First study week is over...

Last week was the first "real week" and it was actually really hard one to handle...

Monday we had to register on courses which meant 3 hours of queuing and later on about hour more to solve things that after all weren't okay... Most boring day so far :p But the good point is that I manage to have all courses I've planned at this point. So business at first semester and sociology during second semester. At least that what I've planned now but I might change some modules (we would call them courses) for second semester and do something else instead of sociology, luckily it aint' todays' problem to solve and I can worry about it later on.

So about lectures, quite interesting subjects and (luckily) professors speaks normal english, not using strong irish accent so it can be understood what topics are about. Lessons in general: They are very short, only 50min so before you sit down its already almost over :D ... Here aren't the kind of book exams that we have back in Finland, but courses still have some literature that supposed support your learning but there's usually few books to choose at. Quoting a professor: "This book is a good one but if you dont manage to have it, this one would be also okay."  Here people usually buy books quite often if the subject is part of students main degree program. I prefer anyways to enjoy services of library if I just manage to to find necessarily books over there.

As I told at beginning that week was hard to handle but it wasn't because of studies. I have to make confession actually that during last week I didn't put so much effort on classes but there's a reason for it: We made a deal with few other Erasmus students that we have to enjoy again our first year in college and participate the freshers week that meant going out every day during the week... Not that it was awesome, lot of different things: events, artists, bands, dj guests. And not that only because of events Maynooth town really woke up alive since all Irish degree students also arrived. After week I was seriously tired and noticed that I aint 18-years old anymore.. But I still survived it rather well. And then I made a promise to myself that now on from begin of this week I have to concentrate (a bit) more for studies also...

A Day in Dublin

When the sky is blue, sun is shining and its almost end of september something is really wrong... That is what our Dublin walking tour guide also told us. Another thing that if you ask something from an Irish person the answer could be almost always related somehow either to the english or a rain. 

During three hours tour we walked around Dublin to listen & learn more about it and the Irish culture inside of it. Ireland is general country that has long and colourful history of celts, vikings, and english that has anyone on its time overtaken this Island. There's plenty of museums where I want to visit, for example  National Museum where is possible to see around 2000 years old body who still have even hair on because he had been thrown to bog (kinda of swamp)...

 Writers, Literature.. Did you know that UNESCO have named Dublin as a city of literature because there has been and there still are many good writers like Oscar Wilde. And what be better way to keep books than the long bookshelfs of Trinity College Library and the whole area in general was great (but not as same as Maynooth :p). There would be much more things to say to you but if I would start to describe everything here it would take me rest of day (and I really have some classes today!!). 

But the one last thing to mention was that later 

afternoon a huge game takes it place, Gaelic football final Dubs - Mayo. There was tens of thousands people in the city watching game in pubs and stadium supporting own favorite team. The game was cool to watch but even more cooler was to see how people acted like during the game, it was like Finland - Sweden ice hockey game but whats different for that, is that you didn't abuse others supporters.. Which in Ireland might mean that they are not good friends between each other because most likely the person you insult the most is happens to be your very good friend. ;-) 

Dancing Through the Orientations

The holiday have to end sometimes and that happened last Wednesday after hanging around 1,5 weeks in Ireland, time for the orientations! Three (long) days that included all possible things starting from a topic "this is moodle" ending out for the information about "classroom culture in Ireland." And not to forget to talk of guardia (police) that it is important to remember to respect the town... It was a bit ironic because later at the same day we had heard the talk, we participated those Irish home parties, respect your town indeed...I still bet that the information is to be understood among international students better than irish ones. 

One part of the orientations was a campus tour. NUIM (National University Ireland, Maynooth), in general called a college is divided in two parts, north & south campus and between them new (less than a year old) library/learning environment building. North campus is the one where most of the lectures will take on its place,  South one is much older, and it has been used training priest (that act still takes in its place) before turned to college. Because of it's history there's old cemetery, ghost stories to be told etc. that are part of the history.

