October

October has been a pretty exciting month! I got some travel in and have gotten more involved in all my different arenas here. And I got sick. Currently writing this from a nest of blankets with tea and Kleenex beside me. But I'll look on the bright side - that means more time to write.

The first weekend of October was Cork's Folk Festival, and my friend Megan and I went to a show at a local pub. Fantastic music.

Ye Vagabonds

I'm getting to do various things with music myself! I'm in the Choral Society at school, and it's such fun being involved in a big choir again. That's a big part of my undergrad experience that I've missed these last several years.

I've also joined the Christian Union at UCC, and am now helping to lead worship for some of those meetings! This group has been a huge answer to prayer for me, not only to have a community of believers around me at school, but also a chance to exercise my passions of music and leadership that have been a bit dormant since August. God is good.

Halfway through the month I was so blessed to have my CA pastor and one of our church elders stop by Cork on a ministry trip they were taking through Europe. We met for dinner and talked about just about everything under the sun. It was wonderful to connect with people from home, and I left feeling spiritually refreshed. 

Another new regular thing on my calendar is UCC's weekly International Student Cafe, which is facilitated by CUI (Christian Unions Ireland - reminds me of CRU in the States). It's a chill tea/coffee/conversation environment in a common room on campus that helps connect international students both with other internationals and locals who can help them continue to orient to Cork. Through this group, I've gotten a chance to do a bit of local travel, as they often take small trips of one or two carfuls of students to different locations. The first of these trips: Belfast! 

Belfast City Hall

The Salmon of Knowledge or more commonly, the "Big Fish"

The Titanic was built in Belfast, so their museum details the
evolution of the shipyard and the ship's construction as
well as the voyage.

One of the things in Belfast I was particularly interested in was the C.S. Lewis square. He was born there, so they have a small park/trail dedicated to him along with statues of some of his beloved characters. I did get to see it, but it was quite small, and the statues were gated off for some kind of refurbishment (but I still got pictures!), and my phone was about to die and I was alone in a strange city. Definitely an adventure!
(The end of that story is that I found home goods store that was about to close, bought a ready-to-use power bank, and took it across the parking lot to Starbucks for their WiFi and a flat white of relief. I will readily admit that, at least in an unfamiliar place, I am dependent on my phone. And I'm okay with that.)

Finally, near the end of the month I got to take an overnight trip with the same group to do some sightseeing around the west parts of County Cork. This was incredible, as even though I'm in Ireland, so far I've only been in the heart of a metropolis (Dublin [briefly], Belfast, Cork). This was a chance to get out into some wilderness! Among the highlights were going to Loch Hyne at night—absolutely still and quiet—and disturbing the water to see the bioluminescence (difficult to see in the bright moonlight, but it looked like dim sparks on the water), and walking to the top of a hill before dawn to see the sunrise at the Baltimore Beacon (so. So. COLD. But worth it). Prepare for a barrage of pictures.

Pre-dawn

As the sun finally peeked over

The Beacon and lighthouse opposite the bay

The illuminated lighthouse - with the moon in the sky!

Freezing and windswept but reveling in the beauty of God's creation

I was about to sign off for this post, and realized I haven't said a word about school! Rest assured I am in fact attending classes, reading essays, and having academic discussions :). Still pondering my thesis topic... in addition to Narnia, the contenders now include comparing Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden and A Little Princess and a re-realized interest in WWI poetry. So...who knows?? Our classes have moved on from theory-centered discussions to more literature-based ones, which I'm quite happy about. Also, I now have writing homework—a 3000-word essay due mid-November that I need to get cracking on. Maybe I'll keep taking advantage of this sick day...

Bye for now—much love to everyone back home <3

September

Dia dhuit! Or, "hello" (literally "God be with you") in Irish. 

(Allow me to be a linguistics nerd for a moment). The 'dh' sound is not a sound we have in English. According to one website: "This sound is made while trying to say a G and gargling at the same time." Their words, not mine. Think of the 'ch' in loch, like Loch Ness. One of my Irish friends got me to attempt it and was genuinely impressed at my effort. Yay! However, that's still the only Irish I know, for now.

