Details, details, details: Friday, Sept. 18th - Monday, Sept. 21st

Yes, I'm even further behind. I know. A regular blogger, I am not, but here it is - the LONG awaited update! Rather than making you wait longer for a giant update, here is a few days' worth while I work on the next bit!

September 18th, I got up and promptly began running late. Clearly, running behind is something of a chronic condition with me - one might even call it congenital, since I was actually born 5 days after my due date - but it was ok that I was late Friday, because there was really only one thing I had to do that day: go to the Academic Walkabout. Now, I really didn't know what the academic walkabout was, but my teacher Mary Breen recommended it very highly.

Turns out, the Academic Walkabout was a lot like the fair they have at IU during Welcome Week for the College of Arts and Sciences: little booths for each department where visiting students and new students can ask questions about classes and expectations. Useful, but not something that took up very much time. After 45 minutes, I'd talked to everyone there that I needed to, asked all the questions I had come up with, and was very ready to leave - the room was packed and hectic and I just wanted to go back to sleep (surprise, surprise).

I spent the rest of that day and part of Saturday working on figuring out my schedule for the semester. This was a harder task than expected because the class schedules work so differently here than they do at home. Whereas at home you might have an English class 10-10:50 MWF and a history class TuTh 2:15-3:30, here in Ireland, just you might have a class start at 2:00 on Monday and the same class again on Tuesday at 4:00. There is no consistency in the timing of classes or even of the classrooms, which makes keeping track of what class you have next or where that class is being held rather more complicated than it is at home. (My friends and my own confusion about our schedules continued far later into the semester than it would at home too - just this past week, I almost texted Sophie to ask whether our class started at 12 or 1 before remembering that she had texted me with the EXACT SAME QUESTION last week and I had known the answer then so I should know it now - 1 o'clock.) As far as I knew, I was allowed to take 30 UCC credits (equal to about 15 IU credits) and that academic class was worth 5 credits, but what to take?? I am somewhat notorious for getting overly excited when planning out my semester schedule, so I was very serious in making my decisions.

The first thing I did was pull up an Excel spreadsheet template I made when I started college with all the class times and days plotted out. Each semester I save a copy as Fall (or Spring) 2009 (or whatever year is is). As I select classes, I plug them into my sheet to check for overlaps and commute problems. Given the randomness of the class times here, this was super-important and helped me spot all kinds of potential problems in my schedule.

Eventually, my class schedule was semi-decided. I registered online for my two classes in the music school. I was very excited about them - a couple of my friends were also going to be taking them and apart from that, they just sounded like fun. Who wouldn't want to take Irish Step Dancing (think Riverdance for complete beginners) and Irish Set Dancing (basically Irish square dancing)?? I was also going to take Celtic Literature through the Celtic Civilization dept. (looking at the major myth and saga cycles in Irish tradition), Literatures in Modern Ireland (with part of the class focusing on the development of the Irish theatre and part looking at stories and things - I think, we haven't gotten to that part yet!), and European Imperialism 1450-1750 (guess what that's about?). I really wanted to take a seminar called Fallen Angels: Depictions of Satan in Text and Art, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to yet, so I picked a different class that I could take in case the seminar didn't work out. I was really hoping for the seminar though, because the class size for seminars is never more than 15 people and the class itself is worth two classes, so if I couldn't take it, I'd be under 30 credits even with the other class I'd picked.

There was nothing else I could do though, since it was the weekend and offices were closed so Sunday I put aside all my scheduling craziness to join everyone in town (literally all of Cork) in cheering on "our" team in the GAA finals against Kerry. My friends and I, all in our Cork red and white, left Copley Court around 1:30 to find a pub where we could all sit down and watch the game. Our first few attempts were unsuccessful, but eventually we made it to Art McBrides, which was still fairly empty, since the game didn't start 'til around 3:30. Now, before coming to Cork, the one pub I had decided I HAD to go to was called the Thirsty Scholar. Upon arriving in Cork, I learned that the Thirsty Scholar had unfortunately been renamed Art McBrides(I still don't know why). We grabbed a table big enough for all of us (I think we were 8 that day) and settled in with our pints. Shortly before the game started, we made a run to pick up sandwiches, but besides that, we all watched the game the whole time. All except for me - because even though it was noisy in the pub, what with the Cork supporters cheering on our boys and the Kerry invaders cheering on their team, I fell asleep at the pub.

Despite our earnest cheering, the Kerry supporters overpowered us, as did their team. With the game over, we split up. Some went back home while others of us decided to check out the céilidh (pronounced KAY-lee) that was supposed to take place. A céilidh is basically a set dance/traditional music extravaganza-thing. After waiting around for about 40 minutes in the cold, only to learn that it wasn't going to start for another 40 minutes however, we called it a day and went home. School started the next day and we didn't want to be late!!

