Week 1 - Adjusting & Finding My Feet

Monday(01/05/2009):

Monday was registration so all the international students met up on the 2nd floor of the student center to go through the welcome/introduction talk from the UCC International Education Office. After that there were speakers from the French, Religious Studies, Art, Celtic Civilization, Irish, Political Science, and Geography departments promoting modules in those sections for international students. For the most part this was a chance for me to look past them through the huge wall of glass that looked out over the college and the hillside portions of the city behind UCC and just admire the beautiful weather and scenery, as none of these departments, with maybe the exception of Celtic Civilizations (I haven’t decided if I’m taking CC112 yet), offered any of the modules I’d be taking. What I did learn though is that there would be a very long and interesting process to get my immigration papers taken care of. The guy at the airport in Shannon had been a jerk and only stamped my passport for 1 month as I couldn’t produce €1,500 immediately (which makes no sense, as a normal travel visa is good for 3 months). So here’s the process. To get my passport stamped for a period of time that allows me to stay until my return plane ticket I have to go to the Garda (Irish police) and prove that I have a passport, medical insurance (show them my international student travel insurance cards), my admission letter from University College Cork, and then a bank statement showing that I have a liquid €1,500. Now the bank statement is the part that makes the whole process a headache. For most international travelers, it takes a minimum of €3,000 to open up an account, but UCC has worked out a deal with the Bank of Ireland to allow UCC international students to open accounts for €1,500. However, to open up a bank account in this manner you first need to have a phone and a letter from UCC asking that I be given a 3rd level bank account (a student account). My apartment has no landline, so that meant that I had to get a cell phone and I couldn’t get my student ID until the day after registration, which was required to get the letter from UCC that was needed for the Bank of Ireland (which would be Tuesday). As a bank statement takes about a week or so to get to you, I basically had to get all of the other stuff done soon, so I wouldn’t be cutting things close at the end. It would really suck to get deported in the middle of the school year methinks. However, we were told not to stress out to much, and as the main speaker put it, “Don’t worry Loves, around here, things have a habit of working out in the end”. We then got handed packets that had had registration info, and numbers which split us up into group 1 through 8 which would corresponded to registration and ID picture times. I was group 3. Registration that day just consisted of going down to the computer labs in the basement of the library (which is probably the most freaking sweet library I’ve ever been in) and just getting our student ID numbers, which would also become out emails oddly enough, and pin numbers, and then verifying and entering various contact information. After that I grabbed lunch in the student resturant/pub. The line for the dinning hall on the ground floor of the restaurant was pretty long, so I just went up the stairs to the next floor which had a Quiznos and got a steak sandwich and Guinness. Then I went back to the student center for another 2 hours of talks from the Support Officer for International Students, the International Student Society, Students Union, Computer Training Center (the campus IT guys), Campus Chaplaincy, and Garda. On the way out I picked up a flyer for the campus Christian society, Iona, which seemed interesting, and extremely laid back. I then went back to the computer labs and tried to figure out time tabels and such for classes, and to get my password, activate my email, and try to get my MacBook Pro registered in their system, so I could use the campus’ wireless. I finally got back into town and made myself some dinner, and tried to go around to different cell phone providers in the area and figure out what plan would be the best for me, and then I head back to campus at 6 for the wine and cheese welcoming party that Iona was having. I was glad I went, as you were offered your choice of red or white wine, coffee, or tea upon entering (I had the red which was quite good for being free) and they had quite a nice selection of cheeses as well. It was also a nice opportunity to get to meet other international students and the Irish students who were active in Iona, and to find out more about Iona as well. Iona is the chaplaincy group on campus, and they provide an opportunity for religious and nonreligious students to hang out, plan trips for students around Ireland to different scenic, historical, or religious and heritage sites, and lead prayer and such on Monday nights. After getting to know people a little better I went over to some of the Iona members for Taizé prayer, which is singing Latin, Spanish, Hungarian, English, and German hymns in Honan Chapel accompanied by trumpet, guitar, piano, and tin whistle. After I got back to my apartment around 8:30, I resumed work on my schedule and time table dissection. Shawn came in and said that Margherita, Giorgio and their friends were going to go to be going out to a pub and we were invited, so Shawn and myself went to Micahel’s Pub with them and their other Italian friends Claudio, and Andrea (both of those are male names in Italian) were we played pool and talked about our favorite movies. It was really fun. On the way back Claudio, Margherita, Andrea and myself stopped by The Old Oak, right next to my apartment, where after asking me about Illinois, Champaign, American music, my views on Obama’s election and other such questions Claudio and Andrea (both of which have degrees in economics) started a debate/let’s-see-who-can-convice-the-American-that-my-views-on-the-economic-growth-and-long-term-stability-of-China-are-correct. This was very amusing, and very interesting. After a few hours of talking I excused myself, went back to South Mall Court (Mall is pronounced like pal by the way), and went to bed.

