...With the Sound of Music. That movie was filmed in Salzburg, Austria. Guess where I went this past weekend?! That's right, Salzburg, Austria. I also spent about twenty-four hours in Vienna. So here's how our extra long weekend went...
First things first, a little story behind the trip. I went with one of my roommates, Emily, from Canada. There is another international student here, Bernie, who is from Salzburg. He had to go back for a week or so to meet with some of his professors and take a couple exams at his home university, so he invited a bunch of us to make the trip with him. Emily and I were the only two who actually acted on his invitation. Originally, we had planned to fly to Salzburg on Friday and return to school on Monday, but there was a mix-up when Emily booked our flights and we ended up flying in on Thursday and back on Tuesday. I missed all my classes, but getting to see Salzburg and Vienna was totally worth it!
Alright, so now that you know a little bit of background, let's get started on the events of the trip. Thursday morning we got up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM to throw a few more things together and take a taxi at 4:45 to Belfast City Airport. It was an adventure just getting through security as we didn't realize that all our liquids had to be in a sandwich size ziplock bag, not a gallon size bag like in the US. We got that sorted out fairly quickly though, went through security, waited for a while, boarded our plane, and landed in London fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. That would have been all well and good except for the fact that we already had a four hour layover! We made the best of it though, stopping at a couple different cafes, our favorite of which was the one with comfy chairs and beach music playing. We got lots of reading done at this cafe, and, when we found out our next flight's departure was to be delayed another thirty minutes, we played a few card games. Four hours and forty-five minutes after arriving we boarded our next plane to Salzburg. Two hours later we made the descent into Salzburg. Thursday was our only sunny day during the whole trip, which meant the view from the plane was absolutely stunning! There were snow-covered mountains as far as the eye could see. Usually I'm not a huge fan of snow, but when it's in the mountains you can't help but think it's beautiful!
Bernie met us at the gate and we began our sight-seeing immediately. The first stop was just across the tarmac, at what Emily and I thought was a crashed UFO. Turns out it's a hanger owned by the creator of Red Bull, which just happens to be a product from Austria. The hanger contains his private collection of planes, race cars and more, as well as several different high-class lounges and bars. We spent about thirty minutes exploring the collection and then embarked on a driving tour of Salzburg. From the backseat I caught a glimpse of the Convent of Nonnberg, the Ledopoldskron Palace, the Salzburg Castle and Cathedral and many other buildings that appear in the Sound of Music. Bernie also showed us his flat and drove us part way up one of the mountains before we went to his cute house in the outskirts of the city. When we arrived, his mom had Prosecco (sparkling white wine) and some delicious traditional Austrian food waiting for us. I loved all of it, but especially the Prosecco! I have yet to look online and see if I can get it in the states...I'll be very disappointed if I can't. We sat around the dinner table for a few hours after dinner, just Emily, Bernie and I, enjoying a few drinks. Then we decided to go into the heart of Salzburg to walk around a bit and check out some live jazz at one of the clubs, The Republic. The walk was pretty short due to the bitter cold winds. We stayed at the club for a while, having only one drink each because they were so dang expensive and listening to the great music. When we'd had our fill, we checked out a couple other clubs/bars in the area that were actually built into the mountain. Each of them had it's own, unique atmosphere - electronic music, American music, techno music, etc. It was hard to get the full effect, though, since there weren't many people in any of them due to the fact that Austrian universities give students the entire month of February off, so all the students were off traveling across Europe. We went to bed semi-early that night because we knew we had a long day of sight-seeing ahead of us.
Friday morning, after a great night of sleep under our super puffy, fluffy and warm down comforters, we awoke to find a delicious breakfast of fresh bread, homemade strawberry rhubarb jam and hot coffee. Apparently that's a typical breakfast in Austria, which was perfectly fine by me - the jam was so tasty! We also awoke to lots of freshly fallen snow, with more flakes dropping from the sky. Little did we know the snow wouldn't stop until two hours before we left on Tuesday! Emily and I put on lots of layers - tights under our pants, three long sleeve shirts, three pairs of socks, boots, gloves, scarves and hoods and hats - and the three of us walked into the city. We saw so much that day, I don't know if I can remember it all, but I'll try. First, our path took us past a house that's built in the middle of a large pond, although because of the snow you really couldn't tell. Then we walked through part of the Salzburg University campus and then into the city. We passed the Church of the Cajetans and from there walked into Mozartplatz, where a huge statue of Mozart stands waiting to greet you. After a quick stop at the tourist information center, we checked out St. Michael's Church, Residenz Fountain (which, like all the other fountains in both Salzburg and Vienna, is covered for protection purposes during the winter), Residenz State rooms (a building that appears in the Sound of Music), and finally, the Salzburg Cathedral. This cathedral's dome towers over the city. Inside, we found countless murals and paintings on every wall and ceiling, a gigantic organ on the back wall, a majestic altar, and ornately decorated surfaces. They certainly don't make churches like this in the States, which is perhaps why we stopped in so many churches during our time in Austria. In fact, our next stop was St. Peter's Abbey, Cemetery and Catacombs. We did make a short pit stop on the way there, however, buying some fresh rolls at Salzburg's oldest bakery. St. Peter's cemetery held some of the most extravagant tombstones I have ever seen. The view of the city from the Catacombs was spectacular as well. From there we walked through a tunnel to the other side of the mountain, past the Salzburg Festival House, and to one of the many cafes/bakeries in Austria. Bernie treated us to Mozart Balls, a delectable Austrian chocolate treat. Then he took us to his university and the Panorama Museum, which houses a 360 degree mural of Salzburg, before we walked back to his house for a lunch of gnocchi, goulash, salad and white wine.
We spent a little over an hour at Bernie's, trying to get warmed up, and then we went by car to Hellbrunn Palace. According to Bernie, this palace was the duke's summer house. There are extensive gardens on the property as well where festivals are held in the summer, but again the snow didn't allow the full effect. The best part about stopping here caught me by complete surprise. As we entered the grounds I was looking to my left at the gardens; then, I turned to my right, and what did I see but the pavilion/gazebo used in the Sixteen Going on Seventeen scene in Sound of Music! In case you haven't caught on, I absolutely love that movie, so I was more than thrilled to see all this stuff from it. We quickly explored the grounds and then climbed back into the car for a quick drive up another mountain. The drive was a little bit scary with all the snow, especially on the really steep road we took coming down. I'm sure the view from the top is absolutely amazing on sunny days! From the mountain we drove back to Bernie's and, of all things, we watched The Sound of Music! You might not believe it, but Emily and Bernie and even Bernie's whole family had never seen the film. In fact, Bernie's family doesn't even own it; his dad had to open an account at the movie rental store just so we could watch it. I just want to clarify that this was not my idea - my love for the movie must have just rubbed off on Bernie and Emily.
That night we had a dinner of frankfurts in goulash sauce with white wine before heading back to The Republic for 80s club night. Let's just say that experience was interesting. We met up with some of Bernie's friends there, most of whom did not speak English, so Emily and I just danced off to the side by ourselves. The music selection wasn't exactly stellar - either American 80s songs that aren't exactly easy to dance to, or German songs that we had never heard before and stood no chance of understanding. By the time we left, everything I was wearing and pretty much my entire body smelled like cigarette smoke (smoking in bars and clubs is still legal in Austria) and beer (having had a couple of glasses dumped on me). We went to a techno club for about an hour after The Republic before catching a taxi home. Let's just say it wasn't my ideal night out, but it was all part of the experience I guess.
Saturday was another full, and very wet and slushy, day of sight seeing. After a later start than we had hoped, we drove the car into the city, parked it, and hiked up a short mountain trail to a lookout at the Museum of Modern Art. We then continued on another trail to the Salzburg Castle. We did a short audio tour through the castle, briefly checked out the museums and then literally ran to the Salzburg Festival House to try and catch the 2 PM tour. Unfortunately, we didn't run fast enough and ended up just missing the tour. Major bummer. Emily and I were pretty upset with Bernie because he had held us up at the castle. We waited outside the opera house for a good twenty minutes while Bernie talked to the guard and tried to contact the tour guide so that we could join the tour, but he had no luck and we ended up just leaving our phone number with the guard in the hope that we could somehow join the tour. We didn't want to waste any more time waiting around, but we also didn't want to go too far in the off chance that someone might call, so we went to a nearby church - either the Franciscan Church or the Collegiate Church. This was a Baroque period church, therefore the decor was stunning! We snapped a few pictures and suddenly Bernie's phone rang - the tour!!! We raced back to the Festival House and joined the tour, and boy, am I grateful for that opportunity. The Festival House is another building built into the mountains and is comprised of three theaters: the Mozart Theater, which was completely renovated just two years ago, an outdoor theater, which is the one used in the Sound of Music (!), and another very large theater with seats for 1,600+ people. We got to go backstage in the biggest theater. That was the biggest stage I have ever seen! I only took one picture of it because pictures just didn't do it justice. From July-August it is festival season in Salzburg. I would love to come back for that!
After touring the Festival House, we crossed the river and went to the Stein Hotel's Stone Terrace for some delicious desserts and another spectacular view of the city. I was more focused on the delectable apple strudel on the plate in front of me, rather than the view. Emily got a sweet cheese strudel and Bernie had the traditional Austrian sachertorte. Naturally, we all sampled each other's desserts. I think the sachertorte was the best. It's a chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle.
