The inaugural post...it only took a month.

This revamped blog was long overdue - on Saturday I will have been living here for a month already! Don't worry, I won't try to make up for lost time by writing some ridiculously long post all at once.

My goals for this blog are to make it easy for people to keep up with what's happening in my life, have something I can look back at to help me remember this experience, and hopefully not bore anyone. As I recount some of the things from my first month here, the initial posts will likely be a mixture between recent and past events - but I'll do my best not to have it be confusing. I will also be creating an online photo album that I will link to, so as not to overload this site with photos...which I love to take photos.

So, in an attempt to not go overboard, I will simply share what's happened the last couple days.

Yesterday I worked on a presentation I had to give today in Food Law and then I attended my first class of Arabic Level 1. It was challenging and I'm going to need to practice, but I think it's going to be a fun language. I already caught myself practicing the letters while I was sitting in my Employment Law class today. Hopefully when I return home I can take the next level at the U of M or find someone to practice with.

Today I went to my Media Regulations course and we're learning about defamation. It was painful at times because the professor would ask a question and there would be dead silence for at least 20 seconds...which is a long time in that situation. I felt like saying "Bueller...Bueller" but restrained myself. Then it was off to Employment Law: Contracts for two hours, which as I mentioned was clearly so enthralling that I decided to practice Arabic.

The strange thing over here in Ireland is that Law is an undergraduate degree AND they don't have to pay tuition to go to school. So as you might guess, the level of enthusiasm and engagement by the students is not quite the same as back at the U Law School. But that's fine - I'm still learning new areas of law and it's nice not feeling so much pressure.

After lunch I had my Food Law class. Today there were four of us doing presentations - each on a different article we were assigned. The class is a nice mixture between law and food science/nutrition students. But it was funny the first day when he asked for volunteers to do the presentations this week, because the 4 of us that volunteered were all American law students. Since we only have to present once and it's worth 20% of our grade, I was happy with the idea of getting it over with. I won't bore you with the topic of my paper, but let's just say it was more difficult than I thought it would be. So when the professor complimented all of us on our presentations, I definitely felt a sigh of relief.

This is considered "Fresher's Week" here at University College Dublin (UCD) and so all the social and sports clubs have booths and are trying to get people to sign up. But over here, everyone has to pay to join clubs - not just sports clubs but any club! Granted, most of the social clubs only ask for 2 Euros, but it can add up quickly. I also realized there are way more sports clubs I'm interested in than I could ever possibly join. At this point I'm seriously considering the following:

• surf (when else would I learn to surf?)
• mountaineering (they do hikes every weekend and free use of the climbing wall)
• canoe club (kayaking trips every week)
• lacrosse
• archery
• rifle
  
• ultimate frisbee
• sailing
• tennis
• softball

Each sports club costs 10 or 15 Euros to join and they have certain practice schedules, along with various weekend trips/competitions. So obviously I will need to think carefully about the time commitment and what I can realistically be a part of before signing up.

At 5:30 pm the school hosted a "Buddy Social" for all the international students. They've assigned us to groups with about 5 other international students and 3 Irish student "buddies". Colleen and I went initially only for the free sandwiches (food is expensive here) and coffee (yes, I've finally started drinking coffee). But I was pleasantly surprised when I met some of the other students in my group. There were my two Irish buddies - a guy and a girl - who have apparently been friends with each other since they were 14, a girl from Germany, a girl from Singapore, and a guy from France (who is also studying law and told me I should visit Toulouse, France). They were all very nice and personable, so it sounds like we might get together again to hang out.

Well sorry for such a long post - I will try to break it up more in the future and make it more interesting with photos or something. Anyways - Cheers!