Our coordinator sent us this picture today... I can't stop lolling.
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
And yet I've only been to... other places in Ireland. All within a couple hours drive from Cork City. Not that I haven't had a blast, I'm just ready to start in on all my EuroAdventures, which, as soon as they start, they just wont stop.
A brief outline (it's been so long since I've made a list!):
I'm excited
A brief outline (it's been so long since I've made a list!):
- Dublin this weekend (I know it doesn't really count, but it's far enough away and big enough to sort of count). Includes: Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres with Fr. Leahy and a BC football game.
- Italy 22 Oct - 27 Oct. Includes: Milan and Rome, at least, perhaps a few other cities on the way down. I hadn't really planned on going to Italy, but with the promise of a cheap flight over a long weekend, I just couldn't say no!
- Germany/Belgium 5 Nov - 12 Nov. This is the biggest trip of my semester, I think. Includes: Berlin, Brussels & Bruges. We're flying into Berlin and then to Brussels the next day, spending the afternoon there and taking the train to Bruges (because, as we all know, it's a "f***ing fairytale land" and definitely worth seeing ;) ) then back to Berlin after a few days in time for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
- Liverpool 19 Nov -24 Nov. Includes: LIVERPOOL! I might throw in a short jaunt to Scotland.
I'm excited
Time is flying by way too quickly for my liking. How is it already October?? I try not to think about how much time is left, focusing instead on each day.
The last week or so has been kind of mleh, taking care of a few business items and getting into the swing of classes. I finally registered with the Garda. It only took, oh, 3 hours of my life. The plus was I got some reading done for my first paper for my film class (we have to compare a book version and movie version of a story... she gave us a list to choose from and nearly all of them looked terribly depressing. Hooray for Irish literature.)
I'm still kind of confused on how to refer to my teachers. I guess professor is higher than doctor here, though that seems strange. I guess "lecturer" is the safest bet, but that seems so weird and kind of like I'm glossing over their true status. Whatever. The same thing goes for the way they talk about the bathroom. They (they being Irish people) say 'toilet' and make fun of us if we say 'restroom'... toilet seems almost vulgar to me, but when in Rome...
Cork is really awesome, there is always something going on. Last weekend (i think...?) was Culture Night with tons of free tours and activities. We went on a walking food history tour of Cork (chosen because we thought there'd be free food in it for us. There wasn't.) I think I was the only one of our group that really enjoyed the tour, though. After the food tour, we went in a "culture cab" similar to the TV show Cash Cab...what a BLAST. Everyone who knows me knows that I would do almost anything to go on that show (I plan to take a long weekend trip to NYC next year and spend the whole time hunting for Ben Bailey and his Cash Cab), so this was by far my favorite part of the night. They put five of us at a time into a vancab and it was every man for himself in terms of points, so the guide lady would ask a question and we'd have to yell out our names as a buzzer, whoever yelled first got to answer, etc. Most of the questions were easy enough, though there were some that were quite tricky for Americans and other non-Irish (i.e. what year did Samuel Beckett die, who won the Booker prize twice, etc).
This weekend the Beamish Folk Festival is on, so there's lots of live music in all the pubs and a Ceili Mor down on one of the main streets downtown tomorrow. I'm not sure what to expect from that, but the music has been good so far. We saw an old man bluesy number the other night at this place called The Corner House. They were awesome, the guitarist soloed for like, a full five minutes and dude was definitely pushing 60. They played some original stuff and some covers... all in all, a pretty good night.
Next weekend the kids from BC have to go up to Dublin to visit Fr. Leahy, who is coming to visit for some reason or another. I think I'll head up Thursday night or Friday morning (I don't have classes on Fridays) and do a bit of exploring, see some of the things I didn't get to when I was there last (i.e. The Book of Kells). I hadn't really planned on visiting Dublin again, just because I've already been there and ... well, why pay to go somewhere I've been and miss out on some place I haven't seen? Seeing as it is a BC sponsored trip, though, I don't have a problem going up.
My two papers for Folklore are due soon and I really need to get cracking on them, so my goal for the day is to finish the one I've started before I go out to enjoy the music, or, as they say here, the craic.
The last week or so has been kind of mleh, taking care of a few business items and getting into the swing of classes. I finally registered with the Garda. It only took, oh, 3 hours of my life. The plus was I got some reading done for my first paper for my film class (we have to compare a book version and movie version of a story... she gave us a list to choose from and nearly all of them looked terribly depressing. Hooray for Irish literature.)
