I did some amazing traveling this week and am preparing to do some more, but in the spirit of All Hallow's Eve I want to talk about something more terrifying than ghouls or ghosts: IMMIGRATION.

One semester is not very long to live in Ireland. However, it is slightly longer than 90 days, which is the maximum amount of time you can spend here as a tourist or visitor. When you get off the plane, you go through customs, where they ask your business in Ireland and when you'll be leaving, and your passport is stamped. Because we are right on the borderline of that 90 day limit, the whole process comes down to who is standing in the customs booth that day and how they are feeling. If you're lucky, they give you a stamp for 90 days, write in the day you leave, and spare you the trouble of having to acquire a visa. Or they could give you a stamp that requires you to obtain a visa within two months. Or, if it's me, they give one month.

A month is not unreasonable, but I didn't realize how time-consuming this process would actually be. To immigrate, you need (are you taking notes?): 150 euro for the processing fee, a passport, a student ID card, a bank statement from an Irish bank with at least 1, 500 euro in it OR a letter of financial responsibility from your sending university, a mini bank statement from the day you apply, and a letter from your insurance company stating your name and your dates of coverage. Right. So. Most kids had a letter from their home university, but OWU doesn't provide that. Nor did they inform me ahead of time what I would need, despite the fact that they've been sending students to this program for years. So I had to open an account with the Bank of Ireland, then give my information to my mother so she could go to my bank in the US and have the money wired, wait for the wire transfer, go in to request a bank statement, wait for the statement to come. This took two weeks. My statement did not arrive before my month was up.

Then the insurance. The document in question absolutely must have your name AND the dates of coverage on it, which is not something my insurance company understood the first time. "This is what we always give to students abroad." Look lady, I told you what I needed. So I waited for a second document. This took three days, two e-mails and an international phone call in which I navigated through five minutes of automated caller assistance.

The Garda (police) Station has a desk where two people deal with immigration from 9 AM to noon and 2 to 4 PM. If you arrive at 2, there is already a line so long that you will not be helped by the time they close at 4. If you get there decently early, you will still be at least an hour in line. To acquire a bank printout from that day meant that I walked three quarters of a mile to the machine and then back to the station before they opened. If you do not have all the necessary paperwork, you will get a full-scale telling-off in the dulcet tones of a Cork accent, something along the lines of, "If you want to stay in the country, you have to abide by the laws of the country. You can't be a burden on the Irish government. If you want to stay in the country--" and so forth. And you will have to come back and do it again.

Essentially, I went through the smoothest immigration process in the world today. I am a student like thousands before me, fairly harmless, English-speaking, here for a short time, unable to legally hold a job, and ready to spend cash. The Irish government is definitely the winner in this situation, and they made it inconvenient enough. Imagine, if you dare, the bureaucratic labyrinth rigged up in the USA.

All I can say is BOO!

AMRS Movie Night! (AKA Free Yummy Food for the Awesome Ones!)

Hi everyone!
On Tuesday the AMRS program had its first movie night of the year and we watched The Return of Martin Guerre. It was a French film from the 80s, and it was really good. It's "a suspenseful tale based on records from 16th century France about a man who abandoned his wife and left his village. Eight years later, he returns, a changed man, more loving than the violent husband of years past. Soon villagers begin to suspect he may not be the man he claims to be, and an investigation unfolds, threatening the new romance and the life of Martin Guerre" (thank you, Dr. DeMarco). It's based on real documents so it's totally historically accurate, which is cool because we all know that all movie that are "historical accurate" aren't really, just "inspired by true events." Right. Whatever.


Anyways, this was a good movie with enough suspense to keep me interested. I didn't even realize that over two hours had passed until the lights went back on. Definitely two thumbs way, way up. :) The acting was great too.

And Dr. DeMarco made her famous lasagna and meatballs, which, as usual, were awesome. Thanks, Dr. DeMarco for feeding us! We appreciate it! (Sorry to the AMRS majors/minors who are currently abroad right now; you missed some great munchies!)

And as you can see, we had a pretty good turn out. Thanks for showing up everyone! It made the movie that much better and more enjoyable!

Greetings from Cork!

So, confession time: I am not an AMRS kid.

More importantly, though, I am personally aquainted with the mascot, and maybe ye of AMRS bent will get something out of the gibbering of an English/Anthropology/Sociology student abroad in Ireland.

They told us at Orientation that culture shock is a W curve. When you get here, you're delighted with yourself and your surroundings. This honeymoon period is followed by rapid disintigration, which gradually gets better through "reintigration" until you reach "autonomy" in your new surroundings. That's the first "U" of the W. Then you get to do it all over again when you get home. Luckily the closest thing I had to disintigration was a nasty bout of jet lag, which didn't take long to kick.

Cork is a beautiful city, and very safe as long as you're not on the street when the bars close. It is still a city. You get the occasional puke on the sidewalk or, as I witnessed recently, a fellow retrieving his stash from behind the shrubbery on the corner. But the groceries are close by, which makes a difference when you carry them by hand (do not take two for one deals on sacks of potatoes). I am fascinated by the nearby River Lee, which is pretty poluted but still attracts all kinds of birds, fish, and even the occasional seal.

