but dark and bitter. This drink was from God's beer lake. It was so smooth. Not bitter at all. Like a beer milkshake. I can't wait for another one. As we sat and enjoyed our pints we watched horse racing. Whatever. But I got a feeling it was a "betting" pub. I kinda got this feeling after a guy came in the front door, handed a folded up slip of white paper to an old guy at the bar, and ran out the back door. And they were really into their horse races. So, that was a shady ass adventure.
As we sat there we started talking to one of the old Irish dudes. He was very nice. Talked to us about Limerick and rugby. Told me I need to go to Strikers Pub on Friday for the match. Swore by it. So I guess Friday I'm going to Strikers for the Rugby match. I'm pumped. I'm gonna feel like such a hooligan. I'm buyin a jersey!
And you don't have to tip the bartender here. A-mazing.
Then we hopped next door and grabbed a quick bite. Had a ham on white, cost 3 euros. Jeramie told me in France even though they try to keep the TV stations completely French, no one likes French shows. He said he watches The Big Bang Theory, How I met your mother, Dexter, House, 24 and Kyle XY.
Jeramie made dinner once we returned. Pasta with bacon in it. Theodore joined us tonight. As usual when I first saw him in the kitchen before dinner, he had no pants on. There's always some article of clothing missing from him. Before dinner I got out my laptop and showed Nelson and Theo some of my pictures from home. They couldn't believe all the snow in my pictures. They were also very shocked when I showed them the farm show pictures. Wow, look at all those animals! Over dinner we talked about television and music. Apparently Lady Gaga is played everywhere, and people everywhere hate her. So it isn't just me and 98.56% of all Americans. The three of them said they enjoy South Park, especially Theo who then began to quote Cartman. However, Theo and Nelson both said they hated Family Guy. Jeremy has never even heard of it. Nelson said it was a joke and Theo said he didn't understand the jokes. I believe that. Many of the Family Guy jokes are hard for even Americans to understand. So then we talked about concerts and music. Nelson asked me what the last concert I attended was, and I told him it was Journey in October. None of them knew who Journey was. Haha. So then I started to sing "Don't Stop, Believin" and they all said, "Ohhhh, YES!"
After dinner. Theo got out his violin and began to play for us. I had to help him with the sheet music because he didn't know what the word, "improvisation" meant. He plays beautifully. For such a huge, loud, and kinda unhygienic guy it shocked me. Apparently he's been playing for 18 years and is a member of the Athens National Orchestra. He's traveling to NYC in March to play a concert. Pretty cool. I can still hear him playing upstairs. It's kinda neat, it's like I have the radio upstairs set to the classical music channel.
I just returned from the PSU girls apartment. It was fun. We just sat around, drank some really cheap French beer and talked about how different it was here.
Now I must sleep. I have orientation at 8:50 tomorrow morning!
Cheers!
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