Popping the "Cork"

First things first: this city is amazing! ...the people, the atmosphere, (not so much the weather), the culture - everything is phenomenal.

Having had trouble sleeping in my new, cold bed the first night, waking up and shivering my way to the shower was not at all enjoyable... BUT, we were soon dressed in layers, the sun was out, and were wandering the streets of "our fair city" (for dad). Miles (another fellow CSBSJU student) had been in Cork already for several days and acted as our personal tour guide for much of the morning. Because we had no groceries whatsoever, he showed us the way to a local tea shop called Cafe Gusto where we all ordered the breakfast special, complete with juice, tea or coffee, or waffles or pancakes (and for only 5 euro!). I opted for the apple juice, pancakes, and tea combo... for the price, not bad at all.

We spent the remainder of the morning investigating other shops and attractions within City Centre. The English Market is a HUGE market (implied) in which fresh fruit, meat, veggies, fish, you name it, can be found. Everything is reasonably priced, presented by locals, and is FRESH. Venders line small isles bustling with locals getting their morning groceries, and the whole place reaks of Irish culture... it's fantastic.

We then found some more essentials: an ATM, a sort of "Target" replacement (department-store-esk), and larger grocery store before returning to Leeside to begin cooking with all our newly found ingredients. I've discovered that Pat (Sitzer) is a pretty reasonable cook (although I guess I'm not hard to beat considering I consider myself a sort of consesuer of such delicacies as Ramen, Mac & Cheese, and frozen pizza), and he also makes a mean Irish stew. We chopped up potatoes, carrots and onions and added them to chunks of beef we had bought at the market, threw them in a pot in the oven, and waited until dinner... hoping it was going to be delicious.

Unfortunately, deliciousness comes with time (with stew, at least), so I took the opportunity to burn time and get lost, litterally. I'd been in the city once that morning, and kinda knew where my aparment builing was, but not much else... so I went on an adventure. I headed into City Centre, to find it even more crowded than it was that morning: people everywhere, cars going in odd directions (almost got run over 4 times, i'd guess), lights, buses, buisnesses still lined with Christmas sales signs, everything.

As I wandered the streets, about as lost as I thought I could get, I was still overtaken with a sense of belonging there.... no matter where "there" actually was. It didn't really matter where I was in the city. I was in Cork, Ireland... half way around the work from home... at yet I still felt AT home. I knew absolutely nothing about where I was, what I was looking at (most of the time), what time is was, where I was going... it didn't matter. It was so liberating. I think I'm going to really love this place.

I lost track of time but I must've wandered for another hour or so before meeting up with friends and returning to Leeside to dive into the stew that awaited... and MAN was it good. A cheap bottle of wine supplemented the meal nicely and the 7 (or so) of us just sat, talked, and enjoyed our first hearty meal together... it was lovely.. and felt very European (don't really know why...).

After busting out the CatchPhrase (and a couple more glasses of wine) we headed across the river channel to a city-renown brewery called "The Franciscan Well." It's a 3 minute walk from Leeside and after hearing from past participants about the place's fantastic beer and great atmosphere, we knew we had to check it out. Without getting into TOO much detail, let's just say that it is my belief that we will be frequenting the Well many-a-time in the future. The beer was excellent, the atmosphere was great, and the conversation - engaging.

While we sat at the pub and talked about anything and everything, it made me realize how truely honored and thankful I am to be a part of this group of students. Everyone is so happy and excited to be here, they're smart, honest, converse well, are opinionated, passionate, driven, and I think really exemplify what an engaged college student represents. Now I'm not saying I directly possess these qualities, but I consider myself fortunate to be able to partake in an experience such as study abroad with such an elite group of people my age... I think I'm going to really enjoy getting to know them all better and learning from them in the next 5 months.

Today... was Sunday (right? gheesh) - the day of rest. And MAN, did I rest. It probably wasn't a good idea, considering I should be trying to get used to the time difference (6 hours), but I slept until about 13:15 this afternoon. I'm bold enough to say that it wasn't my fault, however; our bedroom is finally warm(er) (after 2+ days of the heater blowing on full heat), I had no travel obligations for the first time in 5 days, and well.. I was tired! no matter...

I had breakfast (with supplies I bought yesterday, although our toaster is shit) and settled in to watch some hurling, which happened to be on one of the 4 channels we get here. Now, normally, i would be quite dissapointed with myself for wasting the majority of a Sunday afternoon in my pj's in a foreign country watching hurling... but I coudln't resist. My escuse(es): 1 - it was cold, rainy, and looked completely uninviting outside; 2 - it was hurling; 3 - it was cozy. Hurling (for those of you unaware of what it is... i certainly wasn't) is a sport kind of combining soccer and field hockey in that each player is given a stick that looks similar to one used for field hockey, and tries to score a lacrosse-sized ball either into a soccer goal (scoring 3 points) or through two uprights above the soccer goal (scoring 1 point)... team with the most points after 75 wins. Anyway, the whole game was announced in Irish (Gaelic) so of course, neither Darcy or I actually knew what was going on half the time, but we decided it really didn't matter because.. well.. it was a sport. We realized that as sad as it is, we're not quite sure how we're (Darcy & I) are going to live without SportCenter for 5 months...

In the afternoon... we decided that some activity might actually be a decent idea. We gathered, and walked southwest toward where the University was.. just to scope it out and get a feel for knowing our way around UCC before classes actually began. First impression: the campus is beautiful! Green grass everywhere, tall trees (which so far, have been a rarety), gorgeous architecture, and inviting atmosphere. It is Sunday afterall, so not many of the buildings were open (although we did manage to venture down to the computer labs), but being able to finally associate visuals with names of buildings for where my classes are supposed to be and just walking around the university I've been planning to attend for a year now, was comforting.

Tomorrow, orientation begins! ... at a much earlier hour than 13:15, I might add. Therefore, I believe my mother would think it wise of me to try to get some sleep... so I shall do thus!

More tomorrow (probably)... cheers!