Classes, Suitemates, Pubs, Pubs, and More Pubs

Now that I've resided in Cappavilla for a few days, I'm starting to warm up to the university quite a bit. I have three new Irish suitemates: Ciara, Elizabeth, and Emer. They seemed a bit hesitant to meet Matt and I at first but we subsequently learned it was because the Americans that lived here last semester were not so Irish-friendly. Luckily, we've managed to wash that bad first taste out of their mouths and have had a "grand" time together thus far.
Classes also begun today, which really freaked me out because for awhile there I had completely forgotten that we were in Ireland to attend school. My only class today was Civil Liberties, which was not the most welcoming environment for my Irish studies. It turns out that one requires an extensive background in European Law (who knew??) in order to manage that course, so I quickly switched out and have opted for the Applied Sports Psychology course instead. In addition, I'm taking Local Government, Sociology, Irish Folklore (a heavily favored module by the Americans). and Irish Cultural Texts.
On the social side of things, we Americans still pretty much stick together, although I've been invited out with my roomies tomorrow night (yes, I will be attending. Tuesdays here are like Thursdays in the US...except that the Irish also go out on Thursdays...). So far we've been to a couple of night clubs and have enjoyed the scene, although we were surprised to learn that almost all of the music played in the clubs is American music. It kind of makes us feel at home, but at the same time I think a few of us feel a bit cheated and wish to hear a bit more Irish originals. That being said, we still have a blast.
Homestays are this weekend. We will be traveling to County Cork to stay with an assigned host family for the weekend and get a taste of the Irish homelife. I'm pretty excited not only to gain this new experience but to do some travel as well. I'm looking forward to the semester picking up so that I can plan more trips. So far the only ones I have scheduled are Belfast and Dublin, but that is sure to change soon.

Cappavilla Village

It's been a few days since I've last updated, but a lot has gone on in such a short period of time. Upon moving out of Jury's Inn yesterday morning, we were shuttled to the University of Limerick campus, where we moved into our new residences. Half of us live in a 2 year-old apartment complex known as Cappavilla Village, while the rest live in Dromroe, which is a brisk 10-minute walk from Cappavilla.

The campus, though very spread out, is gorgeous. Everything is pretty modern-looking here, which is quite a change from the aesthetics of Hamilton. I think my favorite part about the campus is the Living bridge, which connects basically the entire campus to Cappavilla Village. One interesting thing about my residence is that it is not actually in the same county as the rest of the school; while the school and the other villages are in County Limerick, Cappavilla is in County Clare. The two are separated by the River Shannon, often described to us by locals as "majestic" and is one of their most prized attractions.Cappavilla is especially nice because the buildings are only 2 years old, so everything is pretty much brand new. I live in a 6-person apartment with one other American, one Swede, and three Irish roommates (that I have yet to meet). We share a common room with a pretty big kitchen, which is way different for me because I'm used to just popping into a dining hall and getting food. I guess I'm actually going to have to learn how to cook at some point...

My room itself is pretty awesome and not something that I would ever dream of having at Hamilton. Not only do I have a full-sized bed (AMAZING.) but I also have a ton of desk space and, if you can believe it, my own freaking bathroom. Seriously. That's pretty much unheard of in the states, as far as I know, at least within dorms.

We're still in orientation period, so I still have to get up and go to lectures from 9am till about 3pm. I'm really getting sick of orientation, but tomorrow will be the last day before classes start on Monday. The Irish students that we've met here so far tell us that this weekend, when most of the students return to campus, chaos ensues. Since it's supposed to be a pretty crazy weekend, I've decided to take a couple of days off before this ridiculous weekend starts. I'm pretty excited to see just how rowdy the Irish can get.

Once classes start and I settle into a bit of a routine, I will be able to tell you more. Comments are always welcome!!

The Cliffs of Moher

So today was the first day of orientation, and it was everything I expected it to be. We sat through some lectures on safety, as well as what life at UL would be like. It was nice though because we got a little break in the middle and I got to know some people a little better.

After orientation, we piled onto a bus (or "coach" as they call it) and a madman (seriously) hurled us through the countryside of County Clare up to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher are huge cliffs that overlook the Atlantic Ocean and have some historical significance with the Spanish Armada. None of the students here really know what that history is considering our coach driver had an insanely thick accent and was talking really fast (the Irish are notorious for this). Nonetheless, the cliffs were absolutely gorgeous; I will post pictures once I'm on my own computer. As we were about to get off the bus to walk up the steps along the cliffs, our driver warned us that if it looked like rain we should hurry down as quickly as possible or we'd "surely get a soakin'". So the 20 of us walked up the steps, taking pictures along the way, and realized that the wind was really strong. Some of us decided to ignore it, so we went out to the castle that stands on the end of one of the cliffs (don't worry mom, not too close to the edge). When we got up there, however, we were quickly greeted by gusting winds of literally 80 or 90mph. It was ridiculous...a lot of us had a pretty hard time walking up there, so we took shelter behind a castle wall until we decided to brave it out and scurry down the steps. Turns out as soon as we got into the visitors center, it started pouring and a weather warning was issued. We were pretty glad to have gotten out of the weather just in time.


Anyway, like I said, I will post pictures when I am able. Until then, I will be at program orientation and will officially move into UL on Wednesday so I can start my UL orientation (too much orienting for me).

Hope everyone at home is doing well!! I miss you all!!

Jury's Inn

I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in the city of Limerick (1 euro per hour here versus 5 euro at the hotel, Jury's Inn) and am already missing school and home. I guess that's to be expected, espeically if your flight arrives at 5:30am local time and you sleep from 8am till 1pm, only to wake up to relatively bleak weather. Either way, Ireland has been somewhat normal thus far; there really isn't too much out of the ordinary except for traffic traveling in the opposite direction than at home, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by that.

I've met two guys and three girls in my program so far, and they seem pretty cool. They come from all over; Phoenix, Chicago, Albany, Worcester, and some tiny town in western Mass that I've never heard of (but that's to be expected). Tonight we have an orientation dinner with everyone in the program, so it will be interesting to meet everyone else. Tomorrow, we have lectures and meetings that start at like 8:30 (eek!) and go until dinner time. We will be repeating the same routine until Wednesday or Thursday, when we actually move into UL. I'm not too psyched about that whole thing, but they can't really let us run rampant around the city, especially with those American students who are not 21 but have the newfound ability to purchase alcohol.

That's really all the updating I have for now...There should be more following my orientation.

T-Minus 2 Days...

This is where I will be giving updates on my semester abroad to the University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland. Hopefully I do a decent job keeping this blog updated.

As winter break draws to a close and I get ready to leave for Ireland (IN TWO DAYS!!), I can't seem to get over the fact that I won't be going back to Hamilton this semester. I'm really going to miss life on the Hamilton campus, from parties in Milbank to rugby tournaments. I'm especially going to miss that core group of friends that I spend almost every day with.

That being said, I'm totally psyched to start the semester in Limerick; it's going to be a fun change and I'm looking forward to meeting all of the people in my group as well as the Irish students at UL. Becca (my best friend, for those of you who don't know) is having a blast in Thailand so I'm hoping that I get the same kind of experience when I leave on Saturday (eek!).

The nerves haven't kicked in just yet, probably because I still have so much to do tomorrow before I leave. So, on that note, I'm going to go do more preparing.