Week two

Thanks for all the comments and well wishes (and the architectural information :)! It really helps me to feel connected to all of you despite the distance. I am hoping to post something new once a week but I am not sure what my schedule is going to be like once I start classes next Monday. I spent the last 4 days at the Rotary District conference and, once I can find a plug adapter that will work with my three-pronged computer cord (hopefully today), I will post my thoughts on that experience (I typed them on my computer while I was in Cork).

There is a clock tower not far from the house where I am currently staying that tolls every 15 minutes. It is probably something you would get used to after a while and not even notice. But, because of its unique toll, it catches my attention more often than not. It is not the tune that makes it unique because it is a tune I recognize, although I cannot think of the name. What makes it unique is it really sounds like a drunken Irishman is doing the ringing. It starts out okay, for about the first two notes, then the bells kind of stumble through the rest of the song, not staying in rhythm at all. It is quite funny actually. I asked someone if they were church bells and he seemed very confused by the question and could not answer. I think it might be coming from the tower at the "town hall" which is not actually a town hall at all. Go figure.
It is nice to be in a country where I can speak the same language (mostly) as the people around me. But I am not sure if it makes the change in culture any easier, although I would think it would. But is almost like hearing a song that is slightly out of tune - you know what it is supposed to sound like but it does not quite fit. Or it is like when you hear a song and think you know it but then it changes into something completely different and unfamiliar. There is a feeling of things being not quite what you know or expecting that leaves me slightly off kilter most of the time. Moving to and living in Asia was like hearing and trying to learn a song that was completely new. I knew everything was going to be very different and I expected that. Here, things look like I should know them, but I don't. It is a different type of adjusting that I am still trying to figure out.
I do think I am finally getting used to cars coming at me from the opposite side of the road than I am used to. I often find myself going back to childhood but instead of repeating "left-right-left", I need to remember the opposite and repeat to myself, before you cross the street, remember to look right-left-right. I guess it is working since I have not been hit yet.

Well, I guess I should get going with my day - pack up my stuff so I can move into my more permanent digs tonight, walk up to Trinity and meet up with another scholar named Silvia,
go shopping for things we both need to get set up, and who knows what else.

Ladies, a note in case you even visit Ireland, if someone offers you a ride, be careful of your answer. Over here, if someone is offering to drive you somewhere, they will offer you a lift. A "ride" is something completely different.