First Week of Classes: 22/9 to 26/9

I survived the first week! So, most of what I was told was true! I am taking three classes: 3D Imaging, Advertising Theory and Practice, and the Politics of Northern Ireland. The Imaging and the Advertising classes are going to be more studio based, with a check-in once every two weeks or so, which is pretty typical. The Politics class is exactly what they described: lecture once a week with one paper and one exam and that's my grade! It was pretty fun to meet more Irish students and really get on my own after a week of international students. It's also really almost surprising to walk around campus and town and see people I know. As most of you know, I go to school at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities, student population 51,000 in a metropolitan area of 3 million. The University of Ulster- Magee has a student population of about 3,000 in a city of about 100,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Londonderry). It's really refreshing to have this small of a community where you really can get to know most everyone. And, taking classes across three disciplines opens up the community even more. Alright, homework beckons!

First Week in Derry: 15/9 to 21/9

This week, I’ve been just figuring stuff out. Making friends, walking around town, buying necessary items, registering for classes, learning about campus at our international student orientation, and just observing. We've went out quite a bit and have made more friends. This coming week is "Freshers' Week" and has tons of activities going on. Should be fun!

Map of Ireland; I'm way up north in the county of Londonderry in that little bay

Attitudes

Everyone is so laid back! Sooooo laid back! It’s amazing, and almost annoying compared to the high-speed world I’m used to. (Seriously, even the internet is slower.) They don’t need to get answers immediately or to be constantly connected (except they text like mad). They just chill and tell themselves that everything will be worked out when it gets worked out, which is true. They seem awfully happy and cheerful most of the time. They don’t work when they shouldn’t- lunch breaks, late at night, weekends, etc. It’s like they focus on one task at a time, like right now, I’m eating and that’s all I’m going to do or I’m here to work so let’s work. It’s very different and I’m excited to soak a bit of that up.

Academics

College here is so much different! Everyone takes three classes, no more, no less and it’s typically held once a week. With some lectures, you also have a seminar once a week. Now, I haven’t had class yet, so this is just from what I’ve been told: Grades are based on two or three evaluations- papers or exams usually. The system is based heavily on independent learning. They don’t tell you what chapter to have read or how far along you should be, that’s your own responsibility. You’re really only evaluated towards the end of the semester, which is apparently when everyone starts to go nuts.

Vocabulary

Their accents have been much more difficult to understand than I was anticipating. In the Republic, I had little trouble. But up North is a completely different story. It’s much thicker with lots more new words (and I've adopted them!):

-Craic (pronounced crack) is versatile:

“What's the craic?” = what's up?

“That's good craic” = that's funny/good time

-Chat up = hit on "I was over there chatting him up"

-To ring = to call “Ring me later”

-Tenor = a 10 pound bill

-Petrol = gasoline

-Wee = little "a wee church"

-Bathroom = toilet "where's the toilet"

-Slag = tease/make fun of (but in a friendly way) "I was giving him a good slag" or "she wouldn't stop slagging me"

-Fit = hot bod “she’s really fit”

-Chips = steak fries

-Fries = fast food fries

-Crisps = chips

The Irish Conflict

One thing I’m very excited to learn more about is the Irish conflict. It’s still surprisingly prevalent- my Irish friend was worried about going to a club on the other side of the river because she’s Catholic. There are bad areas too, and things that you could never say to certain groups of people, and specific colors mean different things. I’m taking a class on the history of Irish politics, so more to come on that.

