Today was my long day at school. I have four classes, each with a one hour break in between. My apartment is a 10-15 minute walk from campus, so I usually take the day to bum around or just watch people for a while. Ireland is full of interesting characters. I really enjoy my classes here. Mostly, I am entranced by how strange they are. I spend almost as much time stealthily looking around the room, trying to take everything in, as I do actually taking notes. This is quite hard, because although the classes are only an hour, the professors want to squeeze in as much information as possible. Class sizes vary, but all are lectures. Today I noticed that the Professors carry notes with them the entire class that they read off of. Although I do miss in class conversations and the monotony of lectures gets a little hard to sit through, and sometimes I even feel the need to raise my hand, I appreciate the professor’s knowledge and excitement about the subject they are teaching much more than I usually do in the states. Most of my classes are held in huge lecture halls. Although you can usually slip in fairly unobtrusively if you are late, you may not be able to find a seat, since people have a tendency to sit at the seats at the edges of the rows rather than filling in the center seats. By the time class starts, there are very few seats that remain accessible. No one in the classroom ever expects anything strange or interesting to happen. I believe this is because no one speaks in class, so there are no interesting/strange/stupid comments from students, just the professors down to earth speech. Today, a student took a picture. The entire class paused. It sounded as if they paused in their very thoughts. The 200 person lecture quivered on the point of I don’t even know what (perhaps nervousness?) until the professor finally recovered, made a joke, and continued with the lecture.

Opposed to this giant lecture, I am taking a music class where there are only about eight students! And no more than four have ever shown up to a class. Attendance is looked at quite differently here than in the States. I got an information sheet at the beginning of the term advising me to miss no more than two thirds of the lectures. Another of my professors announced to the class that seminars had a new policy where students would automatically fail if they missed five or more classes.

For those of you who don’t know already, I am taking five classes here. Intro to Traditional Irish Music, Irish Language Literature and Culture, Contemporary British Literature and Culture, Celtic Literature, and The Gypsy in Hungarian Music and Politics. I really like all of them!! It’s pretty awesome that I get to take so many classes that are specific to learning about Irish culture.

I took one of my breaks today to sit in the cafeteria/restaurant. There are two floors. The second has different sandwich chains like Quiznos. I have yet to eat there. The bottom floor has three food sections at the back of the room. The first starting at the right is called World Foods. I have yet to see it open, but I would guess this was where one could eat dishes from around the world. The center one is a sandwich bar where you can get one meat and three veggies for 3euro. It’s basically a $5 footlong, but with fewer food options and fresher bread. The last is Traditional Food where I got a stewey thing over rice. It was quite delicious. Much better than anything I have ever had at the Hunter cafeteria, like times 100!

Yesterday we went on another excursion! This was a sort of discouraging day for most of us, as weather.com told us it would be 55 and sunny all day, but in reality it was quite cold and one of the foggier days so far. Luckily there was no rain! After getting off the bus, we wandered the downtown area, and determined it was much like Cork with all the same stores. One of the department stores was having a promotion and were giving out little hand warmers on the street. Those were quite helpful, but got cold again after a while, so we decided to find somewhere warm, like a museum.

I do not have any pictures of the exhibits because I hate people who take pictures in museums, and they never really come out anyway. The Hunt Museum is housed in the old Custom House, and they have kept the Captains Room as it was. I really like old buildings especially when the furniture is still set up the way it was. I feel like I’m stepping into history.  Buildings here all start on the ground floor, and then what we would call the second floor is the called the first floor here. The first floor had art from the Medieval Period through the Renaissance, to the Age of Enlightenment. There were lots of statues which were pretty cool. The second floor had an entire room dedicated to jewlery. One of the prominent pieces was The Mary Queen of Scots Cross. There were lots of iron tiaras and necklaces from Germany. During the war (I’m terrible with dates so I cannot remember the dates, or which war this was) German royalty donated all of their jewels to the government to help fund the war and made replacements out of iron. Then we went back down to the ground floor, which had all the Religious art. There was a Crucifixion room, which sorta freaked me out. There was one box which just had rows and rows of Jesus being crucified, but very few of them still had crosses attached. One really cool thing was the Galway Chalice, which unscrewed to two parts, making it easier for traveling priests. There was also this really cool iron ball that came apart, and had a little compartment where the priest could light a fire. During mass, the ball could roll around and the mechanism inside the ball would keep the fire staying upright. Before the priest had to give out the crackers and wine, he would warm his hands so that he wouldn’t drop anything. That would have incurred a penalty of 3 fewer beers. There was also a special exhibit in the basement by Samuel Walsh, one of Irelands most important artists of today). It was modern/abstractness. Most were slightly Jackson Pollack like, but with these thick black lines all over them that didn’t really make sense to me. Then there were a couple in the corner that I really liked. They  generally started as one color and then faded into another, and had a black silhouette of castles and towers and churches.

