Pictures are Up!

I went down to college and used their internet; so I got all the pictures up finally! Dublin

I also added a few more to the Cork set. So check them out :)

Dublin!

I left for Dublin on Thursday night. My three friends; Brianne, Kristina, Julia and I went for the weekend. We took the bus at 6pm and arrived in Dublin a little after 10. Our hostel, Jacobs Inn, was about a two minute walk from the bus station so that was nice. The hostel was big, about five floors, with tons of rooms. A lot different from the hostel I stayed at last summer which was more of a house. My friends and I had gone for the cheapest option, and had booked spots in a mixed room. We got to our bedroom that contained 5 bunk beds and the room had men’s button up shirts on hangers drying all around the room. We were a bit apprehensive about our roommates at first realizing that we would be living with four strangers who were men but it turned out fine. We had four roommates. Frankie was from Nigeria but living in Manchester and was in Dublin on holiday… for the past two months. There were also three Spanish guys from Barcelona, Madrid and the Canary Islands who I couldn’t catch their names. It was really interesting talking with them and I did my best to try out my Spanish. I definitely need to brush up. I have forgotten a lot since High School.

                The next day we woke up early for our free breakfast of toast and tea. Then we went on the free tour that the hostel had posters for. You know me and free stuff! It was a three and a half hour walking tour all around the city and I am so glad we went. It would have taken us a whole day to find just a few of the places we went to. Our tour guide, Ali, was great and very interesting to listen to with all his facts and histories about the sites. We learned so much and were so glad to have gone.

                We saw Dublin Castle, which didn’t look much like a castle as it burned down in the 1600’s and was most of it was rebuilt. The Dublin Spire is this huge, needle looking piece of art in the middle of the city that was a millennium project for Dublin. It is the tallest structure in the city, 120 meters high. We went to Trinity College, founded in 1592, that is the seventh oldest college in the English speaking world. They had all sorts of interesting traditions. One was that if a student rode a horse carrying a sword to their finals, the lecturer was required to serve them a Guinness for their exam. The buildings were gorgeous and millions of cobblestones. Apparently in one year fifty-six girls broke their ankles when walking on the cobblestones in heels! We saw the Leinster House that our White House was actually modeled after. We went down to Temple Bar, which is not a bar by the way. The name came from the fact that the area used to be a raised sandbank. So Temple Bar is a whole area that is known for its music and arts. There were lots of pubs with live music playing at night. Down in Temple Bar the Project Arts Center where the band U2 got started, and also the hotel across the street where they used to hang out in and now own- Clarence Hotel. We ended the tour at St. Stephen’s Green Park which was beautiful, full of trees, footpaths and ponds. We were so lucky to have such nice weather. Sunny all weekend!   

                We grabbed some lunch at a pub called Cassidy’s that had great traditional Irish food then explored all the shops down town. We saw a few street performers, one who played the accordion dancing and chasing people around. We got a few recommendations from the man at Cassidy’s and headed to the Porterhouse down in Temple Bar; where we had to try Foley Strawberry beer that we heard so much about. We hopped around to a few other pubs listening to live music. On our way back home we heard “Galway Girl” (a must know song when in Ireland) playing in a pub called Fitzsimmons and ran in for the last of the song. There were two guys playing acoustic guitars and they played all sorts of classic songs that everyone knows.

The next morning we had our free breakfast again. We live on tea and toast over here! Then took the Luis, an above ground Subway, to the Guinness Storehouse. They were celebrating their 250^th anniversary this year. Arthur Guinness signed the lease for the property in 1759 for 9,000 years. Talk about a lot of faith in his venture. They had a seven story self guided tour. The building was awesome with the world’s largest pint glass in the middle that if it was real could hold 14.3 million pints. The tour went through the brewing of the beer from hops, water, yeast and barley. Then there was taste testing, advertisements, and information about the storehouse. It was a very long tour as there was so much to look at but definitely worth going to. At the very end we went up to the top floor- the Gravity Bar, which is the highest bar in Dublin and has a 360 degree view of the city. Up top you turned in your ticket for a pint of Guinness. I got my free pint but I have tried it before and knew I was not fan. I don’t like the roasted barley taste that reminds me of coffee. My friend Brianne loves it so I handed her my glass.

