One Term Down & I've Survived

I figured I should update this while I still have a calm moment. Granted, I should be cleaning...but I've got a bit of time for that.

Instead, I'm sitting in the common room, two candles burning in front of my €2 tinsel tree, with a cup of tea cooling at my side. It's all very Christmasy -- in it's way.
There's a certain magical quality contained in candle light, of which I've always been fond. (And I didn't end that sentence with a preposition -- I win.)

So, what have I been up to lately?
- Finding out when my one & only test will be. (Late January; which leaves plenty of time for me to actually read the book it's over.)
- Finally watching Casablanca all the way through.
- Participating in the history postgrad "Twelve Pubs of Christmas" pub crawl down Barrack Street (we made it to just over half that number, which is a decent feat considering how much time we chatted at each one).
- Farewell dinner for two of the American students I met here at a yummy Thai restaurant, followed by a pint at a pub close to home.
- Last Coffee Morning at Iona, with some sad goodbyes.
- Seeing Nienke off to the Netherlands.
- Shopping for Christmas dinner.
- Oh, and dealing with an ear infection which is pretty much gone now (yay!).

And now, the longer, ramblier version of the above (with exciting details! -- or something like that).

The semester ended on Friday. And life at Deans Hall has become eerily quite as a result. Nearly everyone is back home. It was sad saying goodbye to friends I'd made who were here for one semester, but I'm trying to console myself with the idea that I now have excuses to go visit the Continent -- specifically, German, Switzerland and France. All I need is the money to do so.

The quiet of Deans Hall does not last through the night, though. Every night this past week has seen yelling matches taking place outside my window. The curses of living so near the street, I suppose; and it is amusing...or it would be much more so if it didn't happen after 2am each night.

I prefer the quiet, though -- it's so very nice -- but it made going into town yesterday all the more shocking. I could hardly walk down the streets downtown -- it was insane! I hadn't gone towards the shops on a Saturday in a very long time, so heading in that direction on a Saturday before Christmas was probably not the wisest choice, but I hadn't thought that far ahead when I realised that I needed groceries.

I may as well get used to such massive, scary crowds -- I'm going to be in Dublin in a few days after all. That town is always extremely crowded & I can only imagine how bad it'll be the week before Christmas. But, as I'm meeting my family there, I think I survive the evils of the crowds.

I'm ridiculously excited about my family's arrival on Wednesday. I seriously feel a bit giddy about it. I think part of it is that I haven't had any visitors -- and, of course, I haven't seen anyone from home since I left.

On an unrelated note, I think I have an unhealthy preoccupation with wax and watching candles melt. I blame this for the reason why it's taken me forever to type this entry.
Excuses are fun.

But enough talk of candles (for awhile, anyhow). I should actually get something done tonight -- even if it's writing out a list of things to do tomorrow. ;)
Procrastinate? Me? Nooo.

Dublin & Advent

Today was a very, very, very, very long day. & I'm half-asleep whilst writing this, so if it doesn't make sense in places it's not you, it's me.
This time. :P

So. Today.

Getting up at 5am = rough. I'm so much more of a night owl; I'm simply not made to get up early. I walked to the train station (or, about half way, then got lazy, saw a cab & rode the rest of the way) & was there by 6:15am. I was the second of the postgrads there.
Eventually we all showed up, joined the massive queue to get onto the 7am train, took our seats & tried to fall asleep. It didn't work too well for me, but I kept trying to sleep anyway. I'm stubborn like that.
Oh, & in case you're wondering, dawn was around 8:30. I'm sure you were all overly curious about that.

Well, we were thus in Dublin around 9:40 & promptly took a bus to Stephan's Green...so that we could walk 10 minutes to the National Archives. Luckily, it was sunny this morning in Dublin town.
The nearly two hours spent at the Archives was informative & was actually one of the best talks by an archivist that I've endured in quite some time. First she helped us with where to look for manuscripts on our topics, not just at the Archives, but at other repositories around Dublin. Then, she skimmed over all that info that you get told twenty bajillion times at archives (use pencil only! don't bring in any bags! don't mishandle the manuscripts or you will die! -- erm, so, that last one is just the gist of what they say, but I'm sure some of them think that). I'm also in possession of a reader's card for the Archives that will last three years. In case I ever need it. Free things that that are always good to have, after all.

So, after the Archives, we went to lunch. I'll spare you the details, but all of us were famished & dug into our meal gladly. I was ridiculously happy to see food since I hadn't eaten anything since 5:30.

After scarfing down our meal, Hiram (one of the UCC lecturers) thought it'd be fun to go visit an exhibition at the National Gallery. So we did. And it was really cool. All sorts of paintings on the culture of Ireland in a 200 year span (I forget the actual dates & am too lazy to walk over to my bag which has the pamphlet in it), I think 1700-something to 1940ish.
I am such a bad historian, disregarding dates like that.

