First of all, their whole attitude toward education here seems so foreign to me. They all told us (the visiting students) that they know we're here to have a good time, not really to learn. It doesn't seem to matter if you show up to your lectures (most of the instructors put their lectures up on Blackboard anyway) and they give out "Recommended" reading lists: books and articles that might be helpful for writing our end-of-the-term papers, but they're only suggested. I'm trying to do as the locals do, but I don't think I'll really be able to break my deeply-ingrained habit of going to class and doing my reading assignments. (Note: I don't mean to say that the academics here will be a waste of time; the classes all seem really interesting so far. It's just the academics apparently won't take up most of my time like they do back at Mac. What an idea.)
My schedule ("timetable") is so unlike anything I've ever had. I only have classes Monday-Wednesday (only THREE days a week... which means I have more days in my weekends than I have in the school week!) I get through Monday, and my week is already 1/3 of the way done. Utter craziness. All the classes are on a strange schedule (or so it seems to me). If a course meets more than once a week, it doesn't have to be at the same time or even in the same room or even with the same instructor on the second day. Trying to keep track of all the timing and the room numbers kinda makes your head spin. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it though (I hope).
As of this week, I have finally been to all five of my classes - two of them met for the first time yesterday. The five are:
1. Milton's Poetry - this is my one English seminar. There are only 6 of us, and we pretty much just read Paradise Lost all semester
2. The Development of the Castle in Medieval Europe - a lecture on exactly what it sounds like. We have a field trip later in the semester to go check out some castles, which should be pretttty awesome.
3. Tragedy & Tradition: from Seneca to Shakespeare - another lecture in which we read plays from both writers and look at how Seneca influenced Shakespeare's tragedies. I've been enjoying the plays, but it is so weird to just be lectured on literature and not discuss it
4. Contemporary Literature - another literature lecture, split into 2 sessions. The first deals with Cult Fiction (we just read A Clockwork Orange for it) and the second focuses on Banned Books (just finished Lady Chatterley's Lover. As I've told my friends here, I'm pretty sure that one was banned for the terrible writing, not for its explicit sexual content). It's kinda frustrating to read controversial texts and then not be able to hash out your own opinions on it in class, but my roommate Katie (who's in the class with me) and I worked out a decent system. My head was spinning after A Clockwork Orange, so I kept posing questions to her about it and we wound up spending a good few hours sitting in a cafe and really digging into the book. If we can just discuss all the books we read with each other, then I think it won't be too frustrating to just be lectured on them in class. On va voir!
5. Beginner's Irish - This is a double credit class that meets 4 hours a week for some intensive language learning. Aaahhh! We met for the first time yesterday, and we all walked out of that room feeling like our brains had turned to mush. We went through basic phrases (Hello, My name is..., Goodbye, etc etc) but trying to pronounce those words in Irish is a daunting task. Trying to sound the words out just doesn't work... for example, take Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? (meaning, How are you?). Somehow, "bhfuil" is pronounced as "will". "Bhf" becomes a "w". My brain's going to have trouble accepting that one. If I can learn to read and pronounce all the signs here by the end of the semester, I'll certainly feel accomplished.
Off to shower and hit up the grocery store. Slán go fóill! (Bye for now!)
