Whether or Weather?

It's been almost three weeks since arriving in this beautiful country, and I have no idea where all that time has gone. In many of my conversations with past Cork participants (and family members), a constant trend abroad seemed to be the increased speed at which time appears to move... and they couldn't have been more correct. I'm finding "time" to be, in general, a very odd component of life here in Ireland. The pace of life is slowed to a crawl, and yet, time seems to move so much more quickly. Contributing to this realization is that while at SJU, my day would be constantly filled with with classes, labs, meetings, meals, intramurals, frisbee practice, studying, study sessions... you name it, I had it. And when I wasn't physically studying, my mind was endlessly worrying about finishing a paper, solving that last equation, or reading the last chapter for lecture the next day. Let's just say that if a measure of stress were compatible to Smokey the Bear's scale of potential forest-fire risk, low to high, I would run at Cheech & Chong levels (get it?? it's a bit of a stretch I know...). But here, with basically no homework, a seemingly endless amount of free time, and a social life which stresses people-to-people interaction over people-to-book, life has become amazingly stressless. It truely wonderful - it's given me time to think (which I suppose isn't always a good thing), time to SLEEP, time to repair and maintain relationships, and generally... just time for me. Which is admittedly nice for a change...

Now, that is NOT to say that I've had oodles of time to myself and spent it on useless thoughts! Quite to the contrary, the last 2+ weeks have been jam-packed with adventures, new experiences, and awesome people. Some highlights:

1) On the 9th (Dad's 55th... I mean...35th... birthday), I travelled with close to 80 other international students to the nearby towns of Youghal and Ardmore (about an hour east of Cork). Some brief history - Youghal is essentially the old Cork. Back in the day (as you can tell, I'm REAL cut out to be an historian, not), Youghal used to be the center of commerce and trade on Ireland southern coast. But as ships became larger and needed deeper water to port, Cork became favored due it's deep natural port (the ships could come all the way up to the city and unload their goods) and the city of Youghal steadily declined in wealth and popularily. Despite all this, the town remains vibrant, with a beautiful waterfront, many small shops and cafes, and a picturesque hillside city layout sloping down to the harbor. Ardmore's claim to fame came (alliteration!) in 416 AD when St. Declan's ship was said to have been guided by a bell perched atop a floating stone, until the stone came to rest on the shores of current-day Ardmore. There, St. Declan began preaching Catholicism (15 years before St. Patrick!), built a monastery, and the town formed around it. Upon arrival in Ardmore, we were given a 2.5+ hour tour of the monastery, the remnants of St. Declan's hermitage, and walked along the cliffs bordering the nearby coast. It was my first good view of the Irish shoreline and the views were stunning (there are pictures somewhere). All-in-all, a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon... and the best part: totally free!

2) Fact: the Irish LOVE to talk about the weather. Sun, rain, ice, clouds, fog, you name it - it's still easily the number one topic for conversation-starters amoung locals. For a country that I was told rarely dipped below freezing and was fairly even 50/50 rain/snow, Ireland has certainly seen its fair share of abnormal weather lately. Last week, we went through a series of a few days in which it was sunny for 2 days, pouring rain for 2 days, snow for a day, followed by cloudy and windy (I should also have some pictures of the snow somewhere). Now, being from Minnesota, weather is not at all a big deal for me, but apparently it is for the Irish. The whole country is in a state of turmoil after unforseeable freezing temperatures burst watermains (including the one to my apartment, no drinking water for 2 days!), iced over roads, and left many residents throughout the country stranded and waterless. Ironically, the government sold massive quantities of sand and grit in the autumn in the hopes of making some profit, only to be caught grit-less when ice covered every major road in Ireland during winter. As many of the smaller villages are connected only via small farming roads, many residents have been stranded for days at a time and the country is going crazy. Once again, for a Minnesotan, the whole ordeal is slightly rediculous (yeah, it got down to 30 degrees and 1/8 inch of snow fell, so what?), but it's also quite sad to see a government handle a situation so poorly...

3) Departing the US, I knew I needed to make an effort to use my time wisely and get involved in as many things as possible. I also knew beer is quite high in calories. I also knew UCC had an ultimate frissbee team. These three realizations seemed to collide quite brilliantly: I should join the team! It would keep me fit (more like GET me fit), get me out of my comfort zone, and help me meet to new people (particularly the local Irish students). So far, that's exactly what it's been and I couldn't be happier! I made contact with the captain of the team - he told me where/when beginner practice was - I went - he saw that I was decent - he invited me to the advanced team practice - I went - he saw that I was decent again - and now I'm on UCC's Ultimate Frisbee Varsity team and will be going to tournaments all over Ireland and possibly the UK (and their short on handlers, yay!)! It's been pretty surreal. The team practices 3+ times a week and also has a social gathering of some kind every week (last week we went to the pub, went bowling, and then went to the club) so it's also been a great way to meet new people and see a side of student life I wouldn't normally. I hope it continues to go well but I'll keep you posted... I'm just really excited about it!

4) Posing not really as an event of recent date, but as more of a cultural observation, is that of the presence of US influence throughout Ireland (and Europe, it seems). Even though we only get 4 channels and all four are run and owned by the Irish, there seems to always be an American program on at every point throughout the day - whether it's Oprah, or Ellen, or Desperate Housewives, or the Simpsons, or American Idol, or Scrubs... we're everywhere! People love talking about Hollywood, about American celebrities, about US politics, fashion, news, etc. I was amazed! Even in my Energy & and Environment course, we spend almost the entirety of a 3-hour lecture talking (although not so crudely) about why the hell the US didn't sign the Kyoto Protocol (I'm the only American in the class so I had the opportunity to find out just how deep my chair really was) and why Americans continue to have cheaper gas prices and still drive SUVs. It's so weird to think that while in MN, months would pass before I heard anything about Irish news, and yet here, the news about the US is engraved into everyday Irish culture. It doesn't make sense to me why the rest of the world is so in-tune to the US, and yet we really don't know shit about the rest of the world... our ignorance scares me.

I need to sleep... but please know that I am completely safe, the water is back on, the "freak" weather has subsided, classes are going great, pictures have been and will continue to be uploaded to facebook (I just gotta find a way to get them to you... I don't think that last link worked, did it?), I'm missing people helplessly, but I'm loving it here!

Weekend plans are uncertain... possibilities: Galway, Dingle peninsula, Limerick, Kinsale, Cobh, wherever!

More soon...

Love Ya'll!