Pub Culture

Pubs are where people of all ages go to socialize. Families go, middle-aged businessmen go, and of course college students go. There aren’t one or two big nights like the States’ Fridays and Saturdays, but it’s really every night. There’s really nothing to compare it to… But they aren’t drunks! They go to socialize, not necessarily to drink. Unlike the US, it’s perfectly acceptable to go and hang out and not drink, even when out with loads of friends. But there are still many who do drink, naturally. It’s really interesting and I haven’t got any of it figured out yet; these are just my observations and what I’ve been told. Then there’s rounds. They keep telling us not to get involved in rounds because it works as such: ‘A’ goes up and buys a round for all ten of his friends and now, all of them owe him a drink. When the pint is about half drank (so as to not go dry), ‘B’ goes up and buys a round and everyone but ‘A’ owes him a drink. And they keep track, not of who owes them, but of whom they owe. So, rounds basically don’t stop until everyone has bought everyone else a drink. It’s easy to get in but harder to get out because they are so punctual about buying the next one and then you start owing more and more people drinks. Basically, you come home drunk and broke.

One pretty remarkable statistic I heard was that, per capita, Irish people drink more alcohol than any other Western European country, but they also have the highest amount of people sworn to sobriety. So that means that not so many people are drinking one heck of a lot, which is being a bit of a problem.

Another incredibly interesting social dynamic is who the groups of people are at the pubs. Especially at a college age level, people go out with their group of same-gendered friends and stick with them. For the most part, they go out to socialize, not to hit on everyone- or at least until they’ve paid their dues to their friends. So they don’t go and immediately split up, buying girls drinks, as I’ve seen in the States. It’s incredibly intricate, but really fascinating.

Dublin Adventures: 11/9 to 15/9

Alright! So, I’ve been here 10 full days now. Here’s a bit of a recap: I flew out of Chicago and into London on the 11 and then on to Dublin the same day. I decided to take the bus from the airport to the hostel since it was much cheaper. So, I grabbed my bags and started asking around as to where to go. This would be the first of many times I was asked if I was an American (but all in good fun). After finding the bus, I tried very hard to make sure I didn’t miss the stop, which was quite simply the first one. I got off successfully and started in search of the hostel. The brochure my program, Arcadia, gave me made it sound pretty easy to get to and it probably was, but when factoring about 3 hours of sleep in 36 hours and two big suitcases, it makes it a bit more stressful. So, one wrong turn and three direction stops later (no one knew where the place was), I found it! I got checked in and carried my bags up two flights of stairs and was home! Well, for a few days at least. See, I had my orientation to Ireland in Dublin but I’m going to school in Londonderry in Northern Ireland, so this was only temporary. In a dazed state, I went out and got some food from a little pub and then came back and crashed for a few hours. I heard someone else, Lyndsay, arrive and we went out and explored. The first stop? A pint of Guinness, naturally! Then we just walked and walked and explored. It’s a beautiful, friendly city and I can’t wait to visit again. We asked around for good places to visit and which pubs to go to at night and got some great suggestions. (They drink a lot here. More on that later.) The next day, two other American students in our program- Chris and Jeremy- arrived. Thus started 5 days of fun adventures and site seeing. Usually, we had orientation in the morning for only two or three hours and then we had the day to ourselves. I had my first very Irish meal that second day: a salmon boxty. Boxties are basically big pancakes that are rolled and stuffed with some sort of meat, veggies, and sauce. It was delicious! Then we followed that up with Bailey’s flavored cheesecake. I was surprised to find it had such a different texture and taste compared to cheesecake back home, yet still amazing. The rest of the week, we tired lots of different food- fish and chips, pizza, and a vast variety of potatoes- and saw sites- Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, art museums, the River- and drank alcohol- Guinness, Magnus, cider. It was a fun week!

Lyndsay and I with our first pint

All the Americans studying in Ireland through Arcadia

Dublin

Welcome! I'm studying abroad in Northern Ireland for a year and I did a five day orientation in Dublin from September 11 to September 15. The people there were fantastic! Very friendly. A few interesting notes:

-At crosswalks, they had "<-- look left" or "look right -->" painted on the street since traffic is on the opposite side of the street as pretty much everywhere else.

-Food was expensive, but delicious!

-Most tourists were easy to spot and visited the same parts of town.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The main entrance to Trinity College, a private school in Dublin.

A vine covered building.

The Arcadia Americans with the "Tart with a Cart."