Let's Talk About School

Maybe it isn’t apparent from what I have been writing about, but I am actually in Cork to attend school at UCC. Outside of all the amazing trips I have been taking around Ireland, I have established a nice little life in the charming city of Cork.

Coming from UCSC I was not expecting to be in awe of another college campus. For those of you who have never seen it, UC Santa Cruz is gorgeous. The campus is integrated into a forest and overlooks the Monterey Bay. After living there for two years, I still find hidden paths and new spectacular views. But enough about Santa Cruz-the point I’m getting at is that UCC surprised me; it is stunning even with my extremely high SC standard for cool campuses. There are some classrooms that look like castles, others like works of modern art, and some like office buildings. The architectural diversity is quite striking, and the more urban feel is a welcome change.

As for academics, many of you know my major is Legal Studies. Many of you also know that the law in Ireland is different from that of the US. For this reason, I am taking many cultural classes that aren’t available back home. The classes I am taking are: Aspects of Irish Folklore, Folklore and History, Modern Irish Music, Peace, Conflict, and Development, Health (from a physical education perspective), and People, Place, and Politics of Ireland (a quasi geography/history class with 2 field trips around Cork). My broad range of classes confuses Irish students because they must choose a course of study and then do not have much choice in the specific modules they take. The classes are all interesting enough, but I have nothing remarkable to report about them.

One of my favorite parts of UCC is the gym, the Mardyke Arena! It is so huge that I have actually gotten lost inside of it twice. There are a variety of exercise classes available to students for free and every piece of equipment I can think of and then some! But it gets better-- there is also a climbing gym and bouldering wall. I have passed my competent climber test and can climb whenever I want.

My weeks here are pretty busy. I have classes Monday-Thursday. On Monday nights I play soccer and then climb with the Mountaineering Club, and I climb with them again on Wednesday nights. In Ireland, the biggest nights to go out are Tuesday and Thursday because most of the Irish students go home on the weekends. Since the drinking age is 18 here, we go out to bars and clubs during the week. This leaves the weekends to lounge around and maybe do some homework, or rather consider doing it and then watch TV instead. If I am in Cork on Sundays, I join the Mountaineering club for their weekly hike up a different mountain. As you have probably gathered, I joined UCC’s soccer and Mountaineering clubs, and am taking full advantage of these wonderful programs.

Some things I am looking forward to in the upcoming months are the Cork Jazz Festival, which I have heard is one of the best and most lively weekends in Cork, and trips I have planned to London and Scotland. You’ll be reading about these soon!