Today was Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday, and probably other things). This is a really big deal in Ireland, way more so than back home. The grocery stores have been selling pancake mixes in massive displays all week (which is a big deal because I haven't seen any other big displays yet) and local stores, even convenience stores, made and sold pancakes. I'm pretty sure every single person in Ireland ate at least one pancake today, probably several.
Irish pancakes are different than American pancakes (which people here actually call american pancakes). Theirs are kind of a mixture between crepes and our pancakes. They are thicker than crepes but are filled with yummy things kind of likes crepes are. They can be sweet or savory, but we mostly went with the sweet :)
I went to two pancake parties, one with the frisbee team and one with my room mates. One of the guys from ultimate was making pancakes at his apartment on campus so we went over and helped cook and eat said pancakes. Me and one of the American girls here for grad school made american pancakes with blueberries or smarties (which are more like m&m's, not the little pellet/disks) and the more traditional pancakes with jam or lemon, then just hung out for a bit. We then decided to go get actual food (which was probably a bad idea for my stomach) and walked over to Eddie Rockets for hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. Tasted delicious, but I didn't want to move afterwards. I did manage to walk home though, to my next pancake party!
My room mates had a massive pancake feast planned. Katie made pancakes for everyone and we had lemon and sugar, bananas, nutella, ice cream, candy bars, and chocolate to put on them. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of people; I'm still excited about my camera and am trying to learn how to take pictures of people. We ate lots of pancakes then sat and talked for a bit until we felt we could move again. It was a good day, with quite a lot of pancakes :)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Scotland, Round 1
This weekend was rather exciting - I visited Scotland, got to see Kristin, and got my new camera! I'll tell you a bit about life in Ireland before I go into my trip though.
Things have definitely started to pick up, a combination of lots of weekend trips and actually getting to know the Irish kids I think. I've started reading in the library so I don't get distracted in my room, most Irish don't buy textbooks so the library has multiple copies of all the books for classes so you can just go read them and not have to buy them, woo! On Wed we had more frisbee practice and fitness training afterwards. We run shuttles, and I'm pretty good at them since I can turn quickly (skill left over from basketball), so one of the guys wanted to race (he won), but my lungs weren't particularly happy with all the sprinting in the cold and I was coughing like crazy until I had 3 cups of tea. :) That night I taught one of my room mates how to make chocolate chip cookies, I'm definitely still baking here! Then Thursday night it was one of the girls from the frisbee team's birthday, so we went out. First we went to a place called Captain America's for dinner, they make decent burgers and serve long island ice tea in pitchers :P Then we saw Benjamin Button, which I thought was pretty good. Afterwards we went to a bar that was playing kareoke, but left and we finished the night at Porterhouse.
The next morning I caught my flight to Scotland. I flew into Aberdeen and since my flight got in at 10 and Kristin's wasn't until 7 I went to explore the city. There isn't much to do in Aberdeen, except go visit the highlands, so I wandered around a bit. Some of the things that I saw were a pretty cool 16th century house they had converted to a museum, the meritime museum with some really awesome ship models, and the Aberdeen art gallery, all of which were free :) Then I went in a coffee shop which made really good mochas and just wandered around the city and did a bit of shopping before heading back to the airport. I found Kristin and we caught a bus to Inverness. Also, she brought me my camera (canon xs)! I was very excited and spent a lot of time this weekend playing with it.
The bus ride was long and I was kinda carsick so slept most of it. We got to Inverness and found our hostel. It was a really cute one that named the beds. Mine was called Vicious Haggis :P That night we were both tired and didn't get there until after midnight, so just stayed in and played with cameras a bit before bed.
The next morning we got up and found a bakery for breakfast - they made delicious apple turnovers! Back at the hostel I made a cup of tea (I seriously think I'm getting addicted) and we talked about what to do. We had planned on renting bikes but the hostel didn't have any, so we got on a tour bus to take us to Loch Ness for a boat ride and trip to the Urquhart castle. The guide told us a bit about Scottish history and about the lake while we drove. The lake was crazy choppy, our boat really felt like a roller coaster it was going up and down so much. The lake was gorgeous though. We made it to the castle and had an hour to explore. It was pretty cool, two of the towers were still standing and you could see the structure for the rest of it. We then headed back to Inverness and got some lunch. We decided for the afternoon to go to the Ness Islands, which is a park in the town consisting of a series of long islands along the bank of the river. It was a gorgeous day and so lots of people were outside walking their dogs and just enjoying the sun. The park was really cool.
