One month, already?!?!

I have been here for one whole month as of nine this morning. How did that happen? I can't believe a whole month has gone by. It has been a good month, though it certainly has had it's challenges and unexpected troubles. Some things that are different than I thought they would be are the weather! This has been different in a good way. I was expecting it to rain everyday. But it has only seriously rained 4 or 5 times since I arrived. (Although when it does rain, as it did today, it falls sideways. Much like it does at home).

The city and the people are different than I expected. Not in a bad or a good way, just different. And I haven't entirely decided how I feel about it yet, so I'll get back to you on that one.

I was told about how "easy" classes were here and they are in comparison to what I'm used to, but I think that it will all balance out when exams arrive. I have had a lot of days where I feel that I should be doing homework or studying of some kind and just not knowing what to do since nothing was assigned. Many classes don't have textbooks and the professors don't include class participation as part of the grade. I love having the free time but it is starting to drive me crazy. I'm not used to having so much freedom with my schedule.

I haven't met as many Irish people as I was hoping for. There are so many international students and people in general that I've met more Americans and other nationalities than I have Irish people. I hope to be able to search them out a bit more in the coming weeks and when I travel to different towns where there are less internationals. Part of the problem with this I think is the fact that all of the Irish students go home on the weekend. "It's the Irish way" someone told me. They go home on Friday after their last class and don't come back till late Sunday. They go home for their Mum's cooking and free laundry. That leaves us 'internationals' to entertain ourselves on the weekends, which is harder than it sounds when all we want to be doing is meeting Irish people.

I was surprised by how much they love American music and tv here. I was hoping to find new TV and music (Irish culture tv) to see and hear, but there isn't much of it readily available. There is traditional Irish music being played in several pubs in town almost every night. It is nice to be able to go hear that a few times a week. I haven't seen any Irish dancing yet. I'm guessing that will change with the week long festival they have planned for St. Patrick's Day.

I have a few new pictures that I will post soon. My roommates and I will be traveling to Brussels and Amsterdam with a possible side trip to Brugge this coming weekend (Thursday till Tuesday) so I will update you all with those pictures when we get back.