back in Belfast...

So here I am in Belfast staying at the Elms Housing at Queen's University. We are living in co-ed dorms, and, although I haven't met my neighbors I have a strong feeling I'm living with a bunch of guys. At night the hallways are drenched in cologne and the bathroom usually smells funky and the seat is up. C'mon guys! Help me out here... we also have a kitchen in the middle of the hall which is basically every man for himself.  There is a pot of some sort of soup that hasn't been moved for days, and the floor is continually crusted with stuff. Sorry, this is graphic and gross but I want you guys to be with me wherever I go! (wink wink) I like living here, but it has really made me appreciate Brown Cody and the housing at Southwestern. Like a lot. Anyone who gripes about SU housing should come live with me for a week and then they'll understand.

The rooms are nice, it's just a bed, a sink and a desk. I do have a fantastic view of a little neighborhood outside of the housing development. The main campus is about a ten minute walk down the road, but we're within twenty minute walks of just about everything you need to survive here: a grocery store, the students union, several bars, a liquor store, a few late night fast food places, and a bookstore. Oh, and a library for the occasional study... 

I spent most of yesterday in the Queen's main library trying to research for my project. We can't actually take books out since we have "temporary passes" which is going to mean A LOT of time in the good 'ol library. It has about eleven floors and just amazing amounts of stuff. I kept having to ask for directions because the cataloging system was so different. 

I had a weird morning today, I've been waking up completely stuffed up, I think it's the weather. So I decided to get up and have some cereal and eat some of my new groceries (I've had Maureen cooking for me for the past while so I hope I don't starve). I poor a bowl of cereal and dig in. Since I'm all stopped up it took me about half way through the bowl to realize something was wrong. I look at the milk container and realize I've bought Goat's milk. Which I thought was "skim." GREAT. Then I decide to go check of the fitness facilities at Queen's and realize I'd have to pay the remainder of my budget for a three-week membership. I guess it's just jogging (or not) outside then! Despite the annoying start, I get to meet with my advisor today which should be great. I've been reading his research and it's really good stuff! 

Okay, this was kind of a venting post, mostly aimed at my family and close friends who will (hopefully) sympathize with my unfortunate neighbors and goat milk morning. I MISS YOU ALL. I love you guys too. Roves :)

10th Anniversary of The Good Friday Agreement

On Thursday of last week, our politics professor Michael Anderson, who is  a PhD candidate at University of the City of Dublin (UCD) managed to get the fifteen of us into a forum called "From Conflict to Consensus: The Legacy of the Good Friday Agreement." (here's a link to the program-  http://www.ucd.ie/spire/text%20files/ibis_conference.pdf)  Everyone in the crowd was an academic of some sort, and I chatted with a man next to me that was from the Dutch Embassy.  The forum lasted all day, and the shining moment was when the recently resigned Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, Bertie Ahern spoke! He arrived with an entourage of media, assistants, and surprisingly, very few body guards.  He recent resignation was somewhat anticipated by the public.  My host mom and I were discussing his time in office and she said, "He's done a lot for the peace keeping, but he just needs to go before we find something else in his bank account!" He recently failed to claim several thousands of Sterling so the already skeptical public was not surprised to see him go.  Regardless of his personal life, Ahern gave a fantastic and professional speech about the Good Friday Agreement and what to view for the future.  Several other distinguished people lectured, one woman who is the author of one of our staple textbooks, and also the Secretary of State of Northern Ireland.  The entire experience was just absolutely amazing. The day got better when that night my friend Summer and I realized we made it on the late night news with some footage of Bertie! (That's what happens when you sit in the second row...) Another guy in our group made it into the papers the following day.  The most wonderful part of the forum was that I wasn't completely lost during the lectures. As in, I've learned enough here to understand what people are talking about concerning the peace process, the Conflict, etc. I still don't understand all of the Irish humor though. Anyway, we finished up this week with our ISP proposals and lots of papers.  I'm traveling to Belfast for three weeks to research sexual education in Northern Ireland.  Bill Rolston, professor of Sociology at the University of Ulster has agreed to be my advisor over the next three weeks.  He's done a lot of research on the political murals in Northern, but has also published research on sexual attitudes and behaviors of young people in Northern Ireland.  He's a great resource and I'm so thankful to have gotten in contact with him.  As for the pictures below of our last weekend, the rather large man in the picture with me is named Collie. He's a friend of some of our Dublin friends, and when we first met, I couldn't understand him so I asked him to spell his name. He said, "Oh, okay. You spell it L-E-G-E-N-D." So from then on we've referred to him as "The Legend!" HAHA!  

LAST WEEKEND IN DUBLIN

Here is a picture of me with my future "Euro" soccer children. Kids are so excited to meet Americans, and someone yelled, "She models!" So they wanted to get their picture with a model too. Kids, regardless of what area of Ireland we're in, want to know about the election in the States.  People in general are very interested in American politics, probably more so than we are. Whereas in the States a political topic might not come up in conversation for a while, but here, people are not shy about making their first question, "Are yous for Obama or Hillary?" 

This was the night of Mary's 21st birthday party in Dublin! We decided to celebrate before we headed to Northern Ireland for three weeks. Summer is to my left, who lives across the street from me in Dublin, and Moira is on my right.  Moira lives about ten minutes away from me. We three have gotten really close! This night was absolutely amazing! We got most of the girls in the program to come out for a night/debauchery on the town in Dublin. 

This is a picture of Oisin ("Ah- she")and Oran "Or-in"), two of the children that Allie and I stayed with in Derry. Bill Martin, the assistant harbor master in Derry, and his wife Christine were wonderful hosts! We had a great time hanging out with their family for a week. Their lives are CRAZY compared to me and Maureen in Dublin. Oisin was kind of a little devil child though. He was constantly getting into the "American girl's" stuff. As you can tell, he's just about the cutest boy I've ever seen so it didn't even matter! Every morning Christine would pile us in her tiny car with all the kids and we'd drop each of them off at school. They also had a dog named Jock, a bearded collie, who looked basically like a fluffy brown carpet. I loved staying with this family but it really made me miss my family, my friends, and just home in general. I love you all.