Monday, September 25, 2006
Fish and Chips, Fair Trade Wine and Rain Galore (Week 1)
Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I've been trying to get internet in my room, but I wasn't able until today to really get everything set up, which is great because the line to get into the library's computer room was out the door. The part that I could see was maybe 35-40 people. Back to you. Anyway, the first two days I was in Ireland I didn't see the sun. I got off the plane and it took an hour to get my luggage and clear customs. I knew I was in trouble because I had no idea what the Customs Officer said to me. I made him repeat it several times. Then finally my luggage came through and on the other side of the door was a representative from UL. Since it took for ever for my luggage to come through, she had already sent on one group so I was going to have to wait for the next group to come through, which would be in about 45 minutes. That was fine. We talked for a good long time. Finally the other person we were waiting for came through. He was from Ontario and the two of us rode together in a taxi to the University. The drive from Shannon into Limerick was absolutely gorgeous. Our taxi driver made some comment about, "If the sun was shining, ye'd be able to see 40 shades of green." At the time, I rather doubted him. All I really saw was 40 shades of gray rain clouds. All along the road from Shannon were open pastures, ruins that look sort of like Thor Ballylee but maybe older (I'm not really up-to-date on my Irish Architecture) and picturesque B&Bs. The driver took us through a little bit of Castletroy, which is the immediate area surrounding the University, and all the homes were exactly how I imagined them. Most were some shade of gold or yellow with white trim around the windows and then a bold red or blue on the door. The roads were tiny, narrow and winding (per usual in Europe).
Once the taxi driver dropped me off at Kilmurry Village, I went into the Reception Hall and got my key all squared away. They handed me a map and a packet with house 73 circled. It's probably a block and half, now that I've been able to walk it and tell. But that first time, as soon as I step out of the hall, it absolutely starts to pour. I mean raining so hard you can barely see in front of you. To use an Irish coloquial phrase, it was "pissin' rain." By the time I got to my house and into my room, everything was soaked. The packet, the map, my bags, some of my clothes through the bags. It was lovely. That first day, I unpacked and went to bed. I woke up around 2 and wrote in my journal and then I went back to bed. I wasn't exactly thrilled with my decision to come to Ireland. It was cold and wet. My room was small. I didn't know anyone. Sometimes I could understand people.
The next two days were the Study Abroad Program Orientation. Think CU Survival, not the skit, from 9-3 for two days. It was boring beyond belief. But I did meet some really neat people. I sat down next to this guy from Philadelphia, who is majoring in Creative Writing and is taking that Joyce class with me. As we were talking I heard someone say something, I think it was "aeddress," so what I'm trying to say is I was also sitting next to a group of girls from St. Thomas in Minnesota. We sort of became a group. It's been fun. Friday after orientation ended four of us took a bus into Castletroy to buy some things that we left at home. It is only a Euro thirty for the bus here. Well the first store we went to, PC World, didn't have the outlet adapters that Katie and I both forgot at home. Katie is one of the St. Thomas girls, but she's from Iowa. So Katie, Tricia and I had to walk to another shopping center to find the stuff we needed. Meghan, a girl from Chicago who goes to school in Iowa, needed to go to a grocery store so she broke off with us from the getgo. Anyway, we headed to the other shopping center and found the outlet adapters at this store and then we were going to go get something to eat. We thought there might be something at the other end of the center so we decided to keep going. Well, it turned out our only options there were KFC or Pizza Hut. No thanks. So we go into this grocery store/department store combo (i.e. Super Target) called Dunnes. They were giving away samples, so of course we decide to partake. The first thing we come upon is soy-yogurt. Believe it or not, it was actually really good. They had a bunch of really interesting flavors like mango and peach or mango and pear. At Dunnes, I got a hunk of Irish Cheese, some crackers and some Fair Trade Wine. That was my dinner that night.
