Week Three

This week started pretty slow, but flew by later on as I got busier. I only have one class on Mondays and Wednesdays with no class on Tuesdays, so the early part of the week is pretty open. I did make an admireable attempt to do reading for classes though, including a respectable stay in the library. It's a little hard to get back into the swing of studying after a five month break.

I went to the iCafe dinner for the third week in a row on Wednesday and have decided to make a habit of it. The food is great as is the crowd. Not as many internationals are going anymore, but there are always quite a few Irish. A guitar appeared last week, and my fiddle may be making an appearance.

Speaking of which, I finally discovered where the traditional music sessions are in Belfast. A handful of pubs have them, some of them six nights a week. Open sessions don't start until later in the evening though, and this makes it difficult to play for very long without having to catch an expensive cab. I am determined to play though and will find my way around this problem somehow. I was in one of the aforementioned pubs last weekend when a small group was playing a guitar, a concertina, and bagpipes, and was reminded of why I wanted to come to Ireland in the first place.

Thursday is my long day, and it started even earlier than expected or wanted because of a fire drill. I was thrilled, to say the least, to be done with two three hour engineering math sessions. There wasn't much time for relaxing though because I played football/soccer with about 21 Irish and two other Americans. I've done a lot of walking since I've been here, easily over 4 or 5 miles on several days. I'm not too sore after these days, besides a little joint pain. I consider myself in pretty good shape after being on the ranch all summer, but that hour of playing made me quite sore. 11 or 12 per side soccer is easier and requires less end-to-end running than 5 aside, so I'm really gonna be hurting if I play again soon. I held my own though, for an American, considering I played for a few years and reffed for four.

The fire drill was interestingly the first time my four flatmates and I had all been together at once. The fifth guy introduced himself when I ran into him in the kitchen on Monday or Tuesday. Sightings are still infrequent. I've had several chances to get to know the others however. I visited with Andrew and David for two hours one day, mostly about politics and sports, and another three hours with David later on. I eat meals with David almost regularly. Paul is a little harder to catch, but he did play football/soccer on Thursday.

Thursday night also held one of the most ridiculous experiences of the trip so far. A few Americans were visiting from London, and this was more than a good excuse for a party as far as the internationals were concerned. Though it started off slow, there were eventually either 38 or 40 people in a 12 by 18 kitchen. Yes, I counted. What amazes me is that it's completely within bounds. Doing anything anywhere near like that at a dorm at MSU would probably get you evicted. Luckily, it wasn't my kitchen so I could get some sleep.

I had one class on Friday, then went on a grocery trip, this time at the Tesco in Carrickfergus. The train ticket was well worth not having to walk 3 miles one way.

On Saturday morning, four Americans, a Turkish girl, and I rode the train to the city of Derry in County Londonderry. It was very rainy, but we walked the walls around the center of the city, which are about 400 years old. Within the walls is Protestant and outside the walls the city is Catholic. Churches and cathedrals are visible from just about anywhere on the walls. We went into St. Columb's cathedral and St. Eugene's cathedral. Fighting the rain and 10 year olds with bottlerockets, we walked around part of the city outside of the walls. Murals from the Troubles are on many of the buildings. One of the Americans summed up the experience by guessing that more had happened in the city than we could ever imagine. I realized I get that feeling most anywhere I go in Ireland.