After the museum, we went for lunch, and most of our group decided to go back home, because it was so cold and we couldn’t really see that much. But four of us decided to stay and make a real day of it. After lunch we went to John’s castle. I was really excited when I realized that it was the same John as in Robin Hood.

The picture of the actual castle wouldn’t upload, so you’ll all have to see that when I get back. But it was really cool because the city was built around the castle, so there is a major street right outside. The picture of the cars was taken from one of the windows of the castle. The other side of the castle faces the river Shannon. I hear it is really pretty, but I couldn’t see much of it because of the fog. There were a couple of exhibit rooms where maniquins had been placed going about the daily routines of people of the court. This was weird because they looked so unreal. The castle is also on an archeological dig, and there was an underground museum type thing that explained what had already been dug up, and what those buildings probably looked like.

After the castle, we visited St. Mary’s cathedral. We couldn’t find a way in, and by this time it was getting a little dark, which combined with the fog made it difficult to take pictures and hard to be outside. Across the street we saw a sign for a museum with free admission, so we went in there. It turned out to be a pretty complete history of Limerick. I would really like to learn some more Irish history and go back when I know more about the documents and the important people who wrote them.

Today we went to a seaside town by the name of Cobh. It was the Titanic’s last stop before sailing out to sea. All of the pieces and survivors of the Lusitania were brought here. A girl named Annie something was the first person admitted through Ellis Island. She was from Cobh. There are memorials to both the Titanic and Lusitania, and a statue of Annie and her younger brothers. The train on the way to the town took us through marshes, or at least along lakes. The views were amazing. There were a couple of castles that I couldn’t take pictures of.

So, this was a failed experiment! I tried uploading a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure, but my internet kept going out, making it difficult to upload the many pictures I had planned (there are more..) and now they are all getting cut off, so they aren’t even pretty. Instead, I will have to describe more of what I see.

Cobh was a cute little beach town. Perhaps it is simply because I love the ocean, but I will defiantly try to get back again in the spring. We went down to the beach and stood looking out at the water for a bit, which was probably one of the nicest moments I’ve had so far. It was really calm and peaceful until someone mentioned that they wanted to go see the Titanic memorial, and I remembered that this place is so closely associated with the destruction of so many very large ships. But I guess if I that was to be my last view of land I wouldn’t be too upset. That might be a morbid thought… Oh well, it was pretty, and had really good food.

Two nights ago, we went out to a bar because there was a football game and my friends wanted to see it. I was a little intimidated because I was the only person there from NY and I have no idea who the Jets are, so I went outside where it was cooler and there were fewer Americans. Irish men are ever intrigued by American girls (I have not yet witnessed the pull of Irish women to American men), and two drifted over to talk to us. The first drifted away after being sufficiently embarrassed by the second, who was asking myself and another friend to have a threesome with him and his wife (thereby making it a foursome- I really enjoy drunk people logic sometimes). As we were leaving he pulled his pants down and when I said I didn’t appreciate that, he hit me in the ear. I am still confused by this.

I also had the best drink of my life. It is called a Baby Guinness, cuz it’s a shot that looks like a Guinness. I have no idea what’s in it, but it’s warm and tastes like chocolate.

Last night we went to our fav spot, “The Well.” It’s really called The Franciscan Well. Everything on tap is brewed by the Franciscan Monks, I don’t really know where they are. The bar is right across the street. There was a live band last night. They were pretty cool. They played mostly American pop- punk music. They even pulled out a saxaphone for a couple of songs, which was really weird, but also really awesome. If I know more about the way this blog works by next week maybe I’ll be able to upload a video.

So I promised pictures of school. These are just from one building, which is the MOST awesome school building I have EVER been in!!!

