Alright Alright!!

Haha Carmen your comment on my last post made my day so this one, short as it may be, goes out to you :)

It's been a week?!!? That might be the longest I've gone so far this trip. It's been a little busy, my friends. And by a little I mean I barely have time to think. But, as exhausting as busyness is, it does afford for many things to blog about, so Carmen (and others) you can look forward to quite a few this week as I get caught up.

What's been going on? Well classes are in full swing now - I'm taking four. I managed to avoid the usual study-abroad-is-like-a-vacation syndrome by getting myself into classes that are widely considered to be the most difficult. Woo!! I'm taking one course that is required by my CIEE program, which I have with all of the 18 other American students that are being hosted here by CIEE. It's not the only study abroad program here, so there are many other Americans wandering around campus...we're just the most spoiled.

Anyway, the CIEE core course is History and Culture of Modern Ireland and is team-taught by our program director Don (who is amazing) and his colleague Noel (a very eccentric Northern Ireland-er who gets caught up in tangents about Protestant dinner parties and jigsaw puzzles). Don's half is pretty engaging, but usually after 10 minutes of Noel talking we all find ourselves decorating our notebooks. Interesting guy, but probably better suited to having a conversation than to leading a class. My other courses include two senior-level political science courses, Contemporary Politics of Latin America and Political Terrorism, as well as a post-grad level literature-based course entitled The Experience of War, in which we look at things like speeches, novels, art and films produced around the era of the World Wars and discuss how they illustrate the cultural impact of conflict. All the courses are interesting and all of the lecturers are good, but once I got all of the syllabi (sp?) together I realized that by the end of the term I would be producing at the very least 6 research papers, all over 10 pages in length (and the majority of which are due in my final week here). Nice work, Elisha, nice work. Good choices.

So if that wasn't enough, I took on an internship here as well. You have three guesses where I ended up. Yes, that's right, I'm currently devoting 10-15 hours per week to the International Office at Dublin City University. The internship in itself isn't stressful at all, the people are nice and I've been given a couple projects that are challenging enough to be interesting but not worrisome. The issue is having 15 hours per week that I'm not researching papers or going over notes or doing reading for class. (The "required" readings for all of my classes combined tops 300 pages/week, easily)

In addition to classes and internships and whatnot, I try to go to the gym every day, which gives me a wake-up call of 8 am at the latest on Monday - Thursday in order to be able to get to class/work by 10. On those 4 days, I'm pretty much going non-stop from 8 to about 4 or 5. Add to that cooking dinner, relaxing a bit, hanging out with friends and (hopefully) getting some reading done, and you've got a pretty full day. No classes on Fridays, which is nice, and was exciting at the beginning of the semester due to its prospects for travel. However now, time and money are slipping away at incredible speeds, and trips that I promised myself are steadily getting cut from the calendar as I have to increase my considerations for my bank account and for my academic well-being.

It's tough, and the fact that I have to limit myself here, curb the sense of adventure for the sakes of rationality and responsibility tends to bring on bouts of homesickness, exhaustion, and even sometimes depression. Another major time commitment is the pursuit of an international co-op for next semester, and the daily frustrations of trying to get advisors to connect and answer emails and give the help you need when you're five hours ahead and across an ocean don't make things any easier. Thoughts of being home in Boston come every day, where I could camp out outside the co-op office til I got an answer, where I'd be taking classes taught in a style that was familiar, where I knew what was expected of me, and where I could unwind with good friends who I knew well with a pint of beer that would cost significantly less than €4.50 (~$6.75).

But the people here are generally great, and our CIEE core course includes 2 4-day trips around Ireland that are entirely paid for, one of which I just got back from (posts and pictures soon, once I can get my internet to let me upload!). I must admit, it was nice to get out of the city and away from classes and work for a little bit, to stay in a 3-star hotel with a nice cushy bed and free breakfast and 3-course dinners every day. We had a lot of fun, got to see more of this beautiful country, and we have another one to look forward to coming up in a couple weeks.

Anyway, time to shower and get ready for a trip to the grocery store so I can stock up on things for the week and for our Sunday potluck that I think we might try to institute as a weekly deal. Stay tuned for tales of the beautiful West, drunken program directors, crazily obnoxious Greek roommates, and a continuation of the Indian Food Adventures. Love you guys, hope all is well. If you haven't already, hit me up with your address to be put on the postcard list. Take care!