Get it sorted nifty.

Apologies if anyone has been checking my blog at all, because it's been 6 weeks since I last posted. October was the fastest month of my life, and November is going by pretty fast too. Since my last blog I have:
1. Visited my boyfriend in Edinburgh, which was a beautiful city and so much fun; I can see why he loves it.
2. Traveled to Venice with my housemates for a weekend; Friday and Sunday were beautiful, and Saturday was the worst rain I had experienced since coming to Europe. It blew Ireland away. That said, we saw the beautiful St. Mark's Basilica, probably the most stunning church I have ever seen, got lost in the winding streets of Venice (every tour book says you're supposed to anyway) and had an eventful trip to the island of Burano in the north lagoon. I was momentarily stranded in Italy by myself as I was the only one of our group of five to get on the water bus that pulled up, and the driver would not let me off before the gate closed, so I had to get off at a stop 15 minutes away so they could meet me. Luckily there was an American woman who spoke Italian next to me who helped me figure out what to do. Also, I realized how relieved I was to hear the Irish accent again when we got on the plane back from Venice, it was comforting.
3. Traveled to London with my API group. We went up into the London eye, took a duck boat tour of the River Thames, visited the London Bridge and the London Tower, took the obligatory picture in a London phone booth, ate fish and chips, shopped at the Camden Market, saw Platform 9 3/4 (!!!!), and visited the British Imperial War Museum. The War Museum is my biggest recommendation for London. It was incredibly well done, and currently free admission, though I think that's changing next year. The Holocaust exhibit was the best I have ever seen, and I could have spent all day just in that one museum, because there were loads of exhibits I wanted to see but didn't have time for. So, if you are in London, do not miss the British Imperial War Museum.
4. Hosted Steve, Jenn and her friend Leda, and my grandparents, all in the span of one week. Steve came the weekend after London, and I showed him around Galway and we went on a tour of Connemara together. I had an hour to be sad that he had left on Monday and then Jenn and Leda arrived. They took tours of the Cliffs of Moher and Connemara that week and the other days I spent with them, in between doing work for midterms. Halloween was that week and we dressed up twice: I wore my housemate Emilia's costume one night, Amelia Earhart, and the other night I was a flapper. My grandparents arrived in Galway with their bus tour on Halloween night so they stopped over with a care package from home :) The next morning, Jenn and Leda left to go back to France and I went to the Aran Islands with my grandparents. It was so nice to see them and spend the day with them.  I felt so lucky to have so many people visit me in one week.
5. Visited Dublin the following weekend with my API group. Since I spent several days in Dublin with my parents at the beginning I had done most of the attractions that I was interested in, but we saw the old jail and took a boat tour of the River Liffey and that was neat. Then Emma, Emilia and I did the Literary Pub Crawl, which is a pub crawl led by two actors who acted out scenes from famous Irish writers' works and took us to pubs significant in those writers' lives. That was really fun.
6. The following weekend (last weekend) I flew to Rome to meet Steve, Jenn and Leda for four days! It was a great trip--I was so happy to see them and spend time with them in such an amazing city. I think Rome is my favorite city I've ever been to--the history, architecture, food, and atmosphere was all just incredible. Definitely a trip I will always remember. We went to the Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain, ate in the Piazza Navona two nights in a row, visited the Coliseum and the St. Castillo Catacombs. There was a lot more I wish there was time to see and spend more time at, but we decided we just have to go back someday.

That brings me to this week--The Week I Can No Longer Avoid My Final Papers. I have 6 to do in the next week and a half...overwhelmed does not quite cover how I feel right now. I am on a two days per paper schedule, and I should be okay if I stick to that. The day I hand in my last 2 papers I am flying to Barcelona with a bunch of my friends in API, for 4 days of being incredibly happy that my papers are done. Then on the 10th Steve will come to Galway and I won't have to say goodbye to him 3 days later, because we will be going to Stockholm, Sweden for 5 days for the Christmas markets and festivals before heading to Dublin for a few days and then flying home to the USA. This semester could not have gone by any faster.

Now I have to stop avoiding my Irish Society paper...glad I have this blog so I could have a 15 minute diversion!

To Arthur and Lisbon (or not)

Last Thursday two things of note occurred: it was Guinness' 250th anniversary, which in an Irish university town is a holiday, and I went to a debate on campus on the Lisbon Treaty.

