Cork Weekend

A couple of weekends ago I went to Cork with the international society. It was pretty fun. My favorite is still Galway and the Aran Islands. We left on Friday at 3:30. Cork is south and 3.5 hours away by bus because there are no highways really anywhere here. Traffic circles are common and so are the pot holes, making the ride an adventurous one. It is a good thing that I do not get car sick anymore because those buses could make anyone sick. We took 79 people and out of that I would say that there were 15 lads. For some reason many more girls study abroad than lads. This is true of all the countries because we took many of the European exchange students also. I stayed in the girls dorm with 15 others. It was very loud to say the least because people were drinking and coming home from the pubs late. We went out to dinner that night to a cute cafe and then to a creepy punk pub. I did not like it much especially after I saw an advertisement for a band called Pontius Pilot and the Nail Drivers. I felt like boycotting after I saw that. There was a creepy painting on the wall of a gremlin-like creature.
The next day we went to the English Market, which had lots of meat and fish and fresh fruit. I did not buy anything because I would have to walk around with it all day. This picture is of the fish market that had a really gross huge fish looking up at us.

Later we went to Kinsale, "Ireland's center for good food." It was a cute little costal fishing town. We walked along the water for about 20 minutes which was wonderfully beautiful. They had a cute little harbor and some old forts.
We went to Charles Fort, which is huge, old, and covered in grass. We took some good pictures of the coast and some of us being silly. When we first got there we saw a wedding party leaving. This was just after it started pouring rain, but only for a short time. He was in a green kilt and purple kilt with a frilly white top and a brown bag thing. She was wearing a strapless white dress that was dragging in the mud. I think that they still had yet to get married that day. Poor dress. She also was all red from the cold wiping wind. Oh the lengths we go to to get a good picture!

We then went back to Cork on the bus, which was over full and they had to turn people away. We were the last 4 out of 6 people to get on the bus! If we did not get it, it would not have been a big deal. We could have gotten the next one an hour later. It was a good thing that we did get that bus because we were planning on going to a play that night in Cork. It was pretty bad, I am sorry to say. We thought that it was about Cork life in the 60's but it really was written for Britain. It was about 12 women who were at a stamp sticking party, which is something like the winning the lotto from what I could gather. It followed their lives and had some fabricated drama with a teen pregnancy but mostly it was just setting up things to get a quick laugh. Oh, well, now I know not to go to anything that I have not heard of before.

The next day I went to mass at the North Chapel which was very big but not very well attended. The congregation was old people with one Hispanic family. Mass was short with very little singing. We then went to Blarney Castle after that. We caught the bus at 11:45, got some lunch at the grocery store in the town that had about 10 shops/pubs. We then went to the Blarney Castle. My liked the grounds the best. There was a lake, fields with horses, a fern garden, a large house looking like it was from the 1600's, and a horse graveyard. The fern garden was really neat and I felt like I was in Hawaii. The 3 or 4 story house is really cool from the outside, but it was closed for the winter. It is on top of a hill facing the lake. Adam and I had a discussion as to whether someone was living there because they had a private back yard sign but we decided that no one did. Then we went to Blarney Castle. I did kiss the Blarney stone, even though I was not really sure that I wanted to. It just does not seem sanitary! But I was in line and all of a sudden the old, grumpy man who holds your legs sorta pushed me to sit. I put my hands on the bars to prevent me from falling ten stories and giggled. The man told me not to giggle and to kiss it, which I did and then was whisked away so that the next person in line could go. I was not so afraid of falling there as I was when standing elsewhere in the castle. There are bars below the stone that would keep you from falling ten stories but if you did fall it probably would still hurt a lot. Here I am smiling but actually scared because those bars at my feet prevent me from falling to my death! I am pretty sure that they would hold, but I was not about to check. I was more afraid of twisting my ankle in them than anything. The castle is very tall and built without any of the machinery that we have now. There were many rooms one on top of another. I feel like they were inefficiently built for labor's sake, but I know that the point of it was to be well protected and going up is better than going out. There were many funny little signs talking about parts of the castle. The funniest one talked about an entrance way that had a hole in the ceiling. It was like that so that if you were not a welcome guest, then the guards of the castle could drop stuff on you like bricks or scalding oil from the kitchen.
I also was afraid that the castle would fall while I was standing on it. It seems to be leaning on the edge of a cliff. Then we went into the dungeons and storerooms underneath the castle and I felt like something was going to jump out at me from the dark.

