Wait, how many people have fallen off?

This past weekend was a real adventure. Through AIFS we went on a tour of County Clare. We started from Limerick City, going up through Ennis and touring the country side. We heard the History of the mighty O'Brien Clans, saw castle ruins and then made our way through the Burren. This is the massive area of protected limestone hills. the grass grows right on top of the rocks. it is really pretty. The country is beautiful. i love it.

After lunch we drove up to the cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs

They are so pretty. honestly they make you feel so small. They are huge. We got to walk along them and take pictures. This was the ireland that i was really looking for.

On Sunday we took the bus into Cork and this is where the weekend gets crazy. So after taking the 1.5 hour bus down to Cork and arriving around 11 we realize that nothing is open. And nothing is planning on opening. Sundays it seems, are the Irish's day of rest. So all the museums, gallery's and shops are closed. we spent the first half of the morning walking aimlessly around looking for something to do.

We finally got wind of a castle with a cool observatory that was open every day of the week. So we walked there, it was only 4 miles, easy peesey right? wrong. here is a hint: dont follow street signs abroad when they conflict with gps. you will end up walking another 2-3 miles or so.

what should have been a quick 30-40 min walk was a 60-75 min walk. but all was well when we finally saw the castle. from far away it looked small. but that was fine we were so far away. it was gonna get bigger.

As we got closer...it was not getting that much bigger. it was a more of a fortified tower. it was crazy. but we went on the tour and saw the top after 85 stairs of climbing. we took a few pictures and saw out along the river. it was really pretty. then we walked back into town (another hour) and then caught the bus and slept all the way home.

but hey its the unplanned adventures that make the stories right?

Oh, class? I forgot about that....

Let me just tell you, after spending five days in a foreign country exploring, going on adventures and having somewhat sunny weather, the last thing that sounds remotely fun is going back to school or even worse walking to school in pouring down rain.

The view from my room.

Now, I know that for all my Washington buddies its like "so....that is a normal day occurrence here." I also know that for the Irish its the same story, but going back to school in the rain just really isn't how I wanted this semester to start off.

The classes here are much different from the ones at home. Even the structure. For instance you might take a four credit class, which would be two four day a week classes and that is all you do. show up on that day, do your work have papers and quizzes and tests through out the semester then you are done.

In Ireland, you attend at least two hours of lecture and this will be broken up into two one hour lectures. one at one day and time, and the other on another day and another time. So for my Intro to Irish Language we have a lecture from 4-5 on monday and one on 9-10 on Thursday. On top of these lectures you also have a tutorial, where it is a smaller class and you can work on all the problems you had and confusion. Most classes come with 1 hour of tutorials a week, giving you three hours of class, which ends up being 3 credits.

The Irish are also on a predetermined path when they enter college, so their time here is already planned out. Every fall semester all the third years take the same 4-5 classes. In america there is a lot more wiggle room and we can change majors halfway through our junior year and still graduate on time.

So not only do us American students have to find classes that work back home, we have to find classes that will work with each other from different departments. it is really stressful. They didn't tell us how the modules go or anything either so all the american students were in a panic on Sunday and Monday.

We had a sit down with our AIFS advisor though and she really helped us sort everything out.

I just hope this year isn't too hard and i can still graduate on time!

What does that even mean?

The Irish are crazy! They have the weirdest words for everything and they talk so quickly. I met a bunch of them last night and I couldn't understand a word that they were saying. They are really nice and welcoming though, the house next door invited me and some of my room mates and new friends over. We hung out with them for a long time.

I saw the man from the airplane today during the tour of the school. It was weird seeing him, but he remembered me and came up to me and started talking to me and asking about my day. It was cool to already see him and to have a connection like that.

We had our orientation today. So that was fun! I got to see the campus and learned about how to get our classes. it was really boring, but informative. I met a lot of students from all across America.

Here is hoping for a wonderful experience =)