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| Walking the Streets of Galway |
My first couple of days in Ireland have been incredibly interesting, eye opening, and fun! The morning after my arrival into Galway, I woke up before the wake-up call I had ordered. So, at 8:30am I started getting ready to head to my new apartment. I was pretty nervous and needed some background noise to distract myself, so I turned on the TV. Almost immediately I was sucked into a program called “Famous and Fearless”. It’s a British television show that features lower level “celebrities” doing dangerous stunts like motor-powered skateboarding races, and skydiving. Richard Branson’s son was on it…even an ocean away from home I can still find me some awesome reality TV ;).
Anyways, after quickly getting ready I got a taxi from the hotel and we drove across the Quincentennial Bridge by the National University of Ireland, Galway (where I’ll be going to school this semester). We arrived quickly to my apartment complex where I checked in at Reception and received my keys to apartment 13. I hurried over, and carried my 2 extraordinarily heavy bags one-by-one up the steep stairs to the door. When I reached the door I saw that the bedrooms were up a further staircase, which I then climbed. But, when I reached the top, my bedroom was occupied. There were things on both beds, and suitcases open in the other room. No one was around so I left my bags there and then proceeded to Reception to explain the problem. They were just as confused as me, because I was definitely supposed to have a bed in that room, but they quickly moved things around and suddenly I was in apartment 9. After I climbed 3 levels of stairs to apartment 9, I struggled opening the door. Man did it feel like I was unwanted in Ireland! After 21 hours of travel, someone had taken my bed AND I couldn’t get my new door open! Not going to lie, I definitely had a moment where I thought I was going to cry and I had to deep breathe. I probably would’ve called my parents except it was 10am my time, and only 2am there’s (they both should be happy with the time difference, otherwise they might have heard an earful of a combination of stress and fear that morning!).
Finally, I rang the doorbell, hoping that someone might’ve already checked in. A really friendly looking girl opened the door, and I immediately relaxed. I introduced myself as Caitlin, and a flicker of surprise passed over her face, “My name’s Caitlin too!” I quickly found out that Caitlin is a student at Emory University, but her family is from Florida. She gave me a quick tour of the apartment, and boy did I luck out! Thank god someone had taken my room, because I’m clearly in one of the largest apartments…and the best part? Totally the castle room that I’m in, a winding staircase leads up to my room on the 2nd floor, and I’m totally and completely in love with it. Well, I didn’t stay chatting for too long, because I needed to go get my bags back from apartment 9. So after dropping off my backpack in my new room, I hurried back down to Reception to get the key from apartment 9 in order to get back in to get my bags (are you getting the idea that this wasn’t necessarily an ideal move-in? Good. If you’re not…picture a LOT of sweat). As I let myself back into apartment 9 to get my things, I noticed that my bed was no longer taken. A girl had clearly gotten out of the shower and ripped her things off of the bed. I was greeted by a girl apologizing saying she accidentally took the wrong bed, but just was too lazy to change it. I said it was ok, because I was changing rooms. Her response? “Oh ok cool.” And with that statement she threw her things back on the bed and went into the bathroom. Yeah…sounds like a winner, huh? Let’s just say I got out as soon as I could.
After lugging my bags up the stairs (4 flights including my bedroom stairs), I hurriedly made my bed. I came down and Caitlin was saying that she was planning on going into town, and would I like to come? Um, duh! I’d basically been alone for the last evening, was bored, and totally overwhelmed by the thought of being alone, unpacking in a room. So we walked the half an hour walk into the city center of Galway. On the walk over I learned some interesting things about Caitlin. Like me, Caitlin is the oldest of three kids. Like me, she has a younger brother, and a younger sister. But even stranger…her name is Caitlin Rael, mine is Caitlin Rae. Yeah….that’s right….she has my exact first and middle name, with the addition of an “L” at the end. How crazy is that? Basically we were fated to be roommates.
Once we got into city center the first stop was getting me an Irish phone. Caitlin had already bought the cheapest phone at the Post Office of all places! So I decided to do the same. I ended up only spending €20, an unheard of amount (even if it is for a janky middle-schooler phone)! The next purchase was a new pair of flat-soled black leather boots for only €30 (by the way, for those of you that don’t know the difference in currencies…A dollar is about 1.3 of a euro). I felt more European already! Boy is Irish/European fashion different from home though! Jeans, t-shirt, and flip-flops? Not so appropriate here. Girls were wearing leather boots with leggings, mod-looking shirts, with cute coats and scarves. Caitlin and I decided we need to up our game a bit, so we have kept looking around for more European clothing choices (as of now I’ve only bought the boots and a tank-top. Caitlin’s fared a bit better with some more tops etc..)