The funniest part of the hole adventure was visiting the horse graveyard. It consisted of a mud pit with four headstones with names like tinker and jasper. It is too bad that I did not take a picture. We walked pretty far to visit it too. There was a sign on the trail and it was on the map making it seem like it was this thing that you could not miss. It would not be so funny if the area was not just a pile of mud.

We caught the bus and went back to the hostel. There I met this girl who was pretty cool. She just had gotten off the plane from the US where she goes to the smallest college in the country, it only has 100 people. It is for organic farming and they live on a commune! A different life than what I am used to that is for sure. I'm excited for her to be here because she is working on some organic farms in Europe for a couple of weeks and then traveling for the rest of the three months that she is here. She has never been to Europe or stayed in a hostel before, but she was doing both by herself when I met her. What a girl!

Then I caught the bus home and went straight to sleep due to the big weekend.

Church Events

Anytime I go to church, I either have a really great experience or a really funny experience or both. It is a good thing that I look at some of these things with a sense of humor because I would probably be very irritated. For instance, the published mass times are NEVER right. They just change them whenever they want. I am sure that there is some sort of system or announcement, but I have not figured it out yet so I spend a lot of time waiting for mass to start, which is okay with me because I look around the new church or pray. Never enough time for that right? The second week I was here, I went to the seminarian mass which was broad casted on the radio and so was being pushed back a half hour. The mass was cool because they had students in from Dublin and Galway to do the readings. The choir was in rare form also. It was made up of the seminarians (I think). Even having a choir is a rare thing. I love the seminarians! It is grand to see so many, which actually is not very many compared to the past, but so many young and old men dedicating their lives to God! After that mass, there was a coffee and doughnuts type thing which here is tea and pastries. An couple in their 60's sat with us and told us some great things to go see while we are here. We talked with them for close to an hour! The man is an important person on campus, raising money for the college and collecting art. He spent 6 years in Chicago and 1 in Boston working for the school. He also knows a biology professor very well and got very excited when he found out that I was a biology major doing work in wetlands (that is, after I explained to him what a wetland was. "Oh, you mean a bog!"). He told me all about his work shoveling bogs as a kid and his professor friend working on newts in bogs. What a great guy. Definitely had the gift of the gab!

The next week I went to Galway for mass and checked online for the mass time. I thought 10 but it was at 10:30. No problem there, the church was amazing! Also communion was the funniest thing here. The Eucharistic ministers were scattered throughout the church and people just mobbed them. There did not seem to be any sort of organization from what I could tell.

The Cork story is the funniest to me. I went to the church the day before to talk to someone to make sure that I had the time right. I had a paper that said 10:30 but my experience with mass times told me that I should double check. I explored the church and talked to what must have been the employed church helper-person, I do not know what they are called, who I should mention is about 80. He said that mass it is at half 10 (10:30). I was glad for the help. The next day I arrived at the church at about 9:55 and it was empty except for about 2 people. I saw the same man but I did not realize was the same until later. Here is our conversation:
Liz: What time is mass?
Man: 10
Liz: (looking around at the two people present at the time) Is it going to be an empty mass?
Man: No.
Liz: Where is everybody?
Man: (motioning to his ear and shaking his head) What?
Liz: Where is everybody? Doesn't mass start in 3 minutes?
Man: Oh, yes, yes they will be here.
Liz: And mass starts at 10?
Man: (squinting eyes) Pardon?
Liz: MASS STARTS AT 10?
Man: 10. 10? (looks at his watch and looks around) No. no. half 10.

