Catching up and Adventure Weekend

Alrighty, I know that it's been quite awhile since I last posted, but I had a good reason. Last Monday night at ~10:04PM GST, I submitted my AMCAS application to get into medical school. As some of you may know, it's a pretty extensive application and it took me a LONG time to find all the information that I needed and to revise the written portions to get them into the shape that I wanted. However, now I'm finished with the major part of the application and just need to do a few other things, such as make sure that transcripts, letters of recommendation, and secondary applications get turned in on time. But, I can do that while staying caught up in school, touring Ireland, and updating the blog.

I really don't want to start back with a month ago, so I'll just go over the major things and then stay current.

Obviously, I got over here just fine. Meeting up with the other IFSA-Butler people went smoothly and I've made quite a few friends of them so far. It helps that people who study abroad tend to be friendly and outgoing. The group that I hang out with the most normally consists of 5 girls from all over the US. I'm very fortunate to have gotten into their group, because they are a lot of fun and like to actually do things. Therefore, I always have someone to go with whenever I want to travel somewhere; conversely, I can join in on their travels too (That happens more often).

My classes are... different. I'm taking 6 courses and am listed as a "Arts and Occasional Celtic Studies" student. I don't have a favorite at the moment, because I am, quite honestly, lost almost all of the time. I have absolutely no idea what is expected of me, which readings to complete (we have very long lists of primary and secondary reading, with no timeline to follow so we know when to have a reading completed). It appears that we are supposed to read through everything at our own pace and take what the teacher (professor is an honorary term here) says and sift through it, deciding what we feel that we want to retain. As far as course names go: Irish Folklore, Homer and the Age of Heroes (I read and discuss the Iliad and the Odyssey), Classic Myth, Philosophy of Language, Nietzsche and Heidegger, and an obligatory learning about Ireland course.

One of the first weekends that I was here, I managed to get invited to go with a bunch of Germans, a few French, and Americans, on a hike just outside of Dublin; a place called Howth. It took a half hour by train or so to get all of us out there. The town is coastal and it appeared to centralize around the fishing industry. We located a path that would take us along about 3 km of cliffs overlooking the ocean. Pictures don't do it justice, because those cliffs were incredibly steep. On the parts that had two paths, I chose the one that was further from the edge. Survival instinct definitely was kicking in the entire walk. However scary it may have been, it was equally as pretty.



Just before the walk




Tara Place: just a house overlooking the sea



Gentle sloping cliffs; the rest were a bit steeper.



And... the group photo!

Between Howth and this weekend, I've also been to the Jameson Distillery, the National Leprechaun Museum, and a bunch of other interesting, but smaller places.






IFSA (study abroad group) organized an event this last weekend in Killary, which is in western Ireland. They brought in all of their students from across the country- from University College Cork, University College Dublin, Galway, Trinity College, and a few from smaller colleges (50+ students)- to a camp for "Adventure Weekend!." It was a grand ole time. The bus ride there took us about 6 hours, using tiny barely two car width roads that went up and down hills, and taking sharp corners in a large bus. I think a few people got sick from it. However, the countryside was just beautiful. If you think about your view of stereotypical Irish countryside, this is it, sheep and stone walls included.


View from the bus




View of the fjord upon arrival. No, this hasn't been edited at all.

The evening that we got there involved mostly catching up with the IFSA people and checking out the campus. I was very comforted by the wilderness, because Dublin is mostly cement and Fargo is quite the opposite. Killary is home to the only fjord in Ireland and has one of the best views I have ever seen. I actually spent quite a few hours sitting on a wooden picnic table, staring off at the horizon. After night fell, most people went inside for a table quiz and festivities.

I got an email at about 9PM that my parents had had to put down Tessa, our border collie, earlier that day. So, instead of joining in with the rest of the group, I sat outside and reminisced while stars provided the backdrop. I believe that it was quite fitting.

The next day consisted mostly of activities in two sessions. First, I went with a group of people to a zipline and then to a high-ropes climbing course. I'm terrified of heights, or at least I thought I was, so the fact that I had a lot of fun was incredible. The afternoon session was more of a workout, because I chose to undertake the "Turf Challenge." Killary is also home to some of the only bogs in Ireland, so the challenge is a bog run. At times, we would be completely submerged in frigid murky water, or wading through waist-deep muck. Some people got stuck and had to be dragged out by others. I was with a group of almost all girls, which ended up being quite interesting. No one wimped out and everyone made it through just fine. I've got a few pictures, but not as many as I wanted to because mud kind of ruins cameras, however waterproof. At the end of the run, when we thought that we were finished, we were told that there was one segment left, called "The Entrails." It was about a 25 meter stretch where we had to jump into a pool of muck and get completely submerged, and then wade through to the very end. It felt... just weird. The whole experience definitely made me feel more alive though. I'd challenged myself to do things that I would never have done earlier, and had fun while completing those tasks.