Saturday, I slept in until twelve. It was glorious, except for the fact that everything, and I mean everything, shut down on the weekend. The library was closed, so that meant no email. The store was closed, so was the pub (SHOCKER, I know). So I go back and hang out with the only housemate who has decided to stay the weekend, well because he couldn't really get back to New Hampshire for a weekend. All my Irish housemates went home. Carl went to Dublin, William went to Nis (I don't know if that's how you write it, but it's pronounced Neesh) and the two girls, well no one really knows where they go. I had only seen them both a grand total of three times. I hadn't met either one. You see the people over here are extremely friendly. I'll give you some stories later, but they're not extremely outgoing. At first that was really hard, especially when you can't understand but half of what they're saying. The accent gets even more difficult whenever there's more than one Irish person. But, Saturday, Greg, the freshman from New Hampshire, and I hung out together watching TV. Then when we decided to go find dinner, we had no idea that the Sports Bar on campus and the Stables (the pub, which did open later) stop serving food at 7. Well, we left the house about 8. So we had to walk into Casteltroy to find some dinner. I got some fish and chips from Rio's, this little stand. It was awesome. They dumped the fish and the french fries into a paper bag and poured salt and vinnegar all over it. Plus, the whole thing was only 5 euro, whereas Greg paid 17.50 for his pizza from Domino's.
The next day was a slow one. I got up and did some reading in Following Christ in a Consumer Society, which is just wonderful. It completely challenges the way we relate to people and calls into question the freedom over our lives we have given to the economic system. Anyway, I don't want to get into that here, maybe when I get back. At 5:45, I walked over to Plassey Village, which took about 25 to 30 minutes, to meet the St. Thomas crowd. I wanted to include the time just to give y'all some idea of how big a campus it is. Kilmurry is at the back of the campus by the Sports Arena and Plassey is at the entrance to the University. It's a good hike. Well, I met up with Katie and Tricia and I met more of that group from St. Thomas. The girls are just hilarious. The five I've been hanging out with are all from Minnesota and Iowa. We all went to Mass together at the Salesian parish right by campus. The celebrant was one of the chaplains for UL and, let me tell you, he might give Father Postell a run for his money, as far as time goes. It was a great Mass. The lector was from Poland, I think. He definitely was not Irish. The homily was wonderful; it really hit upon the same sort of things Kavanaugh is talking about in this book. The priest talked about how it almost seems human nature to compete, to want to be better than someone. But, according to the Gospel, we shouldn't want to be better than, we should want to be with. We shouldn't see everyone else as obstacles to overcome, but as partners. He even ended in the typical Father Heaney ending: "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another," although he didn't do the voice drop that Father Heaney does.
After Mass, I walked back to Kilmurry and my housemates were back! Well, the guys were all back. I was so happy to have them home because they bring more energy into the house than just Greg or I. We all decided to go to the Stables for a pint (on a Sunday? the night before school? I KNOW! I couldn't believe it). Well the place wasn't too crowded at first, so we all got our beers. Me being the Texan, I drank Corona. I told Dad I wasn't quite hungry enough for a Guinness yet, but I sure thought about trying a cider. I guarantee you I will and tell y'all how it is. We stayed for probably two hours. Then when we got back, we ordered a pizza and then called it a night.
Today was the first day of class. I'll leave it, because it's getting long, at the fact that I'm just excited I found all of them!
vaya con Dios!
Once the taxi driver dropped me off at Kilmurry Village, I went into the Reception Hall and got my key all squared away. They handed me a map and a packet with house 73 circled. It's probably a block and half, now that I've been able to walk it and tell. But that first time, as soon as I step out of the hall, it absolutely starts to pour. I mean raining so hard you can barely see in front of you. To use an Irish coloquial phrase, it was "pissin' rain." By the time I got to my house and into my room, everything was soaked. The packet, the map, my bags, some of my clothes through the bags. It was lovely. That first day, I unpacked and went to bed. I woke up around 2 and wrote in my journal and then I went back to bed. I wasn't exactly thrilled with my decision to come to Ireland. It was cold and wet. My room was small. I didn't know anyone. Sometimes I could understand people.
