classes and such

Today was the first time I had my Irish Cinema class and it just about put me to sleep. I'm hoping that as the semester goes by the films will get more interesting. We watched the Man of Aran today which was made in 1934 in western Ireland. I have no problems with black and white films or silent (almost silent) films but this was tough to sit through. I thought it was going to be my favorite class but now I'm thinking it might be my least. I'll just have to wait and see. My other classes are really great. As I've mentioned before I'm taking an Irish history course, one about contemporary Europe, one about the US, and another about Russia. I really like the Irish one. Our program director teaches it, and he's hilarious. Exactly what you expect an old Irish man to be like. The only thing I don't like about the class is that its with the rest of the group I came with. Its very frustrating to sit in there with so many annoying and ignorant people but luckily I've found a few of them that aren't so bad. I'm not sure what to make of the contemporary Europe one just yet. Our first class we spent listening to one of the 'mature' students talk non stop. I think its great that older people want to come back to school but this one woman was absolutely ridiculous. She spent the whole class bringing up things that were not entirely related to what we were discussing and she would constantly interject when someone else was talking. Then our professor wasnt there this week so we didnt have class. My America and the Wider World class should be interesting. The issue I had with the first class was that it was entirely student presentations and the professor did little more than ask a few questions at the end of the presentations. I have a real problem with classes like that because when I am paying so much money to be taught by professionals who are experts in their fields, I should be taught by them and not students. However, it turns out that most weeks will be split in half so most of the time will be lecture and a small portion will be student presentations. My Russia class is probably one of my favorites. The professor is very personable and knows so much. He has an incredibly Irish name I will probably never be able to pronounce. The only thing I'm worried about is that my entire grade is based on one 16 page paper turned in at the end of the semester. Not looking forward to that.

On another note, we went out last night to celebrate (or in some cases forget) exam results. Of course I didn’t take exams since I wasn’t here but I made Dean’s List so I thought that was sufficient. We had a bunch of people come over and then we went to this club, Spy. It was such a fun night. The club itself is really awesome. There are 3 floors, and each room has its own DJ. It was just crazy. Then when we left and were walking to get food we passed through a couple of knacker fights. If you don’t know what a knacker is it’s the Irish term for people who are just really trashy, scumbags etc. It was probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, especially cause it was all girl fights. The Irish girls we were with were explaining everything as it happened and were surprised I’d never seen anything like that in Boston. We didn’t get home until very early in the morning but I still had plenty of time to sleep since I didn’t have class til 1.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in an earlier blog (or even if I’m allowed to mention it yet since it hasn’t been officially announced) but my roommate Chris won an award for Best Radio Documentary in Europe. Its an especially big deal because he scored like 60 points higher than the BBC entry. Here’s the link to the documentary if anyone is interested: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/8yearson.html It’s a really moving piece about his mom and her struggle to overcome her heroin addiction.

So tomorrow we’re going to Howth and either tonight or sometime this weekend I really hope I can upload all my pictures online. And Dan will be here this time next week!! Emily will be here a week from tomorrow and Leanne will be here in a few weeks for St Patricks day!
Cheers!