I’m writing cuz I haven’t written in a while, so I feel like exciting things should have happened. But I don’t think they have. I’ve been sick. Now I’m better, but all the kids I hang out with are sick. Everything that was broken in our apartment is now fixed. It is raining again. Girls here are just as stupid as they are in New York. They wear super high heels, super short dresses, and its raining! A bunch of guys told my friend they could tell she was American because she wasn’t dressed up.

Today we were walking around and ended up in T.K. Max, and I found this wonderful little dress that looked like something out of The Jetsons.

I did promise to take pictures of everything…. so here is my walk to school.

I’ll put up pictures of this one really really awesome building where I have class later. Really sorry that not all the pictures are up and down. I don’t know how to fix it.

Unfortunately I have no pictures to document this momentous occasion of Corks abnormal weather. Europe is experiencing a cold front. I came expecting 40 degree weather and rain, and I got weather in the teens and snow. This is sorta like the weather I left in NY, so I don’t mind much, but the Irish are going crazy, or they just have no idea what hit them. I am not talking epic snow storms here, there hasn’t been enough to stick to the roads for more than an hour or two, but the ice has been accumulating. My 10 minute walk to school has turned into my 20 minute slide to school. Gravel has been put down in a valiant effort to keep people from slipping. Today the city clean up crew began sweeping the snow to the side of the roads. For the first time in my life I am thankful for being from a city that knows how to get things done.

It was also awesome to watch all of the people on the street getting REALLY excited about throwing baby snowballs. I am sort of ashamed to admit that the people walking down the street doing the windmill also made me laugh. Today, people started getting fed up enough to walk in the street. This scares me a little, because I am still confused about which direction the cars are coming from. I now look the right way, but just after I step into the street I have a nervous twitch that forces me to look back in the opposite direction.

Another interesting tidbit, that is not actually interesting at all, but I really have to rant about it, and the internet seems like the right place to do that sort of thing.

WE HAVE NO WATER!!!

This shouldn’t really be a problem for me. I know that. I have stayed in places with no running water for weeks at a time, a couple of days should be no big deal. But I really wanna brush my teeth, and drink a cup of tea. I also want to shower and wash dishes.

Yesterday we went to visit a castle. I am in love with this country! It was a little cold, so we couldn’t stay out for too long, but we saw a castle! The castle was an old stone building set in the middle of a huge field. There were lots of pretty trees and birds that made strange noises. They looked like crows, but sounded sort of like geese. There was a dingy dungeon at the bottom, that scared me a little. There was a little narrow spiral staircase that went up to the top of building. At every floor, you could get out and stand in the rooms. The priests room was right off of the Young Ladies Room. At the top of the staircase, we had to walk around the battlement (I think thats what it’s called, the top part of the castle where people used to shoot arrows off of). On the wall opposit the staircase was what we had all been waiting for… not really, but it was the main attraction: The Blarney Stone. We all stood around awkwardly, waiting to see who else wanted to kiss the stone before agreeing to themselves. I for one was quite confused. I kept looking around for a real stone or statue type thing. But the Blarney Stone is actually part of the castle structure. In order to kiss the stone, you have to lie on your back. This was quite a complicated process in itself, because the ground was all wet, and it’s cold, so there were all sorts of problems removing the appropriate amount of clothing that you stayed dry and warm, but nothing fell off (I almost lost my scarf). There were two metal bars attached to the wall that you grabbed to help balance yourself as you slid backwards, down the wall and kissed the stone. I refused to look at the picture they took of me because I was know I just looked terribly confused, which does not go well with kissing a stone upside down and backwards. There was also a garden area that housed a Druid Circle and Witches Cauldron, which of course I really wanted to see, but the garden was locked.

I am in Ireland, I have been here for a week. The apartment is  awesome. I have two roommates. All of our windows overlook the river, which is fairly small, but I like the water. It’s also nice to wake up to sunshine in the mornings. I have pictures of my room, but I don’t know how to upload them yet.

The school system here is very interesting. Registration isn’t until next week, so the first week or so are used for students to “test” out classes and professors. I missed all of my classes the first day because I couldn’t figure out where they were. I am confused by colleges with many buildings. All the classes here go for an hour (more like 50 minutes) and meet for once or twice a week. Every single one of my classes are in a different building. But the library is beautiful, which makes up for everything else!