I left the debate before the vote in order to celebrate the holiday (potentially a poor choice with a 9AM class the next morning but such is life when you're only studying abroad in Ireland once) but listened to all the speakers. As a student of political science and a temporary resident of Ireland I thought it would be a good idea to listen to the debate and get a better idea of the issues surrounding the upcoming vote on the Lisbon Treaty. You can't walk 50 feet in Galway without seeing another sign about why you should vote yes or no to the Lisbon Treaty on October 2nd, but going into the debate I didn't have a clear understanding of what it would mean for Ireland if they were to vote yes or no. Post-debate, I still don't really feel like I know the real implications. But I will attempt to explain what I understand to be the main points, in my limited knowledge, for those of you not following the debate--I'm not sure how extensively it's being covered in the U.S. Any Irish citizens reading this, feel free to jump in if I'm mistaken about anything--I'm sure I will be.

From what I can tell, the Lisbon Treaty is designed to give the EU more influence in world affairs, by creating a stronger and more unified European Union.  EU policies will be more streamlined and implemented into European countries, economically, socially and militarily. From what I can tell, Ireland is concerned they will no longer have sovereignty over decisions like minimum wage, social issues like abortion, and their historic position of neutrality. Ireland voted no on the Lisbon Treaty a year ago, but nothing in the treaty was changed before it was brought up again for vote this year. Proponents of the no side are outraged by this, among other aspects of the treaty; essentially, the EU said "We didn't like your last vote, so try it again" without attempting to take Ireland's interests into account and modifying certain aspects that were areas of concern.

Like I said before, it's hard for me to tell what really would happen if Ireland were to say yes. The No side thinks Ireland will lose its influence in the EU, as they are a small state and will have complied with the treaty. The Yes side says that Ireland will be better off economically and more secure. I took several pictures of signs up in Galway, so I guess I'll let them speak for themselves too.

Both sides are accusing each other of scare mongering (familar, anyone?) and I can see why. Ireland doesn't run the risk of being kicked out of the European Union if they vote no, so a sign proclaiming "We're stronger with Europe" really doesn't mean anything. I think the No side seeks more influence within the EU rather than seperating itself from the union. Another poster has a photo of a woman smiling with the words "I'm safer with Europe", referencing the EU's commitment to women's rights. A speaker from the Libertas party at the NUI Galway debate drew laughs from the crowd when he said that such posters were irrelevant, as Ireland is already in the EU, and just a tactic; they attempt to say "If you are voting against the Lisbon Treaty, you are voting against women's rights" and if they thought that animal rights were a principle concern among voters, they would have printed posters that read "Ireland for kittens".

                                             But conversely, the Libertas poster that warns of "Irish Democracy 1916-2009" is seen as dramatic and downright dishonest by the Yes side. Though the EU would exercise more influence, the Irish democracy would still exist.

                                                              

The debate was undoubtedly heated and both sides accused each other of blatantly lying in their speeches. A representative of the Yes side responded to the speech of the representative of the Sinn Fein Party (vehemently on the No side, speech full of sweeping generalities and nationalistic statements ) by saying that his party was simply desperate to stay relevant in Irish politics though they were no longer. The last speaker on the Yes side was booed off the stage after he ignored his bell for time no fewer than five times. It left me, a student of politics accustomed to wading through the proverbial crap that accompanies American politics on a daily basis, unsure of who to believe. Since I didn't grow up in Ireland--have barely lived here a month--I can't take anything claimed by either side for granted.

I am interested to see how Ireland votes; I've heard predictions that the majority will say yes this time, but the opposition I'm sure will still be quite vocal.

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite propoganda from this campaign: a woman standing outside the university handing out fliers next to the young people who hand out fliers on the latest promotions running in the local night clubs. Only after I took the flier did I realize it wasn't for Club Karma or GPO, but "Club Lisbon":

Books, sun and cliffs...what more could I ask for?

So, a few things have happened since I last posted: I got a $55 haircut that I hate, a $4 used copy of Oscar Wilde's collected works that I love, I've barely recovered from the shock of the recent weather, and I've seen the Cliffs of Moher.

The haircut thing isn't interesting enough to blog about, but even if the Oscar Wilde part isn't either I'm still going to. I found a great used bookstore (right next to the hair salon where the bad haircut occurred!) that sells everything from discounted current best sellers to the most obscure titles. So I bought Dubliners by James Joyce for my Modern Irish Lit class, for approximately a million times less than I could buy it in the bookstore; the aforementioned Oscar Wilde collection since I left the one I was reading at home and I couldn't wait until my mom sent it to me to read his sardonic fabulosity again; and one called Alleluia America!: An Irish Journalist in Bush Country by an apparently famous Irish journalist who traveled around the United States during the Bush administration. I'm always interested in the outsider view of America, and maybe her insights on the divide between red and blue America could shed some light on how to break through the irrational and embarassing polarization that is American politics today. No, probably not.

