It's hard to believe that my first week of the early start semester is done! What a wild week indeed! Full of settling in: buying carbs and spices, opening Irish bank accounts, finding out I don't need an Irish bank account, fighting with the phone company, and spending way too many Euros on food I then have to lug home!
I start everyday groggily making myself either oatmeal and a banana or a fried egg. Then some friends and I trek the 15 minutes to school where we listen to Dr. Ó Carragáin, our lumbering hunk of a profes
sor, talk about ancient stones with more excitement than anyone I have ever seen! The first two sections of class are a little blurry because I'm usually still waking up, but after my coffee in the Student Center I usually perk right up!The afternoons I've spent wandering the city, shopping for the necessities, and running errands with my roommate. I haven't actually gotten to spend as much time on campus as I would like because it is just gorgeous and the weather has really been spectacular and un-Ireland like (usually around 68, sunny with occasional clouds and lots of wind). Here is a picture of the main quad where the Dean's office is and where all students take their final exams!
r will be with 18,000 more people!Settling has been very
tiring so this week has been pretty low-key, only one night of pub crawling. The nightlife so far seems pretty popular and the regular University students won't show up for an
other month! I can't imagine how crazy campus and the city center will be with 18,000 more people! Should be wild!
Though this week has been a very much needed level of lameness, today was wild indeed! Decked out in our hiking boots, Dr. O took our class on our very first field trip! The adventures began with the good doctor leading us through beautiful grassy hills to the Garranes Ringfort. Although somewhat unimpressive, the ringfort is thought to be the most grand ringfort in Ireland containing the royal seat of Éoganacht Raithleann. Excavations from the 1930s found pottery dating from the 5th and 7th centuries AD, so it's a really old hill surrounded by a defensive series of trenches and banks!
Our second stop was Ballinacarriga Tower House, built in the 14th century. Surprisingly,
the castle retained its strength and we actually got to climb up to the tippy top. It is just crazy to drive along these country roads because not only do they look as though a single truck could make it through, but somehow, these Irish drivers squeeze two past! Just as soon as your heart has returned to a normal, resting beat and you feel safe enough to look out the window you look out to see an ancient castle right next to a petrol station (European for gas station). Dr. O
led us on a tour of the defensive architecture built into the tower house including "sticky-outtie stones" and small, "higgley-piggledy" windows. He also pointed out the Sheela-na-gig, a distorted female figure meant to represent the "power of the female form." Oh Dr. O, such a feminist.
Climbing up the 14th century stairs exhausted both our legs and our bellies, so our next stop was a lunch of thousands of tiny sandwiches! I was in heaven surrounded by plates piled high with 4 types of sandwiches. Once I had shoveled as many sandwiches as humanly possible in my belly we explored Clonakilty for a few minutes before boarding the coach for Coppinger's Court!
Mr. Coppinger's is a semi-fortified house built 30 years or so after the tower house, but really was in much worse shape! It was also designed with much more aesthetic intentions and doesn't have all of the effective defense mechanism that the tower house demonstrated.Our final stop for the day was Drombeg and the Stone Circle. The largest of the Cork/Kerry stone circles, it overlooks a beautiful view of fields and coastline. The Stone Circle itself isn't quite as spectacular as I was anticipating, but then again it is a circle of stones! Next to the circle were the remains of conjoined circular huts and a fulacht fiadh. A fulacht fiadh is the most common ancient site in Ireland and is a crescent of small stones with a wooden trough in the middle. Apparently, in ancient times, men would make boiling water for
cooking by heating the small stones with fire then throwing them in the trough. Very clever, neolithic people of Ireland!
Now I am home and rested up after a long day of adventure! I have become quick the domestic diva, cooking tasty meals on the daily! The rest of the weekend should include a couple pub crawls and a trip to the coast, so stay tuned!
