Ranganna- Classes

Good evening all! After being here for more than a week, I finally had my first day of classes. I had 3 classes on today: Introduction to Folklore at 11, Beginning Irish at 1, and Early Irish Hero Tales at 2. Each class is only 50 minutes. Coming from a university that has classes that are either an hour and twenty minutes or else three hours, 50 minutes felt like cheating. All of the my classes seem very exciting. I generally sign up for a class more for the subject than the professor, so I spent less time trying to like the professors today and more time oohing and aahing over the reading list. I'm going to have to buy a whole other suitcase to ship my textbooks home! The class sizes have been pretty small compared to what I'm used- my first class, held in a stepped theatre and certain my largest class, only had about 50 or 60 kids in attendance. My smallest class so far, Beginning Irish, had only about 15. At home, I'm used to my small classes being about 40 and my large classes having around 150 students or so. Tomorrow I have one new class, called Ireland Uncovered, about the history of Ireland. I also have a fifth class, Discovering Ireland, but that's a field-trip-only class, in which I am only required to go on 3 all-day field trips and write a journal during the course of the semester. 


Tomorrow I also can't wait to stop by the bookstore on campus, and pick up my new goodies! One professor reassured us that if we do a little bit of the reading often, then it wouldn't be too much to handle. I was sitting in class thinking, can I read the whole book tonight please? We're not talking about a textbook here. It's a 9th or 10th century story called Táin Bó Cúailnge about a bull that gets run out of the Cooley peninsula area in Ireland. I also still have some last, less pressing shopping to do that might have to wait until Thursday, when my classes finish at noon. Like for instance, I still have to get a frying pan and bath mat and Band-Aids and sandwich bags. I can't believe all the little things you never think about until you don't have them when you need them. Other than the occasional item, I am beginning to feel sort of at home here. My desk is too messy, I don't make my bed, I wander into my kitchen to look for the food I want to magically appear when I'm bored, and I've now hopped a fence to get out of my dorm.

Apparently at this university, in an effort to discourage students from staying out too late or bringing a lot of people home with them at late hours, UCD has certain times when the gates to the dorms are shut and locked. While our keycards work shortly after the gate is closed, most of the night and early morning there is no way to get in or out of the dorm without hopping the fence. Which, I've found out, is quite common. I like to think of it as the school unofficial sobriety test- if you can't make it over the fence, you have to go walk it off until you can manage. This Monday was something called "Black Monday," the first day of classes. The day is used as a kind of "pre-game" for the semester, and from early afternoon on, there was a line outside of the bar to get in. Everyone was out drinking and having some "craic" (pronounced like crack, and an Irish term for good fun) and, supposedly, not going to class. I'm hoping to have a bit of craic myself this weekend, and finally see the inside of a proper Irish pub after dinner. Thankfully, my weekend starts on Thursday :)

I realized I forgot to post about my walk this weekend outside campus. Well, it was absolutely beautiful! I had great weather, as it turned out, though the wind continues to amaze me. I stumbled across a public park that was so lush and green, and because it was Saturday, so lively, I just loved it! I think it might become my personal private spot to go to relax or clear my head. I did a quick sketch from a bench I stopped to sit on for a minute, and view was amazing. I was up on some hill, looking down to some town (no idea of the names of anything yet). I also took a photo of the walking path I followed at the top of the hill. Sorry if the photos are small- all I have is my American phone to use as a camera!

Well, I think that's about it for now! I have told you most of what's been going on here for the last few days. I will be sure to report back on the new class I haven't had yet, and what I'm planning on doing this weekend. Oh, I almost forgot! I went to a great presentation by Andy Steves (Rick Steves' son) on student travel, and he got me all excited again to travel as much as possible! So I will have to make some plans quickly and let you know. Thanks for reading, and as always, I love getting comments! Write you later!