Having a Craic at it...

                                                         

I have had a hard time deciding which kind of background to use for this blog, since I am rather artistically challenged and fall within the one percent of the female population that doesn't enjoy making things look cute.  I have decided to use this sunny blog post background ironically, since the place where I now live is quite far from being sunny.  It hasn't actually rained as much as I was expecting, but it seems to be cloudy about ninety percent of the time.  Fortunately, thanks to my mother, I arrived here armed with a hefty bottle of Vitamin D "sunshine supplements."  Also fortunately, Ireland is awesome, which means I've fared pretty well even without the Carolina sun I'm used to.

I have now been here for a week and two days, although it feels like I've been here a month.  Being an exchange student feels disturbingly like being a freshman in college again, except this time I don't have a meal plan.  And it's amazing how much of an ordeal getting groceries can be when you don't have a car and when you keep forgetting to bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store (because they charge you extra here for shopping bags, can you believe it?!)  I have already learned an awful lot in this week/month, such as how when Irish people say they are having a "craic" (pronounced "crack"), they are talking about having fun, not doing drugs.  I've also learned how to get to my classes (mostly) and how not to use a hairdryer from home (hint: you should probably not try to use it without a converter - R.I.P. my exploded hairdryer.)

Kilmurry Village (where I live)

I arrived here last Tuesday morning and spent most of last week getting settled in and attempting to buy all the basic things (towels, sheets, a cell phone, etc.) that really killed me to buy, since I have all of those things just sitting at home.  However, the process of having to buy everything was beneficial because I was able to explore the city with some other exchange students I met.  On Tuesday night, when we got back to campus after an exhausting day of shopping, we really wanted to go somewhere cool on campus to eat, but discovered that everything was already closed.  So we ended up ordering a pizza.   I ate Dominos and drank Coke for dinner on my very first night in Ireland.  The next day I met some of my housemates.  I live with five girls - three Irish students and two other Americans.  I decided to go out with some of them that night and we went to a pub in the city.  The bouncer at the door pretended that he did not believe that North Carolina was a real place when he looked at my ID, and it wasn't until he was laughing that I realized he was kidding.  I was a little surprised to find that most, if not all, of the music they played in the pub was American music.  A lot of the music was also old American music.  (I have found this to be true so far pretty much anywhere I have gone and have heard a lot of The Killers, the YMCA song, and even some S Club 7.)  While I was at the pub, I met an Irish guy who spent about twenty minutes telling me how dumb I was for leaving America.  I finally asked him if he had ever even been to America, and he said that he had once been to New York City.  He cited "all those American movies" as evidence for why American parties are more fun and why I am crazy to have left there.  There have been several other people I have met who have mentioned American parties that they have seen in movies, and I have also been asked about the "red cups" that people use in America.  (I have suggested you-tubing the video for "Red Solo Cup" to several people.)  He also asked me where I was planning to visit in Europe and after every single city I mentioned he just shook his head and said, "Oh no, you don't want to go there."  I decided not to let this discourage me, since I still think the world's general consensus is that there are some pretty cool places to see in Europe.

I had orientation on Thursday and Friday, which consumed most of both of those days.  On Saturday morning there was a free bus for international students into the city so that we could go to the Milk Market.  The Milk Market is basically a farmer's market in Limerick city and it was great.   I bought a bunch of fruits and vegetables for fairly cheap and there were so many delicious looking pastries that seriously tested my self control.  I definitely plan to go back to the Milk Market again many times this semester.  After we bought our food, we decided to walk to find King John's castle.  It was incredibly windy and bitterly cold but it was worth it when I finally got to see my very first castle!

King John's Castle in Limerick 

On Monday I started my classes.  I am taking five English classes, which is going to mean a LOT of reading this semester.  Fortunately, I have already read some of the books we are studying and my professors (or lecturers, as they are called here) all seem pretty interesting.  Today after one of my classes, I went to the on-campus pub (yes, Ireland is awesome) with an Irish girl who studied at USC last semester and a couple of her friends.  We then went to try to find (or stalk) the Irish rugby team because apparently they practice here sometimes.  As we were walking by the sports center, she saw two of the players and we asked to get our picture made with them.  It seemed that one of them must be the Irish equivalent of Tom Brady, in the sense that he is the one that girls here love.  The excitement was probably wasted on me a little bit, since I've never watched rugby, but I thought it was still pretty cool, considering that I've never met a famous person in America in all my twenty years.

 I am leaving tomorrow evening to go to Galway for the weekend with some of the other international students I've met, and I'll be staying in my very first hostel.  It is supposed to be really beautiful and incredibly fun in Galway so I can't wait!  Because I titled my blog "Limericks from Limerick" (...always desperately trying to be clever), you might think that I should include a limerick in my blog post.  I believe I am a little too tired for limerick composing right now, but that might just be some craic to save for another time!!