The Irish academic calendar is very different from ours at OWU, so the true semester did not begin until late September. For American students, they offer 4 week Early Start programs in music, history, economics, folklore, literature, and archaeology. For the biased record, Archaeology is the best. A working knowledge of the last 10,000 years of Irish history is a good background for just about everything you encounter here, from Blarney tower house to the tombs of the Bru na Boinne. We got to see some of the most important and impressive monuments in all Ireland, and a few off the beaten path (the farmers didn't mind). It's nice to have travel, meals and hostels all arranged by someone else, in addition to having your own very knowledgeable tour guide. The only disadvantage is he has this nasty habit of quizzing us on our lecture notes as we stand before the object of interest, almost as though we're supposed to apply what we've learned. The nerve.

I have been traveling outside of class as well: weekend trips to Killarney National Park, the Dingle Peninsula, Mangerton Mountain, West Cork, and Cape Clear Island. Traveling is never cheap unless you go with a group from the University, but it is made easier by a decent long-distance bus system and youth hostels. Cooking at the hostel is cheaper than eating out. Expect to do a lot of walking, but often the places of interest are scattered over a broad area and it is better to rent a bike or pay for a driving tour. Those early Christian monks didn't build their beehive huts in town where they would be convenient for 21st century tourists, darn their hides.

It's hard to believe how quickly the time goes by. I love being here, but I do miss my friends, my family, and watching movies without waiting for them to load. Enjoy that for me. Signing off, Abby D.

Killarney

For the first time in a great many weeks, Captain Rohan and I left the city to go on a trip anywhere. This weekend we went northwest to Killarney, a town that lays claim to Ireland's largest national park (possible it's only, since it doesn't appear that there are any other parks of significance on my map).

We left on Friday, missing the 3.30 bus because it had filled with people (apparently a popular bus to get on on Fridays) and had to make sure we got on the 4.30 bus. After getting dropped off at Killarney's bus station (part of it's outlet mall) we went in search of a hostel. Originally we went the wrong direction, but we found it in the end. Our late departure and the time it took to find our hostel meant that it was long past dinner time by the time we went in search of food. Having a group of five meant that our food cost was low because we bought lunch and dinner at Tesco, but everyone was very hungry when we finally had the food all cooked and ready to eat (yum, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup!). We also lucked out in getting a room for five (the Buzzard room) so we didn't need to worry about sharing with anyone else.

The next day we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff, leaving most of it in lockers at the hostel and went to the street to wait for the horse-drawn carriage to come pick us up to take us around part of the park. It was AWESOME! Our driver was very friendly and I was surprised by how calm the horse was having to deal with cars passing it and eventually dogs around its feet. The park was absolutely lovely, made even more visually awesome by the perfect weather we had. Crisp, cool autumn air and a clear blue sky almost the same color as the lakes we saw on our ride.
The ride took us around part of the park (saving my bum knee from having to walk it, thank goodness) and we were able to see (at a distance) Ross castle, the lakes, the ruins of a lime kiln, and even some Irish Red Deer! The deer were pretty cool because they are not always to easy to see. Even heard a buck roaring because it's rutting season.

After the ride our group split, and Abby went on a bike ride around more of the park and the rest of the group wandered around the town. We ate lunch at Killarney House (now in serious need of TLC) and went to see the cathedral (second tallest in Ireland!). I was also able to find some lovely Irish wool socks to wear around my apartment because, man, is it getting cool around here!

Cheers!

Ireland Update

Hi all! I know it's been a while, but honestly, not much has happened that is especially noteworthy around here. Oh, of course there are the little events that happen in each day that are memorable but as far as reporting from abroad, not so much.

While I have been here I have discovered an incredible new love of Ohio Wesleyan's school system, notably the fact that a class meets at the same time in the same place for whatever time slot and location it takes. Here I have to move classrooms (and times) for every class that doesn't have it's two hours smooshed together into one block. Won't lie, this has led to many freak-outs over whether or not I am about to be late for a class. This usually happens for my Monday/Tuesday art history class which on Monday is at 4pm and on Tuesday is at 5pm. 3:45 rolls around on Tuesday and I panic and start getting ready in a hurry (luckily I have a bike here, so I can make it to school relatively quickly...I also miss that about OWU.) only to realize that I have another 45minutes until I need to leave.


Also, Cork did win the All-Ireland Gaelic Football (this has to be the most intense sport EVER! Think of rugby meets european football, yeah, that intense) Championship for the first time in 20 years! Molly O'Malley, our roommate Ali, and I were lucky to find out about the HUGE street celebration that the city held the following Monday. Probably a third of Cork's population showed up. Ok, well, at least a couple of thousand people were there. It was utter chaos with music. The oddest thing we saw were people waving Confederate flags (because the team are the Rebels). As American students we weren't quite sure how we felt about that.

I have discovered that the Irish have an odd love of things that are "Southern." Not southern Ireland southern, but the American South southern. For goodness sake, there are frozen fries that proclaim to be "Southern style" in flavor. I don't really know what they mean by that, but it's confusing.


Adventures will continue later in the semester as I am going on a trip to Amsterdam with my Dutch art class, London in December with other friends, Dublin with my Medieval Irish Art class to see the conservation department as well as do our presentations WHILE IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM!!! That will be AWESOME! (Can you tell how excited I am?) And this weekend I am headed up to Killarney with some OWU girls. It's going to be nice to get out of the city for a weekend, since I haven't left since the Early start program ended.

So Long Everyone!
Cheers!