Culture Shock

I've been in Ireland for 24/25 days and since I finally have work to do, it's time for me to procrastinate by creating a blog of my many misadventures. Before I came over here, I can't say I was incredibly thrilled at the prospects of 3+ months in a foreign country while my beloved St. Louis Cardinals inched towards the most miraculous playoff berth ever and Notre Dame looked to suffer it's worst season in history (How could I give up the opportunity to get under so many people's skin at school?). Well, the cinderella Cardinals fell apart as soon as Ankiel got busted for HGH and LaGenius refused to play So Taguchi on a regular basis. And it turns out that Notre Dame wasn't just funny Washington Generals bad, but pathetic Prairie View A&M bad. So I guess I'm not missing that much from back home entertainment-wise, save the breakout hit "Kid Nation." (supposedly a group of children have to be rushed to the hospital for drinking bleach http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/08/kid-nation-blea.html) I guess that proves that parents are good for something. Enough about tv and sports (read: my day to day life), I should probably write about my time here.

Dublin's an interesting enough place. Since the dollar is at an all time low and my classes are on a completely different campus, I find myself walking inordinate amounts to get from point A to point B, wherever the two may be. My room is in an old convent/primary school teacher training college. It reminds me of the halfway house Brooks stays in after he gets parole in the Shawshank Redemption. Only I hope I don't leave this place the same way he left that room.

Extracurricular campus life at UCD, University College Dublin, seems to be run by the Socialist, Labour, or Green Parties. Maybe it's just because they post the most signs around campus, but they do have a lot of functions and they sure like to cite Noam Chomsky. Speaking of which, I've never been to a place where Noam Chomsky was so frequently read/talked about. I guess people are so anti-American policy here that they will buy into Chomsky's theories, no matter how monotone his voice is or shallow his actual academic training in international relations is.



Compared to the Irish students here, Notre Dame students aren't just Conservative Catholics, they wouldn't even be Mormons, I'd say they would fall somewhere in between Jehovah's Witnesses and Jerry Fallwell. Black seems to be the most popular color among the students (I would have guessed green). Long hair in a pony tail also seems to be popular; this morning I could have sworn I saw Penn Gillette walking around campus. Outside of a trip my family once took to the Missouri state fair in Sedalia, I have seen more piercings per person on campus than anywhere before. I sat behind a guy in class the other day who had the back of his neck pierced into two different places. It looked like he was trying to build a human coat rack.

The decoration of the campus leaves something to be desired, namely decoration. Most of the buildings were designed in the 1960s during the student revolutions. Apparently the powers that be here jumped the gun and decided to build a campus that was, and I quote, "riot proof." I don't know what that exactly means, but it makes for a place with few open spaces and buildings that belong on the other side of the Berlin Wall. In fact, the entire place reminds me of the set for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.



Well, I'm tired now and I still haven't written my policy paper. Come to think of it, I haven't even talked about Ireland in this whole post, really. I guess I should say something about it, so, "Up the Republic!"