I'm still kind of confused on how to refer to my teachers. I guess professor is higher than doctor here, though that seems strange. I guess "lecturer" is the safest bet, but that seems so weird and kind of like I'm glossing over their true status. Whatever. The same thing goes for the way they talk about the bathroom. They (they being Irish people) say 'toilet' and make fun of us if we say 'restroom'... toilet seems almost vulgar to me, but when in Rome...
Cork is really awesome, there is always something going on. Last weekend (i think...?) was Culture Night with tons of free tours and activities. We went on a walking food history tour of Cork (chosen because we thought there'd be free food in it for us. There wasn't.) I think I was the only one of our group that really enjoyed the tour, though. After the food tour, we went in a "culture cab" similar to the TV show Cash Cab...what a BLAST. Everyone who knows me knows that I would do almost anything to go on that show (I plan to take a long weekend trip to NYC next year and spend the whole time hunting for Ben Bailey and his Cash Cab), so this was by far my favorite part of the night. They put five of us at a time into a vancab and it was every man for himself in terms of points, so the guide lady would ask a question and we'd have to yell out our names as a buzzer, whoever yelled first got to answer, etc. Most of the questions were easy enough, though there were some that were quite tricky for Americans and other non-Irish (i.e. what year did Samuel Beckett die, who won the Booker prize twice, etc).
This weekend the Beamish Folk Festival is on, so there's lots of live music in all the pubs and a Ceili Mor down on one of the main streets downtown tomorrow. I'm not sure what to expect from that, but the music has been good so far. We saw an old man bluesy number the other night at this place called The Corner House. They were awesome, the guitarist soloed for like, a full five minutes and dude was definitely pushing 60. They played some original stuff and some covers... all in all, a pretty good night.
Next weekend the kids from BC have to go up to Dublin to visit Fr. Leahy, who is coming to visit for some reason or another. I think I'll head up Thursday night or Friday morning (I don't have classes on Fridays) and do a bit of exploring, see some of the things I didn't get to when I was there last (i.e. The Book of Kells). I hadn't really planned on visiting Dublin again, just because I've already been there and ... well, why pay to go somewhere I've been and miss out on some place I haven't seen? Seeing as it is a BC sponsored trip, though, I don't have a problem going up.
My two papers for Folklore are due soon and I really need to get cracking on them, so my goal for the day is to finish the one I've started before I go out to enjoy the music, or, as they say here, the craic.
Trying to figure out which courses will be available this semester is nearly impossible, especially because the school hasn't yet published them. We've been advised to check out last year's courses with the warning that not all of them will be offered again. How helpful.
I've been comparing the old module book with the timetables, so I think I have some idea of what will be offered. My goals for this semester, coursewise, should be fairly easy to fulfill, though. I need to take two histories, either a natural science or a social science, and then whatever sounds most interesting as a fourth class.
For the histories, I'm tempted to take either Myth & History or Politics of Church & State. I don't want to take both, because they are both higher level courses with a 4000 word end of semester essay. I really don't want to do that to myself. If I can get into it, I think I'd prefer the Myth & History, and then a mid-level course called Information Revolutions & History. I can handle 4000 words and an exam, I think.
There don't seem to be too many lower level natural science courses available, at least... not ones that I want to take. I just can't really find nat sci interesting in the classroom, which is strange because I like Nat Geo and documentaries and that kind of stuff... blech. There's a couple of psych classes that I could do for my social science requirement, though. One is just an intro to Social Psychology and the other is one called Perception & Memory. I'm not sure if I could take Perception & Memory as it is a midlevel course and I have no Psych background.
I'm tempted to take this course designed for English speakers with no background in French. It's basically all conversation, no busy work or silliness, with the goal of giving us the basic vocabulary we'd need to survive a few days amidst the French. I don't know that such a vocabulary exists, but it sounds like fun, and it would be nice to be able to get by a little bit this Christmas.
Next semester, I'll basically be doing the same. Two histories, whichever science I don't do this semester and then a whatever. Maybe I'll take art history, because I still have to fulfill that. Assuming I'm successful in getting those three cores out of the way, and the 4 history courses tucked away, that'll leave me with ~3 history and cultural diversity senior year, meaning I would have room for four or so electives, unless I'm forgetting something huge... which I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Other than all of this planning, the past couple of days have been nice. The weekend was pretty chill, we mostly stayed in and played cards and planned our trips. I learned how to play Euchre seeing as most of my friends here are some variety of Midwestern. It's pretty fun, and kind of similar to Spades, so it wasn't too tricky to learn. We bought our tickets to Berlin. We ended up planning the trip for a week because when we looked at prices on Aer Lingus, there were 0 euro flights out of Cork to Berlin, with something like 20 euro taxes tacked on. All in all, a pretty good deal.