Then it was off to the National Library, which I had high hopes for -- it, after all, is probably where I will end up doing quite a bit of research. & while our guide there did give us some good info, she also gave us way too much filler. Not a good idea when you have a tired group of postgrad students with you & the reading room you've taken them to is extremely warm. I'm quite honestly surprised half of us didn't fall asleep. But, I do feel badly, though, since we really weren't good at asking questions since most people seemed to be thinking "I want a pint/I want to sit down/I want to sleep."

It was raining slightly went we left the Library & headed back to the train station...& the wind got very gusty. But it was nothing compared to the weather we found in Cork when we got off the train around 8pm. Steady rain & an almost constant strong, strong wind. I tried to avoid walking too close to the river for very long, fearing that there might be a particularly super strong gust at some point & I would fly, Piglet style, in the the River Lee & then wash out to sea.

So, that was today's adventures -- in sleepy visioned details.

Sunday, I actually did stuff! One of my friends, Claudia, held an Advent party -- complete with hot chocolate, scones, & other goodness...I left there stuffed. Then, Nienke, her twin sister who was visiting & I went to the Advent celebration at St Fin Barre's Sunday night. It was quite beautiful -- the church stayed dark almost the entire time. I just wish they had printed the music to accompany the words to the hymns they gave us in the program...or that they had given us hymnals. I knew one hymn they sang off the top of my head & the rest I had to mumble quietly until the second and third verses, when I was finally able to catch the melody.

Well, off to sleep I go. Luckily, I have nothing to do until 3pm tomorrow, so I can recover. Yay for that!

Turkeys, Books & Clouds

And so another week has passed.
'Twas rather uneventful, but I'm trying to keep this updated fairly often. I'm trying to be good about it. Honest.

Thanksgiving went well. I actually prepared the meal on my own; when we sat down there was but one dish that I had not made myself. Luckily it wasn't a big affair, there were three of us. I may've cheated a bit (stuff from boxes = brilliant), but that's because in true procrastinatory style I shopped for the holiday meal Thanksgiving morning. It's so nice to see some of my habits never change. :P

The decorations continue to go up around the city -- and Christmas music is blaring from stores along Patrick Street. I'll try to take some photos of all the decorations soon. Even if I feel like a complete tourist to do so. There's something eerily self-conscious in taking photos of a place where you live; and it always makes me want to say, "No, seriously, I live here!" when I take such photos.

I absolutely impatient for Christmas. My family will be in Ireland in three and a half weeks (not that I'm counting....) & I can't wait to see them and show them around.

If the Cork City Library was open right now, I'd be tempted to run over there, get a membership & check out a novel instead of doing any of my reading. Those academic books sit neatly in a pile by my desk, staring up at me, whilst I try to forget them for another hour. The moment I leave my chair, however, I have to remember them or else I trip over them and turn them into a messy pile of books. And that's just no fun.

So, I shall try to read one of those books now, instead of watching the clouds roll in over the rooftops; despite the fact that the latter could be far more interesting today (especially if I dare to open my book for my seminar: that book puts me to sleep faster than any other I have).

Sunday in the Rain with Finny*

Today I did something slightly unusual, perhaps, but I've been itching to go to an Anglican service in St Fin Barre's (seriously: there are too many ways to spell this name; it's crazy). So, when my friend Claudia (from Germany) said she wanted to go too, & Nienke as well, we made plans to attend. To confuse it all, there are three separate services during the day; morning, almost noon, and evening. We went to the middle one (which is held at 11:15). This actually worked out best, since it is the Choral Eucharist service...so it wasn't overly awkward for me. They also had a baptism today, it was really nice. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed the sermon...enough so that I'm seriously contemplating going again next week; it struck a chord.

The building is simply beautiful, even if it is rainy and cloudy and cold...and to see during a service is completely different from just touring it. It's so easy to remove the reasons behind why people felt it necessary to build such a building from the architecture; but it becomes impossible when faced with and participating in that reasoning.

Well, enough of my slight poetic-ness. I'll try and return to my usual frivolity now; I've been grave for too long, methinks.

I also gained valuable insight into why women wore so many petticoats in the olden days. That stone church was freezing! I really thought my legs would go numb, if it wasn't for all the standing. I'm glad I decided not to wear a skirt -- but after seeing that the temp was hovering around 40 degrees and the wind chill was much closer to 35, I figured that would be a bad idea.
I still have nerves in my legs, unlike most Irish girls (who, in all seriousness, wear mini-skirts when it's practically freezing outside; all for the purpose of clubbing).

Holiday decorations are going up in Cork! It makes me terribly giddy. I <3 Christmas time.
Although, I do have my self-imposed embargo of not listening to Xmas music until after Thanksgiving. Luckily, the shops just started playing those songs this past week -- when you can hear it over the din of people, anyway.