Before Climbing



High ropes challenge; I'm on the left. I won, even though I'm not sure if we were racing.




Before the Turf Challenge. My swimsuit started off very vibrant. The bog toned it down considerably. My socks were also completely ruined and that shirt is at least two shades darker. I'm glad that those shoes were not my own.


The entrails. I think that's me at the entrance.


This is right before running into the fjord to rinse of the muck. From Left: Jackie, Caitlin, (both from University College Corkand some weird dude covered in mud. The water was obscenely cold, so I complained a lot.

The afternoon was spent recuperating from the tiring events, so that we would be ready for the disco that happened later that night. I got to go into town and watch the tail end of a rugby game, in Irish, so I was completely lost. However, having a Guinness in an actual Irish pub, where they speak almost exclusively Irish, was a great thing to do. It was also fun to get to hang out with the people who are the college contacts and authority figures at IFSA in a less formal setting. After the game was over, we went back to camp and started up the disco; some old guy was the DJ, so it started off very slow. But, it picked up. I got a great compliment from someone who told me "You should stop dancing in this group. You are making me look bad." I blame the shoes.




Here are some sheep. I named them all Thad, but I'm not sure why. Cars barely slowed down for them.

The night was a great success, but I was incredibly sore the morning after. The combination of activities during the previous day had caused an over-expenditure of energy, so I missed the days activity to rest. It was definitely worth it. The bus left around two and the trip back was pretty miserable. However, I'm now back at UCD and started up my day just fine.

I'm glad that I finally got something new for everyone to read. I'm going to Budapest on Thursday, so I'll write about that when I get back.

Location:UCD and Killary, Ireland

General comments

Howdy again,

I think that I've figured out a better program to blog with, so my following posts should be a bit easier to follow. Those pictures are out of order, but I hope that you can use context to figure out where to put them. It's like a game, except that there are no winners, points, or prizes. Not even a consolation award for playing.

I'm still working on transferring photos from my iPhone to iPad without a computer, which has proven to be quite difficult. I'll get it before the next big post.

While I'm at it, I might as well talk about yesterday. Wait, wait, wait: relevant background information. I am naturally a home-body. As in, I tend to forget that I haven't gone anywhere in awhile and am quite happy sitting in with a book. Thus, traveling around is not a natural state of comfort and takes effort. Alrighty, now the story.

Maggie and I decided that I'd meet her in London outside of one of the train stops for dinner. After some serious grumbling and anxiety noises, Maggie told me that any idiot could figure out the train system and to just deal with it. Then I felt better. The final destination was two transfers from her place, so I followed her directions and got there without a hitch, except for missing the first train because it was completely full and then trying to go down the wrong way on an escalator. I also apparently stood next to the Mayor of London for awhile. I had no idea who he was, but everyone wanted a picture with him. Being the socially awkward penguin that I am, I didn't ask for one.

Meeting up with Maggie was quite rewarding, especially realizing that I made such a big deal out of an easy task. I had a traditional meat pie thing with Pimms lemonade (tons of fruit, tastes delicious) and then a sticky-toffee dessert object. I've got pictures on my phone. Suffice it to say, it was delicious and all of you missed out.

I've been working on med school applications all day, so its time to go do something else. Here is a picture so this post isn't entirely a block of text.


-Chris

P.S. Do you write a post script after a blog post? Yes, I suppose it would be after the script, so it's technically correct. The best kind of correct.

P.P.S. I'm not on a particularly stable schedule until I start up school. However, commenting on here, emailing me at christopher.stallman@my.ndsu.edu, or messaging on skype (search for my name or look up hamlineem2) would all be great ways to get ahold of me. I'd love to hear how things are going or to chat for a bit about being abroad.

Carrier pigeons would be cool, but I'm fairly certain they wouldn't work for a number of reasons.

Location:Charlton Church Ln,London,United Kingdom

First leg of the trip

Blog Entry 1: 8/25/12

Good Morning. I figured that it was time for the long overdue update on what has happened so far on this trip of mine. But before that, background information.

I'm going to be studying at University College Dublin, specifically Arts. This means that I'll be largely focusing on Philosophy, but also on other fun topics. I'll give an updated course list when I have it all figured out. My excursion began on Wednesday, August 15th. The plan was to visit Jon in Washington D.C. (did that, I'll go over that in a bit) and then to meet up with Maggie in London. I'll then be traveling to Dublin on September 3rd and be there until January 3rd. There you have it, a fairly concise summary of my plans.