Last night we went to a pub called Clancy's where we heard there was going to be either swing or Irish dancing. Turns out both were going on, but the swing was upstairs and the Irish downstairs. One of the musicians would call out the dance steps, so a bunch of us would go up everytime and try our best to learn them. Our best didn't turn out so well, but it was still loads of fun.
In other news, I have become a chain tea-drinker and I'm dying for some good, or even not-so-good (i.e. Safeway) chinese food.
I've been comparing the old module book with the timetables, so I think I have some idea of what will be offered. My goals for this semester, coursewise, should be fairly easy to fulfill, though. I need to take two histories, either a natural science or a social science, and then whatever sounds most interesting as a fourth class.
For the histories, I'm tempted to take either Myth & History or Politics of Church & State. I don't want to take both, because they are both higher level courses with a 4000 word end of semester essay. I really don't want to do that to myself. If I can get into it, I think I'd prefer the Myth & History, and then a mid-level course called Information Revolutions & History. I can handle 4000 words and an exam, I think.
There don't seem to be too many lower level natural science courses available, at least... not ones that I want to take. I just can't really find nat sci interesting in the classroom, which is strange because I like Nat Geo and documentaries and that kind of stuff... blech. There's a couple of psych classes that I could do for my social science requirement, though. One is just an intro to Social Psychology and the other is one called Perception & Memory. I'm not sure if I could take Perception & Memory as it is a midlevel course and I have no Psych background.
I'm tempted to take this course designed for English speakers with no background in French. It's basically all conversation, no busy work or silliness, with the goal of giving us the basic vocabulary we'd need to survive a few days amidst the French. I don't know that such a vocabulary exists, but it sounds like fun, and it would be nice to be able to get by a little bit this Christmas.
Next semester, I'll basically be doing the same. Two histories, whichever science I don't do this semester and then a whatever. Maybe I'll take art history, because I still have to fulfill that. Assuming I'm successful in getting those three cores out of the way, and the 4 history courses tucked away, that'll leave me with ~3 history and cultural diversity senior year, meaning I would have room for four or so electives, unless I'm forgetting something huge... which I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Other than all of this planning, the past couple of days have been nice. The weekend was pretty chill, we mostly stayed in and played cards and planned our trips. I learned how to play Euchre seeing as most of my friends here are some variety of Midwestern. It's pretty fun, and kind of similar to Spades, so it wasn't too tricky to learn. We bought our tickets to Berlin. We ended up planning the trip for a week because when we looked at prices on Aer Lingus, there were 0 euro flights out of Cork to Berlin, with something like 20 euro taxes tacked on. All in all, a pretty good deal.
Last night we went to a pub called Clancy's where we heard there was going to be either swing or Irish dancing. Turns out both were going on, but the swing was upstairs and the Irish downstairs. One of the musicians would call out the dance steps, so a bunch of us would go up everytime and try our best to learn them. Our best didn't turn out so well, but it was still loads of fun.
In other news, I have become a chain tea-drinker and I'm dying for some good, or even not-so-good (i.e. Safeway) chinese food.
Let it be known that I have officially survived my first few days here in Cork, and not only survived them but quite enjoyed them! The past coupla days have been a total blur of names and faces and places, kind of like freshman year all over again. It's quite nice because mostly everyone is new, so it is very easy to just go up to people and introduce yourself.
Anyway, the first day we got here was quite possibly the longest day of my life. Grandpa and I left Portland early in the morning, our flight took off around 8:15 AM I believe, and we landed in Newark around 4 PM eastern with just a few hours before we took off for Shannon. Too bad the dummies whose job it was to prepare the plane for a new flight slacked off and had to double back to finish things, meaning we sat on a roasting plane at the gate for about 45 minutes before given clearance to even begin taxiing. Whoa, I don't believe that I have ever spelled taxiing before. Anyway, the flights were both bearable. Quite turbulent but obviously everything worked out fine.