It also hailed two days ago. For about five minutes. But still: hail!
Also, when it decides to rain here the temperature seems to drop about 10 degrees. It's eerie. But I'm becoming terribly used to it & begin to look for the nearest shelter (if I left foolishly without my umbrella) as soon as I feel it.

In other, more boring news: I've my first assignment from my advisor. So, I actually have to get work done this week. Work being, continuing to flesh out my bibliography and writing summaries of those books on it that I've already read. Which, oddly enough, I had already started on the latter when he told us about this on Friday. I think I'm the overachiever in my class...& that's slightly bizarre.

Well, back to work I go! (Unless I get overly distracted by the rain...again.)

*If you can guess the musical I shamelessly parodied, then...well, then clearly you're a musical nerd like me, and thus earn cool points. :P

Short & Sweet; & Rather Soaked

We've had such nice weather these past weeks. No rain, usually sunny...although, it was cold.

& then today happened. The one day I had to walk all over town, the sky decided to set a steady, light rain over Cork. For the entire day...or at least the day thus far.
So now my jeans are wet, my hair is damp, my shoes are soaked. & all for a tour of the Cork City & County Archives! The things I do for history.

It's times like this that I miss Texas sunshine. &, in a way, Texas thunderstorms - because they usually don't last all day long; the storm blows through quickly & doesn't sit overhead.

But, enough of my complaints about the weather...for now, anyway.

I've actually been getting work done on my thesis. & for once I'm ahead of the curve in starting early...most other people haven't done much at all. I'm sure it's because we don't have any deadlines yet, and so the motivation isn't there at all.

Depending on the weather tomorrow, I might go visit some random Cork town. I'm partial to Youghal right now. & only in part because you pronounce it "yawl" (technically) & which I always think of as "y'all" - the sign of a true Southerner, I think.

For those who actually read this: sorry for not updating in a while. But, I've really done nothing super interesting lately. I'm sure things will pick up later...I mean, I will be heading to Dublin for class later this month...and that will undoubtedly be interesting.

Dingle: The Western Edge of Europe

Not many people can claim that they have been to "the westernmost town in Europe," but now I can (although I wouldn't've known it if the guide book hadn't said so). Now, there are a few villages further west of Dingle...so I haven't been as far west as you can go...but really, I think we did rather well considering we decided to take a day trip.

So, this morning we left from the bus station at the early hour of 8:30 am. I learned at 7:30 that my phone alarm also lights up when it goes off, since it's was completely dark then. The sun was starting to sort of come up around 8:00, but it was cloudy all day -- until it went dark again around 6:30 pm (although, I'm sure it was still cloudy, it doesn't really matter as much then).

The bus went from Cork to Tralee. Then we had to wait in Tralee to get to Dingle -- or An Daingean (pronounced: on dang-un), as it is now offically called since it's in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area); full story over at the BBC, if you're interested (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6062312.stm).

We got into Dingle after the most horrific bus ride I've had in ages. It was fine until we went up into the mountains seperating Tralee from Dingle. Up there the fog, the winding road, the jerking driving and the funky smell combined to make 3 out of 4 of us feel ill (the fourth was in a deep sleep).

So, after being released from the bus about an hour after getting on, we headed for lunch. Because that seems like the logical thing to do after nearly getting sick, right? Then after lunch we went in search of water (and possibly the local celebrity: Fungi the Dolphin). We did not see Fungi (aside from the bronze statue by the pier) and there were no lovely views to be seen due to the fog. We did manage, however, to wile away three hours there, just wandering around. 'Twas grand.

The fog decided to lift some around the time we had to head back (we caught the last bus out of Dingle that would allow us to catch the last bus out of Tralee), which made the ride back much more enjoyable. Even if there was this lady talking to the driver (for longer than was probably necessary to cover the topic) about how most people don't have any respect anymore, thanks to the prosperity that came with the Celtic Tiger.

Then we had dinner in Tralee -- on The Square (which sounds so official). And then headed back to the bus station, since everything touristy had closed by the time we got into town anyhow (around 5:30 pm & everything closes at 5, of course). Then we came back to Cork -- & despite all of us being exhausted, none of us could really sleep on the bus ride back, alas.

So that's pretty much the most exciting thing I've done recently. Unless you want to count actually going to a nightclub on a student night (which, I admit, was hilarious) & going to a very late Oktoberfest at Francisan Wells (one of my new favourite pubs, if you were wondering). Although, things should get interesting agian with Hallowe'en just around the corner -- I might have two parties to go to! This is perhaps more exciting than it should be...but I don't care. :P

Also, pictures have been massively updated (since I actually went somewhere), so go check 'em out!

Céilí & Other Nonsense

Well, it's been a week. I'm still alive. In case you hadn't figured that out yet. Woo!

Anyhow.