From the terrace we walked to the Mirabell Garden, where another scene from Sound of Music was filmed. We stumbled upon a greenhouse in the grounds and spent a few minutes warming up in there before beginning the very long trek back to the car. Maybe it wasn't all that long, but it felt long because my left boot, the one whose soal is worn through, was completely soaked. I was so excited when we finally walked through Bernie's front door and put dry socks on my feet. We had about an hour of down time and then Bernie took us to his friend's apartment. This friend was getting ready to go to Chicago for the next three months, so Bernie wanted to see him before he left. Emily and I had a pretty good time playing poker and drinking some Austrian beer, Stiegl. I'm pretty sure Bernie's friends were probably laughing at how bad we were at poker, but since the majority of them only spoke German, I guess we'll never know for sure. We returned to Bernie's at around 1AM because Emily and I planned to catch the 8 AM train to Vienna.
I'm going to skip over the Vienna part of the trip in this post because it's getting to be way too long! I'll just say that we went there on Sunday morning and got back to Salzburg at around 7 PM on Monday. Monday night was the most relaxing part of the whole trip. Bernie, Emily and I stayed in and cooked Kasnochren (not sure of the spelling), another traditional Austrian food, for dinner. Basically, we made gnocchi from scratch, mixed in lots and lots of special cheese and onions and then baked the mixture with chives and fried onions on the top. We didn't actually eat until around 9 PM and went straight to bed afterward.
Tuesday was our last day in Austria, and believe it or not we still had a couple things left to do. Bernie's mom drove us to Mozart's house early Tuesday morning. Mozart was born in Salzburg and is therefore a celebrated figure there. The museum set up in his house wasn't the best, but we did learn a lot about him and his family. For example, did you know he had a sister who was also a gifted musician, but she gave it up so her brother could have his fame? From his house we walked to the main shopping street in Salzburg. It's really cute because all the shops are required to have signs that resemble those in the 19th century. The only store I really wanted to stop in was a Christmas shop I had spotted our first night in the city so that I could buy a Christmas ornament for myself and for mom. Emily and I also stopped at a cafe and a bakery to buy some Prosecco and chocolates for Bernie's parents to thank them for their hospitality. We caught a bus back to Bernie's, had a quick lunch, packed up our things and then Bernie drove us back to the airport for our flight home. Only about two hours before our flight did it finally stop snowing. Oh well!
Salzburg is a relatively big city - at least compared to the "city" I come from, but it still has a small town feel and there is so much history within its walls. I definitely recommend making a visit there some day. Thanks for being such a great host Bernie!
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Wow, I'm really far behind...
I can't believe it's already February 25. That means I've already been here for more than a month. Time really does fly and I'm starting to panic just thinking about everything I still have left to do and see here. Looking at the date makes me realize something else - it's been sixteen days since my last blog post. So much has happened since then, but I guess the good thing about trying to remember everything since February 9 is that this post hopefully won't be too long, detailed or boring. So here it goes. This is everything I did prior to my trip to Austria this past weekend, which I will save for a separate post.
Tuesday, February 10: I only have three hours of class on Tuesdays - Managing Behavior from 1:15-4:15. The sun was actually shining that day, making three hours seem more like ten. I was itching to get outside and soke up every ounce of sunlight, because, as I've come to realize in Northern Ireland, you never know when you're going to see Mr. Sun again. After class I raced back to my room and laced up my tennis-shoes for a run down by the shore. The run was short lived, however, as it was a little colder than I had anticipated and my ears were so frozen I thought they might fall off. Still, the run felt good and I really do need to get back into my regular workout routine. Tuesday evening, Bethany, Amanda, Kari and I headed up to the chaplaincy in the main campus building to meet up with our Bible study small group. This was our first week of outreach, so we headed to New Mossley Presbyterian church to meet with a few leaders there to discuss how we could help their church. Our group of about twelve students is going to be going on prayer walks in the New Mossley community every other Tuesday evening with a group from the the church. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm really excited to see how God is going to work with us, in us and in the community. Hopefully He'll teach me a thing or two about the power of prayer as well. After a quick stop at McDonald's for some ice cream shakes and french fries, or chips as they call them here, it was back to campus.
Wednesday, February 11: If you haven't picked up from my previous posts, I'll just come right out and say that classes here are so much easier than at Grove City. Sometimes I worry it's going to be really hard to get back to work next fall. Having realized that, I emailed a professor and arranged it so I could sit in on a lecture, Modern Irish Society, without taking the class for credit (meaning I don't have to write a paper!). I'm so glad I did this! The class is very interesting and I'm learning so much about Irish culture and historical events that have shaped the way of life I see today. This first lecture I sat in on was all about the "Celtic Tiger," or the astounding boom in the Irish economy over the past couple decades. It really is astounding, but I won't bore you with facts and figures. After lecture, Kari, Amanda and I headed to another lecture put on by the school's chaplaincy called Why God? It's a series that addresses many of the tough questions both Christians and non-Christians have about God and the things we see happening in the world. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my apartment and then a bunch of us walked up Jordanstown Road to a church just past the train station for I-Cafe, which is an outreach specifically for international students put on by CU. Evelyn, our Polish roommate, decided to join us and she had a fabulous time. I think she looks forward to it all week! We got to know some of the other international students there, enjoyed a hearty meal of chili (although it was dismal in comparison to dad's chili), and played some intense Dutch Blitz and table tennis. All in all a fun night!
Thursday, February 12: I don't have class on Thursdays, which was a huge blessing on this particular Thursday. The sun decided to shine again and I wasn't going to miss it. I put on a few extra layers, grabbed my Bible, journal and Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World book and walked down to the shore park. I camped out on a bench there for a couple of hours just reading, thinking, praying and soaking up the sun, sights and sounds. It was such a beautiful day! I started to get a bit chilly from the wind coming off the lough, so I gathered my books and walked further down the shore to scope out Whiteabbey Village. I found the two pubs that my friends Elsie had recommended - The Bureau and The Lighthouse. I decided that we had to walk back to the Lighthouse later that night after CU, so that's exactly what we did. Amanda, Bethany, Kara and I went to The Lighthouse. What a lovely little pub?! It was like walking into someone's cozy dining room. The lights were dim, it was quiet enough that we could hear each other talking, and the bartender was very nice. Each of us had a couple drinks and we had a great time just talking and getting to know each other better. It was still pretty warm outside when we walked back, so we took a slight detour and walked close to the water. The path was pretty dark at times and I got a little bit scared when we came upon some people playing on the dark playground. I guess I've watched too many crime shows over the years!
Friday, February 13: I also don't have class on Fridays, so it was a lazy morning. In the afternoon, Kari, Baz, Bethany, Amanda and I took the train to Yorkgate to stock up on all the necessary ingredients for our upcoming American Dinner party. We were at the store for hours, partly because we had a lot to buy and partly because we had a lot of trouble finding some of the key ingredients, like hot chili beans, cornmeal, cool whip and Nutter Butter cookies. We never did find any of those things, but we settled for some substitutes. We ended up having so many bags that we decided to call a van-taxi to pick us up and drive us back to campus. Let's just say the driver was a very interesting character and he shared a lot of his political views with us. It was interesting to hear his perspective on the troubles that have colored so much of Irish history. We spent the rest of the night baking cookies and cornbread and making dirt dessert and peanut-butter ice cream dessert in preparation for the dinner party on Saturday. To end the day we started watching a film about the start of the troubles in Ireland, but I can't remember the title and I have yet to finish the movie.
Saturday, February 14: I really had no idea it was Valentine's Day. When you're single and all the people you're with are single it just really isn't a big deal, especially since we don't regularly come into contact with the various forms of media that creat such a hype about the day. My day was far from romantic. Instead I spent almost the entire day in the kitchen preparing for our friends from church to arrive. We had so much food! We had PB&J sandwiches and quesadillas for appetizers (and had planned to have pigs-in-a-blanket, but that was a fiasco to say the least). Then we had chili and cornbread (made with cornflour rather than cornmeal - not quite the same); we forgot to put the vegetables in until it was too late. For drinks, we had sweet tea, soda, water and milk. The Irish are famous for a delicious cup of hot tea, so our guests weren't quite sure what to think of cold, sweet tea. All of us Americans enjoyed it though! Then for dessert, Kari made dirt dessert and heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting and I made peanut-butter ice cream dessert. Curiously, half our guests didn't really like the ice cream dessert, but that was perfectly fine by me because I got to eat more of it! The party was a huge success. Everyone had more than enough to eat, and our Irish guests found some of the items on the menu rather interesting, but at least they were all excited to give everything a try. They even came wearing red, white and blue - so patriotic. After dinner, we broke into teams for a short-lived game of Trivial Pursuit; it was short lived because it was the UK version of the game and us Americans didn't stand a chance. Once that game died down we decided to play Signals. We played for at least two hours straight. It's such a childish game, but when you're all children at heart it makes for a great time. I know I've said it before, but I'm so glad God brought Kari and I to this church our first Sunday in Northern Ireland and I'm forever grateful for our friends there.
Sunday, February 15: Sunday was a very relaxing and wonderfully sunny and warm day. Andrew, or Atki as he's more commonly known, along with our friend Ruth picked Bethany and I up for the morning church service. Between services, I just stayed in the apartment getting some reading done. Atki was back at 6:40 to take Kari and I to the evening service. Afterwards we went to Atki's house along with Ruth, Jayne, Leanna, Gavin, Emma and Preece for some snacks and bonding time. We ended up playing Two Truths and a Lie because Kari and I wanted to get to know them better. It was so much fun hearing all of their childhood stories. I felt like I was finally truly getting to know people here and it was so good to laugh with them! When we got back to campus, I went straight to bed and had probably the worst night of sleep ever and I was feeling pretty homesick, but at least I had a roof over my head, blankets and a bed to sleep on, and the comfort of knowing that I wasn't completely alone.
