First Full Week in Cork

Although it feels like I've been in Ireland forever (in a good way), I've just finished up my first full week in Cork (Corcaigh)--the first week of classes. I have to register with the English department on Monday, and then submit everything to the International Students Office to be officially registered, but so far I'm taking:

• Victorian Lit
• Romantic Lit
• Turning Points in History
• Politics, Society, and the Irish Novel
• Comparative European Politics
• Celtic Religion/Mythology

I like all the classes so far, but it's an adjustment to get used to the Irish/European style of teaching at University College Cork (Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh). First of all, we're lucky because we can mix modules (classes) from different departments; students in the Irish college system, which is only three years long, pretty much only take modules in their department. Also, the system is much more independent than the States. Here, the lecturer (don't call them a professor unless they're the head of the department!) hands you a very simple syllabus with about a bajillion books listed on it. It's up to you to decide which books and articles you feel like reading. And at most for each class you will have one paper and a final exam--it makes the way of doing things back home seem closer to the high school way of having everything really structured.

I'm not in class a whole lot, just about two hours for each class. But the way the day is set up is different, too. The two days that one class falls on is random, nothing follows the MWF or TuTh pattern. And they meet at different times in different classrooms; my Victorian Lit class meets in a science building on Mondays at 1, but on Tuesdays it meets at a different time in the basement of the library. I definitely have to make more of an effort to remember my schedule! And most of my classes are being taught by more than one lecturer--at this points, all their faces are a blur and I really have no idea who is teaching and when. I also have a lot more American lecturers than I thought! I guess that means I don't have to concentrate on understanding the accent so much. The best teacher so far has to be the guy we have for the first few lectures of Turning Points. He's a yeller, so every few minutes he'll just start screaming about something exciting...this past week it was "SHEEP ON THE LAWN OF THE WHITE HOUSE" during WWI. He also kept yelling that Woodrow Wilson was "A PRESBYTERIAN" every few minute. And then he yelled about being from Montana. I love him for the sheer entertainment value and how passionate he is about history. I'm going to be very sad when the other lecturer takes over for the second half of class.

Other than that, the campus isn't too big, so I haven't gotten entirely lost. I seem to have trouble finding classrooms, but I've been able to get Irish students to help me so I don't wander around for too long. And classes never start on time (add 10 minutes to the time your class is supposed to start and that's more like when it will really begin), so I haven't even been late yet! And the campus is BEAUTIFUL--I'll try to get some pictures of it soon...as soon as it stops raining so I can take pictures.

The biggest change is weekdays and weekends at school. Students here tend to not go very far from home to go to school since it doesn't seem like there's a huge difference in the universities. But even if they do, the country is so small that they're only about 4 hours away from home. So instead of going out on the weekends, students go out on some weekdays and then go home every weekend. It's definitely different than at home, but it's perfect for the rest of us for traveling! Now we don't feel like we're missing anything.

Then, this past weekend our program sent us to Castleisland, Co Kerry, for a homestay weekend out in the country. Our family was so nice! Two other girls from the program and I stayed with a family with four kids, a few random friends, two dogs, a cat, and a horse. We were way out in the middle of nowhere; Castleisland (Oileán Ciarraí) only has about 3000 people, and they lived a couple miles outside of it. But their house was big and their land was beautiful!

We got there on Friday night, where we immediately got a HUGE dinner, followed by tea and "biscuits." Then we just sort of met the family, talked a little bit, and watched TV with them. The mom wanted to know if any of us had Irish background, which They seemed to get a kick out of the fact that my last name is Joyce, and they wanted to know if my dad was born in Ireland. And they told me there are a lot of Joyce's in Co Galway. The mom was also shocked that I don't go home to my family every weekend, especially since it's so normal to do that. It was definitely weird to her, especially since the other girls on my trip both happen to go to school in the town they grew up in (or at least really close to it). She also said something about families in the States only having two or three kids--some of the Irish really do have large families! We were watching a game show with our host dad, and one contestant gave a shoutout to her seven sisters and five brothers!! Jesus.

Saturday morning, our host dad took us into a neighboring town, Tralee (Trá Lí), while the oldest host daughter had music lessons there. It was very tiny and cute, but it rained ALL day, so that part kind of sucked. But we did some shopping, which is always fun! Then we went back to their house, hung out some more, and ate a lot. That night, we went out in Castleisland and met up with other kids on our program. The town is so small that when we called the taxi to go home, all we had to say was that we were going to the O'Connor's house, so we didn't even have to bother with an address. They seemed to know all the taxi people personally, anyway. The only downside to the stay was the heating thing I mentioned earlier. They told us it was the coldest and most damp it had been all winter, and since you don't really heat things, I slept in two pairs of socks, thick pajama pants, two tank tops, a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and gloves under a couple sheets, a blanket, and a comforter. And I was still cold. I wish for their sake that gas/oil was cheaper!

On Sunday it finally stopped raining, so Kate, Giada, and I took a walk through all these country roads around their house. Their two dogs, who were adorable, just followed us, too. It was beautiful, and you could see so far that in the distance you saw the Killarney Mountains. I'm going to post some pictures because words just don't do this area justice! We came back to UCC around dinnertime, and overall I'd have to say it was a great weekend. All the O'Connor kids were so friendly to talk to, and the oldest son actually goes to UCC, so now we have one more familiar face to see around campus! The trip made me even more excited (if that's possible), to see the rest of Ireland.