I'm officially a student again... ho boy

So I have survived my first week of graduate classes!


I can't remember if I've said this in an earlier post or not, but I only have classes three days a week - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I'm taking either 3 or 5 classes, depending on your viewpoint - I have two that aren't for credit (an undergraduate lecture course and a research seminar) which is why I say that. The three classes that I'm taking for realsies are: Colonialism in 20th Century Cultural Theory, Approaches to the Study of Colonialism, and Decolonization: The Politics of "Development." They all sound incredibly similar, which I think might be confusing until I get the hang of it. There are either 6 or 7 people in my program - I say this because 7 people were there the first day, but one girl hasn't shown up since, so I'm not sure what her deal is or if she's coming back.

Anyway. The first class, Colonialism in 20th Century Cultural Theory, looks at how colonialism has shaped the culture of subject colonies and of the conquering country (i.e. Great Britain). Approaches looks at the problem of imperialism and colonialism from different literary viewpoints: from theatre, from British literature, from Spanish literature, etc. The last one I thought was going to be my least favorite because it's about economics and policy and other things of that nature. I have never taken an economics class and have never had a desire to. If anyone from high school is reading this, you know AP Calc literally reduced me to tears. Literally. And as this past year demonstrated, policy ain't really my thang either. So I thought it would be one I just had to grin and bear. Surprisingly, though, it's interesting (at least so far). I also think I can handle it. So go me!

I find the workload extremely manageable. In our research seminar, we all had to go around and voice a concern we had. I said just that since I've been out of school for a year, I'm worried about losing my study habits, etc. Everyone else said they were worried about the amount of reading. I am now worried that I'm NOT worried about the amount of reading, if that makes sense. It seems really comparable, maybe even slightly less, than ND was. Maybe I just had outlandish expectations of what graduate school reading loads would be, but this seems totally doable. However. I am now stressed that I'm not stressed. If everyone else is worried, my thinking goes, shouldn't I be, too? Maybe I think I can do more than I really can. I don't know. No point in worrying about it until I do the first load of reading for class next week, right? Right.

Interesting things I learned (not academic things, just interesting things mentioned in class):

My program used to be a huge magnet for former IRA guys. I forget which professor was saying this, but he or she was saying that they have a distinct memory of some guy walking around with a limp and when asked why he limped, saying it was from a British bullet. So. There's that. It makes sense, given that the subject matter is colonialism, but still. I thought that was really interesting. Sadly (or not, depending on your viewpoint), I don't think anyone in my current class has fought with the IRA.

One professor claimed that American schools were better at teaching writing than Irish and British schools. I find this incredibly difficult to believe, given the abysmal state of public education in America, but if it is true... go us. USA! USA!

I thought I learned one more interesting thing but now I can't remember it. Must not have been that interesting.

In other news:

It rains. All. The. Time. Here. ALL THE TIME. it's unbelievable. I didn't know the sky could PRODUCE so much water! I now assume every day that it is going to rain. I may not know when, and it may start pouring out a clear blue sky, but it WILL happen. It's like Ireland is experiencing a perpetual monsoon! Apparently we get the worst of it, too, because we're in the west.

I have now met both my roommates for real! Rebecca (she's the one I hadn't really met as of my last blog entry) is incredibly nice. She is an art student, doing what she calls interior architecture which I assume without knowing for sure is just what we'd call interior design. She's very, very sweet. Siobhan is also great. We went out together one night last week (see post below) and she was very fun. I'm so excited that I get to live with such great girls. ND kids, I also hang out with Annemarie McGrath a lot here, if you knew her. She is also doing a master's program at NUIG.

Stupid things I have done:

We all know my hearing is pretty abysmal. I was talking to the other American in my program (her name is Katie) and she was saying how she's been looking into clubs to join and how she's going to join the Sinn Fein Society (Irish political party: say like Shin Fayne). I, however, heard that she was going to join the Champagne Society. I was like, "ooohh, that sounds fun! What do you do there?" Her: "...talk about politics..." I must have sounded like such an idiot.

I was early to class one day and needed to go to the bathroom, so I set off looking for it. The building all my classes is in is basically DeBartolo. It's just this big, impersonal building full of classrooms one after another. I combed that damn building for close to half an hour looking for a bathroom. At one point, I muttered under my breath, "What, people don't PEE in this country???" and someone overheard me and I'm sure assumed I was insane. I'm not kidding, though. Bathrooms appear to be INCREDIBLY scarce in that building. Eventually I found them, but I walked past the same people multiple times on my circuits through the building. I suppose I could have just asked them, but I am desperately trying to give off the impression that I belong, so all those people saw as they were sitting and studying or socializing or whatever was this girl stomping angrily by them once every ten minutes.

This is quite long, so I'm going to sign off. Miss all of you!