Monday, February 16: I had class all day - Management of Change and Services Marketing back to back. I was pretty tired after my horrible night of sleep, so I stayed in all night and I watched several episodes of The OC on YouTube and went to bed early rather than going to the Valentine's party at the student union with the rest of the girls.
Tuesday, February 17: I had class Tuesday afternoon and then Bible study that night. Our Bible study leader, Paul, couldn't make it, so another guy in our group, Stuart, led us in our study of the second part of Ephesians 1. Bethany decided to join our Bible study after joining us for outreach the week before, so she and I worked together to try and spark some good discussion. We have a great small group and it was fun to spend some more time getting to know them.
Wednesday, February 18: I sat in on my second Modern Irish Society class, the day's topic being the many political parties in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. I grabbed a quick bite to eat after class and then Bethany, Kari, Baz and I headed to the rugby pitch to watch a friend from small group, Johnny Stewart's rugby match. We saw about five different guys get injured, including one who took a nasty hit and five minutes later was wandering around the field dazed and confused - concussion. Bethany and I left the game early to catch a train to Belfast. She had lost her mobile at the student union on Monday and I finally decided to break down and buy one for myself. We wandered around Victoria Square and the shopping district for a while looking for the best deals, made our purchases and then decided to stop into Burger King for an ice cream sundae. We both enjoyed some sort of chocolate brownie fudge sundae before walking back to Belfast Central Station to return to school. As soon as I got back, I ran to the laundromat to throw my laundry in and get it done before heading to I-Cafe. It was cookie night at I-Cafe, so I ate way to many cookies, naturally, and then got my competitive juices flowing with several rounds of Dutch Blitz. I think with a few more nights of practice I'll be ready to take Shane on when I get back to Grove City. Bethany, Baz and I headed back to campus around 9 and then I dove into packing for Austria. Of course I got distracted, talking to my parents for a while and taking care of a few other things, and by the time I was ready for bed it was already 12:30 - I had to be up at 4 in order to leave for the airport at 4:45 to fly to Salzburg. Yikes!
Tuesday, February 10: I only have three hours of class on Tuesdays - Managing Behavior from 1:15-4:15. The sun was actually shining that day, making three hours seem more like ten. I was itching to get outside and soke up every ounce of sunlight, because, as I've come to realize in Northern Ireland, you never know when you're going to see Mr. Sun again. After class I raced back to my room and laced up my tennis-shoes for a run down by the shore. The run was short lived, however, as it was a little colder than I had anticipated and my ears were so frozen I thought they might fall off. Still, the run felt good and I really do need to get back into my regular workout routine. Tuesday evening, Bethany, Amanda, Kari and I headed up to the chaplaincy in the main campus building to meet up with our Bible study small group. This was our first week of outreach, so we headed to New Mossley Presbyterian church to meet with a few leaders there to discuss how we could help their church. Our group of about twelve students is going to be going on prayer walks in the New Mossley community every other Tuesday evening with a group from the the church. I've never done anything like this before, but I'm really excited to see how God is going to work with us, in us and in the community. Hopefully He'll teach me a thing or two about the power of prayer as well. After a quick stop at McDonald's for some ice cream shakes and french fries, or chips as they call them here, it was back to campus.
Wednesday, February 11: If you haven't picked up from my previous posts, I'll just come right out and say that classes here are so much easier than at Grove City. Sometimes I worry it's going to be really hard to get back to work next fall. Having realized that, I emailed a professor and arranged it so I could sit in on a lecture, Modern Irish Society, without taking the class for credit (meaning I don't have to write a paper!). I'm so glad I did this! The class is very interesting and I'm learning so much about Irish culture and historical events that have shaped the way of life I see today. This first lecture I sat in on was all about the "Celtic Tiger," or the astounding boom in the Irish economy over the past couple decades. It really is astounding, but I won't bore you with facts and figures. After lecture, Kari, Amanda and I headed to another lecture put on by the school's chaplaincy called Why God? It's a series that addresses many of the tough questions both Christians and non-Christians have about God and the things we see happening in the world. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my apartment and then a bunch of us walked up Jordanstown Road to a church just past the train station for I-Cafe, which is an outreach specifically for international students put on by CU. Evelyn, our Polish roommate, decided to join us and she had a fabulous time. I think she looks forward to it all week! We got to know some of the other international students there, enjoyed a hearty meal of chili (although it was dismal in comparison to dad's chili), and played some intense Dutch Blitz and table tennis. All in all a fun night!
Thursday, February 12: I don't have class on Thursdays, which was a huge blessing on this particular Thursday. The sun decided to shine again and I wasn't going to miss it. I put on a few extra layers, grabbed my Bible, journal and Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World book and walked down to the shore park. I camped out on a bench there for a couple of hours just reading, thinking, praying and soaking up the sun, sights and sounds. It was such a beautiful day! I started to get a bit chilly from the wind coming off the lough, so I gathered my books and walked further down the shore to scope out Whiteabbey Village. I found the two pubs that my friends Elsie had recommended - The Bureau and The Lighthouse. I decided that we had to walk back to the Lighthouse later that night after CU, so that's exactly what we did. Amanda, Bethany, Kara and I went to The Lighthouse. What a lovely little pub?! It was like walking into someone's cozy dining room. The lights were dim, it was quiet enough that we could hear each other talking, and the bartender was very nice. Each of us had a couple drinks and we had a great time just talking and getting to know each other better. It was still pretty warm outside when we walked back, so we took a slight detour and walked close to the water. The path was pretty dark at times and I got a little bit scared when we came upon some people playing on the dark playground. I guess I've watched too many crime shows over the years!
Friday, February 13: I also don't have class on Fridays, so it was a lazy morning. In the afternoon, Kari, Baz, Bethany, Amanda and I took the train to Yorkgate to stock up on all the necessary ingredients for our upcoming American Dinner party. We were at the store for hours, partly because we had a lot to buy and partly because we had a lot of trouble finding some of the key ingredients, like hot chili beans, cornmeal, cool whip and Nutter Butter cookies. We never did find any of those things, but we settled for some substitutes. We ended up having so many bags that we decided to call a van-taxi to pick us up and drive us back to campus. Let's just say the driver was a very interesting character and he shared a lot of his political views with us. It was interesting to hear his perspective on the troubles that have colored so much of Irish history. We spent the rest of the night baking cookies and cornbread and making dirt dessert and peanut-butter ice cream dessert in preparation for the dinner party on Saturday. To end the day we started watching a film about the start of the troubles in Ireland, but I can't remember the title and I have yet to finish the movie.
Saturday, February 14: I really had no idea it was Valentine's Day. When you're single and all the people you're with are single it just really isn't a big deal, especially since we don't regularly come into contact with the various forms of media that creat such a hype about the day. My day was far from romantic. Instead I spent almost the entire day in the kitchen preparing for our friends from church to arrive. We had so much food! We had PB&J sandwiches and quesadillas for appetizers (and had planned to have pigs-in-a-blanket, but that was a fiasco to say the least). Then we had chili and cornbread (made with cornflour rather than cornmeal - not quite the same); we forgot to put the vegetables in until it was too late. For drinks, we had sweet tea, soda, water and milk. The Irish are famous for a delicious cup of hot tea, so our guests weren't quite sure what to think of cold, sweet tea. All of us Americans enjoyed it though! Then for dessert, Kari made dirt dessert and heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting and I made peanut-butter ice cream dessert. Curiously, half our guests didn't really like the ice cream dessert, but that was perfectly fine by me because I got to eat more of it! The party was a huge success. Everyone had more than enough to eat, and our Irish guests found some of the items on the menu rather interesting, but at least they were all excited to give everything a try. They even came wearing red, white and blue - so patriotic. After dinner, we broke into teams for a short-lived game of Trivial Pursuit; it was short lived because it was the UK version of the game and us Americans didn't stand a chance. Once that game died down we decided to play Signals. We played for at least two hours straight. It's such a childish game, but when you're all children at heart it makes for a great time. I know I've said it before, but I'm so glad God brought Kari and I to this church our first Sunday in Northern Ireland and I'm forever grateful for our friends there.
Sunday, February 15: Sunday was a very relaxing and wonderfully sunny and warm day. Andrew, or Atki as he's more commonly known, along with our friend Ruth picked Bethany and I up for the morning church service. Between services, I just stayed in the apartment getting some reading done. Atki was back at 6:40 to take Kari and I to the evening service. Afterwards we went to Atki's house along with Ruth, Jayne, Leanna, Gavin, Emma and Preece for some snacks and bonding time. We ended up playing Two Truths and a Lie because Kari and I wanted to get to know them better. It was so much fun hearing all of their childhood stories. I felt like I was finally truly getting to know people here and it was so good to laugh with them! When we got back to campus, I went straight to bed and had probably the worst night of sleep ever and I was feeling pretty homesick, but at least I had a roof over my head, blankets and a bed to sleep on, and the comfort of knowing that I wasn't completely alone.
Monday, February 16: I had class all day - Management of Change and Services Marketing back to back. I was pretty tired after my horrible night of sleep, so I stayed in all night and I watched several episodes of The OC on YouTube and went to bed early rather than going to the Valentine's party at the student union with the rest of the girls.
Tuesday, February 17: I had class Tuesday afternoon and then Bible study that night. Our Bible study leader, Paul, couldn't make it, so another guy in our group, Stuart, led us in our study of the second part of Ephesians 1. Bethany decided to join our Bible study after joining us for outreach the week before, so she and I worked together to try and spark some good discussion. We have a great small group and it was fun to spend some more time getting to know them.
