"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.