When in Cork...

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I can’t believe it’s already Thursday! I just got here, yet I feel like I’ve been here for sooo long. I’m finally starting to get over the homesickness. I mean I do miss all of you but at the same time I’m so busy I almost don’t have time to think about it! I hate that it is so much of a pain to call home though 😞

Anyway, well Monday we had orientation pretty much all day. I was still so extremely tired and jet lagged and just wanted to go back to sleep the entire day. I couldn’t figure out the shower so I had no hot water and just felt gross all day. We got a “Sketchy” tour of the campus from Mark after orientation and it was pretty funny. That night the whole slew of us met him for dinner at this Italian-American restaurant that was super nice and we looked like a bunch of scrubs in our jeans haha. It was cool though cause they had hamburgers and American-like cuisine. And to top it all off, pretty much every table split a bottle of 5.00 Euro wine. It wasn’t the greatest tasting wine in the world, but it was awesome to LEGALLY drink a glass of wine with..pizza :P After dinner a bunch of us met up at “The Thirsty Scholar” which is a pub in Cork. We were pretty much the only students there so it wasn’t too exciting. However, I managed to purchase my first pint of Guinness. Note how I say purchase and not drink, considering I had about 3 sips and gave it away cause it was GROSS! We didn’t stay too long at The Thirsty cause we were all still so jet lagged. Finally we walked back to the apartments. Again, one of the coldest, longest walks of my life!

Tuesday morning classes began and I finally got a hot shower to start the day off right! We all missed our first Physics lecture because we first of all, had no idea what time it was at or where it was located. Second of all, we had to get our official UCC (University College Cork) IDs in order to get into the library, etc. Most of us then sat in on the Irish Folklore class to test it out. The lecture hall was packed and I was fortunate enough to get a seat. Some students had to sit on the stairs! From 6-8pm we had our Intro to Irish History class and the lecture began with the potato famine. It was really interesting and I’m pretty excited to get more in depth with that class. Plus there is only a 1500 word essay and a final exam (hopefully I do well on both)!

Tuesday night after much debate and people bailing out and changing plans, Meg, Kristina, Brianne, and I (my little travel buddies!) went to The Washington Inn, aka The Wash. It’s a pub in the city that seems to ALWAYS be packed. It was supposed to be karaoke night but, alas, it was not. It was still really fun and we saw some fellow QU-ers and met some really cool Irish guys. Most of the pubs close pretty early, so we then walked to “Gorby’s” which is a “night club”. It was pretty funny cause it isn’t really anything like American night clubs. There was SO much smoke for a “cool” effect, I guess, but it was just irritating. It cost 2 euro to check our coats, which was a pain, but worth it! All in all it was a fun night and the guys paid for our cab ride home, so no complaints here! It only costs 2.50 euro each for the 4 of us so it’s worth it to get out of a long, cold walk!

Mark left Wednesday morning and we all already miss him so much 😞 We had physics at 10am, which was a little rough to wake-up for, considering it’s PHYSICS and I know absolutely nothing about electricity and electric fields! After class all of us Americans went up to the professor to explain why we weren’t at lecture the day before and to ask him about the course. He told us about the tutorials and, no joke, said “Well I don’t believe there is specifically a tutorial for the American students. There isn’t a language barrier, is there?” It was absolutely hilarious. I wanted to shout, “No sir, more like a knowledge barrier”, but I didn’t want to be rude 😊 After class I ate some toast with one of my friends (since I had NO food) and it was scrumptious. Their bread is about twice the size of our bread and SO DELICIOUS! Once I was done with my toast, I went back to my room and fell asleep for about…six hours!

Meg finally woke me up at 6:30pm so I could get ready, have dinner with the girls, and head over to campus for our “Mystery Tour” run by the Student Union for us International kids. I thought we were taking a bus but we actually WALKED forever and I thought my toes were going to fall off (that’s what I get for trying to look nice in my flats). We went to this pub called the Franciscan Well Brewery. They make about 6 different beers. I tried a Rebel red and, of course, didn’t really like it but LOVED the Blarney Blonde my friend had..go figure. A bunch of us also tried this Peach Cider called Rekorderlig. IT WAS AWESOME! So yummy! After the pub we then walked to the club, but made a pit stop at McDonald’s to use the restroom/munch on some 2.40 euro French fries (for a medium)—totally worth it! The club was pretty cool. We got in for free and then upstairs was the same place we were at the night before, except it was like “rock” night or something and then music was a bit too “hard” for me. Downstairs had this huge bar and a dancefloor and they played the most RANDOM music, but it was fun to watch everyone dance like a bunch of fools. We later learned that it was a gay bar that night (explains why guys were dancing with each other), but hey it was still a good time!

Today (Thursday), we had physics at 9am and I still didn’t really understand what was going on, but oh well. Apparently we have to buy textbooks and I’m not too happy about that. After class I went back to my room to upload some pictures on facebook (check them out cause they are sooo slow to put up on this blog) and then went back for the folklore class. I’m not too sure if I’m going to take that yet cause I still have to try out Traditional Irish Music on Monday. After class a couple of us grabbed some lunch. They have these amazing baguettes that are SO fresh and tuna that is just delicious and they always ask you if you’d like some “crisps” and those are yummy too! Only 3.70 euro and it is really filling. Now all I’ve been up to is updating this blog and my contact info so you all can keep in touch while I’m away 😊

I still have to go grocery shopping today and unpack my clothes. I’m not too sure if I’ll be going to the pub cause I have a bit of a tickle in my throat and I do NOT need to be getting sick right now! Wish me luck!

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