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