Super Long Post Covering Three Days

Things have been happening here kind of fast. I don’t think they normally do, just this program. I think it’s going to slow down this week though. They don’t have anything planned for us except classes, until Friday when we go to Dublin.

Anyway, I’ve been kind of tired with the Americans as a whole. Most of them are cool, and I’m glad I found a handful to hang out with every once in a while. They went out the other night without me (my choice, I was dead tired), but hopefully I’ll get another chance. Otherwise, the Americans have been non-stop parting and loud and not always that respectful in situations where there’s been an authority person around (some of the tours and whatnot). K, that’s my little rant. Backtrack to this Thursday (if you hadn’t guessed, I’m covering a lot in this post, so it might be a little long. Feel free to quite reading anytime):

We started off with a tour of campus. They split us up into smaller groups, and a guy names Will took us around. He was amusing, but it was also kind of annoying, because he didn’t take to a lot of places because he was “lazy” (his words, not mine). We also lost two girls in my group (the left on their own) and he called one of the other guides and said, “Hey John, you pick up two blondes?” (with an Irish accent of course). I don’t know why, but I found that really funny.

Then we went to our classes. For those who don’t know, it’s an Irish film class. Its 5 hours a day (with a lunch in the middle) and a lot of what we’re going to be covering is very basic film stuff and then using a few Irish films as examples. The odd thing is that there are 4 teachers for the class (2 main ones). They come in at different times to cover different subjects. I’ve had two so far and they’re basically awesome. The first one, our course director, covered a lot of English topics that we’re going to be applying to film, and a lot that I just used in my Stephen King class this semester (i.e. paradigmatic and syntagmatic substitutions, metonymic and synecdochic indexes, and then the easy stuff: symbols, icons and causal indexes). I think he lost a lot of the class, but connecting typical Literature terms to film is something I’ve wanted a lot of my teachers to do before (makes sense for an English major/Film minor, right?).

My second main teacher (if that makes any sense) is actually English, but she’s lived in Ireland for the past 20 years or so. The stuff she covered was much easier (genre) for the class as a whole and I think they got more engaged. She was also hilarious. She walked around barefooted and would make large movements. Every time she remembered to ask us a question she’d stop in one of these movements, almost looking like she was posing. She also has us reading some James Joyce and the first chapter of Ulysses. That ought to be fun. (Side note: Here’s a cute, funny video she showed in class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87AkewNcgwU)

On Thursday they had a party on campus for its 20^th anniversary of being a independently run University. There’s seems to be some confusion on what this means exactly, because prior to 20 years the university still existed. I think it’s a matter of being accredited, but I’m not exactly sure, and no one else is either (the Irish seemed more into the party than figuring it out). I have to say, Irish campuses (or at least Limerick’s) are hilarious. Can you imagine your campus giving out free alcohol? They had vouchers you could pick up and get any free drink they had available. Unsurprisingly, they ran out of them quickly.

Here’s the group I went/met up with (Diagonally from the left: Shelby, Matt, Caroline, me, I still don't have her name, Jess, Molly, Ruth, Hobbs, Shannon, Erin, Kelly) (photo stolen). Ruth (in black in the middle) is the only Irish person in that pic. She’s basically an intern for the International Office, and she thinks it’s crazy that I’ve never had tea before.

They also had a band called The Funk Monkeys and it was hilarious because they sang some oldies and Motown covers. I come all the way from Detroit to Ireland hear Motown :P

That night I went to The Stable’s which is a bar, but also where we get our food during the day. Thursday night they had a DJ because of the 20 year party and it was packed. First I was just sitting with three other girls, but eventually Shelby invaded a table of Irish guys and got us all invited over. They were pretty hilarious, and we learned some Irish slang. They do not use awesome or cool at all, so it marks you as distinctly American if you say them. Instead they’ll say things like “That’s class” (they say this ALL the time!) or “savage” (sometimes “savage cabbage”). They have a lot more terms for being drunk, but they don’t really use any of ours. Wasted translates in belubas. They also have a tendency to say things along the lines of “that was a lot of crack last night.” This is particularly funny, because they know exactly where American minds take this so after they’re like “Wait! You know what that means right?” Crack basically translates into fun. Apparently, there’s very little drug use here. The guys were talking about how the Guardai (police) here found a meth lab somewhere in Ireland, and most people were shocked to hear they had any meth here. Lastly, you don’t call or save a seat here, you claim “threes.” This means you have three minutes to get back to the seat before its open to anyone again. However, much like claiming a seat at home, no one really follows it. Also, here’s the popular youtube video among the Irish boys right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA.