Afterwards we bought some postcards then went to a coffee shop for tea and strawberry shortcake. It was delicious (and I took more pictures hehe). We then walked around a bit before going to dinner at a tapas bar (they had a really good happy hour - buy a pitcher of sangria and get 3 free tapas - so we ate early). The food and sangria were really good! We got scallops, manchego cheese, chicken stuffed peppers, pork with almonds and raisins, and mussels. We then went to a bar to pass some time before our bus (we had to spend the next night in Elgin to be able to catch my flight on Sunday) and I tried whisky and we watched a game. The whisky was really good, it would have been fun to go to a distillery but we didn't have time.
We went back to the hostel to grab our stuff and caught a bus to Elgin, which is about a third of the way back to Aberdeen. There we had our own room in a really cute hostel that apparently just opened. It was really nice. We walked around Elgin, but there wasn't anything to do at night so we just went to sleep.
The next morning we caught the first bus to Aberdeen and I got off at the airport while Kristin headed to Aberdeen to explore before her later flight. I made it safely back to Dublin and spent the rest of the day playing with my camera :)
Things have definitely started to pick up, a combination of lots of weekend trips and actually getting to know the Irish kids I think. I've started reading in the library so I don't get distracted in my room, most Irish don't buy textbooks so the library has multiple copies of all the books for classes so you can just go read them and not have to buy them, woo! On Wed we had more frisbee practice and fitness training afterwards. We run shuttles, and I'm pretty good at them since I can turn quickly (skill left over from basketball), so one of the guys wanted to race (he won), but my lungs weren't particularly happy with all the sprinting in the cold and I was coughing like crazy until I had 3 cups of tea. :) That night I taught one of my room mates how to make chocolate chip cookies, I'm definitely still baking here! Then Thursday night it was one of the girls from the frisbee team's birthday, so we went out. First we went to a place called Captain America's for dinner, they make decent burgers and serve long island ice tea in pitchers :P Then we saw Benjamin Button, which I thought was pretty good. Afterwards we went to a bar that was playing kareoke, but left and we finished the night at Porterhouse.
The next morning I caught my flight to Scotland. I flew into Aberdeen and since my flight got in at 10 and Kristin's wasn't until 7 I went to explore the city. There isn't much to do in Aberdeen, except go visit the highlands, so I wandered around a bit. Some of the things that I saw were a pretty cool 16th century house they had converted to a museum, the meritime museum with some really awesome ship models, and the Aberdeen art gallery, all of which were free :) Then I went in a coffee shop which made really good mochas and just wandered around the city and did a bit of shopping before heading back to the airport. I found Kristin and we caught a bus to Inverness. Also, she brought me my camera (canon xs)! I was very excited and spent a lot of time this weekend playing with it.
The bus ride was long and I was kinda carsick so slept most of it. We got to Inverness and found our hostel. It was a really cute one that named the beds. Mine was called Vicious Haggis :P That night we were both tired and didn't get there until after midnight, so just stayed in and played with cameras a bit before bed.
The next morning we got up and found a bakery for breakfast - they made delicious apple turnovers! Back at the hostel I made a cup of tea (I seriously think I'm getting addicted) and we talked about what to do. We had planned on renting bikes but the hostel didn't have any, so we got on a tour bus to take us to Loch Ness for a boat ride and trip to the Urquhart castle. The guide told us a bit about Scottish history and about the lake while we drove. The lake was crazy choppy, our boat really felt like a roller coaster it was going up and down so much. The lake was gorgeous though. We made it to the castle and had an hour to explore. It was pretty cool, two of the towers were still standing and you could see the structure for the rest of it. We then headed back to Inverness and got some lunch. We decided for the afternoon to go to the Ness Islands, which is a park in the town consisting of a series of long islands along the bank of the river. It was a gorgeous day and so lots of people were outside walking their dogs and just enjoying the sun. The park was really cool.
Afterwards we bought some postcards then went to a coffee shop for tea and strawberry shortcake. It was delicious (and I took more pictures hehe). We then walked around a bit before going to dinner at a tapas bar (they had a really good happy hour - buy a pitcher of sangria and get 3 free tapas - so we ate early). The food and sangria were really good! We got scallops, manchego cheese, chicken stuffed peppers, pork with almonds and raisins, and mussels. We then went to a bar to pass some time before our bus (we had to spend the next night in Elgin to be able to catch my flight on Sunday) and I tried whisky and we watched a game. The whisky was really good, it would have been fun to go to a distillery but we didn't have time.