Luckily on the side of the orientations there was (again) activities going on and one of the funniest of those was the irish dance evening. People gathered at the students union bar at the campus and there then was some irish students who taught some irish dances to everyone. Only problem is that when rhythm speed up faster and faster dancing turned harder and harder... 

To party like a Irish...

This time I have to tell what I did experienced yesterday: Irish homeparties, and guys that was something :D

During the first orientation day few irish lads who were friend with Jani came to tell him that they're holding out parties and you are welcome to join. At the evening we went with 4 friends to see how's the party like. First mistake: We arrived there too late (around 10pm) without drinking anything before - people were totally drunk already
Second mistake: We totally had too few drinks with us (even that we stayed there only few hours)

Overall here's description of the atmosphere:
If think about home parties, first basic think would be music but here they didn't have it at all, guess why... They sing! 5 drunken lads singing drinking songs all together & banging walls/roof at same time while standing on a table & couch while someone have run out of beer and opens a bottle by hitting it on the tables' corner so that beers foam spreads around. Afterwards you could notice when empty cans or bottles flew easily from one side of the room to another over the floor which was covered by cornflakes and poured drinks... Suddenly someone finds a bbq sauce from fridge and splash, there was sauce all over kitchen floor, wall & and clothes of few lads.. but hey it's just for fun :D

Even that you might feel a bit terrified, it wasn't that dramatizing. And worth of experience to see and definitely would go through that again, but I'll keep you one piece of advice: Make sure that parties are somebody's else house, not yours.. Or at least I wouldn't like to be the one of those persons who wake up at the morning in the house notifying the result of the evening... 

Flying with the wind at Howth

What would be better way than to start a week to gear up with out Finn-French-Dutch team and head up to the Howth. Sun was shining (really, ain't always raining in Ireland) and it was so warm that I could manage out with a t-shirt, so it was the perfect timing to step on to a 10km hiking path. I really have to say that the one hike we took last week was beautiful but I would say that this was even a bit better. It started at the village of Howth and first lead up to the higher ground where the path followed the coastal line.

After passing by lighthouse it turned into a rocky bay where even was actually really old piles (around 14th century) that have been used by pirates to tight out their boats and smuggle things like whiskey etc. to the Ireland. Or at least that was the story what we heard while just sitting on the rocks near seashore. After that it turned out so windy that we were even able to lean against the wind, and seriously it was an awesome feeling!! Then path lead us to through fields and a golf course where actually where the sign "Follow the white stones and watch out for the golfers"... It just makes me think are the golfers seriously so dangerous people :D ... Then we entered in a forest where actually was lot of birches so it remind me just like a forest in Finland. After we arrived back in to Howth and at that time we started to be a bit tired and stopped to eat a place called "The Bloody Stream", really adorable Irish pub & restaurant where I had "a sandwich" that actually had much more filling than bread itself.. Not that I mind :P Summa Summarum: This was a great day that made me enjoying Ireland more and more. But it's not just the country, it is also the people to experience it with. So thanks for the day to our team, we did it well. 

Cliff Walk & a peek in to life of Dublin

Since Im still on a holiday (or at least it feels like it) because studies hasn't started yet so I got basically 24 hours a day to do whatever I want. =) ... But it's to be noticed that during this week lot of students have arrived here in Maynooth and since those who will have on-campus accommodation are able to access there tomorrow there will be even more both exchange and degree program students. So waiting to see how this Maynooth town wakes up alive when next few weeks are passing... There have already been few meetings between us students who have arrived already so I just have to say that there is many names & faces to remember...

But yesterday (Fri 13.9.) we went with a group of four; Me, Sylvain, Luisa and Katarina to hike through so called cliff walk near Dublin. The forecast has promised that it shouldn't rain but still we felt few drops on the way but that couldn't be even called as a rain... So I guess could say that weather was good XD And one more thing about weather, it's different comparing to Finland because if you would look outside and its all grey, cloudy and even a bit of rain at autumn it's expected to be cold.. But here if the weather looks like that it still can be actually quite warm that you can easily manage with a t-shirt and a jacket. Not that everybody doesn't agree this notice I made.

