I've had quite a few requests to detail what courses I'm taking, so instead of waiting until I know for a fact what I'm registered for I'll indulge everyone with reports of academic fun!
Good news! I'm officially registered for a Microbiology course, Microbes in the Environment, and an Earth and Ocean Science course, Sediments in the Biosphere. Both seem to be pretty typical science courses: meet three times a week (though on a schedule... oh, er... timetable, right... that was probably figured out by throwing darts at a a blank page of days and times) and each have three hour labs once a week. I had to be approved for these courses before I arrived at NUI, Galway.
Bad news: I have no idea what English courses I'll be in. There are two types here, seminars and lectures. We're allowed to take as many lecture courses as we want, which are an hour each and meet twice a week. They also have up to three hundred students in them. We're supposed to be attending a few of those all of this week to see which one(s) we want to actually register next Monday. I've been told you can get into any of them; they don't really care if they have more students in the lecture hall. Ok, that should work out well enough. The English seminar on the other hand is a slightly different story. We're only permitted to take one because they limit it to fifteen students per course, and they only meet once a week for two hours. We register for that next Wednesday, so I suppose that means if I get the one I'd like I won't start until the week following that. That's a bit of an "if", though. There's also this little thing about registering for English seminars... Although the Irish students registered for all their courses last semester, they still have to wait and register for these seminars this coming week. Because the courses are so small and you have to physically sign up for which one you want, you're better of if you're further up in the queue. Ah, but the Irish are ambitious and academically driven! So they go out on Tuesday night (a common occurrence) and instead of getting a good night's sleep they head over and start queuing as soon as the pubs close. Since registration doesn't open until noon I'm pretty sure that means everyone just skips whatever classes they have that morning. I'm not too surprised; two of my flatmates didn't go in today because it was the first day of Irish weather - winds strong enough to give Texas a run for its money and rain alternating between spitting and pouring. Folks say you should get into one of your top... four... choices. But of course there are ten pages of options to accommodate everyone, so I'm confident I'll get into a course I would like to take.
Overall I have a pretty good timetable. I only have to be in by 9:00 on Mondays, I get the labs over with on Monday and Tuesday, and I only have one class on Fridays. The classes are all slotted for hour-intervals, but they start at ten after and the three I've attended so far ended at ten-til.
Toads: I met a girl trying to find our first class from California that knows Heather Back! (She's also now my lab partner for Microbes, which means at least one good lab partner for the semester; the other lab starts next week) In general everyone here is genuinely friendly. The guy I'm sitting next to in the EOS course is from Galway and a climber; he introduced me to a some of his friends and invited me out to watch a movie with them tomorrow. It's great - everyone seems to really want to incorporate us into their social lives so it hasn't been packs of Americans roaming around. Well, there have been those, but I've managed to steer clear. And my flatmates have invited me along anytime they go out to Eyre Square or just to go hang out with friends in the apartment over.
Actually, speaking of... heading over to Catherine's with them right now.
Cheers!
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