Week 1: Classes, Snow, and Game of Throne…

January 26, 2019

Today, I got to walk where the giants walked. Today, was the Game of Thrones.

It started with me waking up at 6:45 in the morning to get ready and be on the 8:38 am train to Coleraine. Others from Magee were also going and we met up to begin our trek to the train station across the bridge to the other side of L’Derry. Thankfully, there was a veteran international student that let us in on a little secret.

There is a free bus service that goes from the bus center on our side of the River Foyle directly to the train station across the bridge. He essentially saved us from a 34-minute walk. We meet up with the Coleraine students and I meet up with Alaina.

The tour was amazing! I’ll admit–I am not a Game of Thrones Fan and I have never actually watched even one episode of the show. Nonetheless, the places that we saw were unbelievable.

We started off at Dunluce Castle and traveled to the Giant’s Causeway, Ballintoy Harbour, Carrick-a-Rede Bridge, and the Dark Hedges. Of course it was raining for most of the time, but the sun did make an appear at one point.

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It was an exhausting jam packed day, but so worth it.

January 27, 2019

To be honest, I didn’t really do much today and I think that was much needed. It has been a whirlwind of activity for the last few days, and after having walked a little over 10 miles yesterday, a rest day was needed. The last thing on the agenda for orientation was dinner with the Chaplaincy.

It was a nice dinner and the people were very warm and welcoming. It felt nice to get a home cooked meal.

January 28, 2019

Not having classes on Mondays are gonna be super weird.

The Refresher’s Fair was today and I went with another international student, Jenny, to look around. What better way to meet new people than to sign up for clubs? I ended up signing up for a international student club and boxing classes. I have never done boxing before and thought why not.

Jenny and I meet up with some of the French international students to go to the Foyleside Mall. It was nice to get to know some of the international students better and talking about some of the differences in our countries.

Jenny and I tried out Cowbog, a vegetarian and vegan place in town. Although I am neither vegetarian or vegan, I don’t mind eating it most of the time and the burger was good

Later on that evening the Student Union put on a Culture Shock event and I got to try a crisp sandwich which they assured was legit. It’s made up of butter bread with chips (called crisps) for the filling. I’m not gonna lie…I was not a fan but I tried it.

January 29, 2019

The first day of classes and several things happened.

So there are around 6 other Americans in the Irish Studies program and we have all the same classes, including this first class, Introduction to Speaking Irish. Now, the timetable they gave us was like a chart but it was hard to understand what time the classes started and ended. That was how we all ended up showing up to class a whole HOUR AND A HALF EARLY. I think after say…20 minutes we knew we had messed up.

But, it gets even better. Today it was snowing which from what I’ve gathered from the locals is pretty unusual. So perhaps our professor was snowed in, either way, class time rolled around and no professor. Instead, the head of the Irish Studies department came and gave us a crash course in the history of Irish Gaelic.

January 30, 2019

3 hour long classes are going to truly be a test of my endurance, and we did not even go the whole 3 hours today. Thankfully, I am very interested in all of my classes. Today was Northern Ireland: Civil Rights to Brexit. I am excited to learn about the subject because it is something I have little knowledge of. It is also very fitting of our time in Northern Ireland where there is a debate around Brexit and a hard or soft border between the Republic of Ireland and the North.

January 31, 2019

My last class of the week is Irish Folklore and it’s also the only class this week where the professor lectured to entire 3 hours. The entire 3 hours.

Now, the subject matter is very interesting and I cannot wait to develop into the anthropology and history of Irish mythology but we go pretty quickly in class. One moment we were on the syllabus and the next we were covering a few centuries of history. The class is also broken up into a lecture (2 hours) with a three hour gap and then seminar (1 hour). It’s very different from the structure of classes at Agnes, but that’s a post for another day.

Guess who finally did laundry? I have been spoiled by Agnes where we do not have to pay for laundry. As such, I already did not like the idea of having to pay for laundry but it couldn’t be helped. The laundry process is so complicated here and I will save you the long story. The short of it is that you have to have a laundry card in which you go to a website to put money on it (5 pounds per load), activate that card at the kiosk on the 1st floor, and use card to operate washer and dryer.

Did all the steps including putting more money on my card to dry my clothes, and they still were wet after the second dry. So, I ended up hanging them on every available surface in my room.

The night wasn’t a total bust. I went to the Ice Wharf with a couple of international students which was fun, and I got to eat at a new place called Romeo’s.

February 2, 2019

My roommate is here! She’s visiting from Coleraine for the weekend. Last night we went with two other international students to the Ice Wharf and I introduced her to Romeo’s.

Today was another day of walking over 10 miles. We went on a hunt for a place called Taboo Donuts for breakfast which took 30 minutes and several loops around Diamond Square. But the donuts were worth it in my opinion.

We walked part of the city walls and the view was beautiful. I also found St. Columb’s cathedral which I want to revisit during my time here. After a while we had to get off because the pathway a slip-n-slide of ice.

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We decided to revisit the Tower Museum since the last time was so rushed. I have to say that I like the setup of the museum in general. I like how they tell the story of Derry and it’s like your going through a maze in time. However, the mannequins in some of the exhibitions almost gave me a heart attack. This time around we even got to see the exhibition on the Spanish Armada.

We did a good bit that day like trying out the Cafe Gate in the Craft Village and of course doing a bit of shopping. I think this is the most we’ve shopped together in the 3 years of living with each other.

And that’s a wrap until next week.