I went to the céilí on Saturday night week (translation: last Saturday). It was fun. Even if I didn't know how to do most of the sets...and by most I mean all of them. Although, Irish set dancing is very repetitive, so it's sort of easy to pick up after a while. We set out at 9:30 to meet our driver -- an old Corkonian, probably around 60, who runs a produce stand in the English market and who none of us knew his name until partway through the night. We joked about it being a kidnap attempt...and who would be sacrificed. Morbid, and yet hilarious...as usual, with that sort of subject.

I thought it was going to be a rather small affair -- like 50 people -- but we were informed by our driver, that this céilí was usually attended by 400 to 500 people!

It was crowded, it was loud, it was super hot -- but it was also terribly fun. There were also some amazing dancers (young and old). It was nice to be coupled with them because a) they know the steps/moves you're suppose to do & b) when you get the hang of it, you feel like a pretty good dancer yourself. Ego-boosts are always nice. Although, the one young (& American) guy we managed to wrangle into coming & I did quite well with the Connemara Set. I don't remember the steps, but I'm sure if I saw it again I could manage to dance it rather well.

The best part, however, came just before midnight. They turned on the lights, several tables appeared and tea was brought out -- and scones & little sandwiches.I felt like I had time-traveled to the Regency period -- to the Victorian era -- to any time that the accepted hospitality was to give refreshments ("supper"). It was brilliant.
And probably the closest I will ever get to feeling like I lived in Jane Austen's world.

After the "supper" we danced one last set & got home around 12:40 am. Apparently the céilí usually goes until 2 am!

The rest of the week is terribly boring, especially in comparison. I went to class (well, expect for when I was a bad child & decided not to go to two of them on Tuesday). I had a cold...which I'm almost over now, thankfully. Oh, yeah...and it rained almost the entire week. Seriously. I've seen the sun thrice the entire week -- and each time it was merely for a handful of hours. I can't wait until the "rainy season" is over (I've decided to give it a name, 'cause I'm awesome like that).

Work on the bibliography (the very preliminarly bibliography, mind you) is going well. Although it's slightly unnerving that I have nearly 4 pages worth of books that I should read/look at.

Also, I stumbled across this site: http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php. You can vote on the New Seven Wonders of the World. I thought it was cool & so voted (it's free, you just have to register on the site). Something to waste some time on, if nothing else.
Sadly, there are no Irish sites.

"There's Whiskey in the Jar"

I survived yet another week. Yay!

It's all about celebrating the little things in life.

Today Nienke & I went out to Midleton, which is about 50 mins by bus. Now, you might wonder, what on earth could be so interesting about Midleton?


The Jameson Distillery is located there. Both the current new distillery and the old one, which is a visitors center...and which after a tour, you get a glass of Jameson whiskey. Brilliance, really.

Before the tour, they make you watch a video (the Irish like videos at historical sites -- much like the Brit's). This one had a very grandiose title (something along the lines of "Water of Life, ___ of Time"). It was hilarious...much more so than I'm sure it was intended to be. But, really, when they use the opportunity to basically advertise Jameson whiskey and use such dramatic language and music, it's almost harder not to laugh at it. The tour itself was perfectly normal & rather interesting. Although, if I had heard one more time the differences between the whiskeys, I might've screamed (okay not really). So, in case you were wondering: Irish whiskey is distilled thrice, Scotch whisky twice, and Bourbon (ie, Jack Daniels) once.

And, for the record, I did drink most of a glass of Jameson & ginger ale -- Jameson is really sweet (esp compared to Jack!). I also couldn't resist buying an official whiskey glass (according to the box it's called a "Blenders' Glass") -- with "JAMESON" blazoned across it. Not a bad souvenir, I think -- also, it was rather cheap. :)

That's about all the news I have right now. I've been rather boring of late (I blame school). Although, I might go to a céilí (pronounced "kay-lee") tonight -- Irish set dancing is such fun.

One Week Down...One Year to Go

I survived the first week. Although, I obviously need to find things to do during the hours in between classes. Aside from wandering. Wandering aimlessly is fun...unless there's a very strong, cold wind...and then it's not so much fun.
But, I'm starting to get things together for my thesis now, so I'm sure I will find plenty to do instead. Namely: hunch over books scanning bibliographies in a vain attempt to find something new to add to the topic I've chosen and will fill up the thesis. I already have about 2 pages worth of books to look into after looking over some book lists I compiled last semester. Clearly I was far too bored this afternoon.

Yesterday, to celebrate making it through the week (my first of classes, and Nienke's first of actually having to teach Latin & Greek grammar), we went to Franciscan Wells (pub & brewery). It was fun. Although this very random (& I'm almost positive very drunk) Irishman decided to "quiz" me on random things from American history. Like -- how did the word "Yankee" come about? In general it was just weird randomness...slightly amusing, but I felt bad for Nienke, 'cause he kept looking at her like she was American as well and should know some of the answers.
Although, he was suitably impressed that I knew what was wrong with this statement: "I got some bourbon from Tennessee." Bourbon comes from Kentucky, not Tennessee. It seems fairly common to me, but then, I do have a relative in who works for Jack Daniels, so maybe that rubbed off somehow? (It's more likely that since my mom is from Ohio things like that found their way into my head.)