After we landed, we had to wait a bit for Cathy's plane from JFK to land, during which we drank tea and ate biscuits in the Shannon airport Cafe. Laura and Jen both slept a bit but I tried to stay awake so as not to completely ruin my chances at avoiding super jetlag. The drive to Cork from Shannon was very pretty, we saw loads of cows and sheep and cute little buildings. Sitting in the front of a car on the left side is quite a strange experience, especially when enormous trucks come speeding at you around hairpin turns.
We finally arrived in Cork and found our building, wandered inside and met the landlady and were given our keys! The rest of the day was spent shopping and unpacking and running around like crazy people. That night, we had Papa John's for dinner... authentic Irish cuisine.
The next day we ran some more errands and then made our way over to the university. We got a bit lost but still made it on time for our meeting with our onsite coordinator. He seems quite nice and is a professor of Archaeology. It turns out that the building my first class meets in was built on the same plot of land that used to be home to a prison. Grrrrreat. That evening, all of us BC kids and our roommates hung out a bit and a few of us went out to some pubs. The first place we went to, Preachers, had been recommended to one of us by a friend who had studied at UCC some years ago. So we show up, order our drinks, and it turns out that the place had just been remodeled and it was their first night open! So everything was on the house!
The next day was orientation, which lasted 80109201290129340924 years and was terribly boring. The student government had planned a bunch of stuff for us to do afterward, which was way exciting. We went on a little tour, hung out in the student's club and then went to a movie (I Love You, Beth Cooper) which SUCKED soooo much, I'm so glad it wasn't on my dime. After the movie we went to this pub with a couple of bowling alleys, pool tables and karaoke rooms.. so much fun! A bunch of us did karaoke (spice girls, backstreet boys, grease, etc) and then bowled. Amazingly, I was the best bowler of our group and I got spares in almost every frame! They had us set to go to a night club afterward, at which I lasted only a few minutes.
And now I am way too exhausted to finish talking about my exciting adventures, I'm sure this is all riddled with typoes and makes no sense at all. To be continued!!
Anyway, the first day we got here was quite possibly the longest day of my life. Grandpa and I left Portland early in the morning, our flight took off around 8:15 AM I believe, and we landed in Newark around 4 PM eastern with just a few hours before we took off for Shannon. Too bad the dummies whose job it was to prepare the plane for a new flight slacked off and had to double back to finish things, meaning we sat on a roasting plane at the gate for about 45 minutes before given clearance to even begin taxiing. Whoa, I don't believe that I have ever spelled taxiing before. Anyway, the flights were both bearable. Quite turbulent but obviously everything worked out fine.
After we landed, we had to wait a bit for Cathy's plane from JFK to land, during which we drank tea and ate biscuits in the Shannon airport Cafe. Laura and Jen both slept a bit but I tried to stay awake so as not to completely ruin my chances at avoiding super jetlag. The drive to Cork from Shannon was very pretty, we saw loads of cows and sheep and cute little buildings. Sitting in the front of a car on the left side is quite a strange experience, especially when enormous trucks come speeding at you around hairpin turns.
We finally arrived in Cork and found our building, wandered inside and met the landlady and were given our keys! The rest of the day was spent shopping and unpacking and running around like crazy people. That night, we had Papa John's for dinner... authentic Irish cuisine.
The next day we ran some more errands and then made our way over to the university. We got a bit lost but still made it on time for our meeting with our onsite coordinator. He seems quite nice and is a professor of Archaeology. It turns out that the building my first class meets in was built on the same plot of land that used to be home to a prison. Grrrrreat. That evening, all of us BC kids and our roommates hung out a bit and a few of us went out to some pubs. The first place we went to, Preachers, had been recommended to one of us by a friend who had studied at UCC some years ago. So we show up, order our drinks, and it turns out that the place had just been remodeled and it was their first night open! So everything was on the house!
The next day was orientation, which lasted 80109201290129340924 years and was terribly boring. The student government had planned a bunch of stuff for us to do afterward, which was way exciting. We went on a little tour, hung out in the student's club and then went to a movie (I Love You, Beth Cooper) which SUCKED soooo much, I'm so glad it wasn't on my dime. After the movie we went to this pub with a couple of bowling alleys, pool tables and karaoke rooms.. so much fun! A bunch of us did karaoke (spice girls, backstreet boys, grease, etc) and then bowled. Amazingly, I was the best bowler of our group and I got spares in almost every frame! They had us set to go to a night club afterward, at which I lasted only a few minutes.
And now I am way too exhausted to finish talking about my exciting adventures, I'm sure this is all riddled with typoes and makes no sense at all. To be continued!!
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