All these guys were alum, and most (if not all, I didn’t get to talk to all of them cause there were 8) have been to America. Apparently, as an Irish citizen you get your school paid for you, so what you spend your money on is traveling. One guy thought he was in a lot of debt with 500eu. Then he heard that none of us would be below $10,000 (though most of us where a lot more) and I think he was a bit surprised.

We also got free beer at the Stable’s. I didn’t want any, but he put it in front of me anyways. It was just Budwiser. I finished it since it was free, but that was my first finished beer. It was just as gross as American beer.

The next day I moved dorms, because even though I went to bed at 1am after getting back from the Stables, I didn’t get to stay asleep till after 4am, and had to get up at 8am. This new room is better, but it’s still loud. I’d like to hope it will calm down, but I can tell from lot of these people, they’ll go till they burn out, and then they only need one night to catch up so they can do it all over again. A lot of people are treating this like an extended Spring Break. However, my roommates, old and new, have been really awesome about it. I actually went back to the Stable’s (a lot slower on the weekend, because everyone is going to clubs) and hung out with one of my new roomies and two of my old.

Yesterday we went into Limerick city and toured St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was really beautiful. We also took the Angela’s Ashes walking tour. It was cool to see Limerick, but hard to get into when I haven’t read the book. Then we went to Bunratty Castle and Village. The village is comparable to Green Field, but honestly, Green Field wins. It’s not nearly as smelly. The castle was cool, but it was small and felt a little fake. It had been ruins once and some English (I think he was English) guy came and bought it, then fixed it up and put all his antics from all over Europe in it. Very, very little was original from the castle. Hopefully, I’ll get to see a much cooler castle before I go.

Today I’m going shopping in Limerick city. It has a really cool shopping area. Tomorrow I’m meeting up with Jess (my friend who is finishing up her study abroad program in Wales) assuming contacting each other works (phones here have failpox).

P.S. I’m pretty sure the comforter they gave us here is down, and though I’ve never been tested, I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to feathers. My neighbor’s bird always made me sick, I got a rash from a feather pillow, and every morning here I’ve woken up with my eyes extremely bloodshot and they hurt when I put my contacts in. By the end of the day they’re fine, so it much be something overnight. I just don’t want to ask about it because of causing the problems with moving. They’re bound to get fed up at some point.

P.P.S. At some point, I’m going to post pictures of campus. But I need to get them first.

Dorm? Hotel? Dortel? (I like mixing words)

Ok, so I’m writing two posts. One for the dorm, another for today and yesterday (eventually). There are pretty much the coolest dorms (though emphasis on dorm). They're like a hotel and apartment and dorm all rolled into one.

Before I go any further though, I’m going to explain that I actually moved into another building from the one they originally placed me in (pretty much the same dorms though). The 5 roommates I had were good people and a lot of fun…and partiers. Obviously, I have no problem with them partying, but my dorm became the designated party room of the hall and so I haven’t been able to get much sleep since I got here. After last night I asked if I could be moved to the building next door (also an international student housing area) because they are 4 bedroom dorms, and the hope is a little quieter. I guess we’ll find out by this weekend. I just felt that 5 people should have to adapt to one person, especially not in a three week period. Though, I also felt that I should be allowed to get some sleep. Now I live in Heather instead of Bluebell.

Anyways, the dorm opens into a hall of doors, and then we all have our own rooms and bathrooms. Then there is a common room that has a balcony and a kitchen at the end of the hall. Every day they give us food for the next morning to replace whatever we’ve eaten the morning before (cereal, yogurt, apples, oranges, bread, butter, jelly, sugar, tea, milk, orange juice, and I’m probably missing something), and they clean the common room and kitchen for us (even our dishes!). The kitchen comes with pots and pans and dishes, etc.