Saw Little Miss Sunshine tonight. Amazing. I loved it. The characters were brilliant.
Also, their were no previews prior to the movie. It was a bit jarring. I'm so use to ads, movie trailers, etc. beforehand.

Tomorrow it's off to Killarney! With Arcadia study abroad kids. For which I get paid a ridiculous amount of money. And, thus, as a poor postgrad student, I really can't complain.
I'm glad I was slightly devious in finding a way into this "job".
Even if the lady in charge here thinks my name is Cathy. Which brings me to my next point: I've found a worse nickname than being called "Katie" -- that name at least makes sense as a diminutive for "Katherine"..."Cathy" however is slightly harder to get too, I think. Especially in a country full of Kates.
But maybe that's just me.

I've been here for just over three weeks now. It feels like so much more. Odd how the mind warps time like that.

Christina: I have a midterm today
Me: Icky. ... Also, it's weird that you're having midterms whereas it's just the 2nd week of term here
Christina: It's weird that its the second week over there. I'm the normal one
Me: The Irish would argue the opposite
Christina: Well ... the Irish are opposite ... so there

That Dreadful "C" Word

Classes started today. Yay?

I get to attend such interesting lectures. With such fascinating titles. Like: State & Economy in Independent Ireland & Europe 1922-2000, which I had today. I nearly fell asleep in my chair. Perhaps I shouldn't sit in the very last row next time.
I hope tomorrow's classes will be better. "Communications, culture & identity in 20th century Ireland" & "Irish Film History" sound more promising, anyhow.
I'm sure you are all extremely jealous of my enthralling classes.

Also, I think it's slightly frightening that, despite all the classes I have to take, I want to take another one. Voluntarily adding another two hours onto an already busy day.
But, the course is Women & Society in Ireland 1750-1937...which does cover part of my thesis topic. So, really, it's justified. And my advisor said that I might be able to get out of the other seminar I have to take. We'll see.

But, really, even with that extra class, I would be sitting in classrooms no more than 15 hrs a week. Which I know I can handle. See -- I did learn something from college. :P

So, as it stands right now, I've 1 hr of class Mon, 6 hrs Tues, 4/5 hrs Wend, 1 hr Thurs & nothing Friday!
I think that's all of it. For now.

I'll be nice & busy this semester. I hope that this is a good thing, but (as the old saw goes,) "the jury's still out."

Also, it's getting rather cold in the evenings. I guess I'll have to dig out my scarf soon! :D
...& yes, I'm ridiculously excited about that.
...& about this too: "Were you just ridiculously dorky about having your electric kettle again?" - Emily
It's the little things in life, after all, that make it all so interesting.

Classes, Buses, Pubs & Ramblings

Yesterday was my class meeting. There are eight or nine of us (a couple people didn't show & my supervisor couldn't remember the exact number). I, unsurprisingly, am the only American. There's one other girl who didn't go to UCC for undergrad. Everyone seems really nice so far.

My class load seems a bit crazy. Aside from the very few demands of postgrad course work (a one hour course once a week, one two hour course every fortnight -- side note: I love that they actually use the word "fortnight"), I have to attend some undergrad courses. They're all third year courses (which would be like our upper division/senior seminar classes). Luckily I don't have to be graded in any of these. They're suppose to help with the understanding of 20th century Irish history. So, I've got one seminar and four lectures to attend (with one more lecture course to attend next semester) -- the seminar is required of all MA's, but the lectures are to be taken if you didn't take them as an undergrad...and, well, I clearly have taken none of them.

We also get to take research trips this semester. Which I'm dorkily excited about. :)
Several will be around Cork, but we also get to go to Dublin: the National Archives, National Library, Trinity College, Univ. College Dublin, Military Archives...maybe another place or two.

Oh, and throughout all of that, I have to write a 20,000 word thesis. By next October.
And pass an examination & 5,000 word essay shortly after Christmas.
No pressure, right?

In more exciting news, I got to pretend like I was in charge yesterday afternoon. Checking names off a list and sending almost 40 Arcadia study abroad students to Co. Limerick for their homestays. It took up less than an hour of my day & I got paid. :) Yay for money!
I was a bit nervous about it, but I think that mainly 'cause I'm just a couple years older than they all are. I'm sure I'll do much better when I help out on the Killarney day-trip.

Also, last night I finally got to meet some Irish people! Started out the night at an International Student Society meeting/party at a nightclub, which turned into the typical Friday night scene. Which was so loud you could barely hear yourself think (I think I still have a bit of a headache from the loud music...curses).

