What’s Normal Anyway?

“Wait, cheese in the form of dry powder? I don’t understand.”This is what my friend said when I tried to explain the concept of Macaroni and Cheese in a box. This is something that I have come to learn is not a worldwide phenomenon like it is in most colleges in the United States. I continued to make my quick lunch and she watched me put the ingredients together. We ended up splitting the bowl of noodles in the end, she loved it!

In and out of the Class

As has already been mentioned, there are quite a few differences during the Ireland study abroad experience from studying at home, but often these are good and important. The classroom culture, I suppose, is much like that of large schools in America during lectures. The main difference, however, would probably be that participation during tutorials is much harder to come by in Ireland. I have found on occasion that I have to ‘force’ myself to participate just to end the awkward silence after a question is asked and no one is answering. So here, there are obvious positives and negatives.

As far as how things are outside the classroom, getting around town is easy enough. A bus goes right from the campus into the city centre, and from there, it is easy enough to either walk, find a cab, take another bus, or for particularly long destinations, taking the trains, all of which I have found to be very well kept and operated. Once you get to where you need to go, pubs obviously aren’t hard to find, and the food, especially fish and chips, is wonderful.

Finally, it is important to go over holidays. During the fall semester, there is really only the October 31^st Bank Holiday, which also happens to be Halloween. During this four day weekend, I took a train from Dublin to Sligo to stay with some family for a while, and had a great time experiencing the beautiful sights and ‘true’ Irish culture outside of the big city.

Octoberfest – South African Style

October has been a hectic time in Cape Town. The beginning of October brought my 21st birthday at Rocking the Daisies, a popular music festival outside of Cape Town. My friends and I drove to the festival on a Saturday, as I anxiously anticipated turning 21 at midnight. As Americans know, turning 21 is a huge deal, but even though I was excited for it, I was a bit sad that I would be spending it away from my friends back home. Thankfully, my interstudy friends made my 21st birthday wonderful. As the clock struck midnight, I was surrounded hundreds of people in the Red Bull Tent.