After our day out shopping, we wandered around the university a bit, attempting to make ourselves feel more comfortable before Orientation the next day. No such luck. First of all, we couldn’t find a campus map anywhere! Second of all, all of the signs were in Gaelic first, so it was pretty difficult to understand where anything was. After a while we gave up because of the cold, and headed home. After getting home I spent some time unpacking, and watching TV until our other roommate showed up. Her name is Maria, and she’s from Malta (for those of you who don’t know, that’s a small island nation off the coast of Italy). Maria’s mom traveled with her to Galway to get her settled, so we didn’t see her much the first couple of days except for Orientation. Anyways, after a long day I pretty much collapsed into bed (plus we had to get up at 8am in the morning to walk to school for Orientation).
Thursday and Friday were Orientation days for International/Visiting Students. The first day was filled with lectures welcoming us to Galway, and the different opportunities we would have at the university. Here we learned how to say ‘hello’ in Irish, “Dia dhuit” from a particularly enthusiastic language instructor, and were informed that the Irish invented punctuation (true story. It seems that when writings were being translated from Latin into Gaelic, the Irish people decided that there needed to be a way to show a reader that a thought had finished—native speakers of Latin and Italian had seen no need as they spoke the language and clearly knew when the thought should end). We were ambushed by information, speech after speech actually stressed me out more than before I had arrived. The one golden light was that I learned about an English course offered to American students that is a “service-learning” class. The students work in a small classroom environment twice a week learning about literacy acquisition, and then once a week work with Galway children in homework clubs throughout the city, helping them learn how to read. I immediately knew I HAD to take this class. The problem is that only 30 students are admitted, and you have to submit an application. The choice of students is on a first-come, first-serve basis (cross your fingers for me!). We also learned about the importance of registering with the government, otherwise we risk deportation. The day ended with us learning about the “societies” offered at NUIG (essentially what American students would consider clubs), and then “clubs” (what we would consider club SPORTS).
Friday centered more around academics. We learned about NUIG’s registration process, and boy is it different! Talk about a bit of a culture shock. At first I definitely complained about missing USC’s streamlined computer program process, but I do see the merits to this different way. There are 4 things to understand about this registration process.
Anyways, after quickly getting ready I got a taxi from the hotel and we drove across the Quincentennial Bridge by the National University of Ireland, Galway (where I’ll be going to school this semester). We arrived quickly to my apartment complex where I checked in at Reception and received my keys to apartment 13. I hurried over, and carried my 2 extraordinarily heavy bags one-by-one up the steep stairs to the door. When I reached the door I saw that the bedrooms were up a further staircase, which I then climbed. But, when I reached the top, my bedroom was occupied. There were things on both beds, and suitcases open in the other room. No one was around so I left my bags there and then proceeded to Reception to explain the problem. They were just as confused as me, because I was definitely supposed to have a bed in that room, but they quickly moved things around and suddenly I was in apartment 9. After I climbed 3 levels of stairs to apartment 9, I struggled opening the door. Man did it feel like I was unwanted in Ireland! After 21 hours of travel, someone had taken my bed AND I couldn’t get my new door open! Not going to lie, I definitely had a moment where I thought I was going to cry and I had to deep breathe. I probably would’ve called my parents except it was 10am my time, and only 2am there’s (they both should be happy with the time difference, otherwise they might have heard an earful of a combination of stress and fear that morning!).
Finally, I rang the doorbell, hoping that someone might’ve already checked in. A really friendly looking girl opened the door, and I immediately relaxed. I introduced myself as Caitlin, and a flicker of surprise passed over her face, “My name’s Caitlin too!” I quickly found out that Caitlin is a student at Emory University, but her family is from Florida. She gave me a quick tour of the apartment, and boy did I luck out! Thank god someone had taken my room, because I’m clearly in one of the largest apartments…and the best part? Totally the castle room that I’m in, a winding staircase leads up to my room on the 2nd floor, and I’m totally and completely in love with it. Well, I didn’t stay chatting for too long, because I needed to go get my bags back from apartment 9. So after dropping off my backpack in my new room, I hurried back down to Reception to get the key from apartment 9 in order to get back in to get my bags (are you getting the idea that this wasn’t necessarily an ideal move-in? Good. If you’re not…picture a LOT of sweat). As I let myself back into apartment 9 to get my things, I noticed that my bed was no longer taken. A girl had clearly gotten out of the shower and ripped her things off of the bed. I was greeted by a girl apologizing saying she accidentally took the wrong bed, but just was too lazy to change it. I said it was ok, because I was changing rooms. Her response? “Oh ok cool.” And with that statement she threw her things back on the bed and went into the bathroom. Yeah…sounds like a winner, huh? Let’s just say I got out as soon as I could.