Hm...still trying to decide what to do today.... Exploring is always a fun option. :) But getting rained on is not. Such a dilemma.

Registration = Exhausted Kate

I'm now an official student at UCC! Again, according to their database, since they still have record of my old student number from when I studied abroad. So now I have a completely different start to my student ID number than everybody else...I really am special, apparently. :P

Registration was such a boring process, though. I got there around 10:15 and after a half-hour of queuing, I finally was able to get into the room where registration took place. Then, I had to queue three more times (actual registration, fees, ID card).

I still have no clue which classes (or modules, as they call them) I'm in. Nor when they meet. I really hope that meeting with my advisor for our first class meeting will clear all of that up.

After all that "fun," I decided to do something low key. So I went to the Crawford Art Gallery. It's a neat gallery -- Irish artists, largely modern art (or, at least, mostly art from the past century). They also had a whole room dedicated to plaster copies of Greek and Roman sculpture...mixed, of course, with a couple of original Irish plaster and marble sculptures.
I think the main thing that bugged me about the museum was the floor plan; it was slightly confusing -- if only they had maps! But the art work was really interesting.

Also, there is a slight mystery bothering me. The bells of Finbarre's go off every Wednesday night for an hour or two in 10-15 minute intervals. It's very annoying because: a) neither my roomie or I know why they go off, b) they're extremely loud and bounce off all the walls around here, and c) they last so long. So, my new mission is to figure this out. It's always fun to have a mystery to solve. :)

It Feels Like Summer

Well, not "proper" summer, since it hasn't hit the upper-90s or 100; but a good Irish type summer, what I think of as fall (& sometimes winter) at home: mid-60s, sunny, slightly cool in the evening. Just nice. I almost broke out flip-flops it was so nice...& considering the blisters my heels gave me, I should've. Lesson learned, I suppose.


The weather was equally lovely yesterday, which made the trip to Kinsale that much better. I so adore that town. Wandering around Charles Fort and the town gave my roomie and I some time to bond, which we really hadn't done that much of. It was really nice.


I really haven't talked much about my roomie...in part because I couldn't really understand what her name was. But I have it figured out now (although I cannot pronounce her surname...it's far to confusing still). Her name is Nienke (NEEN-ka) & she's from the Netherlands. She's about six-months older than I am -- and she has two masters degrees already (it sort of makes me feel like an underachiever). She's actually not technically enrolled as a PhD student yet, instead she's teaching first year Latin and Greek grammar classes this year since the prof. who usually does so is going on pregnancy leave, & she'll start her PhD (in neo-Latin) next year.

Meeting new people is such fun. It's so fun to find what people truly love -- and what they want to do with their lives.

I had more opportunity to meet random new people tonight. All were American students. Because since Nienke & I "hosted" some of the heavy bags that got sent ahead of the Arcadia students, Valerie (who is the coordinator for things for Arcadia here in Cork) asked us to join the dinner that all the little undergrads get to go to. It was rather funny to be going to this dinner again (after all, I'd gone to this thing thrice when I was here with Arcadia before)...and who am I to pass up a completely free dinner?

I ended up sitting by a really sweet girl from W&M, who may be a travel partner sometime this semester. We both want to travel to Wales and Glasgow, so hopefully we'll be able to find some time to do that.

I also might have a bit of a job from going to dinner. Valerie sort of recognised me, and I explained I had done this program two years ago (geez, that seems so long ago!). I offered to help her out with things, and thus, I might be going up to Co. Limerick on Friday on a bus to help deposit all those students for their home stays. And I'd get €20 out of it (or something like that, Valerie really wasn't too sure).

Registration is on Thursday.and my first class meeting is on Friday. I should know exactly what I've gotten myself into after that. If not, hopefully it will all be cleared up early next week (after yet another info. session, this one for History).

The Sky Turned A Funny Colour Tonight

The sky is back to a perfectly normal blue-grey-twilighty colour now. But the pinky-yellow-ish tint was rather frightening...I guess that comes from living most of my life at the end of tornado alley.

It's been raining on and off for the past three or four days. Because a hurricane decided to break apart in this part of the Atlantic. For two days there were downpours -- downpours with lots and lots of wind (in Northern Ireland the wind was so bad that it knocked out power). But, aside from leaving the house during two of these deluges, it hasn't been too bad. I just had to deal with jeans that were soaked from the knee down.