Thanks buddy. Looks like I am early yet again for mass. But it was a funny encounter. Adam said later that the man seemed like he was purposely feigning deafness when he realized that he was wrong. Oh, old men. We wanted to catch a bus at 11:45 to Blarney so I asked an old lady if she knew of any other churches in the vicinity that had a mass at 10. She did not know and lead me to the sacristy where the old-helper-man was and an old priest and asked them. The priest got out a booklet of the Archdiocese of Cork to check and fumbled around with it for some time while the woman looked over his shoulder. After a couple of minutes she said "the list is in the back" and he shook his head and continued to look through it page by page. She smiled, shook her head, and winked at me. Later I found out that she was a sister that was guest speaking about her order and work in Africa. The dynamics of men and women are still very traditional here with women only going to work and having careers within the last 15-20 years. I was not surprised by either of their reactions.
Anyway, we fund out that it was most piratical for us to stay and they said that mass would not be one hour anyway and we would be able to catch our bus.


This week I walked all the way over to the seminarian mass, which really is not that far, but NO ONE was around at 9:15 in the morning so it seemed longer. Sadly, the mass was canceled because the seminarians are on retreat or something. I do not plan on going to the children's mass at the parish again. It was cute, but I think that something a little more age appropriate would be good for me. I don't have bully problems at school anymore.

Let's see what happens next week!

Parties

People just collect at my apartment. I love it! It is just like at 340 Stonemill. Sometimes I will go into the kitchen and find 4 lads on their computers or watching TV without any of my roommates around. I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that some of them live pretty far off campus and do not want to walk all the way home between classes. Also, we have neighbors who have a very messy apartment so they come over to escape the mess. One day Ryan was here from 10-6 just on his computer and hanging out. It is a good thing that I bought my fan for white noise because the apartment is noisy with all the activity. What a good 15 euro investment. Yer man at the store did not know what a fan was. "Like a cooling fan?" He had to go to the back storage to get it for me. Then he asked if I was sure that I wanted it for use in Ireland and where I was that was so hot that I needed a fan. I said I needed it for noise and he suggested that I get a "bad-ass sound system." Oh, the Irish.

Since I have been here we have had a party each week. That adds up to a lot of
mess and trash. But it has been great! We had a very successful surprise birthday party for Ryan, who is very surprised in the picture, where he got 18 kisses and two songs in addition to Happy Birthday. It was a fun different tradition. I met most of the people I hang out with now there. We played twister and when "Stacy's Mom" came on they lifted Patsy, the legend, (if you want to know more visit patsyland on Facebook) up in the air and sag Patsy's mom has got it going on. I am not really sure why they do it. I think mostly because it rhymes and because Patsy is a legend.

Since then we have had another surprise birthday party for Alan, who was not surprised because somebody gave it away. Oh well, it was still fun. We have had two other parties since but they have been lower key. Tomorrow we are having a "kick off rag week party." Rag week stands for Raise and Give and is a week for raising money for charity. Well in actuality it is a week of day drinking. I am not so sure what I think about this. Apparently everyone skips class all week and goes to the events that are held. Usually there are activities each day like carnivals and concerts in the Student Union and bungee jumping. This year they have changed the name to Charity week because RAG week has such a bad connotation. RAG week goes on all over the country. All of this is sponsored by the Student Union, which I think is so strange. We do not have anything involving alcohol sponsored by UD. But that is the difference with the drinking age and the culture here. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, there was jelly (KY style, grody!) wrestling at the SU bar. This is one of the most degrading things for women to do, go in their bathing suits to wrestle each other while men watch and yell at them, but it was a school funded activity!

Anyway, this year they are having just one big event on Wednesday and not much else for the rest of the week. The event is The Gathering, a huge concert from noon to midnight on campus. Classes are canceled and there are three stages. There are about 10 bands coming, all of which I have never heard of before coming here, but I bought a ticket because everyone else seemed so into it. I was sad to see my 30 euro go, but hopefully it will be a good time. There will be an oxygen bar there, where you get pure oxygen hookah style, which I do not plan to take part in. Some are very excited about it though. One of my teachers is livid about her class being canceled. She was talking about holding it in a hotel down the street in rebellion. She is Professor McGonagall from my post about classes and definitely a hippie boycotter. To say the least, this next week will be interesting.