After lugging my bags up the stairs (4 flights including my bedroom stairs), I hurriedly made my bed. I came down and Caitlin was saying that she was planning on going into town, and would I like to come? Um, duh! I’d basically been alone for the last evening, was bored, and totally overwhelmed by the thought of being alone, unpacking in a room. So we walked the half an hour walk into the city center of Galway. On the walk over I learned some interesting things about Caitlin. Like me, Caitlin is the oldest of three kids. Like me, she has a younger brother, and a younger sister. But even stranger…her name is Caitlin Rael, mine is Caitlin Rae. Yeah….that’s right….she has my exact first and middle name, with the addition of an “L” at the end. How crazy is that? Basically we were fated to be roommates.
Once we got into city center the first stop was getting me an Irish phone. Caitlin had already bought the cheapest phone at the Post Office of all places! So I decided to do the same. I ended up only spending €20, an unheard of amount (even if it is for a janky middle-schooler phone)! The next purchase was a new pair of flat-soled black leather boots for only €30 (by the way, for those of you that don’t know the difference in currencies…A dollar is about 1.3 of a euro). I felt more European already! Boy is Irish/European fashion different from home though! Jeans, t-shirt, and flip-flops? Not so appropriate here. Girls were wearing leather boots with leggings, mod-looking shirts, with cute coats and scarves. Caitlin and I decided we need to up our game a bit, so we have kept looking around for more European clothing choices (as of now I’ve only bought the boots and a tank-top. Caitlin’s fared a bit better with some more tops etc..)
After our day out shopping, we wandered around the university a bit, attempting to make ourselves feel more comfortable before Orientation the next day. No such luck. First of all, we couldn’t find a campus map anywhere! Second of all, all of the signs were in Gaelic first, so it was pretty difficult to understand where anything was. After a while we gave up because of the cold, and headed home. After getting home I spent some time unpacking, and watching TV until our other roommate showed up. Her name is Maria, and she’s from Malta (for those of you who don’t know, that’s a small island nation off the coast of Italy). Maria’s mom traveled with her to Galway to get her settled, so we didn’t see her much the first couple of days except for Orientation. Anyways, after a long day I pretty much collapsed into bed (plus we had to get up at 8am in the morning to walk to school for Orientation).
Thursday and Friday were Orientation days for International/Visiting Students. The first day was filled with lectures welcoming us to Galway, and the different opportunities we would have at the university. Here we learned how to say ‘hello’ in Irish, “Dia dhuit” from a particularly enthusiastic language instructor, and were informed that the Irish invented punctuation (true story. It seems that when writings were being translated from Latin into Gaelic, the Irish people decided that there needed to be a way to show a reader that a thought had finished—native speakers of Latin and Italian had seen no need as they spoke the language and clearly knew when the thought should end). We were ambushed by information, speech after speech actually stressed me out more than before I had arrived. The one golden light was that I learned about an English course offered to American students that is a “service-learning” class. The students work in a small classroom environment twice a week learning about literacy acquisition, and then once a week work with Galway children in homework clubs throughout the city, helping them learn how to read. I immediately knew I HAD to take this class. The problem is that only 30 students are admitted, and you have to submit an application. The choice of students is on a first-come, first-serve basis (cross your fingers for me!). We also learned about the importance of registering with the government, otherwise we risk deportation. The day ended with us learning about the “societies” offered at NUIG (essentially what American students would consider clubs), and then “clubs” (what we would consider club SPORTS).
Friday centered more around academics. We learned about NUIG’s registration process, and boy is it different! Talk about a bit of a culture shock. At first I definitely complained about missing USC’s streamlined computer program process, but I do see the merits to this different way. There are 4 things to understand about this registration process.