I went to the Cork Public Museum, which is close to campus, actually. I had been there before -- but it was before the building had reopened...and all we did was look at prehistoric and a few historic potshards and other artefacts and jot down notes so that we could sketch them. This time I went and looked at the history half. And nearly stayed half the day in front of the cabinet with all the artefacts from the Easter Rising and Civil War (or Irish war for independence). Instead I made myself move on & then stared for a while at all the Cork silver. What can I say, I like shiny objects. :)

Yesterday, I learned to do some Irish dances! With a bunch of other international students. There were hardly any Americans there. Instead I got to meet lots of random Europeans. A couple girls from Austria, a lad from Sweden, a couple of Frenchmen, several Italians, and a couple girls from Spain. A group of us went out to a pub afterward. 'Twas fun a fun night all around. And if anyone wants to learn a couple Irish folk dances (or the Highland reel from Scotland, which is loads of fun), well, I can try to teach them to you.

Today was another day of exploring. I started off by staying close to places I knew and then decided to throw caution to the wind and just walk around northern Cork...which is on a big hill, so I got plenty of exercise out of that. And I nearly got myself lost. How lost? Well, in this photo, the big cathedral is basically where I live.



Clearly I was far from the neighborhoods I actually know well. But, in my defense, I thought there would be another road that would take me down to the river from where I was than the one that I knew about -- after consulting the map when I got home, I realised that there really wasn't. Although I was wrong, I got to walk through some fun residential areas.

Tomorrow it's off to Kinsale with the International Education Office -- and even thought I've been there before, it's a free trip. I can't pass up a free trip to one of the prettiest towns near Cork.

I Feel a bit Like a Tour Book....

So...I went to the Butter Museum today. It's a very long walk when it's raining. Even more so when it's windy & rainy. But, that's besides the point, really.




The museum itself was far smaller than I thought it'd be. It was a total of three rooms. One downstairs, which was slightly larger than my apartment (which is fairly normal-sized for Ireland); and two upstairs, which were slightly less than half of the room downstairs.

Downstairs was a look at traditional butter making, complete with a six minute video showing how it was done. There were also many artefacts relating to the various stages of butter making. The other video in this room was about the modern butter industry. The Irish Dairy Board, oversees much of the butter production in Ireland & helped establish the Dairy Science programme at UCC. Yes, you can get a degree in dairy science.

Upstairs is what interested me more: history! In one room they talked about ancient butter making. And how butter has been discovered in bogs: "butter often rancid seasoned with garlic" -- apparently this was either an acquired taste or a ritual, it's unclear which. The other discussed the butter trade in Cork. Apparently most of the world (including the US, South America, Australia, India, etc) got their butter from Cork...until refrigeration forced the Butter Market to lose business and close by the 1930s.

So, was it worth my €2.50? I think so. I mean, I did have the whole museum to myself since it's not tourist season -- & it was raining. But, really, I could've learned most of what the museum had to offer online: http://www.activate.ie/sites/corkcitylib/commercial/cork_butter_museum.htm. Sadly, there were no butter samples, no hands-on activities, no real gift shop either. But, it did make for an interesting afternoon. :)

More Cork Churches & Some School Rambles

I didn't get to do as much touristy things as I had hoped to today. But in between the International Education Office's welcome meeting and the tour of campus (which was ridiculously short -- I already knew everything they showed us), I managed to see some things. I finally actually went inside the Tourist Office downtown...after I found it. & as I left there I saw a spire peaking out behind a couple buildings. Thus I went to investigate.

What I found was this tiny church, hidden, really. Half the time I looked up trying to find it, it had disappeared. Thus, I'm sure many people on those streets got a bit of amusement watching me walk up the street, stare at the sky & then walk back down the street. Eventually I managed to find it (after passing up the most direct route, of course). I didn't go inside, though. It looked remodeled and I wasn't even sure if it was a church any more -- there were none of those signs outside that I've come to associate with Irish churches.

Since I had lots of time to kill after that, I decided to actually go inside St Finbarre's. Since, for all I adore that cathedral, I'd never actually been inside. The conclusion is that it's lovely. A bit odd, though, considering there is a huge mixture of late-Victorian to mid-20th century art work inside. Gothic churches with 1930s mosaic and mural work seems a bit odd, but it works -- largely because the basic designs follow the architect's vision.

It was also highly amusing to see men up on one of the spires cleaning the stone. That's one job I could never do. In fact, in this picture you can see them up there on the right-hand side.

Tomorrow it's more touristy things. Including the Butter Museum. I've been convinced. Three friends & the guide book couldn't steer me wrong, could they? (Well, they might...but that's quite besides the point right now.)

Also, found out today that my program won't start until mid-October. Not quite sure what date yet, but the international history masters starts on the 4th & that's considered early for masters programmes (take that one Emily! :P). Now it makes more sense why orientation isn't until 11 Oct., but registration is 28 Sept. Well, not much sense...but a bit.

My First Irish Rain

Well, it started raining about an hour ago -- but it felt like it was going to rain all afternoon. I'm lucky it didn't start pouring while I was still wandering around the city.

I decided to go someplace I hadn't been when I was here the first time. St Anne's Church, home of the Shandon Bells. It's called "the four faced liar" since the times of the clocks on the bell tower are notoriously out of sync. You can sort of see that in the photo.