Our bedrooms don’t really have closets, but shelves and a little alcove with hangers. One wall is just shelving, the desk and the closet area (for lack of a better term). My bathroom in my old dorm was small, but more than functional for one person; however, now I have a handicapped accessible room, so my bathroom is huge, the sink is low, the toilet has bars around it and a cushion on the back, and instead of having a separate shower the shower just goes onto the floor with a little door thing around it and a curtain.

Here is an overload of pictures:

Take a tour of my dorm, first by entering the hall of doors. My room is the second door on the left. The open door leads into the common room and kitchen.

Now that you're in my room, turn around and look at the door. You see my bathroom on your right and my shelving and closet area to your left. My bed is to your right of the picture and my desk to the left.

Turning to your right, you see my bed with it's random blue wall (all the others are white).

Backtrack until you see the bathroom door. Don't worry, there's plenty of room for your wheelchair. My shower is to the left of the picture.

Backtrack some more until you get into the hallway again, then go through the door into the common room. Hey look! My Name is Earl is playing! (PS: hideous curtains)

Turn around and you're in the kitchen! The table is full of breakfast food, the fridge is the cupboard against the wall (not the silver one, that's just the freezer). The fridge is in disguise.

Don't forget to take a look out the balcony when you head back, so that you can see Cappavilla Village, where I live!

Jet Lag is a Bitch

I have two hours before I have to go to my “traditional Irish welcome reception” (whatever that means), so I’m going to update. However, I’m extremely tired, so this may be more rambling than anything.

Rewind to yesterday: I arrived at Detroit Metro about 2-2:30ish and hung around the terminal for a few hours talking to Shelby (the other CMU student) and another lady who was going to Rome, and…

I arrived in Ireland!

That was actually a place in Detroit Metro on the way to my terminal. I love irony. The flight to JFK (less than an hour and a half in the air) was nice and easy. A man stole my window seat, but it didn’t really bother me because the plane was so small I could see out of windows on both sides easily enough.

JFK wasn’t nearly as impressive as I expected from the map I found online. Shelby and I got bad pizza at a Sbarros that didn’t have plain pepperoni pizza, while I fidgeted over my iPod that wouldn’t turn off (everything else worked, the power just wouldn’t go off). The coolest thing was that apparently Cyclopes resides at JFK.

The plane to Shannon, Ireland was awful. I sat next to another kid going to study abroad in Limerick, which was okay, but we didn’t have many exchanges (he actually tried to sleep). Anyone who can sleep on a plane like that is a miracle worker, because that was just not going to happen. Instead, I watched Inkheart (better than the book, like I guessed) and Slumdog Millionaire (good, but maybe a little over-hyped). The rest of the time I tried to get over my nausea. I don’t think my body likes being up all night in a plane.

Landing was awesome! First, because the flight was over. Then, because customs was easier to pass through than going to Canada (“You’re studying abroad at Limerick” – “Yes,” “When do you head home?” – “June 23^rd,” “Have a nice stay."). And lastly, because my luggage made it!

Shelby and I found the Limerick people pretty easily enough and they actually had my name on the list, so that was good. We sat around for a while in the airport waiting for a bus driver. I sat by the Limerick students who were charged with picking us up and chatted for a while. I made an idiot out of myself because I fail at accents (I thought she said her name was Ilsa - or some other variety of similar sounds that was not common. It was definitely Lisa). I don’t think it helped that to me it was 5am.

The Irish drive on the wrong side of the road! Ok, not so surprising, or even weird. The thing that is crazy is they have round-abouts galore here. And not our dinky ones, but ones with monster DNA. Not to mention that they run into each other. You get off of one just to be in another one. It’s a mess. Also, their lanes are smaller than ours, but their buses and trucks are about the same size.

Once we reached campus we got to go directly to our rooms. Pretty much the coolest dorm rooms I’ve ever seen, but I’ll do more on that later.

I can’t believe I’ve been up for 25 hours and have at least six more hours to go before I can sleep. I’m SO tired, not to mention looking like a mess (the rains not helping).

Here’s a sneak peak on how cool my dorm is: