So, it's been a while, hasn't it?I apologize for the long delay. Ever since actual classes have started, I've been a lot busier. I've also paradoxically been doing less interesting things, so there isn't a whole lot to tell. But I will attempt to summarize the last month in the most interesting way possible.
As I mentioned, real classes have started here. Now, I use the term "real" very loosely, because although these classes technically exist they do not very much resemble college classes. However, I must admit that it's very difficult to be a good traveller and even attempt objectivity*. My own experience has narrowly been of the Philadelphia area, and basically every college seems weird in comparison to Swarthmore. So it's very difficult to separate the ways Ireland/Cork/UCC (University College Cork) are unique from the things that seem strange to me because of my weird background. For example: the lack of Mexican food makes Ireland very different from the US, but the lack of Jewish food only makes Ireland different from the Philadelphia area. So when it comes to UCC, I have difficulty deciding whether I dislike the Irish university system or whether I dislike most universities. It's probably a combination of both. There are some ways in which UCC and Irish "third level" (university) education are just kind of terrible. There are also some in which UCC is good, namely that it's basically free (however, I have heard various view points and find myself thinking that there are worse things than fees, and many of them can be found at UCC). But I am probably confusing you, so I will explain.
Right now, I am taking six modules in various fields: two English courses, "Literature and Modern Ireland" and "Contemporary Irish Literature;" a history course, "Northern Ireland;" an art history class, "Themes in Portraiture;" a Celtic Civilisation class, "The Mabinogi;" and spoken Irish. Irish - not Gaelic, the Irish word for the language is Gaeilge - is obviously a first year course, portaiture is a second year course, and all the rest are third year courses. Third year is basically senior year, since the arts program is only three years in Ireland. The only reason I am allowed to take these courses is because I am not Irish. If I were Irish, I would get to select courses in my year only (so all third year courses). Were it my first year, I could pick four fields to study. However, in your second and third years, you choose two of those four fields and that's all you study. It's incredibly restrictive.
Of course, if this were the only weird thing about UCC it wouldn't bother me too much since I'm exempt from this rule. What does annoy me is the size of classes. With the exception of fairly unpopular departments (art history & celtic civilisation, both of which are pretty new), classes are enormous. I mean English classes with 150+ students, and history classes with 100 people all writing papers on the same topic. I'm fairly sure this is due largely to the fact that UCC, with 17,000 students, is a big school, and that many big schools are like this. However, it's still unsatisfying for many reasons. For one, I want to be able to talk to my professors and ask questions about the course or for a paper extension. That definitely doesn't happen here. More importantly, these classes are just lectures, by their nature. So you basically get the teacher's interpretation of the painting/literature/historical event/whatever without any other input.
And I feel like they assume we are so dumb! In my poetry lecture today, our teacher told us that rain in poetry often represents tears. Seriously, anyone who is about to graduate college, having either majored or minored in English, should not have to be told something like that. Similarly, we never do any theoretical readings - which is weird, since we did more literary theory in high school. Instead, the drama lecturer goes on and on about the biographies of the writers, and tells us the plot and structure of the play. I asked an Irish girl in my class about this:
"I don't see why he spends so much of our class time talking about the background information. We have less than two hours of class a week as it is, and we never actually learn anything in lecture."
"Well," she replied, "Even if he required it, a lot of people probably wouldn't do the work anyway."
"But isn't everyone in third-level English an English major?"
"No, some people are only minors."
Anyway, I also have complaints about the computers on campus (which literally take ten minutes to log on) and the library, which is never open. It closes around 9pm on weeknights, is only open from 10:00-12:45 on Saturdays, and is completely closed on Sundays. And they don't have enough books for classes where 90 people have to research the same thing, so you have to use reserves - which is impossible, since the library's never open. It's amazing, because after a year of giving college tours I saw that people don't really care about their college library. It's not until I observed how annoying this library is that I realized you probably should care, a whole lot.
So, in summary: academically, I really do miss Swarthmore, and you can use this against me next semester when I am dying of work. Socially, I also kind of miss Swarthmore because
a) it's actually possible to sleep there, unlike in Ireland where students drink until 3 am every day of the week;
b) social events are free at Swat, versus everything being obscenely expensive in Ireland;
c) here, all of my friends live on the other side of the city, like 45 minutes or an hour walk away; and
d) all the Irish students go home on the weekends, leaving Cork pretty boring.
Big schools really do lack community. I hardly ever even see my flatmates (I have three Irish flatmates, who are very nice when I do see them). It's kind of a lonely setup, with all the commuters and people scattered all over the city, which perhaps explains why all of the societies are basically social groups/ways to find people to go drinking with. It's really different from the US. Most college social life does revolve in part around drinking, but it's especially true in Ireland, because you're allowed to legally and thus publicly drink.
With all of my complaining, you probably assume that I hate it here, but I think I'm just critical. I really like a lot of Irish people, who tend to be friendly and have a good (though somewhat mean) sense of humor. It's very easy to talk to people here. By far the most annoying people I've met have been Americans. Cork is a cute and nice city, although the lack of reasonable public trans and being without a car makes it harder to enjoy. Even my classes, despite their problems, are generally interesting, and Irish at least is fun. And thanks to globalization, in places where Irish culture fails to meet my expectations (e.g. coffee, peanut butter, television) I can enjoy the much better Americanized versions. Seriously though, Irish coffee is bad. And Irish students have a surprisingly rich knowledge of American TV, because their shows are not good. Ireland is pretty, and people generally take themselves less seriously, and I'm sure I'll miss it when I'm gone.
That would be a good place to end my entry, but luckily for you, I actually did something interesting last weekend!
Last weekend (October 16-18) I went on an optional trip for international students to the Ring of Kerry. I'd heard a lot about how beautiful it was, and I wasn't disappointed. On Friday afternoon, we drove up to Cahersiveen, on the Iveragh peninsula (which is called the "Ring of Kerry," since it's in County Kerry). The first night we spent in our awesome hotel, eating a delicious three-course meal and then listening to a speaker talk about life in South Kerry. It was actually a little depressing. Most young people go to university now and then never come back, since there isn't really much employment in such a rural and undeveloped area. They're 50 miles away from hospitals and cinemas (movie theaters), which are in Killarney. The only thing they really have is Gaelic football, which they are the undisputed champions of. But more about that later. After that, we had a céilí (pronounced kay-lee) dancing class. Since I took folk dance for a year I actually remembered quite a lot and had fun.On Saturday, we drove around the Ring of Kerry. My pictures are really a better narrative than anything I could write, but in short: we drove to Valentia Island, looked at the skelligs, climbed a mountain, visited a slate mine, went to the Skellig Experience Centre (a museum), drove past towns and a chocolate factory, walked on a beach with a castle, and then returned to our hotel. We ate lunch at the hotel, then had some free time. While others watched Jurassic Park and napped, we explored Cahersiveen, did some souvenir shopping, and walked along the bay/lakes and fields. After dinner, there was a talk by some Gaelic football players, two guys who won the championships in their respective leagues and an older man who's a famous player and now coaches. It's an interesting sport, but not really like soccer. You can catch and throw the ball, but you can only hold it for three steps before you have to either "solo" it (kick it back to yourself) or pass it on. And of course it's a lot more violent too. I think it's an official rule of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association, which runs all the Irish sports) that the games have to be more violent than their more mainstream counterparts. Also, it's kind of like American football in that they have a sort of "field goal" that's worth 1 point and then a net (like a soccer net) that's worth three. After we heard them talk and watched parts of matches, we had a "table quiz," which is a big thing in Ireland. It's basically quizzo (for the Haverford people) or group Trivial Pursuit. However, there were way too many random questions about Ireland and sports, so the team made up of the Irish athletes obviously beat us all.
Sunday was somewhat rainy, unfortunately. We walked through Cahersiveen and some pretty rural places for about an hour and a half to see the stone forts outside the town. After that, we completed the Ring of Kerry, mostly staying inside because of the weather. We were supposed to stop in Sneem but only drove through the town; the same thing happened at Moll's Gap, a very beautiful view of Killarney National Park. Our main stop was Derrynane House, where Daniel O'Connell lived. Finally we headed back and arrived in Cork around 6:30.
I'll try to update more frequently, but I can't make any promises. I hope you're all doing well! I miss you lots, of course. By the way, I'm now coming back on the 16th of December! So if you want to see me before the end of January, it might be possible. Let me know!
*(Probably will only interest Swatties: Have no fear; I never harbored such notions. Humanities majors don't believe in objectivity, and my post-colonial literature class has made me so wary of travel narratives that even as I write this blog I think, "Am I unconsciously directing an imperial gaze at Ireland?")
