Week 5.

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How is it even possible that I am about to start my fifth week of grad school? Time has flown by so quickly since I started that I can hardly believe it. My semester is almost half over.

Here is my assessment of my program this far:

I love my classes.
I love my professors.
I love everything we’re studying.
I absolutely adore everyone in my course.

I am honestly having the time of my life.

I have to say, I think I got incredibly lucky with my course. I don't think I could've designed one better myself and the people I'm studying with are just incredible! We're currently taking three classes which means we are only in class for six hours a week, but spend at least 20-30 hours a week reading or writing papers. I love it. The courses we're in this semester are Government Institutions, Electoral Behavior and Principles of Comparative Research. There are 13 of us in he course and the breakdown goes as follows: 4 people from the U.S., 4 from Ireland, 1 from Armenia, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany and Indonesia. And they’re amazing. I honestly can’t seem to spend enough time with them. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing - from reading about game theory to karaoking - it seems if any of us are together, we’re having a good time.

Aside from spending time with my course mates and spending countless hours in the library, I’ve been starting to get involved with other things in Dublin. I got a job serving in the corporate boxes at their brand new sports stadium here. This week I am also going to start helping out at a non-profit here called Transparency International. TI focuses on raising awareness about corruption and bringing it to an end. I can’t tell you how excited I am to start working with them and to really be able to contribute something during my time here in Ireland.

I’ve also been trying to stay in good physical shape as well. My housemate just ran a half-marathon a few weeks ago and we’ve been running together quite a bit. Yesterday, we did an eight-mile run, which is the farthest I’ve ever gone!

I greatly apologize for keeping this so short and for not writing for so long. Grad school is definitely keeping me busy, but in the best of ways. I’m learning more than I ever thought possible and meeting some incredible people. From hours in the library to hours in the pubs, Ireland is everything I'd dreamed it would be and more.

I’m off to Glasgow, Scotland next weekend to meet up with a friend from the U.S. who will be there for work. I’ve never been to Scotland so I’m very excited. I’ve also included a few photos from my trip to Nice and Monaco with this blog. So sorry for never really having the time to write about that trip! The pictures say it all though!

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Photos

The girls!
I adore the girls in my course!

Monaco!
You could smell the money!

Comments

[Lindsey]

Jealous.

[Ann Anhalt]

Nice to hear from you
Clarissa, sounds like you found the right spot to learn, meet and grow. Have a great time and look forward to the next post.