What was really interesting from the tour was seeing the Guinness book of World Records. I never made the connection of the beer to the book. In 1951 the director of the brewery got into an argument over the fasted game bird in Europe and could not find an answer in books. He realized that there must be lots of other debates in pubs all over and no book to settle the arguments. That is where the Guinness Book of Records was created and became the bestselling book of all time.

After we headed back to the hostel for dinner and we played some pool and watched a movie in the common room. We ended up going back out for our last night in Dublin. We went back to Fitzsimmons that had great music the night before. They had two guys playing acoustic guitars again and had great music all night.

We checked out of the hostel at eleven the next morning and caught a bus to Cork at noon. I slept most of the ride and we got home around six.

I am going to try to get pictures up on flickr tonight so take a look!

01.20.09

Inauguration!! We are five hours behind everyone at home, so it didn’t start until 4:30 here. It is crazy how interested the Irish are with our politics. They are so knowledgeable about the topics, and they absolutely love Obama and love to talk to us Americans about it. It drives me nuts how they pronounce his name though; “Ba-raaack.” I just want to say “It’s Ba-rock people!” Anyways, they had an event down on campus and played the inauguration on a projector. So we headed down to watch; it was a great speech. There were only a few Americans there, but the Irish packed the bar and cheered away. I have been trying to keep myself updated with the news at home, which isn’t hard because whenever I turn on the TV all they talk about is America. Oh and random but good news!! The exchange rate is down to 1 euro = $1.29! So that is exciting! The pound is also way down, $1.36 last I checked, which is the lowest it has been since 1985. This is good for us since we will be traveling that way in February.

I tried to go down to immigration again yesterday. No such luck, the “queue” was ridiculously long and they closed before they got to us. So I will try again next Monday. I went to the Cork City Library on my way back and bought a library card for 1.25 euro. I got a few traveling books for London and Dublin. All this free time is getting to me! I am not used to this!

It snowed the other day! All in a 5 minute time period we had rain, huge flakes of snow, then back to rain. Not close to what New England is getting, but for Ireland that is pretty crazy.

I am off to Dublin in about an hour. We are going to the bus station and it is about a four hour bus ride. I will be back in Cork on Sunday. Hopefully with lots of pictures!!

Irish Music and Irish Whiskey

Well it has been a pretty crazy week; still trying to convert my sleep schedule to Ireland time. It’s been hard because I am usually up late talking to you all at home or out experiencing Ireland with the Irish! The rain has finally come- and hasn’t left. It is in the forties though so at least it isn’t really cold on top of the rain. But boy am I glad I have rain boots!

On Monday I went to my first Introduction to Irish Music class. The “lecturer” (not professor) seems really cool. She went through a bunch of instruments and played reels for us to see the difference between styles of music. For one of our final essays we have to go to a “session” and write about it. A session is where a group of people meet up in a pub, and get together to play music together. She suggested a pub down in the city called Spailpin Fanach that has UCC students play traditional Irish music on Monday nights. We ventured down that night and after a few turns we found it. The pub was exactly what you would expect an Irish pub to look like; with the old stone walls and wooden tables. The second we walked in we could hear the music and had to walk through and follow the noise to find the students. There were probably more than twenty kids sitting at this long table all playing along with each other. There were fiddlers, flute players, accordions, and a few guitars. It was great music and a nice place to just hang out. We will definitely be going back this week!

This week has been full of Physics- my oh-so-favorite subject (not). We have problem sets due every week which I have been worried about as I have no idea where to even start.  But I had physics tutorial on Wednesday night, which made me feel much better about the class. A teacher’s assistant does the problems with different numbers and basically goes through the whole thing. It was awesome. I wish we had this sort of thing at QU, but with a class of thirty kids- we just go straight to the professor with questions and don’t need tutorials. I am still getting used to the huge lecture classes being one of a hundred plus. On Friday I had my first of four Physics lab, which was also taught by grad students (?). The three hours were absolutely miserable. All the students in the lab were from QU so it was nice that everyone was on the same page. It was difficult because we were all starting the lab knowing nothing about how it works over here. So they had to go over lab reports, protocols, pretty much everything. Plus they used some crazy old machines for the lab that we had never seen before. Needless to say I am not looking forward to the next lab in two weeks! To end my physics full week- we saw our lecturer on the bus! He gave us a few good tips about the city and helped us find the bus station.