We went back to the hostel to grab our stuff and caught a bus to Elgin, which is about a third of the way back to Aberdeen. There we had our own room in a really cute hostel that apparently just opened. It was really nice. We walked around Elgin, but there wasn't anything to do at night so we just went to sleep.
The next morning we caught the first bus to Aberdeen and I got off at the airport while Kristin headed to Aberdeen to explore before her later flight. I made it safely back to Dublin and spent the rest of the day playing with my camera :)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Seige of Limrick
This past weekend I went on my first ultimate tournament in Limrick, which is on the west coast of Ireland. Trinity sent two teams (I was on the 2nd one) so there were quite a few of us going. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about frisbee!
We left Dublin friday night, there were a bunch of teams from Dublin going, so we rented 2 buses to take all of us down. Our bus left at 7:30 so we met and headed to the bus stop. The trip was about 3 hrs and we had quite the party bus going on, lots of singing and talking and a bit of alcohol mixed in. We got to the UL (University of Limrick) campus and immediately went to their school bar (apparently bars on campus is very common in Ireland). Ultimate in Ireland is a very close-knit community, most players know most other players, so the bar was filled with players catching up and talking. They were having drink specials, so I tried something called a black russian, which is apparently a white russian but instead of milk, use guinness. I think the fact that they were having drink specials on a friday night says something about the Irish drinking culture (namely that friday/saturday nights aren't go-crazy nights).
That night we stayed with one of the UL players and just slept in their kitchen. It was pretty cramped but we all managed to fit. I think there were 10 of us that night so we got nice and close with each other.
The next morning our first game was at 11 so we got up and headed down to the pitches to warm up. We played UCD2 so I got to play against Sean which was fun. It was a good game and we barely won at the end. Ultimate has a tradition of talking with the opposing team after the game and then playing random games together. It's really fun, and some of the games are pretty funny (aka, supposed to make you uncomfortable). I think my favorite one of the weekend was called over-under, and 5 people line up, every other one lying down and on their hands and knees and then the rest of the people crawl over and under them. The catch is that every so often someone calls switch and the people lying down get up and the people on their hands and knees lay down, even if you're still crawling under them.
Our next game of the day was against a team from Donegal. They were really good, and in really good shape so kept out running us. We lost that one pretty badly, but did manage to score a point. We then had some time off so got lunch and hung out a bit before our last game of the day against UL2. They were mostly beginners and weren't particularly good, but we were playing rather sloppily and so the game was much closer than it should have been but we did win it. After that we followed our host back to his house and sat around, showered, then ordered pizza. Me and Jen, one of my team mates, got ambitious and each ordered a 16" pizza for ourselves. I ate half of it and planned on saving the rest for breakfast, but it dissapeared overnight. Then I laid down for a bit, not planning on falling asleep, but woke up an hour and a half later. I was a bit tired :P
That night was the tournament party. There was a theme, freaks and geeks, but Trinity decided they didn't want to dress up so we just went. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the players and dancing, and seeing everyone else's costumes. One of the guys, Kevin, from the first team walked me, Jen, and Tara home and we went to sleep.
The next morning our first game was at 9 so we had to wake up pretty early and pack all of our stuff. We managed to get the team together and down to the pitches by quater till and so had time for a quick warm up. But, there was a scheduling mishap and the team we were supposed to be playing (the Donegal team again) hadn't been told that they were playing, so they weren't there. We ended up waiting for them to get there and playing a half hour game at quarter past 10. They won again, but it was closer this time and we played really well.
Our next game was almost immediately, and against UCD2 again. That was another good game, but they got an early lead and we couldn't over take them. Right after we did our game-thing at the end another team walked up and told us that we were actually supposed to be playing them right then, so we had to run over to their field and start another game against UCC. We were really tired at this point and so didn't play as well as we should have and ended up losing that game. I think we had 3 or 4 injured players at this point too. We got a 20 minute rest after that game before playing our last game of the tournament, against UL2 again. We thought it was quite strange that we played the exact same 3 teams (plus 1) both days of the tournament. We beat UL2 again and so ended up with the 'spoon' prize (you beat the worst team in the tournament).