Wednesday, February 18: I sat in on my second Modern Irish Society class, the day's topic being the many political parties in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. I grabbed a quick bite to eat after class and then Bethany, Kari, Baz and I headed to the rugby pitch to watch a friend from small group, Johnny Stewart's rugby match. We saw about five different guys get injured, including one who took a nasty hit and five minutes later was wandering around the field dazed and confused - concussion. Bethany and I left the game early to catch a train to Belfast. She had lost her mobile at the student union on Monday and I finally decided to break down and buy one for myself. We wandered around Victoria Square and the shopping district for a while looking for the best deals, made our purchases and then decided to stop into Burger King for an ice cream sundae. We both enjoyed some sort of chocolate brownie fudge sundae before walking back to Belfast Central Station to return to school. As soon as I got back, I ran to the laundromat to throw my laundry in and get it done before heading to I-Cafe. It was cookie night at I-Cafe, so I ate way to many cookies, naturally, and then got my competitive juices flowing with several rounds of Dutch Blitz. I think with a few more nights of practice I'll be ready to take Shane on when I get back to Grove City. Bethany, Baz and I headed back to campus around 9 and then I dove into packing for Austria. Of course I got distracted, talking to my parents for a while and taking care of a few other things, and by the time I was ready for bed it was already 12:30 - I had to be up at 4 in order to leave for the airport at 4:45 to fly to Salzburg. Yikes!
Monday, 9 February 2009
An easygoing weekend...
Nothing really exciting has happened here since Thursday, but that's exactly how I wanted this past weekend to be.
Thursday night Kara joined Kari, Amanda, Bethany and I at Christian Union. We are starting a new series called The I Am Series. So for the rest of the semester, each of the guest speakers are going to talk about the different "I Am..." phrases in the Bible. Thursday's was "I am the bread of life." It was a great reminder about the way Christ completes and fills us. After CU, we spent some time socializing with a few people from our small group and then we headed back to our apartments and headed to bed.
Friday I didn't have class, so Evelyn, Kari, Amanda and I planned to catch the 9:42 train into Belfast to do some shopping. I discovered that morning, however, that a package from home had arrived in the accommodation office, which didn't open until 9:30. I couldn't wait to get that package, so we all stood outside the office waiting for them to open the door. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait, and having to take a later train. I have enough dry goods to last me the rest of the semester! Adam and Lena drew me pictures and made a couple snow flakes for me to hang on my bare walls, and mom sent a bunch of pictures too! Those were the best part. Now my room is actually starting to feel like home. Thanks mom and dad!
Anyway, I picked up the package, ran up to my apartment to put it away, and then we took off for the train station. Once in Belfast we went to High Street, which is where Castle Reigh shopping center is. I found my new favorite store here - Primarck! Everything was either super cheap or very reasonably priced. I bought three shirts, a pair of black flats and a cute dress all for under 20 pounds! Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule that morning, since I was supposed to be back around 2 pm to meet with my studies adviser. So, Kari and I raced to Iceland grocery store to buy all the necessary ingredients to make some hearty homemade chili. I guess we didn't race fast enough, though, and we ended up missing the train we had catch. The train we did get then proceeded to break down for a good five minutes at one of our stops. Needless to say, I got back to campus late and missed my meeting. But no worries, everything worked out fine and I'm now registered for the right classes. When I got back to my room, I found an email from one of the guys in our Bible study, Jonny, inviting us to go to the cinema with him and his friend, Dean. Going to the cinema meant getting back on the train to Belfast, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about, but it was more than worth it. We went to see Slumdog Millionaire - brilliant movie, highly recommend it!
Saturday, Evelyn and I were the only two in the apartment. I spent the day getting a few things done and doing some reading for my classes. You're probably thinking it's a sin to actually do school work while studying abroad, but I'll just remind you that it is in fact called studying abroad. Around 4 or 5 pm, Kari and Bethany came up and we made chili - from scratch, all by ourselves. I was so proud of us. And if anyone wants a good, no, great, recipe for chili, please contact my dad, Matt Drefs, chef extraordinaire! Evelyn, my roommate from Poland, even tried the chili and loved it so much she asked for the recipe so she could make it at home and treat her Polish friends to an American meal. The four of us spent the rest of the night just hanging out in our kitchen/living room, playing cards and watching the movie, Antwone Fisher. The only other thing worth mentioning about Saturday is that I didn't spend any money! That's huge!
I basically did nothing on Sunday. I was lazy all morning and afternoon, just doing some more reading for class. Our friend Andrew, from First Carrickfergus Presbyterian, gave me and three others a lift to the evening church service. We have yet to go to a normal church service there. This time it was an ordination service for three new elders. Since it was such a special occasion, though, we got the pleasure of enjoying tea, buns and tray-bits after service; in English, that's known as tea, sandwiches and baked-goods. We spent a good hour to hour and a half talking with a group of the college-age students in the coffee bar after the service. It was a lovely time and I feel like I'm finally getting to know Irish people! Topics of conversation ranged from what kind of music we like to true American names to politics and much more. Kari and I also mentioned that we were planning to go to London the last weekend in March. Many of them jumped on that opportunity and it looks like we may have a group of friends joining us, including Andrew who has been there many times and knows of a free place to stay and has a day-tour all planned out for us. We booked our flights today. This is going to be great!
Today, I woke up to an extremely dreary morning - foggy, rainy, cold and wet. I felt the first real pangs of homesickness too - not exactly sure where those came from. But after a very full day of class, I'm doing much better. The key is just to keep myself busy. Thanks to all of you who've been thinking of me and sending emails, letters and packages. Even more thanks for all your prayers as well. I am truly blessed...
Thursday night Kara joined Kari, Amanda, Bethany and I at Christian Union. We are starting a new series called The I Am Series. So for the rest of the semester, each of the guest speakers are going to talk about the different "I Am..." phrases in the Bible. Thursday's was "I am the bread of life." It was a great reminder about the way Christ completes and fills us. After CU, we spent some time socializing with a few people from our small group and then we headed back to our apartments and headed to bed.
Friday I didn't have class, so Evelyn, Kari, Amanda and I planned to catch the 9:42 train into Belfast to do some shopping. I discovered that morning, however, that a package from home had arrived in the accommodation office, which didn't open until 9:30. I couldn't wait to get that package, so we all stood outside the office waiting for them to open the door. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait, and having to take a later train. I have enough dry goods to last me the rest of the semester! Adam and Lena drew me pictures and made a couple snow flakes for me to hang on my bare walls, and mom sent a bunch of pictures too! Those were the best part. Now my room is actually starting to feel like home. Thanks mom and dad!
Anyway, I picked up the package, ran up to my apartment to put it away, and then we took off for the train station. Once in Belfast we went to High Street, which is where Castle Reigh shopping center is. I found my new favorite store here - Primarck! Everything was either super cheap or very reasonably priced. I bought three shirts, a pair of black flats and a cute dress all for under 20 pounds! Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule that morning, since I was supposed to be back around 2 pm to meet with my studies adviser. So, Kari and I raced to Iceland grocery store to buy all the necessary ingredients to make some hearty homemade chili. I guess we didn't race fast enough, though, and we ended up missing the train we had catch. The train we did get then proceeded to break down for a good five minutes at one of our stops. Needless to say, I got back to campus late and missed my meeting. But no worries, everything worked out fine and I'm now registered for the right classes. When I got back to my room, I found an email from one of the guys in our Bible study, Jonny, inviting us to go to the cinema with him and his friend, Dean. Going to the cinema meant getting back on the train to Belfast, which I wasn't exactly thrilled about, but it was more than worth it. We went to see Slumdog Millionaire - brilliant movie, highly recommend it!
Saturday, Evelyn and I were the only two in the apartment. I spent the day getting a few things done and doing some reading for my classes. You're probably thinking it's a sin to actually do school work while studying abroad, but I'll just remind you that it is in fact called studying abroad. Around 4 or 5 pm, Kari and Bethany came up and we made chili - from scratch, all by ourselves. I was so proud of us. And if anyone wants a good, no, great, recipe for chili, please contact my dad, Matt Drefs, chef extraordinaire! Evelyn, my roommate from Poland, even tried the chili and loved it so much she asked for the recipe so she could make it at home and treat her Polish friends to an American meal. The four of us spent the rest of the night just hanging out in our kitchen/living room, playing cards and watching the movie, Antwone Fisher. The only other thing worth mentioning about Saturday is that I didn't spend any money! That's huge!
I basically did nothing on Sunday. I was lazy all morning and afternoon, just doing some more reading for class. Our friend Andrew, from First Carrickfergus Presbyterian, gave me and three others a lift to the evening church service. We have yet to go to a normal church service there. This time it was an ordination service for three new elders. Since it was such a special occasion, though, we got the pleasure of enjoying tea, buns and tray-bits after service; in English, that's known as tea, sandwiches and baked-goods. We spent a good hour to hour and a half talking with a group of the college-age students in the coffee bar after the service. It was a lovely time and I feel like I'm finally getting to know Irish people! Topics of conversation ranged from what kind of music we like to true American names to politics and much more. Kari and I also mentioned that we were planning to go to London the last weekend in March. Many of them jumped on that opportunity and it looks like we may have a group of friends joining us, including Andrew who has been there many times and knows of a free place to stay and has a day-tour all planned out for us. We booked our flights today. This is going to be great!
Today, I woke up to an extremely dreary morning - foggy, rainy, cold and wet. I felt the first real pangs of homesickness too - not exactly sure where those came from. But after a very full day of class, I'm doing much better. The key is just to keep myself busy. Thanks to all of you who've been thinking of me and sending emails, letters and packages. Even more thanks for all your prayers as well. I am truly blessed...
