Everyday Life at UL

Since a couple of my lovely readers out there asked for it, I’ll talk a little bit about how life works here at the University of Limerick. First, allow me to give you some translations since the Irish say a lot of things differently than what us wonderful Americans are used to:

America-speak                         Irish-speak
Major                                        Course
Course                                      Module
Professor                                   Lecturer
Freshman, sophomore, etc.        First-year, second-year, etc.
First floor                                  Ground floor
Second floor                              First floor
French fries                               Chips
Chips                                        Crisps
Sports                                       Sport
Football                                    American football
Gallic football                            Football
Soccer                                      Soccer
Stove                                        Hob
Idiot                                          Eejit

Those are just some of the important ones. Anyway, most students (including myself) are registered for five modules in a semester. Each module consists of two hours of lecture (which may be either two hours straight in one sitting or two separate days of an hour each) and one hour of tutorial. A lecture is basically where the lecturer presents a lecture to the class (wow, you could’ve figured that one out, huh). Class sizes are around eighty to a hundred students, so a lecture is typically in a big auditorium where most people get away with sleeping or watching sport on their computers (but not me, no sir!). In tutorials, however, the class is broken up into groups between ten and twenty, and the structure is more based upon participation and discussion (where lectures typically have none of that stuff).

The five modules I’m registered for are thus:

History of Ireland 1750-1850
History of Europe 1713-1848
Irish Folklore
Comparative European Politics
Politics of Ethnic Conflict

I have to say that I’m rather disappointed in the classes over here, mainly because they are really boring!!! The lecturer will literally stand in front of the auditorium, put up a rather vague PowerPoint, and read his/her lecture off of a piece of paper in a dry, monotone voice. They make no attempt to make it sound interesting or engaging. Even Irish Folklore, which sounds awesome on the surface, is painful to sit through for two hours. The only class I’m remotely enjoying so far is, surprisingly, Politics of Ethnic Conflict (which honestly sounds like worst one of the bunch, doesn’t it?). I really just like the lecturer, who is an old British guy who paces around the room and, more or less, talks to himself about the subject matter, and cracks a joke every now and then about how old he is or how power-hungry the British are just to make sure you’re listening. It was also interesting to hear him digress about the American Revolution, which, from his British point of view, thinks that “it was quite silly for the Americans to rebel in response to their perfectly reasonable taxation obligations.” I also like him because he might be able to get me an interview with a guy who used to work for the IRA for my senior research project. Score!

Anyway, other than boring classes, life is going pretty well. For the first time in my life, I have to buy and make my own food, which is sometimes an adventure in itself. I mostly rely on frozen pizzas and sandwiches from the campus shop, but every once in while I break out of my lazy stupor and cook myself some pasta or seasoned chicken. Some people have been on my case for not eating “Irish food” (you know who you are), but the truth is that there really isn’t any! The Irish eat practically the same things that Americans do, and those things that are seen as Irish food (corned beef, cabbage, Guinness stew, etc.) the Irish will tell you that American tourists eat that stuff more than they actually do. They prefer pizza and chicken and lasagna just as much as the rest of us. So, yes, I am enjoying authentic Irish food (in that it’s prepared in Ireland), thank you very much! 

For fun, I signed up for two different sporting clubs. On Monday nights, I head off to the gym and play badminton and showcase those skills I learned from beating my aunts and cousins at family reunions. It’s a lot of fun, but somehow the fun decreases when I’m playing against skilled people that actually know what they’re doing. Anyway, on Friday afternoons, I step it up a notch and play some Gallic football (or just football here). It’s a lot like soccer, only you’re allowed to catch the ball in the air, dribble it downfield, and volleyball-hit the ball to your teammate (so a combination of soccer, basketball, and volleyball…sort of). The club is made for teaching international students how to play, so it’s not like I’m going up against anyone that knows exactly what they’re doing (thank goodness). It’s interesting because I’m mostly playing with German guys who are really good at soccer, but not used to the whole using-your-hands thing (and often have to be reminded about it). Hopefully we’ll be good enough by mid-November when we’re taking on another Irish university’s international club in a match. I can already feel the patented Hudacs competitiveness pumping through my veins!

So that’s my life here at university. Sorry about the lack of pictures through this post, but I didn’t think you needed to be bored to death looking at pictures of other people being bored to death during a lecture. The good news is that this coming weekend, Butler will be taking us to a place called the Killary Adventure Centre up in County Galway, where we can go windsurfing, kayaking, hiking, swimming, and (though I won’t be personally interested in this) bungee jumping. Hopefully I’ll have a bunch of pictures for that exciting stuff. Oiche mhaith!