Our team had been doing an "A game" award after each game, the prize consisted of a hat that you got to wear for the next match. The A game is the person who played to the best of their abilities, not necessarily the best player, but more the best effort, during that game. At the end of the tournament we voted on the best overall A game and I won it so I got to keep the hat. Now I have two warm hats :)
After cooling down we watched a bit of the 1st team's match for 3rd place (they sadly lost, but still ended up 4th in the tournament). Then Jen, Tara and I went to get lunch 1/breakfast (I had only had 1 slice of pizza for breakfast) at the sports bar near the pitches. Then we showered and headed back to watch the championship match. Those players were amazing! It was crazy to watch. They had an awards ceremony after it, but we were hungry again and so went and had lunch 2 for the day and came back just as it ended, in time to grab our stuff and go to the buses.
The bus trip back was not as interesting as the one there, I slept through most of it. We got back to Dublin at 9:30 and by the time I walked home it was 10. I didn't have much food, but made peanut butter toast (quickly becoming one of my staple foods) and some tea (which i proceeded to spill all over myself but thankfully not my computer) before going to sleep.
The next day my body wasn't very happy with me. I've been more sore in each muscle group before, but never has my whole body hurt so much collectively. I never fully appreciated how much you use your abs playing ultimate until yesterday morning when just standing made my abs hurt. So this is why we do core work during practice... We had practice last night which was really good to just shake out muscles and do some drills.
Other things in Ireland - my skype works again!!! I'm super excited about that so now I can talk to people again. Also, flowers are starting to come out! They're really cute, I've seen daffodils and little white snow-drop looking things, as well as 2 others I can't identify. It's awesome though to see flowers already, plus its getting warmer which is super exciting :) My travel-craziness is about to start, so I'm heading off to Scotland this weekend to hopefully find the Loch Ness monster as well as fun times in the high lands! (sorry for the super long post)
We left Dublin friday night, there were a bunch of teams from Dublin going, so we rented 2 buses to take all of us down. Our bus left at 7:30 so we met and headed to the bus stop. The trip was about 3 hrs and we had quite the party bus going on, lots of singing and talking and a bit of alcohol mixed in. We got to the UL (University of Limrick) campus and immediately went to their school bar (apparently bars on campus is very common in Ireland). Ultimate in Ireland is a very close-knit community, most players know most other players, so the bar was filled with players catching up and talking. They were having drink specials, so I tried something called a black russian, which is apparently a white russian but instead of milk, use guinness. I think the fact that they were having drink specials on a friday night says something about the Irish drinking culture (namely that friday/saturday nights aren't go-crazy nights).
That night we stayed with one of the UL players and just slept in their kitchen. It was pretty cramped but we all managed to fit. I think there were 10 of us that night so we got nice and close with each other.
The next morning our first game was at 11 so we got up and headed down to the pitches to warm up. We played UCD2 so I got to play against Sean which was fun. It was a good game and we barely won at the end. Ultimate has a tradition of talking with the opposing team after the game and then playing random games together. It's really fun, and some of the games are pretty funny (aka, supposed to make you uncomfortable). I think my favorite one of the weekend was called over-under, and 5 people line up, every other one lying down and on their hands and knees and then the rest of the people crawl over and under them. The catch is that every so often someone calls switch and the people lying down get up and the people on their hands and knees lay down, even if you're still crawling under them.
Our next game of the day was against a team from Donegal. They were really good, and in really good shape so kept out running us. We lost that one pretty badly, but did manage to score a point. We then had some time off so got lunch and hung out a bit before our last game of the day against UL2. They were mostly beginners and weren't particularly good, but we were playing rather sloppily and so the game was much closer than it should have been but we did win it. After that we followed our host back to his house and sat around, showered, then ordered pizza. Me and Jen, one of my team mates, got ambitious and each ordered a 16" pizza for ourselves. I ate half of it and planned on saving the rest for breakfast, but it dissapeared overnight. Then I laid down for a bit, not planning on falling asleep, but woke up an hour and a half later. I was a bit tired :P
That night was the tournament party. There was a theme, freaks and geeks, but Trinity decided they didn't want to dress up so we just went. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the players and dancing, and seeing everyone else's costumes. One of the guys, Kevin, from the first team walked me, Jen, and Tara home and we went to sleep.
The next morning our first game was at 9 so we had to wake up pretty early and pack all of our stuff. We managed to get the team together and down to the pitches by quater till and so had time for a quick warm up. But, there was a scheduling mishap and the team we were supposed to be playing (the Donegal team again) hadn't been told that they were playing, so they weren't there. We ended up waiting for them to get there and playing a half hour game at quarter past 10. They won again, but it was closer this time and we played really well.