Thursday, 5 February 2009
The past four days...
I'm just going to tell you about the main highlights of each of the past four days, but based on the rest of my posts, you know that the main highlights might turn into a pretty long read. Oh well!
Sunday's Highlight: First Carrickfergus Presbyterian Church
Kari went on her homestay all weekend and didn't get back until Sunday afternoon, so we contacted our friend Andrew (a high-school teacher involved in leading the church's youth programs and worship team) and arranged for him to give us a lift to the Sunday evening service. Bethany joined us as well. Basically, I LOVE this church! The night service was held in the church's fellowship hall and was much more laid back than the morning service. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the teenage youth group led the service. The worship team led us in a bunch of contemporary and upbeat songs and the church's old youth director was invited back to give the sermon that night. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time I was in that church! Everyone we encountered made welcomed us with the love of Christ. I am so thankful God brought us to this church family! After service, we met a lot of the college-age church members. What a wonderful group of people! We all went to Papa's Restaurant in Carrick for a cup of tea/coffee and some dessert. They told us all about the places to go and things to do in Northern Ireland and even offered to be our tour guides. We headed back to campus with several new contacts in our phones and the excitement of potential frienships with real-life Irish people!!! A minor side-note: we watched part of the Superbowl when we got back to campus. It was a major letdown. They didn't show any commercials...none whatsoever. And, they had some British guy announcing the game...so weird!
Monday's Highlight: Talking to Mom, Dad and Laura about their visit to Ireland!
Monday morning I had Management of Change from 9:15-12:30. That afternoon I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I talked to my roomie, Laura and found out she had booked her flight to come visit me in Ireland over Easter break!! We're going to have oh-so-much fun!!! Later that night I talked to mom and dad and we started making plans for their trip. We're going to tour all of Ireland, starting in Dublin and driving to Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Londonderry and Belfast. I can't wait to see some of my favorite people and to tour the country that is my home away from home. Perhaps the best part of this little arrangement is that it's all going on Dad's credit card statement, not mine! Thanks dad!! After talking to mom and dad, I met up with the girls at the student union for a Kopperburg Mixed Fruit Ale before heading to bed at 1:30.
Tuesday's Highlights: Mail, Booking Flights and Bible Study
I got a late start Tuesday morning, basically getting up in time to shower, dress, eat breakfast, spend a bit of time in the Word and then head to Managing Behavior at 1:15. After class, I went with Kari, Baz and Amanda to the Accommodation Office to check our mail for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find two letters with my name on them. Thanks Jenny's Mom and Elsa! When I got back to our apartment, Emily and I booked our flights for our weekend in Austria February 20-23! They were quite a bit more expensive than we had hoped they would be, and Ryan Air is a pain in the butt, but it's going to be worth it, especially since that's our only major expense as we'll be staying with Bernie. The last part of Tuesday I spent with Kari, Amanda and some awesome people at the small group Bible study we joined through Christian Union. We were there for nearly three hours and had a blast! Two of the girls, Jo and Nicki, who are obviously really good friends, were in a super giggly mood and were absolutely hilarious. They reminded me so much of the way Laura and I act pretty much all the time...oh Laura, I miss you! We played a goofy ice-breaker game and then started the Bible study portion of the night. We're going to be working our way through the book of Ephesians throughout the semester. The Bible study will be every other Tuesday night; on the other Tuesdays we're going to do various outreach or service activities. This is another great opportunity for me to meet Irish people and see what life is really like here, so I'm excited. When the Bible study was finished, we stayed for another hour for Q & A time. Basically, they all asked us random questions about life in America. They couldn't believe that we could consider a six hour drive from Minneapolis to Canada a relatively short drive, or that I would drive nine hours to get to school. They were also shocked to hear how much snow Kari and I live with in Wisconsin and how cold is sometimes get - remember those days of -30 back in January? The thing they found most peculiar though is that we can choose between driving automatic or manual cars, and that most people drive automatic. Nearly all of them have never driven an automatic, and if they had, they found it extremely difficult. Another sidenote: I found out on Tuesday that GCC won't give me credit for one of the classes I'm currently enrolled in, so I spent a good portion of Tuesday and Wednesday trying to sort out that mess...yuck!
Wednesday's Highlights: Library, Planning Trip to Italy, and Dinner at Elsie's
I never would have thought I'd consider going to the library a highlight, but it's true. The library, or Learning Resource Centre as they call it here, is really nice. There's hundreds of public computers, lots of tables and desks where you can plug in your personal computer, and best of all there is a vast collection of books. That collection includes multiple copies of the textbooks needed for classes, which means I'm going to make it through a semester of college without spending a pence on books! I was so excited to discover that because I had no idea what I was going to do with my books at the end of the semester if I had to buy them. With the class schedule the way it is here, it wasn't until I went to the library yesterday and checked out some of the texts that I felt like I was actually here for school. After the trip to the library, I met with my studies adviser to figure out which class to take in place of the one I'll be dropping. Then I came back to my apartment and Kari, Amanda, Kara and I, having booked our flights to Italy at some point this week, decided which hostels to stay at in Florence and Rome. We'll be going to Italy for the second half of our Easter Break and meeting up with Stephanie Carroll while we're there!!!! Elsie picked me up at 5 pm and brought me to her house for dinner - spaghetti bolognese. We watched some TV after dinner and then her son, Matthew, brought me back to campus. I felt like I was coming down with a cold, so I went to bed soon after getting back.
Thursday's Highlights: Snow and Sorting out Classes
I know Thursday isn't over yet, so there may be more to talk about, but as of now, the highlight of the day has been what the Irish consider snow. I woke up this morning to a very wet snow/rain mixture falling from the sky. The snow was sticking to the ground, but turning to slush pretty much immediately. There wasn't even enough snow to measure on the ground. Ireland is no Wisconsin though, and this "snow" resulted in a 2.5 hour commute by train from Carrickfergus to Jordanstown (it normally takes ten minutes) and only three people coming to the human resources management class I decided to check out today. It made for a good laugh! I just found out that I will be able to join and get GCC credit for a services marketing class that meets on Mondays. I'm much more excited about this class than HR Management or Business Strategy, especially since I'm considering going into event planning - a service that will require marketing, and because I will only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays - five day weekends!!
Alright, this post got really long again. I'm going to go order some Chinese food and then head to Christian Union tonight. As always, I love to hear from all of you at home and at Grove City, so drop me an email anytime, even if it's just a couple sentences about your day! Miss you all...
Sunday's Highlight: First Carrickfergus Presbyterian Church
Kari went on her homestay all weekend and didn't get back until Sunday afternoon, so we contacted our friend Andrew (a high-school teacher involved in leading the church's youth programs and worship team) and arranged for him to give us a lift to the Sunday evening service. Bethany joined us as well. Basically, I LOVE this church! The night service was held in the church's fellowship hall and was much more laid back than the morning service. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the teenage youth group led the service. The worship team led us in a bunch of contemporary and upbeat songs and the church's old youth director was invited back to give the sermon that night. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time I was in that church! Everyone we encountered made welcomed us with the love of Christ. I am so thankful God brought us to this church family! After service, we met a lot of the college-age church members. What a wonderful group of people! We all went to Papa's Restaurant in Carrick for a cup of tea/coffee and some dessert. They told us all about the places to go and things to do in Northern Ireland and even offered to be our tour guides. We headed back to campus with several new contacts in our phones and the excitement of potential frienships with real-life Irish people!!! A minor side-note: we watched part of the Superbowl when we got back to campus. It was a major letdown. They didn't show any commercials...none whatsoever. And, they had some British guy announcing the game...so weird!
Monday's Highlight: Talking to Mom, Dad and Laura about their visit to Ireland!
Monday morning I had Management of Change from 9:15-12:30. That afternoon I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I talked to my roomie, Laura and found out she had booked her flight to come visit me in Ireland over Easter break!! We're going to have oh-so-much fun!!! Later that night I talked to mom and dad and we started making plans for their trip. We're going to tour all of Ireland, starting in Dublin and driving to Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Londonderry and Belfast. I can't wait to see some of my favorite people and to tour the country that is my home away from home. Perhaps the best part of this little arrangement is that it's all going on Dad's credit card statement, not mine! Thanks dad!! After talking to mom and dad, I met up with the girls at the student union for a Kopperburg Mixed Fruit Ale before heading to bed at 1:30.
Tuesday's Highlights: Mail, Booking Flights and Bible Study
I got a late start Tuesday morning, basically getting up in time to shower, dress, eat breakfast, spend a bit of time in the Word and then head to Managing Behavior at 1:15. After class, I went with Kari, Baz and Amanda to the Accommodation Office to check our mail for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find two letters with my name on them. Thanks Jenny's Mom and Elsa! When I got back to our apartment, Emily and I booked our flights for our weekend in Austria February 20-23! They were quite a bit more expensive than we had hoped they would be, and Ryan Air is a pain in the butt, but it's going to be worth it, especially since that's our only major expense as we'll be staying with Bernie. The last part of Tuesday I spent with Kari, Amanda and some awesome people at the small group Bible study we joined through Christian Union. We were there for nearly three hours and had a blast! Two of the girls, Jo and Nicki, who are obviously really good friends, were in a super giggly mood and were absolutely hilarious. They reminded me so much of the way Laura and I act pretty much all the time...oh Laura, I miss you! We played a goofy ice-breaker game and then started the Bible study portion of the night. We're going to be working our way through the book of Ephesians throughout the semester. The Bible study will be every other Tuesday night; on the other Tuesdays we're going to do various outreach or service activities. This is another great opportunity for me to meet Irish people and see what life is really like here, so I'm excited. When the Bible study was finished, we stayed for another hour for Q & A time. Basically, they all asked us random questions about life in America. They couldn't believe that we could consider a six hour drive from Minneapolis to Canada a relatively short drive, or that I would drive nine hours to get to school. They were also shocked to hear how much snow Kari and I live with in Wisconsin and how cold is sometimes get - remember those days of -30 back in January? The thing they found most peculiar though is that we can choose between driving automatic or manual cars, and that most people drive automatic. Nearly all of them have never driven an automatic, and if they had, they found it extremely difficult. Another sidenote: I found out on Tuesday that GCC won't give me credit for one of the classes I'm currently enrolled in, so I spent a good portion of Tuesday and Wednesday trying to sort out that mess...yuck!