I've been here a month and have made the transition from feeling like a lost tourist to a not-quite-as-lost resident. I know I've only experienced the tip of the iceberg, so I'm genuinely looking forward to what the next months bring. For now, here are some highlights from month #1: September. 

I arrived to my room on 30th August (gotta practice the European order...) after a 3-hour bus ride from Dublin. I have a nice little balcony and not pictured behind me is my own little bathroom. Sometimes the small blessings mean the most. 

My first meal in this beautiful, historic country? Literally the first thing I could find that was close and convenient. Not very monumental, but it did the job. Cork does have some good ethnic food, but so far the Asian eateries I've found are mostly fusion places that might serve Thai, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines. Those that know me are aware that sushi is what I would pick if I could only have one food for the rest of my life. It exists here but I have yet to try it. I actually just met someone last night that works at a place that does temaki-style sushi (hand rolls), so I will definitely check that out. 

I have several local Starbucks here (don't worry, I'm experiencing plenty of things America doesn't offer as well!), and one pleasant surprise is that they use real cups! It may sound like such a small thing, but it's a nice touch and suggests a change of pace from the always-on-the-run mentality of the US. My favorite Starbucks has a lovely upstairs section with comfy chairs and window seats, and I've been there several times to do homework and/or work on my fiction writing (shout out to my Aspiring Writer's Forum!).

I started classes the third week of September after a couple weeks of orientations and tours and registrations (oh my!). My program is an MA in English: Modernities, meaning we will study British and American literature from about 1850 to the present. There are nine of us in the program, which I like. Small groups seem to facilitate good discussion. Our homework load so far isn't bad at all (although saying that probably jinxed it), we typically read 2-3 assigned essays and then come to class to discuss them with our instructor. The program has a faculty team of something like 12 people, so they're each facilitating whichever topics are within their own area of research. We're being encouraged to perhaps start thinking toward our dissertation (over here, your MA project is called a dissertation and your PhD project is called a thesis) while still remaining open and flexible to new ideas that may present themselves to us during the fall and spring semesters. I'm fairly certain mine will revolve around C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, but there are a lot of directions I could go with that. At any rate, a year from now my brain will be mush after researching and writing a 50 (!) page paper. 

My campus is absolutely beautiful. But, *LeVar Burton voice* you don't have to take my word for it...

That last one isn't part of campus, but it's somewhat connected historically, and I get to pass it on my walk to school. This is Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral. Saint Finbarr (so many spelling options...just pick one, dude!) is the patron saint of Cork. Copied from Wikipedia (for which I feel no remorse; I have more than enough *real* research in my future): 

He settled for about the last seventeen years of his life in the area then known as "Corcach Mór na Mumhan" (the Great Marsh of Munster), now the city of Cork, where he gathered around him monks and students. This became an important centre of learning..."Where Finbarr taught let Munster learn", is the motto of today's University College Cork...

I don't have any pictures of it, but I'm really enjoying getting plugged into church here. They have a great young adults group that meets up several times a month for meals or Bible studies. I did go through a pretty lonely first week or so when I arrived, but since then God has been providing so many wonderful connections through both church and school. I look forward to seeing those continue and grow in the coming weeks.

Sometimes it doesn't feel possible that I've already been here an entire month. But if this first one went by quickly, I know I'd better anticipate that the rest will follow suit! Still on my list to do is to figure out some travel options to different parts of Ireland, and even across to the UK if possible. I'm also already looking forward to traveling home for a good chunk of December/January. I do greatly miss my family, my roommate, and my church family. (Still haven't actually dreamed of In-n-Out, but I know that's coming...). Until then, though, I'll leave you with a few more pictures. They each count for a thousand words, right? 

I think this is my only rainy picture! It's actually been a very sunny September, and this SoCal girl is ready for a real fall.