Monday morning, I woke up, got dressed and dashed off to Literature in Modern Ireland. I got off to a great start: I wasn't late, I knew where the building was, and Sophie was in my first class. Less great was the fact that the instructor didn't show up and after half an hour, we all left. This turned out to be a VERY good thing because although I left right away to get to step dancing, I only got there with ten minutes to spare. Here is a map of Cork with my route to school from Copley Court and from school to the music school where the dance classes are held back-to-back: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Ireland+(Copley+Court+Student+Village)&daddr=Donovan+Rd+to:122+Sunday%27s+Well+Rd,+Cork,+Ireland+(St.+Vincents)&hl=en&geocode=FWnbFwMdLs9-_yGA6E5Qga2IzQ%3BFe_TFwMdHnd-_w%3BFZXsFwMdPnN-_yG3FFTBB7VuPA&mra=pr&dirflg=w&sll=51.896754,-8.48917&sspn=0.015333,0.045447&ie=UTF8&ll=51.896754,-8.475523&spn=0.015333,0.045447&z=15. The map won't show my actual route to the music school because it doesn't have the walking path and walking bridge that I take on it, but the distance traveled is equivalent. Suffice to say, it's a twenty minute walk that I have 5 minutes to do every Monday. Except for that first Monday, I have been 15 minutes late every week. Luckily, Peggy, who teaches both dance classes, also offers an optional 1-hour class after set dancing (which is immediately after step dancing) for going over material. She said that as long as I stay for that (which my friends and I all do anyways because we need the help!), she doesn't mind my being late.

Anyways, so I muddled my way to the music building, found the classroom and we immediately began dancing. No easing us in for Peggy! We all decided that as long as Peggy can dance and teach dance for three hours, we should be able to dance for three hours. She is a little old woman (easily in her late 70s and probably older) who always wears the same dress made out of royal blue fabric with green gemstones depicted in the fabric. She's adorable and we all love her to bits - we just wish she'd teach slower!

Step dancing was unlike anything I remember doing (although I'm assured by my family that I did take tap at one point and I vaguely remember being told to put my tap shoes on outside so I didn't scratch the floors inside), but set dancing was much easier going. Where step dancing is all about placement and finesse, set dancing is all about having fun and just getting the basic steps right - a welcome break between our first hour of step dancing and our extra class, usually step dancing too.

From dance, I walked back to campus to meet Sophie for lunch before my next class, European Imperialism.... Finally, a normal first day of class: we got handed reading lists, went over expectations, and summarized the material that we were to learn. Best of all, we were let out early - something I normally object to (if I am paying for an hour of class, I want to be taught for an hour, not 40 minutes!), but since I was still feeling grubby from dance, I wasn't going to complain!!

After class (which my flatmate Teddy was also in), I walked home, anxious to take a shower and clean up before meeting my mom and her best friend Stephanie, who were arriving in Cork that day to visit for a few days. Mere moments after walking in the door, my cell phone rang. It was my mom, telling me to come over to their hotel. There was just one problem - I was sweaty and gross, had just gotten home, and their hotel was right by campus!! I did NOT want to walk all the way back up the hill to campus either sweaty as I was or after showering. After I explained the situation to them, my mom and Stephanie decided to walk to town where I would meet them after quickly cleaning up.

Naturally, rather than meeting them where I was supposed to, I ran a little bit late and met up with them right near my building. They were carrying a shopping bag full of goodies for me (dried apricots, Throat Coat, my favorite kind of cough drops, and other anti-sickness things), so I suggested going by my flat to drop off my stuff, so they could see where I was living. Both were pleasantly surprised by how nice our building is and neither were surprised by the.... disorder of my room, shall we say?

From there, I took them all over City Centre. We went to the English Market and to Tesco's (the regular market). We walked up and down the little streets, browsed at the boutiques and had a lovely time, but I was getting hungry. The concierge at their hotel had told them about a restaurant on Washington St. called Liberty Grill that was supposed to be good, so we went there for dinner. Steph got a salad off the menu, mom got a salad that she ordered specially, and I got chicken - and everything was delicious. Mom was so excited about the salad dressing that came with her special salad that she asked for, and received, the recipe.

After dinner, we split up, still unsure quite what we'd be doing the next day. Mom and Steph walked back to their hotel to discuss options with the concierge and I went home. After giving them some time to work everything out, I called them and we decided to go on a Ring of Kerry tour the next day. Although I hate skipping class, they were only going to be in Cork for a little while and I wanted to make the most of it. We agreed to meet at the bus station the next morning to catch the bus to Killarney, where the tour began. We had a big day ahead of us!