Wednesday's Highlights: Library, Planning Trip to Italy, and Dinner at Elsie's
I never would have thought I'd consider going to the library a highlight, but it's true. The library, or Learning Resource Centre as they call it here, is really nice. There's hundreds of public computers, lots of tables and desks where you can plug in your personal computer, and best of all there is a vast collection of books. That collection includes multiple copies of the textbooks needed for classes, which means I'm going to make it through a semester of college without spending a pence on books! I was so excited to discover that because I had no idea what I was going to do with my books at the end of the semester if I had to buy them. With the class schedule the way it is here, it wasn't until I went to the library yesterday and checked out some of the texts that I felt like I was actually here for school. After the trip to the library, I met with my studies adviser to figure out which class to take in place of the one I'll be dropping. Then I came back to my apartment and Kari, Amanda, Kara and I, having booked our flights to Italy at some point this week, decided which hostels to stay at in Florence and Rome. We'll be going to Italy for the second half of our Easter Break and meeting up with Stephanie Carroll while we're there!!!! Elsie picked me up at 5 pm and brought me to her house for dinner - spaghetti bolognese. We watched some TV after dinner and then her son, Matthew, brought me back to campus. I felt like I was coming down with a cold, so I went to bed soon after getting back.
Thursday's Highlights: Snow and Sorting out Classes
I know Thursday isn't over yet, so there may be more to talk about, but as of now, the highlight of the day has been what the Irish consider snow. I woke up this morning to a very wet snow/rain mixture falling from the sky. The snow was sticking to the ground, but turning to slush pretty much immediately. There wasn't even enough snow to measure on the ground. Ireland is no Wisconsin though, and this "snow" resulted in a 2.5 hour commute by train from Carrickfergus to Jordanstown (it normally takes ten minutes) and only three people coming to the human resources management class I decided to check out today. It made for a good laugh! I just found out that I will be able to join and get GCC credit for a services marketing class that meets on Mondays. I'm much more excited about this class than HR Management or Business Strategy, especially since I'm considering going into event planning - a service that will require marketing, and because I will only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays - five day weekends!!
Alright, this post got really long again. I'm going to go order some Chinese food and then head to Christian Union tonight. As always, I love to hear from all of you at home and at Grove City, so drop me an email anytime, even if it's just a couple sentences about your day! Miss you all...
Downpatrick...
Again, I've been slacking on keeping this blog updated. My most sincere apologies!
Let's start with this past weekend. Saturday we caught an early train to Belfast Great Victoria Street Station to connect with a bus to Downpatrick. Downpatrick is a small city/town about forty minutes south of Belfast in Co. Down famous for being the site of St. Patrick's grave. The bus ride itself was a highlight, as we drove through the Catholic side of Belfast and then out into the countryside. The countryside was exactly as I had pictured it - rolling hills covered in the greenest grass I have ever seen, spotted with sheep and cows, quaint farm houses and cottages. To top it all off the sky was its signature shade of gray, looking like it might rain at any second. Fortunately, the rain didn't come, although it was unusually cold for Ireland and the wind blew right through all the layers of clothing I was wearing.
Upon our arrival in Downpatrick, we headed straight to the St. Patrick Centre, a tourist information center and museum. The museum has one exhibit that uses about ten different multi-media stations to tell the life story of St. Patrick: He was kidnapped by Celtic barbarians at the age of fifteen and brought to Ireland to be a slave. During his time here, he was drawn much closer to God and would pray at least 100 times a day and 100 time a night. Eventually he escaped to France, but after a few years heard God's voice calling him back to Ireland. So, he was ordained as a bishop in France and then sailed to Ireland where he spread the gospel to thousands. Today he is an Irish icon, and his life is celebrated on St. Patrick's day with huge parades and celebrations.
Our group spent about an hour in the exhibit and then we ventured out into the cold and up the hill to the Downpatrick Cathedral. I saw the cathedral from a distance as our bus approached the city, not realizing that it was the cathedral we had come to see. Outside the cathedral is a small graveyard, in which a large stone is engraved with the name Patricus, marking the final resting place of St. Patrick himself. The interior of the cathedral wasn't quite as impressive as I had imagined. It smelled like a damp basement and the decor was far from extravagant. There were, however, some spectacular stained-glass windows. The pews were pretty interesting as well; it appeared as though each family got their own little box of seats.
Our next stop was the County Down Museum. The museum is housed in the old Downpatrick jail, or gaol. We had a fabulous time here, checking out artifacts dating from ancient times to the 1990s. The exhibits were geared toward both children and adults alike, so naturally we had the most fun with the children's dress-up clothes. Among the artifacts from the 1980s was a Barbie doll wearing a red and white dress with hearts on it - I had that same dress for my Barbie dolls when I was a child! Something I played with is now in a museum - boy, did that make me feel old! We also got to tour the jail cells in the museum as well. Some of the prisoners, like one woman who had been arrested for stealing three pairs of socks, were sent to Australia for 7-14 years. Talk about a harsh punishment, although Australia can't be that bad, right?!
Having had our fill of Downpatrick, we boarded a bus back to Belfast. We went to the Crown Bar for a deliciously cheap dinner - I had fish and chips. The Crown is this really old Irish Pub with traditional Victorian decor. The ceiling is solid and intricately carved wood. It was beautiful! After our dinner we decided to go to Great Victoria Square and see a movie - Role Models. The movie, although inappropriate at times, was really funny and the perfect way to end the day...the day that surprisingly had no rain!
Let's start with this past weekend. Saturday we caught an early train to Belfast Great Victoria Street Station to connect with a bus to Downpatrick. Downpatrick is a small city/town about forty minutes south of Belfast in Co. Down famous for being the site of St. Patrick's grave. The bus ride itself was a highlight, as we drove through the Catholic side of Belfast and then out into the countryside. The countryside was exactly as I had pictured it - rolling hills covered in the greenest grass I have ever seen, spotted with sheep and cows, quaint farm houses and cottages. To top it all off the sky was its signature shade of gray, looking like it might rain at any second. Fortunately, the rain didn't come, although it was unusually cold for Ireland and the wind blew right through all the layers of clothing I was wearing.
Upon our arrival in Downpatrick, we headed straight to the St. Patrick Centre, a tourist information center and museum. The museum has one exhibit that uses about ten different multi-media stations to tell the life story of St. Patrick: He was kidnapped by Celtic barbarians at the age of fifteen and brought to Ireland to be a slave. During his time here, he was drawn much closer to God and would pray at least 100 times a day and 100 time a night. Eventually he escaped to France, but after a few years heard God's voice calling him back to Ireland. So, he was ordained as a bishop in France and then sailed to Ireland where he spread the gospel to thousands. Today he is an Irish icon, and his life is celebrated on St. Patrick's day with huge parades and celebrations.
Our group spent about an hour in the exhibit and then we ventured out into the cold and up the hill to the Downpatrick Cathedral. I saw the cathedral from a distance as our bus approached the city, not realizing that it was the cathedral we had come to see. Outside the cathedral is a small graveyard, in which a large stone is engraved with the name Patricus, marking the final resting place of St. Patrick himself. The interior of the cathedral wasn't quite as impressive as I had imagined. It smelled like a damp basement and the decor was far from extravagant. There were, however, some spectacular stained-glass windows. The pews were pretty interesting as well; it appeared as though each family got their own little box of seats.
Our next stop was the County Down Museum. The museum is housed in the old Downpatrick jail, or gaol. We had a fabulous time here, checking out artifacts dating from ancient times to the 1990s. The exhibits were geared toward both children and adults alike, so naturally we had the most fun with the children's dress-up clothes. Among the artifacts from the 1980s was a Barbie doll wearing a red and white dress with hearts on it - I had that same dress for my Barbie dolls when I was a child! Something I played with is now in a museum - boy, did that make me feel old! We also got to tour the jail cells in the museum as well. Some of the prisoners, like one woman who had been arrested for stealing three pairs of socks, were sent to Australia for 7-14 years. Talk about a harsh punishment, although Australia can't be that bad, right?!
Having had our fill of Downpatrick, we boarded a bus back to Belfast. We went to the Crown Bar for a deliciously cheap dinner - I had fish and chips. The Crown is this really old Irish Pub with traditional Victorian decor. The ceiling is solid and intricately carved wood. It was beautiful! After our dinner we decided to go to Great Victoria Square and see a movie - Role Models. The movie, although inappropriate at times, was really funny and the perfect way to end the day...the day that surprisingly had no rain!
Sunday, 1 February 2009
The first week of class...
I know it's been a while since my last post, but with classes starting this past week, I didn't really get a chance to go exploring or do anything too exciting. I know some of you would like to read about the ordinary, though, so here's a look back on the week:
I had my first class, Management of Change at 9:15 Monday morning. I already wrote about the events of that day, so I won't go into anymore detail about that.