On Saturday a group of us took a bus to Midleton (about a half hour away from the bus station) and went to the Jameson Distillery of Irish Whiskey. The old distillery was founded in 1867 but stopped production in 1975. They went through the history of Irish whiskey, how it is made, a tour of the restored distillery and at the end gave us a complimentary drink. I tried the whiskey straight up, but ended up making a mixed drink! It was nice to get out of Cork and due to the rainy weather- was a good day to go.  

I am starting to make travel plans. So much to do! I believe a group of us are going to Dublin this coming weekend, so I need to start looking at hostels. It is about a 5 hour bus ride (only 17 euros roundtrip!). We also booked flights to London in February for only 21 euros round trip! Lots of planning to do yet it seems as if we don’t have enough weekends! Keep an eye on my flicker photos; I will add a few up as soon as possible!!

Pictures are up

I tried to upload a few on here but it was near impossible; so I made a flickr account and put pictures up. Just some basic ones of the flight, UCC and my room. Hope you all enjoy! :)

You are here

A map of Cork

My high tech mother found this cool link to the map and I added a few

more points on there to give you an idea of where I am and where I go

everyday.

Rain!

Well almost a week in Ireland and it has finally rained! The temperature here has been warming up towards the end of the week to the forties, but earlier it was pretty cold. We have heard that this is the coldest winter Ireland has had in thirty years! But the good news was it was cold and dry and not rainy. Nothing new to us from New England though. I think it is much colder back home especially with all these storms you have been having. But I enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted!

I have been attending a few classes this week. My Physiology class is only for the second six weeks of the semester, and therefore has not started yet. Physics I have three times a week, and labs once a week. I am not too excited for physics. The classes are huge here with over 100 students in the lecture hall. Very different from QU where there was never more than thirty kids in a class. Physics is early in the morning and seems like the kind of course where I will need to teach myself. On Thursday the professor asked us if there was a language barrier when he found out we were from the states; he doesn’t seem too up to date. On Tuesday afternoon I attended the course- Introduction to Irish History for Visiting Students, which was really interesting. The professor changes every two lectures and takes Ireland’s history from the Great Famine to present time. On Monday I will be going to the Traditional Irish Music course, which I hope I like because I need a fine arts course to keep up with my program back home. I would have loved to take an Art course, but all I have found is Art History, which I had my fair share of in High school. I have talked to a few Irish students who have explained that Arts here is the study of education, opposed to the meaning in the states. So all in all I will be taking Physiology , Physics, Irish History, and Traditional Irish Music here at UCC. The smallest course load I will ever take!

I’ve spent most of the week catching up on sleep and getting accustomed with the city. On Wednesday the Student Union took the International Students out for a “Mystery Tour” of Cork. We went to the Franciscan Well Brewery- where they make about six different beers. Jon- you would love it! Then after they took us to a night club, which is very different than the clubs back in the states. It was funny that here in Ireland the university organizations took us out to a pub and club, but it just goes to show how the cultures are different. The music here is so random and outdated. It is nice because we know the words to the songs, but it is crazy how behind they are compared to popular music in America.  

This weekend my roommate Katie, who is also from QU, and I cleaned the kitchen which it needed badly. Then I finally cooked in it! [I have been using my friend’s kitchens the past few days instead afraid to cook in my own- that’s how bad it was]. I made chicken, mashed potatoes and veggies. It was nice to have a real meal. I have yet to master the microwave here; it has “Jet Power” with a bunch of numbers opposed to just setting it for minutes at home. I haven’t had the time to experiment with it but got a few microwave tips from Kate I will have to give a try ;)  

On Friday a bunch of us headed down to the Garda [police] station to complete our registration with Immigration to stay in the country. It is quite a walk down to the center of the city and way past it. Probably took us about forty-five minutes. We got all the way there, and found that they would not accept the school insurance card we had received because it does not have a date on it. So we are waiting for a letter from the study abroad office at QU and will have to go back another day. 