Our next game was almost immediately, and against UCD2 again. That was another good game, but they got an early lead and we couldn't over take them. Right after we did our game-thing at the end another team walked up and told us that we were actually supposed to be playing them right then, so we had to run over to their field and start another game against UCC. We were really tired at this point and so didn't play as well as we should have and ended up losing that game. I think we had 3 or 4 injured players at this point too. We got a 20 minute rest after that game before playing our last game of the tournament, against UL2 again. We thought it was quite strange that we played the exact same 3 teams (plus 1) both days of the tournament. We beat UL2 again and so ended up with the 'spoon' prize (you beat the worst team in the tournament).
Our team had been doing an "A game" award after each game, the prize consisted of a hat that you got to wear for the next match. The A game is the person who played to the best of their abilities, not necessarily the best player, but more the best effort, during that game. At the end of the tournament we voted on the best overall A game and I won it so I got to keep the hat. Now I have two warm hats :)
After cooling down we watched a bit of the 1st team's match for 3rd place (they sadly lost, but still ended up 4th in the tournament). Then Jen, Tara and I went to get lunch 1/breakfast (I had only had 1 slice of pizza for breakfast) at the sports bar near the pitches. Then we showered and headed back to watch the championship match. Those players were amazing! It was crazy to watch. They had an awards ceremony after it, but we were hungry again and so went and had lunch 2 for the day and came back just as it ended, in time to grab our stuff and go to the buses.
The bus trip back was not as interesting as the one there, I slept through most of it. We got back to Dublin at 9:30 and by the time I walked home it was 10. I didn't have much food, but made peanut butter toast (quickly becoming one of my staple foods) and some tea (which i proceeded to spill all over myself but thankfully not my computer) before going to sleep.
The next day my body wasn't very happy with me. I've been more sore in each muscle group before, but never has my whole body hurt so much collectively. I never fully appreciated how much you use your abs playing ultimate until yesterday morning when just standing made my abs hurt. So this is why we do core work during practice... We had practice last night which was really good to just shake out muscles and do some drills.
Other things in Ireland - my skype works again!!! I'm super excited about that so now I can talk to people again. Also, flowers are starting to come out! They're really cute, I've seen daffodils and little white snow-drop looking things, as well as 2 others I can't identify. It's awesome though to see flowers already, plus its getting warmer which is super exciting :) My travel-craziness is about to start, so I'm heading off to Scotland this weekend to hopefully find the Loch Ness monster as well as fun times in the high lands! (sorry for the super long post)
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tea
Since I haven't posted anything in a while, and there isn't much actually going on in my life (I'm assuming no one wants to hear summaries of the textbooks I've been reading - Particle Physics 2nd edition, Introduction to High Energy Physics, and Introduction to Solid State Physics) I've decided to post my thoughts on tea.
In Ireland people drink tea as close to constantly as is possible and still do things like go to class and breathe. So far I have had 2 cups of tea (it is 11:45), and that is after skipping my usual cup with breakfast in favor of OJ; I have definitely embraced the tea-drinking culture here. It is a social interaction as much as a beverage, I have spent many an hour talking over a cup of tea when at home two people would just awkwardly stare at each other or go back to their rooms.
I drink tea when I'm cold, when I don't feel well, when I'm talking to people, and when I'm working. And with about half my meals. (see first sentence of previous paragraph) It is amusing to note that this habit began shortly after I arrived, indeed the first conversation I had with my new room mates was over a cup of tea. At the time I assumed it was merely because they had just made a pot and had some left over, not because tea takes over your life and there is *always* a pot of it, or at least boiling water.
Tea is sold by the box, but not the typical boxes we are used to in America. Last week our house bought a medium sized box that had 104 tea bags in it. We just ran out and bought another one.
The Irish are not particularly varied in their tea consumption, there is tea, and there is the smaller selection of "other types of tea". Tea consists of Barry's or Lyon's tea, in either original or gold blends (I think there may be a decaf option as well). "Other types of tea" occupies about half the space as the tea category does in the grocery store and consists of green tea, earl gray tea, and a few herbal teas. I think we Americans have far too many choices in our lives (next time you're in the grocery store, look at the number of varieties in teas and you'll see what I mean).