Tuesday I had my second class, Managing Behavior from 1:15 to 4:15. The first two hours of class are a lecture and the last hour is a seminar, where we'll break into smaller groups and work on the group project that will constitute our coursework grade in the class. I was delighted to find that my Austrian friend, Bernie, is in the class with me. He and I are going to be in the same group along with three other Irish students. Although it might be hard to coordinate the group work, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get to know Irish students. Right now I don't really know any of them because it's hard to talk to each other during lectures, they all know each other already, and I'm living with all international students. Our group project is going to be a five minute presentation and 3000-4000 word written analysis of a current issue in organizational behavior. The professor, Dr. Robert Kerr, spent a good thirty minutes at least trying to convince the students not to be afraid of getting up in front of the class and talking. It sounds like the Irish students don't have any experience doing this. He told them they are at a disadvantage to Americans, because American culture values the ability to speak calmly, collectively, and convincingly in front of others, therefore students are taught to do so at a very young age through show-and-tell and other activities. Because he said that, I'm definitely feeling the pressure to give a great presentation. The second I open my mouth everyone is going to know I'm an American. Wish me luck! After class, five of the girls and I called a taxi and went to Abbey Centre to get some much needed groceries. I'm getting more and more used to the selection of food they sell here, but some things I find still surprise me - like pre-packaged pancakes sold in the bread isle and the absence of turkey in the lunch meat section. Another peculiarity I discovered was the fact that you have to put a pound into the handle of the trolley (aka cart) in order to use it, but you'll get your money back when you put the trolley back. The shopping trip was successfully cheap, and we all came back to cook our own delicious feasts.
Wednesday I didn't have any classes, so it was a question of what to do with myself all day long. I took full advantage of having nothing to do, skipped the alarm clock, and slept in till about 11. I just putsed around until 4, and then seven of the girls and I hopped on the train to the Great Victoria Street train station in Belfast for a night of shopping. We walked from there to Victoria Square where there is a huge outdoor mall that has a huge glass dome lit by blue and red lights covering the top (that really isn't the greatest description, but I don't know how else to explain it). I went looking for two things, and two things only - a bigger purse and a pair of jeans. Most of the stores were higher-priced than I was looking for, but we had fun trying things on and checking out the trendy selections. Bethany and I went into a denim store - Orange Clockwork - to look for some jeans and we ended up meeting a friend of Jane Brown, a girl from Belfast who is currently studying at Grove City...I get the sense the world is a lot smaller than we think it is sometimes! I did end up finding both a bigger purse and a pair of jeans, although I would have loved to find them at a cheaper price...oh well! Our group met at the food court and decided to grab dinner at T.G.I. Friday's - genuinely Irish, I know. I think a lot of us were craving a taste of home though, evidenced by the fact that the majority of us got hamburgers.
Thursday I had my third and final class of the week - Business Strategy. With this class, the seminar is scheduled for 11:15 but the lecture is not until 5:15 at night. I got up early enough to make it to the seminar because all my other classes had the seminars this week. I even walked up to the main academic building, but quickly discovered that there was no block 21 in that buidling, and that's where my seminar was to be held. I knew there was a seminar scheduled for later in the afternoon, so I gave up on trying to find it and came back to my room to email the professor asking where to go. Turns out my roommate Kara has the class with me and the classroom is in the building right outside my window. The professor also emailed me back and told me there would be no seminar this week. To kill time until class, Kari, Erin and I headed back to the main building and stopped by the chaplaincy. We met some lovely people there and enjoyed a cup of tea and pleasant conversation. We also found out about the Christian Union, ICafe and small groups. The Christian Union meets Thursday nights at 7:30 and since I didn't have my seminar that night, Kari and I decided to check it out with my roommate, Amanda. 5:15 rolled around, and Kara and I headed to our two-hour class. The professor was kind of intimidating and it sounds like this could be a challenging class, but I think I'm up for it. For this class we have to do another group project consisting of written analysis and a 20-25 minute presentation. The presentations will be during the seminar portion of the class, which I found out will be from 11:15-12:15 every Thursday. I was glad to have it at that time so I wouldn't have to miss Christian Union. We had a full lecture and then I ran back to grab a bite to eat before heading to CU with Kari and Amanda.
We had a great time at CU. They started out with a time of praise and worship, then had a speaker come up and talk to us about world missions and reaching the unreached, and then we had time to mingle and talk to representatives from about 30 different missions organizations. I'm so glad to have found this club, not only for the Christian fellowship and the opportunity to meet Irish students, but also because through this club I have plans for not only Thursday nights, but also Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tuesday nights are when the small group I've joined meets in the chaplaincy. We'll be studying the book of Ephesians throughout the semester...I'm really excited! Wednesday nights the CU puts on ICafe at a local church. ICafe is a ministry for the international students - you go to the church, pay one pound and get a huge dinner and lots of Irish friends in return. I can't wait to check it out next week! Oh, and I 'll just mention that there are some attractive men in CU...
As soon as CU was done, we came back to the apartment to find that the other girls had been drinking and were waiting for us to get back so we could all go to a club, Box, in Belfast together. Clubs really aren't my thing, but I decided to go anyway. When we arrived, I felt completely underdressed - the Irish girls were all in crazy high heels, super short mini dresses and had pounds of make-up on and hairspray in their hair. There was no way I'd ever dress like them, so I just embraced my conservative style. While the girls waited in the long line to get in the club, Kari, Amanda and I stopped in a bar to get a couple of drinks in us. This was the best part of the night for me because we got into this conversation about faith and where we're at in our walks. I won't go into details, but I will say that Kari and Amanda have recently come back to their faith and they want to come to me with questions they might have. Each of us recognized that God brought us here for a reason, and I think part of mine might be to be an encouragement and possibly a mentor to Kari and Amanda. It was such a great conversation, although I had to laugh at the contrast between the subject and our setting! I would really appreciate your prayers and encouragement, for me and for Kari and Amanda, as we seek God together. God is certainly at work here and I get the feeling exciting things are about to happen!
I could have ended my night right there, but now it was time to head into the club. The other girls opted to go to The Beach Club instead of waiting and probably not getting into The Box so that's where we went. It was quite the experience - loud music, drunk people all around me, barely-there outfits, and public displays of affection. I made the best of it though. Amanda and I tried to check both our purses and our coats, but they wouldn't take our purses, so we had to hold on to them all night. Kari headed straight for the dance floor to join the rest of the girls, a few of which were pretty drunk by then, but Amanda didn't want to dance so I decided to stay with her and give her company. Aine joined us and we decided have a shot and another drink, both of which were delicious. Some guy grabbed my butt while we were standing at the bar - pervert. And the rest of the night I got hit on by this seventeen year-old drunk boy who kept trying to kiss me and even followed me out on the dance floor for a few minutes. I just laughed about all of it and made the best of the entire experience. I don't think that's something I'll do multiple nights of the week like most of the college students do, but I would be open to going a few more times during the semester. It was a drastic difference from the kinds of fun we have at Grove City, good, clean fun, which is what I prefer.
I didn't have class on Friday either, so it was another lazy day for me. A few of the girls headed to a market in Belfast, but I stayed behind and did some reading and watched a TV episode I found on You-Tube. When they got back we all decided that we should go exploring this weekend so we spent all afternoon throwing out ideas and trying to decide where to go, settling on taking the bus to Downpatrick...I'll save those details for the next blog. I headed to Bethany's apartment around 7 with two of my roommates to watch part of a movie and then we came back to our block for a delicious dinner of salad and pasta with gargonzola cheese sauce made for us by Bernie. We all get such a kick out of Bernie and his Austrian accent, so we had a lovely time at dinner! A few drinks followed dinner and then we headed across the hall to an international student party. Amanda, Bethany and I only stayed for a short while, met a few people, including a couple girls from Spain and Dia from Jordan. It was too hard to carry on a conversation with the music blaring so loudly, so we gave up and headed to bed for a good night's sleep before our adventures on Saturday.
Overall it was a great week, and I'm excited for the 18 more adventure-filled weeks I have here. Plans are already coming together to go to Austria, London, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Paris and Normandy, Holland, Belgium and hopefully Spain, as well as the many sites here in Northern Ireland. I hope you're not too jealous...
I had my first class, Management of Change at 9:15 Monday morning. I already wrote about the events of that day, so I won't go into anymore detail about that.
Tuesday I had my second class, Managing Behavior from 1:15 to 4:15. The first two hours of class are a lecture and the last hour is a seminar, where we'll break into smaller groups and work on the group project that will constitute our coursework grade in the class. I was delighted to find that my Austrian friend, Bernie, is in the class with me. He and I are going to be in the same group along with three other Irish students. Although it might be hard to coordinate the group work, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get to know Irish students. Right now I don't really know any of them because it's hard to talk to each other during lectures, they all know each other already, and I'm living with all international students. Our group project is going to be a five minute presentation and 3000-4000 word written analysis of a current issue in organizational behavior. The professor, Dr. Robert Kerr, spent a good thirty minutes at least trying to convince the students not to be afraid of getting up in front of the class and talking. It sounds like the Irish students don't have any experience doing this. He told them they are at a disadvantage to Americans, because American culture values the ability to speak calmly, collectively, and convincingly in front of others, therefore students are taught to do so at a very young age through show-and-tell and other activities. Because he said that, I'm definitely feeling the pressure to give a great presentation. The second I open my mouth everyone is going to know I'm an American. Wish me luck! After class, five of the girls and I called a taxi and went to Abbey Centre to get some much needed groceries. I'm getting more and more used to the selection of food they sell here, but some things I find still surprise me - like pre-packaged pancakes sold in the bread isle and the absence of turkey in the lunch meat section. Another peculiarity I discovered was the fact that you have to put a pound into the handle of the trolley (aka cart) in order to use it, but you'll get your money back when you put the trolley back. The shopping trip was successfully cheap, and we all came back to cook our own delicious feasts.