Made it to Cork!

Welcome to my blog! I hope this will keep you all updated about my travels and adventures abroad! I am hoping to update weekly, maybe a bit more in the beginning. Once I get around to pictures I will add those too. Feel free for comments, and questions- I will do my best to answer. Love and miss you all!!

So I have made it to Ireland! Safe and sound!

It has been a busy last few days. I left Southington on Saturday, and my dad drove me to JFK to catch my flight which was at 6:40 pm. I flew Aer Lingus, and didn't end up leaving JFK until 7 or so. I felt like we were sitting on the ground forever. The flight was long and uncomfortable and I didn’t get much sleep, my dislike for flying did not help the long trip. They did serve us dinner though, which was surprisingly good! It took us about six hours and we landed in Shannon at 6:10 am Ireland time.

Customs was a lot faster than I anticipated. I was the first to go through as the man was waving me over. I just handed him my passport, he stamped it for 30 days and I was on my way. Sometime soon I need to head down to the City Hall and register with the immigration officer to stay here for longer.

We grabbed our luggage, and it took forever for the rest of the fifty-five QU students to get through customs. Thank goodness for Mark, our QU study abroad guy- who is like a tour guide these last few days, getting us settled acquainted, and answering the endless questions everyone has. We finally loaded up into two big buses and started the two hour ride to Cork around seven or eight. Liam, our bus driver gave us our first reality check that we really were Ireland when a group of us went to get on the bus and he exclaimed- "girls you're in Ireland, the door is on the other side." The left side driving was a bit scary at first, and the Irish love their round a bouts! The bus drive was gorgeous, what I was awake for. So much green!! And we saw two castles which must be older than our country! Great weather too! The last two days have been blue sky, and a bit cloudy. We'll see how long this holds up for.

We got to our apartments and went to check out our rooms. The apartment has five bedrooms and a common room/kitchen which was not as clean as I expected. I have my own room, with a bed, shelves, desk, desk lamp, mirror, cork board, and attached bathroom. Really different from my small room I've had at QU and a bathroom shared with eight people! I am living with two other QU girls, who I don't really know but seem nice, and two Ireland girls, Sofie and Helena. The common room and kitchen were kind of a mess when we got here, but we later found out that the girls that moved out left all sorts of stuff behind so I am sure it will work out.

We were already dead tired when we got here, but had to drop our stuff and head into the city to buy the basics. Lots of walking!! It is a lot farther than I thought, but I am sure after a week we will be used to it all! I bought an cord for our internet [no wireless :( ] and some bedding [which I am sure my brothers will laugh at when they see pictures!]. We also went to a phone store [almost went to O2 Sean! But they did not open till noon so we went elsewhere] and I got minutes for my borrowed pay-as-you-go phone. I have free texts and calls within Meteor phones, which all my friends have here so that will be nice. And I can receive phone calls and texts from the US for free. So if anyone wants to spend the money to contact me I will gladly receive them! It was a long walk back to the apartment, especially with full hands and backpacks; we dropped off our stuff and later went out grocery shopping in the complete opposite direction. It is about a ten minute walk- not too bad. But a bit overwhelming- not recognizing brands or anything. I managed to find the store brand Special K though! So I will be happy.

Today we had orientation. Again a long day, but lots of useful information. I won’t bore you with it all. We are now registered as students. I will get an ID card tomorrow. The whole classes ordeal is still confusing. But I guess I am in a Physics and Anatomy class. I still need to find out when those are. Then for my two electives that I am going to take, I can just go to a bunch of different classes all week, and don't need to make a final decision on that until January 14th. We'll see how this goes! Very different from my written in stone course schedules at QU where I didn't have much in the way of choices due to the Physical Therapy program.

That's all for now! Was supposed to be a quick update to let you all know I was here alive, but one I start typing...