It is also important to note that tea is served with milk and sometimes sugar. It is also brewed fairly strongly. I realized how deeply ingrained this is in Irish culture when I read the back of a green tea box. It warned consumers that green tea is best when brewed for only (only was actually used on the box) 2 minutes and should not be enjoyed with milk. I'm fairly certain that in America green tea boxes just say brew 2-3 min and enjoy.
Well, I'm off for a cup of tea. More interesting news hopefully after my ultimate tournament this weekend :)
In Ireland people drink tea as close to constantly as is possible and still do things like go to class and breathe. So far I have had 2 cups of tea (it is 11:45), and that is after skipping my usual cup with breakfast in favor of OJ; I have definitely embraced the tea-drinking culture here. It is a social interaction as much as a beverage, I have spent many an hour talking over a cup of tea when at home two people would just awkwardly stare at each other or go back to their rooms.
I drink tea when I'm cold, when I don't feel well, when I'm talking to people, and when I'm working. And with about half my meals. (see first sentence of previous paragraph) It is amusing to note that this habit began shortly after I arrived, indeed the first conversation I had with my new room mates was over a cup of tea. At the time I assumed it was merely because they had just made a pot and had some left over, not because tea takes over your life and there is *always* a pot of it, or at least boiling water.
Tea is sold by the box, but not the typical boxes we are used to in America. Last week our house bought a medium sized box that had 104 tea bags in it. We just ran out and bought another one.
The Irish are not particularly varied in their tea consumption, there is tea, and there is the smaller selection of "other types of tea". Tea consists of Barry's or Lyon's tea, in either original or gold blends (I think there may be a decaf option as well). "Other types of tea" occupies about half the space as the tea category does in the grocery store and consists of green tea, earl gray tea, and a few herbal teas. I think we Americans have far too many choices in our lives (next time you're in the grocery store, look at the number of varieties in teas and you'll see what I mean).
It is also important to note that tea is served with milk and sometimes sugar. It is also brewed fairly strongly. I realized how deeply ingrained this is in Irish culture when I read the back of a green tea box. It warned consumers that green tea is best when brewed for only (only was actually used on the box) 2 minutes and should not be enjoyed with milk. I'm fairly certain that in America green tea boxes just say brew 2-3 min and enjoy.
Well, I'm off for a cup of tea. More interesting news hopefully after my ultimate tournament this weekend :)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Snow, table quiz and fees protest
Yesterday was a very fun day, it snowed on and off for most of it! Everything is just prettier with a coating of snow, even the construction outside my window. During the afternoon my house mate Katie and I watched the snow falling for half an hour, it was big fluffy flakes coming down pretty hard. Unfortunately it melted by the end of the day but it was really cool while it lasted :)
Also the second part of one of my physics classes started yesterday and the professor is adorable, kind of a mix between Swift and Sitz with a lot of energy. I think that class will be really fun, and hopefully my high energy physics class will begin to make more sense (this class is a prerequisite to it).
Finally the day ended with a Table Quiz for the ultimate team. A table quiz is apparently the way that all teams/clubs make money here, you pay 5 euros to enter then answer trivial questions and the winner gets a prize. They are staged at pubs so you end up drinking as much as answering questions (one of the guys on my team was trying to do a drink a round - 8 of them - but was unsuccessful). It was fun hanging out and also realizing how much I don't know about cultural things such as TV, movies, and music.
Then today I went to a fees protest staged by the college. In Ireland the government pays for everyone's first degree but they want to change that (the government doesn't have enough money) and so the students were protesting. I didn't really participate mainly because even if they do have to pay fees its like 4000 euros a year, less than I pay for a semester, but it was cool to see. They had students from all over Ireland in the city center blowing whistles and causing a standstill. It was fun to see.
Also the second part of one of my physics classes started yesterday and the professor is adorable, kind of a mix between Swift and Sitz with a lot of energy. I think that class will be really fun, and hopefully my high energy physics class will begin to make more sense (this class is a prerequisite to it).
Finally the day ended with a Table Quiz for the ultimate team. A table quiz is apparently the way that all teams/clubs make money here, you pay 5 euros to enter then answer trivial questions and the winner gets a prize. They are staged at pubs so you end up drinking as much as answering questions (one of the guys on my team was trying to do a drink a round - 8 of them - but was unsuccessful). It was fun hanging out and also realizing how much I don't know about cultural things such as TV, movies, and music.
