What is this thing called School?

So, I am wicked late on this blog post. But, I thought it would be interesting to talk about the schooling system in Ireland. So, for anyone who is reading this and doesn't want to learn about boring old school, just skip to the next paragraph. So, I was going to originally write this after my first week of school, but look were we are. 3 weeks later and I am finally getting to it. The biggest difference for me here is the size of the classes. The school its self is larger than UNH, but there are only 16 students in Civil Engineering in my grade. I get to go from big lecture classrooms were the professor doesn't even notice if you don't show up, to classes of 16 were everyone knows each other and the professor likes a more interactive classroom setting. I haven't decided which one I like better. Mom and Dad, I'm sure you are thinking that the smaller classrooms the better option. Another strange thing I noticed is that everyone runs on Irish time. That pretty much means that there is no sense of time. People will walk in 15 minutes late to a class. Classes never start on time or end on time for that matter. The first week, my professor showed up to class 20 minutes late and not having the key to unlock the classroom door. Walking around the campus, it feels like I'm back in high school. Everyone just have circles of people in the middle of the main walkway having conversations. No one, I mean no one listens to music while walking to class. I don't know how I would survive my 20 minute walk to class without my music.

Now that my rant of school is over, it's time for the good stuff. So that first week school really wasn't much on my mind. Yes Mom and Dad, I did go to all my classes, but I didn't have any work and on certain days I didn't have class in the afternoon. So on Tuesday, my roommate, Kaylin, and I took a quick trip down to Dun Laoghaire. Yes, everyone that is where in PS I Love You Holly meets Jerry. It was a beautiful coastal town. It was only a 20 minute bus ride from campus, which is wicked nice, but we only stayed for a few hours. We walked down to the end of the pier and got some ice cream. We actually met some guys from Mauritius. I had a very pleasant conversation with them about when I went there a few years ago and how my mom grew up there.

Dun Laoghaire waters

Walk out on the pier in Dun Laoghaire

Then, causally on Thursday 3 of my roommate and I decided we would like to go to another coastal town called Howth. We ended up on the bus that some Irish girls told us was the "school bus". So we had a great hour bus ride with a bunch of elementary school kids. But we did talk to these two girls who gave us some information on what we should do in Howth. That is where we learned about a nice cliff walk. I have to say we were not dressed to do this walk. We all decided before we left that we were going to wear dresses. I was also in flip flops, but i toughed it out and we made it through. We did about 3 miles of walking. But, the views were incredible, I finally felt like I was in Ireland. After all that walking, I was starving, but then again when am I not hungry. In the town, there were a lot of great shops. But, I was craving something gross and greasy. So of course I went for the fish and chips and it was delicious. 

Funny enough, 2 days later was a girl's birthday in my program and we all got together to do a hike she wanted to do. Turns out, it was the Howth cliff walk. But this time we did the whole thing which is about 9 miles. It is supposed to take about 2-3 hours. It took us more like 5-6 hours. We stopped at so many spots on the walk and of course with such a big group, we all ended up getting separated. We also followed this group of girls who were talking about a cute beach area on the path. So we went down to check it out and it was beautiful. It also was such a beautiful day out, so we were all working up a sweat walking around. Then someone had the fantastic idea that we should go swimming. The water was about as warm as it is at Hampton beach in the spring. To say the least, it was numbingly cold. And seeing how none of us planned to go swimming, we all just went in fully clothed. The best part is we were only half way down with the hike by then. But after that long day we were all exhausted and I think everyone fell asleep on the train ride home.  

Arcadia participants go hiking

Just a casual swim in the ocean

View of the Lighthouse on the Cliff Walk

My classic sunglasses pic of the cliffs

 Everyone warned me about the weather in Ireland. They said it was going to always be rainy, but it has been 3 weeks and we have had it only rain once. There has been a ton of sunshine. But, I think that is all I want to write about for now cause I am not a writer and it is very tiring. So, hopefully I'm not wicked late on my next post, but I will talk about my home stay that I did.