The next two days were the Study Abroad Program Orientation. Think CU Survival, not the skit, from 9-3 for two days. It was boring beyond belief. But I did meet some really neat people. I sat down next to this guy from Philadelphia, who is majoring in Creative Writing and is taking that Joyce class with me. As we were talking I heard someone say something, I think it was "aeddress," so what I'm trying to say is I was also sitting next to a group of girls from St. Thomas in Minnesota. We sort of became a group. It's been fun. Friday after orientation ended four of us took a bus into Castletroy to buy some things that we left at home. It is only a Euro thirty for the bus here. Well the first store we went to, PC World, didn't have the outlet adapters that Katie and I both forgot at home. Katie is one of the St. Thomas girls, but she's from Iowa. So Katie, Tricia and I had to walk to another shopping center to find the stuff we needed. Meghan, a girl from Chicago who goes to school in Iowa, needed to go to a grocery store so she broke off with us from the getgo. Anyway, we headed to the other shopping center and found the outlet adapters at this store and then we were going to go get something to eat. We thought there might be something at the other end of the center so we decided to keep going. Well, it turned out our only options there were KFC or Pizza Hut. No thanks. So we go into this grocery store/department store combo (i.e. Super Target) called Dunnes. They were giving away samples, so of course we decide to partake. The first thing we come upon is soy-yogurt. Believe it or not, it was actually really good. They had a bunch of really interesting flavors like mango and peach or mango and pear. At Dunnes, I got a hunk of Irish Cheese, some crackers and some Fair Trade Wine. That was my dinner that night.
Saturday, I slept in until twelve. It was glorious, except for the fact that everything, and I mean everything, shut down on the weekend. The library was closed, so that meant no email. The store was closed, so was the pub (SHOCKER, I know). So I go back and hang out with the only housemate who has decided to stay the weekend, well because he couldn't really get back to New Hampshire for a weekend. All my Irish housemates went home. Carl went to Dublin, William went to Nis (I don't know if that's how you write it, but it's pronounced Neesh) and the two girls, well no one really knows where they go. I had only seen them both a grand total of three times. I hadn't met either one. You see the people over here are extremely friendly. I'll give you some stories later, but they're not extremely outgoing. At first that was really hard, especially when you can't understand but half of what they're saying. The accent gets even more difficult whenever there's more than one Irish person. But, Saturday, Greg, the freshman from New Hampshire, and I hung out together watching TV. Then when we decided to go find dinner, we had no idea that the Sports Bar on campus and the Stables (the pub, which did open later) stop serving food at 7. Well, we left the house about 8. So we had to walk into Casteltroy to find some dinner. I got some fish and chips from Rio's, this little stand. It was awesome. They dumped the fish and the french fries into a paper bag and poured salt and vinnegar all over it. Plus, the whole thing was only 5 euro, whereas Greg paid 17.50 for his pizza from Domino's.
The next day was a slow one. I got up and did some reading in Following Christ in a Consumer Society, which is just wonderful. It completely challenges the way we relate to people and calls into question the freedom over our lives we have given to the economic system. Anyway, I don't want to get into that here, maybe when I get back. At 5:45, I walked over to Plassey Village, which took about 25 to 30 minutes, to meet the St. Thomas crowd. I wanted to include the time just to give y'all some idea of how big a campus it is. Kilmurry is at the back of the campus by the Sports Arena and Plassey is at the entrance to the University. It's a good hike. Well, I met up with Katie and Tricia and I met more of that group from St. Thomas. The girls are just hilarious. The five I've been hanging out with are all from Minnesota and Iowa. We all went to Mass together at the Salesian parish right by campus. The celebrant was one of the chaplains for UL and, let me tell you, he might give Father Postell a run for his money, as far as time goes. It was a great Mass. The lector was from Poland, I think. He definitely was not Irish. The homily was wonderful; it really hit upon the same sort of things Kavanaugh is talking about in this book. The priest talked about how it almost seems human nature to compete, to want to be better than someone. But, according to the Gospel, we shouldn't want to be better than, we should want to be with. We shouldn't see everyone else as obstacles to overcome, but as partners. He even ended in the typical Father Heaney ending: "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another," although he didn't do the voice drop that Father Heaney does.
After Mass, I walked back to Kilmurry and my housemates were back! Well, the guys were all back. I was so happy to have them home because they bring more energy into the house than just Greg or I. We all decided to go to the Stables for a pint (on a Sunday? the night before school? I KNOW! I couldn't believe it). Well the place wasn't too crowded at first, so we all got our beers. Me being the Texan, I drank Corona. I told Dad I wasn't quite hungry enough for a Guinness yet, but I sure thought about trying a cider. I guarantee you I will and tell y'all how it is. We stayed for probably two hours. Then when we got back, we ordered a pizza and then called it a night.
Today was the first day of class. I'll leave it, because it's getting long, at the fact that I'm just excited I found all of them!
vaya con Dios!
# posted by Matt Reznicek @ 4:52 AM 
