Week 3 - Societies and Roommates

This week was not really one full of adventures like my last few weeks. I have found a type of rhythm in my days, and have become accustomed to going to certain classes at certain times. However, tutorials (sort of like extra study classes) do not begin until next week, so I have not quite been to all of my classes yet. This week also began my meal plan through collegedinners.ul.ie. This is a program that delivers fresh produce and butchered meat to the villages. The food is meant to last for five meals, but I always had leftovers. The company also provides recipes online that can be made with the produce that was delivered that week. Some examples of the meals I made this week were spaghetti, chicken and broccoli stir fry, and bacon wrapped chicken with potato wedges. I am really happy to be a part of this meal plan, because it is cheap and keeps me from having to go to the store as often as i would at home. I also no longer have to buy meat, which was a good chunk of my cost at the grocery store in the past.

In my last post i mentioned that I had gotten ill on Sunday. Well... the sickness has not gone away after seven days, and has gone from a sore throat to a cough with a lot of phlegm. I realize that the visual is gross, so I won't explain too much more about it. The worst part was probably Wednesday night until today where my voice has been almost nonexistent. It has kept me from doing more with my week, but hopefully I can make a full recovery before too much of this next week goes by.

Another big thing that started this week was the first couple of meetings for the Anime and Manga Society. On Tuesday I entered a room where there were stacks of manga books on several tables. As a quick lesson for those who have no idea what I mean when I say "manga" and "anime", manga is like comic books, but from Japan where you read them from right to left instead of left to right. Anime is like cartoons, but again from Japan and is usually in Japanese with English subtitles. I am interested in Japanese culture, which is one reason that I joined the club. Anyways, so eventually the room filled with probably 20 people who grabbed a book and began reading. The room was silent for about 30 minutes, but then people put down their books and began talking. I began to talk with two girls that sat to the left of me. One was from Ireland and whose knowledge of Americans came from American movies that were either made in the 80s, or were about the 80s. The other girl was born in Ukraine, but moved to Ireland with her mother when she was a teenager. At some point during the meeting (I keep calling it a meeting, but it was more of a social event) a member comes through the door with about six natives of Japan and tells them to mingle. You see, another part of the club is learning some Japanese, but he also wanted us to get a chance to ask questions about Japan and get to know more people. That guy eventually sat down at my table and I had a brief conversation with him. He was from Ireland as well, and he called me a Yankee when he heard I was from the United States. It was all in good fun though, so I certainly did not take any offense to the term. I left after about two hours of socializing and reading. The next day was watching anime, so I went again and this time they were just giving some samplings of potential shows we could watch this semester. We watched the first two episodes of "Kill la Kill", and then we switched over to the movie "Wolf Children". I had plans that night though, and I had seen "Wolf Children" for the first time the previous week, so I ended up leaving about halfway through the movie. If you have never seen it I recommend doing so. It is great, even for people who are not fans of anime.

That night, Wednesday, I headed back to my apartment in order to spend time with my roommates and prepare to head to karaoke night at the Stables (the bar on campus). This day was very interesting for a few reasons. The first reason is that all of my roommates were in the same room at the same time for the first time since we all moved in! The picture on the left is of all of my roommates sitting on the couch in our kitchen area. From the left it is Wil, Selke, Julia, Stephanie, Chen, Krisztian, Vince, and me. The other interesting thing that happened was that we had two girls visiting us who were from the United States, but were studying abroad in England. They were touring Europe before their semester started, and were in Ireland for a few days. This was their last night in Ireland, so we gave them a place to sleep and took them out to karaoke with us. Not all of my roommates and our friends wanted to go for karaoke, so I ended up going there with the two girls from England, one of my friends from a different house in the village, and the roommate who was friends with the girls from England. We got ourselves some drinks and found an open table a bit of a ways away from the stage. We found out quickly from some people that karaoke had been cancelled that day due to low participation, and instead there was a DJ playing music for us. Once we finished our drinks, I headed to the dance floor with two others and began to dance and sing to the music. The songs that were playing were from the 80s, 90s, and popular ones from a few years back and some current hits. My favorite thing that the DJ played was probably a mix of songs from the movie "Grease". We all had a blast, but belting to all of the songs while I was sick was probably what caused me to lose my voice. Whoopsie! It was well worth it though!

After my class on Friday five of my roommates and I decided that we wanted to head to downtown Limerick for culture day. This was a day where all of the entrance fees for attractions like the museum and castle were free! The only problem was that we got there very late in the day. We all wanted to go into King John's Castle, but the entrance looked closed and the sign said that the last tour of the day had begun twenty minutes prior. We found out later that we just did not find the correct entrance, and that tours were still going on. Disappointed, we all headed to a bar near the river and Saint Mary's Cathedral named The Locke Bar. My voice was dreadful this day, so I ordered a tea and the waitress was kind enough to get me a glass of warm honey and lemons as well. Some of my roommates ordered things like bangers and mash and seafood pie, but i had already spent most of my money and wanted to make dinner for myself later that day. I did try the seafood pie though, which was a combination of mashed potatoes and crab and lobster and was delicious. An hour after we got there a couple of guys began playing live traditional music. One of them was playing a guitar while the other was playing a button accordion. They were terrific, and the atmosphere of the place was great. The Locke Bar actually dated back to the 1800s, and on their menus they had an old painting of the area with an arrow pointing to the bar! The six of us eventually ordered a round of stout that the bar brewed itself in order to try it. It was very dark with hints of chocolate and coffee in it. I found it to be quite bitter, but it still was not bad. After the bar we wandered back to the bus stop, but saw that the Hunt Museum was still open and decided to check it out. There was a human statue outside that would move when you put a coin in her hat, so we took a few pictures with her.

The rest of my weekend was spent cooking, sleeping, doing homework, and trying to recover. I did not sign up for any trips, mainly because I do not have too much in funds and want to save up for certain trips like going to Cork, Dublin, and Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. This coming week will be packed full of events and opportunities though, so I will keep you posted!


Fun Facts:

#1: The fact the it has not rained in three weeks (except for a few showers on Friday) is a very rare thing in Ireland. The locals that I have talked to are baffled that it has been so sunny and beautiful.
#2: The President's House on campus was done by the same man who designed the White House in Washington, D.C. Ironically, it is also a white house.