5 Things I Feel Like Talking About

Today was the first real day of classes, even though we've had a bunch of assignments due already.  We start with a Sociology of Ireland class followed by a Pop Culture class. Going to school is never super exciting and it sounds really horrible when you're in a beautiful city and you're held up in a class room for 4 hours of your day when all you really want to do is go out and explore, but the cool thing about our classes is that we get to experience some of the things we are going to take back and discuss.  The interactive nature of the classes is what makes you learn so much more than you do when you're in the U.S. learning about God knows what and never getting to really see/experience it for yourself; it's always somewhat abstract.  Here we get the real thing while we study it (a three day weekend doesn't hurt either).  In honor of classes starting I thought I would try and talk about some of the things I've learned so far.

1) Not all Irish are gingers with freckles. In fact I've hardly seen any gingers at all! So I hate to burst you're bubble but it's just simply not true that the Irish are all pale red heads covered in dots.

2) The Irish must have something against big people showers.  When we were at Trinity College the showers were so small you had to hope you didn't drop something! I thought for sure there was no way the showers at UCC would be as small but I was wrong.

I really hope this picture does my shower justice in showing just how tiny it really it. Usually I think miniature things are cute, like: cuties, gummy bears, or puppies. My shower on the other hand is something I would prefer to be at least average size.  I do need to mention that this isn't really an Irish thing, it's something I've seen around Europe in general.

3) The locals seem to be really nice, unlike in Prague (remember that time the old lady shoved my in the store?).  For the most part everyone is very polite and always offering kind greetings.  My favorite thing is when they call me 'Love' like, "Have a good day love" or "Not a problem love".  I tell myself I'm special and it's just for me but in reality it's just the way they speak and it is really sweet.  Maybe those American boys could take a lesson or two.

4) It's not necessarily a perpetually rainy dreary place! I'm not sure if we are just lucky but it has hardly rained since we have gotten here and any time it has it hasn't lasted long.  We have seen a lot of semi-warm beautiful days.  I'll cross my fingers that it stays that way!

5) Something I'm really impressed with is the knowledge Irish people seem to have about their country.  Ireland has been inhabited for thousands of years and has gone through a lot of hardship which is evident in the value that its people place on its history.  So far it definitely seems like the Irish know where they come from and I think that is really unique. 

Now, I could probably write about so many more things that I've seen and have found really interesting but that would take FOREVER and I've got plenty of time to keep adding to the list! I'm so excited to start exploring Cork more and taking  few trips outside of the city in the coming weeks!