The neighborhood around the church was much smaller than I expected -- everything was really close together (with very, very small streets). The church itself was also really small. I guess for a church that makes the guide books, I thought it would be bigger. The church is right by the Butter Museum. Which is, apparently, the main museum of Cork. I'm still trying to decide if that's worth a trip or not. Somehow the history of how butter made Cork an important trading centre doesn't seem all that interesting. But, as I'm going to hit up a bunch of touristy things in the coming week, I just might end up there. In fact, I should go make a list of things I want to see.

First batch of photos (a whole three!) are up on my Shutterfly account (http://kbarry.shutterfly.com) now.

Travel day = OVER

I'm soo glad to be done traveling. I'm still in that weird "travel-zombie" mode, though, where days seem to blend together...and I have to keep reminding myself that it's actually Friday evening, now.

My two plane rides went very smoothly. I didn't get much sleep, however, on the international flight -- and since I hadn't slept much the night before, well, I was marvelously sleep deprived by the time I got to Dublin. But, I caught up on sleep on the train to Cork...well, maybe an hour's worth...and then I kept trying to unpack when I got the apt., but kept falling asleep. Napping at 5pm seems rather odd to me, but I got a good 2 hrs out of it. And then, today I slept until 2pm. Hopefully that should catch me up...'cause I can't afford to sleep that late again.

I totally rocked at packing my large bag, though -- it weighed in at 49.2 lbs & the limit was 50 lbs. It made me ridiculously happy. I think the guy at the ticket counter was slightly worried about that.
I wasn't as happy, however, when I had to drag it through one airport and two train stations. But, I've found there are some very nice older gentlemen in Ireland who are very happy to help a poor girl struggling with a ton of luggage.

I'm in a two person apt. -- which is nice, esp. as my roommate is also a grad. student. But, I get to hear all the road traffic, since my room is much closer to the road -- I'm on the outside of the courtyard, basically.

Travel Day Eve!

Tomorrow...(eek!)...I will be almost in Ireland. By the 14th (8am central time, anyway) I'll be in Cork. In fact, I'll be here then:

A bit frightening, really. But, oh well. I'll live, I'm sure. :P

Packing/cleaning, however, is about to kill me. I'm so sick of it all. And I'm rather afraid of how much I need shipped. Apparently my packing skills are worse than I thought they'd be.

At this point, traveling is going to be the least stressful part of the whole thing. And, since I'm usually pretty stressed about making connections and getting to the airport super early, that's really saying something. (But, since I practically grew up in DFW airport, getting there early has been always been a top priority for me.)

And since I'm sure you are all extremely interested in my travel itinerary...here it is. :P
Flying to Chicago at 3, then a couple hour layover at O'Hare (woo?) and 7:30pm it's time for the long 7 hour flight to Dublin, where I land at 9am Dublin time. Then I get to take a train down to Cork...where I'll be around 2pm (which would be 8am central time).

And then I get to go buy food and sheets and all that fun stuff. Such excitement?

But some actually exciting news is that my phone will work over there! Sure it costs a lot per minute, but that's beside the point.

Down to the Wire...& Some Sports Rambles

So. I don't have much time left. 3 1/2 days. Omg.

And to think, I blew off packing today to go shopping with Mom. But as I tend to get most of my work done under pressure, I doubt this will change much of anything. Chances are very high that my last night in Tx will be spent in a flurry of packing.
I'm not really freaking out all that much, though. I think I had my big "freak out" moment when I was at Trinity. Now everything just seems surreal.


Sad day in sports...well, mostly football: UT, Trinity...still waiting on the Rangers score--they're in extra innings. Maybe the Rangers will actually pull out a win? A girl can always hope.
And extra sad for Cork hurling. The match was on the 3rd, but I just realised & checked the score--sadly the Cork Rebels lost to the Kilkenny Cats. Alas.

So Much to Do...So Little Time

Down to the last week, now. So I'm busy packing up my life. Literally.
Space saver bags are my best friends right now.

I'm also busying hitting up all the restaurants I'm going to miss -- and all the foods I won't be able to find over there. I had chicken fried steak today and just have to eat BBQ (at Spring Creek, because I'm slightly addicted to their chopped beef sandwiches) & Tex-Mex another time (or two, knowing my family). Oh -- and ice cream at Beth Marie's! Every day it seems my list of places to go eat gets longer.

And So It Begins

Well. This post won't really be much of anything, but I'm hoping to post rather regularly...eventually. It's really just an excuse for writing about life over there...that, and something for all of you who want to procrastinate by reading what I procrastinated by writing. :)

I guess that I should also explain that "Taisteal Gaelach" means Irish travel. As you can see, I was clearly bored when looking up a title for this thing and wasted much time on an online Irish dictionary.

16 days left! (Eep.)