A Soft Place To Fall

Well, it's official. I've now been in Ireland for over a week. I've gotten through a week of class and I'm still here. In some ways, it's so difficult to decide where to start. I'm not sure where to begin. Monday was the first day of class. Now nothing at UL is easy to find. I was just ecstatic I found all my classes (ALL WEEK!) and was on time for them all. That may not sound like a big feat, but let me tell you when you see a code like E0010 or SGB15 or C1063, you consider yourself pretty darn well-off if you can decipher it. My housemates tried to tell us that the Main Building here is based off an American design, but Greg (my housemate from New Hampshire) and I were not going to be convinced.

Classes are going well. I don't have much homework to do this weekend: the only real thing is to read Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September, which I've already read once. Let me run through all the classes I'm taking, I'm not sure if I told y'all all of them. I've got Social and Economic Change in Ireland: 1780-1914, James Joyce & the Epistemology of Language Nationalism and Subject has become Early 20th Century Irish Literature (but not the Irish Renaissance and Revival), Irish Language, Irish Folklore and Women in History. All in all a very interesting class. I've already got papers to write, but they're not due for a while. Some of them though are very exciting. I'm thinking of writing a paper on Lady Gregory's use of keening for my Irish Folklore class and I'm doing a paper on either Jane Austen's letters or Maria Edgeworth's letters and how they depict and relate to Irish or European women's history.

But on to the good stuff right? Well UL has a pub on campus called the Stables and it is a great idea! The pints at the Stables are only 3 euro 50 or 4 (if you get a Bulmers, which I would highly reccomend). Sunday night, the guys in my house decided to all go to the Stables for an hour or so. Well, I was just totally psyched because I really didn't know the people in my house very well. But after this week, I've gotten to know them so much better and I'm ecstatic for the time I get to spend with them. I mean I talked for an hour with Carl (my housemate from Dublin) and his friend Mark (also from Dublin) about the Troubles. This is the kind of stuff I came over here for, the kinds of things that, as great a historian as Tim Pat Coogan is, could not be conveyed through texts. Those two guys are the ones who took me surfing off the coast of Ireland and to the Cliffs of Moher. I still get chills thinking about how gorgeous it was.

But another night we decided we were going to go out, but the Stables closes at 23:30 (why I don't know). So we drove into Castletroy to the liquor store. I was just going to get a Zywiec (Meg and Matt Clark can tell you why) but they decided I should try Buckfast. Well, let me tell you, this, my friends, might be the single greatest reason to hate England. It is a "tonic wine" made by English monks. Now it is the most vile drink in the world. The cashier was laughing at me when I bought it. I get shivers thinking about that too, but very different from the kind the Cliffs cause. I could barely drink two drinks from the bottle without throwing up.

I'm not sure what all we have planned for the week. I think I might go back with the guys to Lahinch (camera in tow this time). We've talked about going to Doolin, but the guys say it's soooo touristy that you can't even "yip" during the music without some Italian or German scowling at you for "disrupting the music." At least, that's what Mark complained about. I sure could stand to find another chipper (a fish and chips restaurant).

Well, I definitely miss y'all. And I'll try to talk to y'all soon. Peace. Dia is Muire dhuit is Padraig.