Fitting In

One of the things that surprised me the most is that everything is so similar here. UL is like any other college campus: students scurrying from class to class, trying to fit in a few hours of sleep in between lectures, extracurriculars, and socializing. Doing homework is purposely left off the list because it is apparently far too early in the semester to be thinking about that.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy by adhering to the philosophy that since I'm only here for a few short months, I may as well just do everything. This is an excellent idea in theory: I have a great time meeting other people, and I've made a few Irish friends as a result. Waking up for 9 am tutorials is a bit difficult, but that appears to be the only downside so far.

There are a whole bunch of challenges to fitting in:

1. Dress
While I got it right with black boots and black tights, the skirts I wear are about four inches too long, and my shirts are on the casual side of acceptable. Going out at night is a totally different story: I think I may possibly be the only girl not in four inch heels, and given my already short-ish stature, I get positively towered over on the dance floor. Solution: sharp elbows.

2. Traveling in Packs
Since most Irish students in one course (what we would call a major) are in most of the same modules (classes) together, they tend to travel in fairly large groups around campus and all sit together in the very back of the classrooms. This is making it a bit hard to actually meet anyone in my classes, so I make it a point to at least sit next to someone in every lecture. It's only week 2, so this is an ongoing venture. I'm not all that concerned because the easiest ways to meet people are through...(keep reading)

3. Clubs and Societies
The constant refrain we keep getting told is to join clubs and societies in order to meet people. I've joined two: the International Student Society and the Archery Club. The clubs and socs work differently here, and to be honest, I think it's a far superior system to Tufts. Instead of charging each student an activities fee and then having other students dole it out to the various student groups, each group charges a small fee in order to join (I've paid 4 and 8 euro). This means that almost all the members are really enthusiastic about their group, and it means the groups themselves are waaaaay more active since each member is more accountable.

4. Archery (It was so cool that it deserves its own number)
Last night was so much fun: there had to be at least 40 of us in the shooting range for over two hours. It was really well organized: about one half at least were experienced members and the rest of us were newbies (their term, not mine). There were about 4 or 5 beginners and one coach to each lane, and we would take turns shooting 2-3 arrows each time. I started off shooting righty, but I was having trouble maintaining the proper firing stance and actually aiming (though I did hit the target every time). One coach suggested I switch to lefty since apparently how you look at the target is much more important than your dominant hand and since I wasn't wearing glasses I was looking at the target really strangely. I was a convert for the rest of the night, though I'm not sure whether I was actually seeing better or whether it was just easier to focus since the draw on the bow was significantly lighter (making it easier to hold the firing position). Anyway, the really fun part was the everyone was extraordinarily friendly. Lots of the experienced members stopped by our lane to introduce themselves and see how we were getting on and whether or not we planned on sticking around. I think they may have been even more excited about having us join than we were.

5. Accents and Slang
Even though I can get away with passing as Irish by the way I dress most of the time, once I open my mouth, it's usually all over. While I promise that I'm not trying to adopt an Irish accent (it would go horribly wrong if I did), I've noticed that I've started mirroring the cadence of Irish English, but only when speaking to Irish students, not other Americans. One of the coaches last night was surprised when I said I was American, which to be completely honest, was a bit flattering. It helps that I'm simply not as loud or as talkative as many other Americans. I'm getting gradually better at pronouncing Irish words and names, but I usually have to hear them said several times. The other night some Irish students were teaching several of us Americans to properly use some slang, but none of us could get the pronunciation down.

6. Socializing
Many, many students head home on the weekends, so the prime social nights are Tuesdays and Thursdays. While it felt weird at first to be going out on a week night, I've gotten used to it fairly quickly and have a lot of fun with the mixed group of Irish and American students that I've been going with. Considering that this is a public blog, I think I'm going to leave this point at that :-)

So that's that for now. I'm off to horticulture lab and a folklore lecture this afternoon, and then I'm free for the weekend! Laura, Michelle, Katrina, Elizabeth (we adopted another American travel buddy), and I are headed to Galway this weekend, so think thoughts of sunny weather for us!