1. You don’t register until 2 weeks into the term.
This means that you do not technically have to go to classes your first 2 weeks, or you can go to as many as you want, to pick what you really like.
2. The entire process is done through paper.
No snappy build your schedule ahead of time, and then press click! You have to fill out a sheet of paper and wait in line to register.
3. The timetables don’t come out until right before classes start.
Timetables are the actual schedule of classes. So I had USC approve 2 classes that were at the same time, thus I had to move everything around.
4. Seminar classes are very few and far between.
Seminar classes are those with about 30 students or less in them. At NUIG most classes are lectures, which do not have a cap on them. You could have as many as 500 people in a lecture hall for one class! So, in most majors you are only allowed to take one seminar class a semester, in order to save room for everyone. In the English department, seminars are in such demand that you actually have to line up one morning to get your choice (last year apparently people started lining up at 2am for a 9am seminar approval). In the History department you only need to email the professor in question in order to gain approval to add the class, and then show this approval to the secretary of the department. You also have to have departments write a letter agreeing to allow you into a seminar, in order to register.
After figuring out what classes I wanted to take and looking around campus, I was pretty exhausted. Every night my roommates and I had ended up talking for a bit, watching some TV and going to sleep. Friday night was just the same (woohoo we are some crazy partiers, huh?). Our plan was to sleep in and then really do something fun on Saturday. Unfortunately Caitlin and I were so tired that we majorly slept in (Maria went on a daytrip with her mom to the Cliffs of Moher). So we basically ended up wandering Shop Street (in city center) again and going shopping. After that we came home to eat dinner and relax. Then the USC students that are here decided to have a meet and greet a local pub called Taaffes. There are about 14 USC students here, and I didn’t know ANY of them! I’d been feeling a bit isolated and lonely so we decided what they heck, and Caitlin and I headed down there. The group then decided to head to another pub after hanging out for a while, so we all went to the King’s Head Pub, which was a bit more crowded with live music (an Irish band played every 90s song you could imagine!). Now, what we gained from that evening was a clear insight into Irish nightlife. 3 important lessons learned:
1. Don’t buy drinks at the pubs!
A beer cost €6! A cocktail €7.50! Oi, with those prices, we’ll go broke!
2. Irish girls dress up to go to pubs.
Ok, so a pub.. you figure you’d wear blue jeans and a nice going out shirt, maybe some nice boots or heels? Wrong. The Irish girls were dressed to the nines! We’re talking NICE semi-formal dresses, expensive heels, lots of makeup, and intricate hairdo’s! We Americans looked ridiculous standing next to them! Not the boys mind you, they wore plaid shirts and jeans…hmm….a bit unfair? I’m sorry if I have to dress up, the boys better too! I think I’ll just stick to my jeans!
3. Guys have some strange pick-up lines.
I guess this is true no matter what country, haha. Yeah…one girl had someone keep coming up to her to ask the time, and another guy complimented my hat.
Anyways, after hanging out, meeting some fun people, we decided to call it a night at about 12:45am (or 00:45). That brings us to today, Sunday. This morning Caitlin and I met up with a couple of people we had met last night and got lunch. I had a delicious fish & chips, while she got the quesadilla (an interesting choice that I think she regretted…not the place to order Mexican..). After that we decided to check out the “walking tour” scheduled for visiting students at school. The tour was supposed to lead us around Galway…key word? SUPPOSED. Yeah, it ended up being an hour and a half lecture about the history of Galway City, in a lecture hall. Now I love me some history lectures, but I did not sign up for a class on Galway City…on a Sunday…when I was told we’d go walking…fail. The rest of the day I spent cleaning my room, until my roommates and I went to a GREAT Italian restaurant for some roomie bonding for dinner tonight.
All in all, so far it’s been a great week. Tomorrow’s the big day, though! Classes begin and I’m a bit nervous…send me some positive thoughts ☺.
Good luck! :)
ReplyDelete(BTW, I'm Steph's mom....)
I'm pretty sure guys in every country have horrible pick up lines-- there's clearly always the weird ones! And I would totally just wear jeans to a pub too, I agree with you!
ReplyDeleteI love that you are doing this blog. It is really a great way to stay in the know of what you're doing. it sounds like you have some great roomies - yeah!!!! I love you and keep having fun - oh and GO TO SCHOOL!! Hee hee!
ReplyDeleteI especially like the break downs in differences. And I would really like to see these Irish pick up lines in action, if they actually work!
ReplyDelete