Curry and Mean Girls

My roommates always make elaborate dinners that put my cooking to shame. Their favorite is to make curry. They love it! Crazy. I was not sure that they were talking about the same curry that I eat at home but it is. Curry from India and rice. I have taken to making this also, though I am scared to cook any meat.

Another post about the movie Mean Girls. The other day one of the girls was talking about some other girls and said that they are so plastic. Then, later, they started talking about how every school had the "plastics" and they wanted to be called that. Oh, my, I am ashamed.

Sports: Correction

I have some Irish friends who are reading my blog and were very offended when I described Hurling like field hockey. Now I will try to correct my poor representation of the Irish sport with a YouTube video. This is a good one, though long.


Here is one on Gaelic football. I went to go see a semifinal match between NUIM and DCU (Dublin City University) yesterday. It was fun. All the Irish sports make the American sports look sissy, especially American football. "Who needs pads?" is their motto. Also, I do not think that the U.S. boys would be able to wear shorts so short as they are here.
Start about 1 minute in. You can hear a really thick Irish accent from the announcer on this one.


Rugby is also very popular and my favorite to watch.
This is another long one, but good and with some traditional music.

Slang

Some of you have been asking about funny things that people say here. Here are some commonly used slang terms:

Yer man: that guy or anyone we are talking about. As in, "Where'd you get that drink?" "Yer man" (motioning to the bartender).

Fucken Hell: General response to anything negative especially in sports or when someone has drank too much. As in "Fucken Hell, he needs to stop drinking." Said by everyone, not just the kids. I know this because there was a middle aged woman standing next to me in a gaelic football game her son was playing in and she said it in response to the other team scoring.

Go on: Used in cheering for sports, especially football (soccer) on the television. Generally when someone should steal the ball or shoot. Also used to encourage someone to drink more.

Pull: To go out to the pub with the intention of going home with someone.

Pissed: To be very drunk. As in "Let's get pissed."

Grand: Said in response to something good. Used instead of cool or good. As in "Where are you going?" "To ALDI." "Grand, grand."

Class: Commonly "That's class." Used to say something is good or cool. As in "Who's coming to the Gathering?" "The Coronas." "That's class!"

Craic: Commonly "Good craic." Good fun. Pronounced crack.

Lad: Boy/man

How ya keeping?: How are you?

How's the head?: How are you feeling? Generally said after a big night of drinking.

What's the story?: What's going on/What's up? (I am not really sure exactly what this means so I have a hard time answering it. For instance I do not think that good is a appropriate answer. On the other hand, I am not sure that any answer is needed as in the American "What's up?".)

Give out: Get in a verbal fight or to reprimand. As in "She gave out to him after he called her a ginger."

Gas: Funny. Commonly "What's the gas?" when approaching a group that is having fun/laughing.

Jacks: Bathroom. Generally said only by lads.

Savage: Awesome. As in "That DJ last night was savage!"

Sliced pan: Label on bread that is relatively thinly sliced already, though not sliced consistently. This is annoying when making a sandwich with two very uneven pieces of bread.

Disclaimer: These are my definitions and my experiences. Do not attempt to use these terms in the U.S. People will get confused or offended, much like I was before I learned these meanings. I heard from someone that when they were in the U.S. and said "What's that Craic?" a police officer overheard and questioned him about his drug usage. I am not really sure if this person was pulling my leg or not. I am having trouble knowing when people are sarcastic, which is often.

Weather

The weather here has been mild by all accounts that I have heard of. I was expecting rain every day for some part of the day. It has only really rained about 3 times since I have been here. One of those times I was in Cork. I have never been stuck in the rain for long. It has always just been a short downpoor. There have been some days where it has misted. This is more common but does not really have much of an impact on being outside. The sun is often shining and I cannot count the number of times that I have wished that I had sunglasses. I have been blessed with wonderful weather. In Galway and the Aran Islands, where I guess it always is raining, it was sunny and warm. Yay, yay, yay! Who needs a rain jacket?