 

The weather has been unbelievable, by which I mean it has been sunny or partly cloudy, in the 60s and with barely a rain drop since last Thursday! I'm sure tomorrow it will rain since I'm writing about this, but at least I've enjoyed the past few days. On Saturday my roommate Emma and I walked around the city and took pictures, which you can see on my facebook if you are my friend there or in my photo album when I come back if you aren't. I'll post a few here just for proof that it doesn't always rain in Ireland. I'll need the reminder the next time I can't remember what sun looks like. We learned that day what Galwegians (that's really what they call themselves, I'm not trying to make up a funny word) do on a sunny day: buy 3 six packs with 3 friends and sit by the water along Quay Street.  

 On Sunday my housemates and I went on a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. Our tour guide was a good natured, sort of strange old man who announced to the rest of the bus to watch out for me because I have red hair and there's a legend about this Rouha lady who killed everyone, and then he called me Rouha for the rest of the day. He also asked all the girls to name their first children after him. On a different note, the cliffs were beautiful and we couldn't have had better weather. Apparently on a foggy day you can barely even see the ocean below the cliffs, but I could see it so well I thought I'd throw up if I moved any closer! We also toured the Burren, this awesome region that's covered in limestone because of something to do with glacial deposits and the Ice Age or something that may or may not be related at all to those things. Either way, it was very pretty, and we saw some nice ocean views too:

Tomorrow I will go to my first class of Politics of Poverty and then stand in a line to register for an English seminar and hope to get one of my first eight choices listed. Despite the fact that Hartwick College leaks money like a sieve and somehow, nothing on campus is ever downhill, I will forevermore appreciate that online registration exists at my home school.

 

Back to school...

Classes commenced today. I had one, entitled Renaissance Literature Option B. I listened to the professor talk about Shakespeare for one hour and wondered on and off if he was British or just had the accent of academics (his sense of humor was certainly British, anyway). Then I bought the first two overpriced books of my semester from the college bookstore and walked home with my housemate Anne. We decided to stop at our local grocery store on the way, which seemed like a good idea until we realized we had forgotten our re-usable grocery bags and would have to pay for more, as the Irish are enviornmentally savvy in this way and charge for plastic bags. We were a few minutes from home, lugging our essential purchases of nutella, Special K with red berries, (hard) cider, paper towels and chicken breast fillets, when the heavens opened up on us and dispensed the hardest downpour of rain I've experienced since arriving in Ireland. There was nothing left to do but run, and also curse myself for not waterproofing my boots yet.

We made it back a little worse for the wear and angry at weather.com for predicting no rain from the afternoon onwards. Then I had Anne take my annual first day of school picture with a newspaper for my mom, and I felt the result was fitting because it shows that 1) It rains more in Ireland than Glenn Beck says the word "socialism" and 2) No matter where you are, there are few things more universal than griping about taxes.

I'm a little behind on starting this blog, I've been in Ireland for two weeks now so in lieu of describing everything that's happened so far, I'm just going to make a list of things I have learned:

1. Craic means fun, so if anyone were to say to you in Ireland "Hey, come to this party, it's good craic" don't be expecting the white stuff.
2. Children with Irish accents sound a lot more cultured, and it makes them cuter too.
3. If you would like Bulmer's hard cider in a pub, do not call it "hard cider." It's just cider. The bartender will look at you funny.
4. The walk from my apartment to campus is not, as noted in the literature, 15-20 minutes. It is 30 minutes. And 2.25 miles. So I'm expecting to be pretty fit by the time I get back in December.
5. Eating nutella and peanut butter sandwiches all the time might seem like a good idea, but after three days you will realize that they are not a good substitute for a balanced diet and you should probably learn how to cook real food.
6. Fruit is expensive here. Actually, everything is expensive here, when you're used to the dollar and the American culture of constant sale prices.
7. There is such a thing as a combined washer and dryer, and it's infuriating.
8. It rains. A lot. This may seem obvious, but really, every day, without fail. And umbrellas really do blow inside out. So you always have to plan your clothes around the fact that they'll get soaked.
9. Every Irish student learns the Irish language from elementary school on, and Irish is on all of the signs in the country.

I'll think of a really insightful number 10 later.
Cheers,
Alex