Tuesday(01/06/2009):

On Tuesday, I woke up, cooked breakfast and made my way over to the West Wing of the Main Quad to get my picture taken for my student ID (which turned out to be a pretty bad picture), then I went over to the International Education Office to get some immigration forms, and my letter for the Bank of Ireland. I then spent most of the remaining morning going into town, eating lunch, going around to cell phone companies and finally getting a pay-as-you-go (or Speak Easy as they call it) plan from 02. I then went back to campus to spend more time in the computer labs, buy a notebook for classes, and go to my AM2071 (Fourier Methods) discussion, which no one, and I mean no one including professor, showed up to, because apparently in the first week of class there are no discussions (or technicals as they call it).

Wednesday(01/07/2009):
I had my first real class on Wednesday, which was Fourier Methods. It was rather easy, and the lecture was just review of basic things that we all should already know by rote at that point. The odd thing was that the professor showed up about 10 minutes late to class and let us go at 10 to, so we had a 40 minute lecture. This seems to be a reoccurring thing throughout the University. Also, the room and class size are very different from the U of I. My largest lecture, Aspects of Irish Folklore(FL2111), is about 90 students, while my math lecture has about 35, and my physics lectures can’t have more then 12. All the lecture rooms are incredibly tiny compared to what I’m used to as well. Most are smaller then the size of a typical discussion room in Loomis Lab. So the FL2111 lecture is probably going to be moved to a bigger room. Going to Celtic Civilizations and then setting up my bank account with the Bank of Ireland took the rest of my afternoon. I ate dinner and then went out with some of the other international students who live in South Mall Court to the Welcoming Party for us. We went late, so when we got to the pub where the party was at we met another group of students leaving because they said there was no room in it for any more people. We went to another nearby pub, Bru, where we just talked. I met some German students there, so it was nice to have an opportunity to improve my conversational German a bit.

Thursday and Friday (01/08 - 09/2009):
Thursday was uneventful enough. I just went to class, and bought a lamp and bath mat for the bathroom. Friday started off the same. I just went to class and then got some money from the bank for groceries. After dinner Shawn, Margherita, Claudio, Giorgio, Giovanni, Laura, their other friend Andrea, and some of their German friends went out to Liquid Lounge (a local bar/club) for the International Students Society welcoming party and for Claudio’s birthday. It was very fun. The club was very clean, and had clean bathrooms to boot. The music was also much better then places like Joe’s back in Champaign, as the music was legitimately dance music, not just all rap. However, the music was also incredibly loud. When Shawn and I left, our ears were ringing for quite some time. It was a great time though, and it was fun because everyone was dancing.
Saturday and Sunday (01/10 - 11/2009):

On Saturday I got up around 9:30 and went to the English Market and got chicken, bread, clementines and some other really great fresh food for pretty cheap. I also went on a Heritage Walk of Cork with the Iona society which was great!  I got lots of great pictures and also got to know a lot more about the historical aspects of certain parts of Cork.  Shawn and I were going to try and walk to Blarney Castle, but when we decided to go around 1 we realized it would be pretty dark by the time we would be getting back. We just kinda hung out around the apartment and did work, cooked, cleaned and listened to music for most of the day. So far today, Sunday, we slept in, realized it was raining and so our 2nd attempt to go to Blarney Castle was thwarted. So now I’m about to do wash, do some math review, look at my physics homework, go to Mass and then just hang out and update things in these last two blogs that I forgot the first time around.