After hanging out at the lake with the entire family for a few days, which was phenomenal and I can't wait to do it again, my parents drove me to the airport in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, there was more traffic than expected and a 3.5 hour drive took approximately an hour longer. Long story short, I missed my flight by 4 minutes. The nice people at the terminal took care of figuring out how to work around that, so I was only delayed 4 hours. I made it to DC alive, which I was happy about.

I don't want to have to summarize DC into a few paragraphs, but because I'm leaving to meet up with Maggie somewhere in London, I'll cut it short and possibly extrapolate further down the road.

DC with Jon was... interesting and awesome. I'm going to go with a whole giant high five to the entire experience, but next time I'm going to get some vegetables. Jon is a carnivore. Not that this is a bad thing at all, I just began to actually miss the taste of vegetables and milk by the end of the week. Jon was perhaps the best host I've had so far and I am incredibly grateful that he took the time from work and all that to hang out with me for as long as he did.

It took me awhile to get used to the idea that I was in DC and that all I had to do was look outside and I had at least three monuments in my immediate view. That experience is quite surreal. Honestly, I'm still not used to the idea that I'm in the UK. More on that later. The first full day that I was there, we had quite a bit planned. Actually, most of the days were full of interesting tours and places to go. Jon had set up a tour of the capital building with Rick Berg's office, the representative from ND. Katie from Bismarck led us around for an hour or so and gave us history lessons and an extended tour of the building. I hadn't realized that history could have a sense of humor, but... it does. Rather, people in history have senses of humor and this gets transposed into writing and portraits and all of that. I've got some cool pictures of the inside. I do have a picture of Jon and me looking out from a balcony over the city. Although it doesn't look like it, I'd just looked out over the ledge and realized that it was quite a ways down, so we are further from the railing than necessary. I don't like depths. I can look up at tall things just fine, that doesn't make my stomach drop. Looking down from them is another matter.

You'll see pictures of the places that I was on facebook, but I want to include a few from my favorite or most interesting places. First of all, I wanted to show off the Air and Space Museum. This picture is actually my phone background at the moment. The hangar is huge. Like, spread your arms out as far as they can go, and then TRIPLE that. a few times. Suffice it to say, it holds a space ship and about  one hundred planes. That's quite large.

Secondly, The Arlington National Cemetery.  While I really did not like this place, it is because it is an  incredibly sad and solemn place. There are graves as far as the eye can see. Each headstone has a number. The highest number I saw was just under 40,000 and I know that is not the end. It brought up interesting thoughts, such as "why is making noise in a cemetery frowned upon?" Also, "how many of the people in this cemetery have people who remember them and their lives and contributions?" What would have happened if every one of those people had instead devoted their lives to a different cause, such as technological innovation or scientific exploration. Or teaching or sports or any number of other choices. Would the world have been a better place?"

We also got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was quite intriguing to see. The formality of the procedure was blazingly apparent, as their full dress uniforms and shoes and manner exuded discipline. I'm glad I got to see it.

Lastly, Jon and I went to a bar/ restaurant for brunch after walking around and got this delicious french toast wrapped around ham, wrapped in bacon, and soaked in maple syrup. That and an Irish Coffee. It was a great way to start the midday. We talked to Alex (bartender) about soccer and changes that could be made to improve it in the US. We ate in the back bar, a place that is unknown to most people, so they don't go. I don't think that I've been to a more elegant and ornate place that served alcohol.

Jon drove me to the airport at 4:30 AM for my flight at 9:00. I owe him some serious Guinness/ Jameson for that. I ended up being at my gate for 3 hours. Long story short, the flight to the UK took a very, very long time (7 hour layover in Charlotte and then the ~7 hour flight to London). I ended up in London on Thursday, August 23rd, found a train to meet Maggie, and we've been hanging out since then.

Speaking of, I got to go to a traditional Shakespearean play (King Richard III) at Globe Theatre yesterday (Friday, 8/24). It was an entire male cast and the event lasted a few hours. At this point in my trip, I still haven't really come to the realization that I am in the UK. The accent is different enough from what I am used to that my brain automatically registers it as a different language, and I just tune it out. So, I've got to pay attention when anyone is talking, otherwise I just kind of go glassy-eyed and start staring at moving objects. Therefore, the play was a bit difficult to follow, as it was both Shakespearean and British English, so I may have accidentally fallen asleep for a minute. Luckily Maggie noticed and poked me. While I couldn't follow the dialogue, the motions and emotions of the characters were evident through tone and direction towards other characters, so I could get the gist of what was happening. In conclusion, I liked it, but I'm going to get more caffeine and not be jet lagged next time. I'd definitely go again.

Well, I've got to start preparing to meet Maggie in London for dinner. Now that I'm mostly caught up with things, my following posts will possibly be shorter. However, I like to talk, so you never know.

By the way, Boddington's Pub Ale is more delicious here.

-Chris