Wednesday I didn't have any classes, so it was a question of what to do with myself all day long. I took full advantage of having nothing to do, skipped the alarm clock, and slept in till about 11. I just putsed around until 4, and then seven of the girls and I hopped on the train to the Great Victoria Street train station in Belfast for a night of shopping. We walked from there to Victoria Square where there is a huge outdoor mall that has a huge glass dome lit by blue and red lights covering the top (that really isn't the greatest description, but I don't know how else to explain it). I went looking for two things, and two things only - a bigger purse and a pair of jeans. Most of the stores were higher-priced than I was looking for, but we had fun trying things on and checking out the trendy selections. Bethany and I went into a denim store - Orange Clockwork - to look for some jeans and we ended up meeting a friend of Jane Brown, a girl from Belfast who is currently studying at Grove City...I get the sense the world is a lot smaller than we think it is sometimes! I did end up finding both a bigger purse and a pair of jeans, although I would have loved to find them at a cheaper price...oh well! Our group met at the food court and decided to grab dinner at T.G.I. Friday's - genuinely Irish, I know. I think a lot of us were craving a taste of home though, evidenced by the fact that the majority of us got hamburgers.
Thursday I had my third and final class of the week - Business Strategy. With this class, the seminar is scheduled for 11:15 but the lecture is not until 5:15 at night. I got up early enough to make it to the seminar because all my other classes had the seminars this week. I even walked up to the main academic building, but quickly discovered that there was no block 21 in that buidling, and that's where my seminar was to be held. I knew there was a seminar scheduled for later in the afternoon, so I gave up on trying to find it and came back to my room to email the professor asking where to go. Turns out my roommate Kara has the class with me and the classroom is in the building right outside my window. The professor also emailed me back and told me there would be no seminar this week. To kill time until class, Kari, Erin and I headed back to the main building and stopped by the chaplaincy. We met some lovely people there and enjoyed a cup of tea and pleasant conversation. We also found out about the Christian Union, ICafe and small groups. The Christian Union meets Thursday nights at 7:30 and since I didn't have my seminar that night, Kari and I decided to check it out with my roommate, Amanda. 5:15 rolled around, and Kara and I headed to our two-hour class. The professor was kind of intimidating and it sounds like this could be a challenging class, but I think I'm up for it. For this class we have to do another group project consisting of written analysis and a 20-25 minute presentation. The presentations will be during the seminar portion of the class, which I found out will be from 11:15-12:15 every Thursday. I was glad to have it at that time so I wouldn't have to miss Christian Union. We had a full lecture and then I ran back to grab a bite to eat before heading to CU with Kari and Amanda.
We had a great time at CU. They started out with a time of praise and worship, then had a speaker come up and talk to us about world missions and reaching the unreached, and then we had time to mingle and talk to representatives from about 30 different missions organizations. I'm so glad to have found this club, not only for the Christian fellowship and the opportunity to meet Irish students, but also because through this club I have plans for not only Thursday nights, but also Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tuesday nights are when the small group I've joined meets in the chaplaincy. We'll be studying the book of Ephesians throughout the semester...I'm really excited! Wednesday nights the CU puts on ICafe at a local church. ICafe is a ministry for the international students - you go to the church, pay one pound and get a huge dinner and lots of Irish friends in return. I can't wait to check it out next week! Oh, and I 'll just mention that there are some attractive men in CU...
As soon as CU was done, we came back to the apartment to find that the other girls had been drinking and were waiting for us to get back so we could all go to a club, Box, in Belfast together. Clubs really aren't my thing, but I decided to go anyway. When we arrived, I felt completely underdressed - the Irish girls were all in crazy high heels, super short mini dresses and had pounds of make-up on and hairspray in their hair. There was no way I'd ever dress like them, so I just embraced my conservative style. While the girls waited in the long line to get in the club, Kari, Amanda and I stopped in a bar to get a couple of drinks in us. This was the best part of the night for me because we got into this conversation about faith and where we're at in our walks. I won't go into details, but I will say that Kari and Amanda have recently come back to their faith and they want to come to me with questions they might have. Each of us recognized that God brought us here for a reason, and I think part of mine might be to be an encouragement and possibly a mentor to Kari and Amanda. It was such a great conversation, although I had to laugh at the contrast between the subject and our setting! I would really appreciate your prayers and encouragement, for me and for Kari and Amanda, as we seek God together. God is certainly at work here and I get the feeling exciting things are about to happen!
I could have ended my night right there, but now it was time to head into the club. The other girls opted to go to The Beach Club instead of waiting and probably not getting into The Box so that's where we went. It was quite the experience - loud music, drunk people all around me, barely-there outfits, and public displays of affection. I made the best of it though. Amanda and I tried to check both our purses and our coats, but they wouldn't take our purses, so we had to hold on to them all night. Kari headed straight for the dance floor to join the rest of the girls, a few of which were pretty drunk by then, but Amanda didn't want to dance so I decided to stay with her and give her company. Aine joined us and we decided have a shot and another drink, both of which were delicious. Some guy grabbed my butt while we were standing at the bar - pervert. And the rest of the night I got hit on by this seventeen year-old drunk boy who kept trying to kiss me and even followed me out on the dance floor for a few minutes. I just laughed about all of it and made the best of the entire experience. I don't think that's something I'll do multiple nights of the week like most of the college students do, but I would be open to going a few more times during the semester. It was a drastic difference from the kinds of fun we have at Grove City, good, clean fun, which is what I prefer.
I didn't have class on Friday either, so it was another lazy day for me. A few of the girls headed to a market in Belfast, but I stayed behind and did some reading and watched a TV episode I found on You-Tube. When they got back we all decided that we should go exploring this weekend so we spent all afternoon throwing out ideas and trying to decide where to go, settling on taking the bus to Downpatrick...I'll save those details for the next blog. I headed to Bethany's apartment around 7 with two of my roommates to watch part of a movie and then we came back to our block for a delicious dinner of salad and pasta with gargonzola cheese sauce made for us by Bernie. We all get such a kick out of Bernie and his Austrian accent, so we had a lovely time at dinner! A few drinks followed dinner and then we headed across the hall to an international student party. Amanda, Bethany and I only stayed for a short while, met a few people, including a couple girls from Spain and Dia from Jordan. It was too hard to carry on a conversation with the music blaring so loudly, so we gave up and headed to bed for a good night's sleep before our adventures on Saturday.
Overall it was a great week, and I'm excited for the 18 more adventure-filled weeks I have here. Plans are already coming together to go to Austria, London, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Paris and Normandy, Holland, Belgium and hopefully Spain, as well as the many sites here in Northern Ireland. I hope you're not too jealous...
Monday, 26 January 2009
Classes begin...
Today has been a rather uneventful day, other than the start of classes. I've only had one class so far - Management of Change. It started at 9:15 this morning, but Kari and I headed to the main building early just to make sure we could find our classrooms.
From 9:15-11:15 I'm supposed to have the lecture part of my class. Today, Ian, my teacher and studies adviser, just went through introductory notes and then let us have a forty-five minute break between lecture and seminar. Ian (yes, students do call the professors by first-name) is fantastic and a real pleasure to listen to...maybe it's the Irish accent! The seminar part of the class is schedule from 11:15-1:15 and is supposed to be more of a small group discussion time where students and the professor interact rather than the professor simply dictating notes. Today seminar only went for an hour. So far the subject matter of this class sounds very interesting and I'm excited to see what the semester holds.
One thing I found rather interesting is that no one brings lap tops to class! Paper and pen are the means of notetaking here. I just hope I can write fast enough, because 65% of our course grade comes from the 3-hour exam we will take at the end of the term!
Another thing...I completely forgot what it's like being the new kid! It was so weird not knowing a single person in lecture or seminar. I did meet a nice girl named Kelly who was also new to the Jordanstown campus, having done most of her studies at Coleraine. She's here taking two modules this semester so she can finally finish her degree. I look forward to seeing her again next week.
Alright, I'm headed out to enjoy the last bit of sunlight on this beautiful day! The birds are chirping outside and it feels like spring! Jealous?!?!
From 9:15-11:15 I'm supposed to have the lecture part of my class. Today, Ian, my teacher and studies adviser, just went through introductory notes and then let us have a forty-five minute break between lecture and seminar. Ian (yes, students do call the professors by first-name) is fantastic and a real pleasure to listen to...maybe it's the Irish accent! The seminar part of the class is schedule from 11:15-1:15 and is supposed to be more of a small group discussion time where students and the professor interact rather than the professor simply dictating notes. Today seminar only went for an hour. So far the subject matter of this class sounds very interesting and I'm excited to see what the semester holds.
One thing I found rather interesting is that no one brings lap tops to class! Paper and pen are the means of notetaking here. I just hope I can write fast enough, because 65% of our course grade comes from the 3-hour exam we will take at the end of the term!
Another thing...I completely forgot what it's like being the new kid! It was so weird not knowing a single person in lecture or seminar. I did meet a nice girl named Kelly who was also new to the Jordanstown campus, having done most of her studies at Coleraine. She's here taking two modules this semester so she can finally finish her degree. I look forward to seeing her again next week.
Alright, I'm headed out to enjoy the last bit of sunlight on this beautiful day! The birds are chirping outside and it feels like spring! Jealous?!?!
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