Back to the cliff walk, we took a train together from Maynooth to Dublin and therefore to Greystone where the walk started. It goes along coastal path and gives you also to opportunity to walk on top of Brays Head and ends up at the town of Bray. The length of our walk was around 8km so it was easy to handle and the views were beautiful. Our Finn-French-German team survived it well with good laughs while creating stories about pigeons & ravens, meditating on rocks, struggling with the stairs or discovering "the mystical forest" where we actually even found our leprechaun ;-) Then we returned from Bray by train to Dublin where I hopped off to take a quick look of Dublin and have some dinner.

I had sometime to walk around by myself around Dublin so I was able to "take a control of the city" inside my head to draw a map in there avoiding then the feeling that I would be lost. After a while of walking I met other friends who had returned on their day trip and then we went to eat together in a place called Nandos. I just have to say that they were almost weirdest burgers that I have ate but still delicious ones and I might did fell in love with their lime&herb piri-piri sauce :P Plus the Sangria was tasty, just to let you know that the secret ingredient of Sangria is cinnamon ^^ After dinner just checked around Temple Bar area where it was easy to notice how the city was alive: Pubs are full people and almost inside of each one of them was possible to hear how someone was playing live music. So there we were with our international group enjoying few pints and then returning by bus back to Maynooth after a long day. This first "real look" in Dublin gave me an good impression of the city itself so Im just waiting forward to go someday with more time to discover it even deeper.    

Home Sweet Home

After arriving it was time to start setting up for my new home.... But first to tell you where I am at the moment actually: So the place is called Maynooth as I have already mentioned. It's located about 25km west from Dublin. A small and cosy town with about 12 000 inhabitants and University has about 8000 registered students so could say that 2/3 of all this town inhabitants are students, cool stuff =) And somehow it reminds me of Hervanta in Tampere, "small town next to the main city where is basicly everything you need"... Sorry folks XD And in that town I live in area called Kingsbry which is just 10-15min walk to town centre and 20min to University. So not bad all.

Im sharing the house with several people and so far everyone seems to be cool. Each one of them have own cultural habits & accents which make this quite fun. There's Sylvain who's French, enjoys a good food & cooking so I started to call him the master chef of our house. Oh gosh, what aromas we had last evening at kitchen ^^ .. Then there's Chloè - The Queen of the house, helpful person who's a bit worrying/thinking too much always for a while, but in a good way of course :) .. Then there are two Irish guys Evan & Mark who are goofy guys. There are endless line of jokes, stories etc. Evan is the dj & FIFA master (at least still for now...) of the house, responsible for the music when chilling out.. So far the legendary one was the glorius hit Blue by Eiffel 65 ...  Yeah, I know - believe it or not! And the music connected to the laugh of Mark that reminds me of insanity, again in a good way of course XD That is the way I can tell you at this point since there are still two more that I havent met yet, so we will see what shall our final team in our Kingdom in Kingsbry be like.

The Arrival

Summer has passed away and it was (finally) autumn which ment that my flight will departure to Dublin. So after a crazy week that was one huge rush hour for me, I guess that I didn't even realise that Im leaving abroad for the whole year... 

Flying out by Norrwegian was a good choise, direct flight and everything worked out well. I even did manage to pack my luggage exactly, because the weight was 20,5kg and if it would be over 21kg they would charge me extra money for oversized luggage. Good start. During the flight I read the Lonely Planet "Discovering Ireland" guidebook about the way of life, some history, people, places etc... So I will tell you later on was these things true or false while I have discovered them by myself.

After arriving Ireland I decided to wait my roommate Sylvain who supposed to have arrived earlier afternoon but hes' plane was delayed 4,5hours.. Hah! After waiting about one hour he arrived and after chatting a while we took a bus that would take us to our new hometown, Maynooth.

Even that it was dark the first impression of Ireland is that everything is green so I dont wonder anymore why people call Ireland the green island. And also another thing to notice is that here everything is upside down so I need to twist my brains around to survive and I mean like driving at the "wrong side" of the road, light switches, hot&cold water taps in kitchen are an opposite way around that I have used to. But no worries, I'll survive :)