University of Limerick

Well, I’ve been here at the University of Limerick for four days now, and I like to think I know my way around.  One thing that I’m certainly pleased with is my room:

Not completely visible in this picture is the queen size bed that I happily roll around in each and every night (I didn’t want to take a picture of it because it wasn’t neatly made, and I wouldn’t want my readers out there to think of me as a messy slob…at least not as much of one).  But anyway, check this out:

See that?  That is MY OWN BATHROOM!  Mine, all mine!  It’s not much, but at least I’m not sharing it with disgusting guys who take forever and don’t flush the toilet and leave their underwear in there all the time (good thing I flushed the toilet and took my underwear out before I took this picture).  Anyway, my suite is pretty cool too:

The sweet thing about my suite is that there’s a little balcony that a few people can stand on and wave to the other few people who are standing in their balconies (mainly used by my suitemates who like to smoke, but at least they’re not doing it inside).  Let’s get outside and see the nice landmarks of the campus:

This is the River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland, which just so happens to be right in my dorm’s backyard.  The river is actually the border between County Limerick (landmass on left) and County Clare (landmass on right), which allowed me to play the “Now I’m in Limerick, now I’m in Clare” game as I ran back and forth across the bridge.

This is the main academic building on campus, comparable to Bogar, Steele, and Fisher back on Susquehanna combined (I’ll be providing SU conversions during this tour so my college friends can better understand the campus).  The glass windows going down at an angle are known as the “Ski Slopes,” and are a popular meeting place.  It’s not a popular meeting place today, since most Irish students actually go home every weekend.  This is for many reasons: for their moms to cook for them, to do free laundry, to get some rest after a hard week of “studying” (or to continue “studying” with their friends back home).  It’s also easy for the Irish to go home since the other end of the country can be reached by car in two hours (I almost wish we can say that in the States)!  Anyway, below is the courtyard in front of the Students’ Union (SU: Deg), which looks extra dead on the weekends because it’s not even open!

On the other side of that is the Stables Club:

It’s pretty much a Benny’s, except that it looks kind of fancy, and there’s beer on tap (I can feel the jealousy of my Susquehanna friends resonating from here)!

There are other semi-interesting things on campus (with semi-interesting pictures to go along with them), but I’m not semi-interested in semi-entertaining you all night!  Go to my Facebook profile and view the pictures there if you would like to see all that campus (and Ireland as well) has to offer.  But I’ll leave you with a look of this baby:

Look at that!  Doesn’t that kick the crap out of Susquehanna’s fountain?  Just looking down at it, it seems as though the bottom goes down at least five feet below the surface!  The only problem is that, reportedly, if you go for a swim in it, you get expelled (at least that’s what my orientation tourguide told me).  I think I might have to test the waters with that…Dáiríre!