Then today I went to a fees protest staged by the college. In Ireland the government pays for everyone's first degree but they want to change that (the government doesn't have enough money) and so the students were protesting. I didn't really participate mainly because even if they do have to pay fees its like 4000 euros a year, less than I pay for a semester, but it was cool to see. They had students from all over Ireland in the city center blowing whistles and causing a standstill. It was fun to see.
Monday, February 2, 2009
1 Month
I have officially been in Ireland for one month, and things are finally fitting together and getting going. Now I know enough people to start going out and doing stuff not by myself and have spoken to a couple people in my classes (social life apparently doesn't start in class here). Overall, I've been playing lots of frisbee, going to classes, going to pubs with my house-mates and their friends, reading and continuing watching Gilmore Girls. Also, right now its 'snowing', pretty awesome (to me at least), the roofs are white, but its not actually snow, more like itty bitty hail the size of those Do Not Eat beads they put in shoes, but its still fun, and maybe real snow will come :)
In more detail, here's what I've been up to. Lots of frisbee, we practice mondays and wednesdays with the whole team and then the girls team has extra practices since we have a competition at the end of february. We practiced/scrimmaged for 2 hrs on friday (in cold windy rain) which was actually a lot of fun despite me not being able to feel my hands or toes by the end. Then on saturday I played in an indoors tournament that was just for fun, kind of pick up with various frisbee teams in Dublin. My team got 5th of 6, but we had a good time, and I'm learning a lot about indoor frisbee which I had never played before. And then the frisbee weekend wrapped up with more women's practice on sunday, we practiced for about and hour and a half then scrimmaged the DCU team, which was apparently less the DCU team and more the Ireland team (we lost pretty badly but did manage to score 2 points at the end). I've been learning about how to play outside when its cold and muddy - cleats (called boots here) are a must; I didn't think I would need them but was convinced otherwise about 30 seconds into playing without them. Also, leggings and underarmor are your friend. The first tournament is in Limrick in two weeks, and should be a lot of fun!
Last week was the first week that I had all of my classes (well, the ones that have started so far, I still have 2 that are in the next term and one that starts halfway through this term, Trinity is weird). I like all of the classes so far, the intro to geology is a little boring right now but it should get better when we get to less basic topics. Complex analysis won't be too bad by virtue of the professor deciding that he must explain everything in great detail, so even though its my first proof-based math class I'll be fine. And physics is pretty interesting, the class that I've already taken is about to end and my condensed matter class start which I'm looking forward to. My only class that assigns homework is geology and that is easy so all I have to worry about is reading, and then the exams at the end of the year. It's nice now but we'll see come may :P
Well, thats a lot more than I thought it would be as I haven't done much besides frisbee and reading lately but I guess my life is more interesting than I thought :)
In more detail, here's what I've been up to. Lots of frisbee, we practice mondays and wednesdays with the whole team and then the girls team has extra practices since we have a competition at the end of february. We practiced/scrimmaged for 2 hrs on friday (in cold windy rain) which was actually a lot of fun despite me not being able to feel my hands or toes by the end. Then on saturday I played in an indoors tournament that was just for fun, kind of pick up with various frisbee teams in Dublin. My team got 5th of 6, but we had a good time, and I'm learning a lot about indoor frisbee which I had never played before. And then the frisbee weekend wrapped up with more women's practice on sunday, we practiced for about and hour and a half then scrimmaged the DCU team, which was apparently less the DCU team and more the Ireland team (we lost pretty badly but did manage to score 2 points at the end). I've been learning about how to play outside when its cold and muddy - cleats (called boots here) are a must; I didn't think I would need them but was convinced otherwise about 30 seconds into playing without them. Also, leggings and underarmor are your friend. The first tournament is in Limrick in two weeks, and should be a lot of fun!
Last week was the first week that I had all of my classes (well, the ones that have started so far, I still have 2 that are in the next term and one that starts halfway through this term, Trinity is weird). I like all of the classes so far, the intro to geology is a little boring right now but it should get better when we get to less basic topics. Complex analysis won't be too bad by virtue of the professor deciding that he must explain everything in great detail, so even though its my first proof-based math class I'll be fine. And physics is pretty interesting, the class that I've already taken is about to end and my condensed matter class start which I'm looking forward to. My only class that assigns homework is geology and that is easy so all I have to worry about is reading, and then the exams at the end of the year. It's nice now but we'll see come may :P
Well, thats a lot more than I thought it would be as I haven't done much besides frisbee and reading lately but I guess my life is more interesting than I thought :)
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