And I thought I was an overachiever before...

I still have no computer. It's been days since I've actually been on one. I never thought I'd handle this as well as I am. The whole being cut off from the world (aka Facebook and cnn.com) thing. But it's given me more time to nap, which is always a plus for me. Except now I feel like I'm sleeping my way through Ireland. Not something I was actually planning on doing, but hey, a girl's gotta do something when she has no Internet.

I've been to all except one of the classes I plan on taking, and so far I think I'm going to like them. The first one I went to was a history class on Irish revolution and independence. I'm not taking it. Not that it didn't sound interesting, but I have no need/interest in taking a class that used to be a second semester senior level class that is now a second semester freshman level class, but still taught by the same lecturer (aka professor but not really) who intends on teaching it exactly the same as he always has. And therefore making allusions/jokes about "famous" Irish people I've never heard of. Talk about yawn-inducing. Plus the fact that I got little to no sleep the night before.

But the other classes seem pretty cool. I have a European history class that's going to involve a little bit of reading (not that Irish students read...), an Irish folklore class that should be interesting, a 19th century lit class (but we're not reading any Jane Austen. He's referenced three Austen books in one lecture - Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park - but we're not reading them. Why?), an Irish political science class, and Irish music and dance. For the last one I get to choose either an instrument, dance, or song to learn. The instruments are either the tin whistle (aka a little tin recorder) or the drum. I'm not interested in singing, and I don't know how I feel about the dance. But I'm not big on the whole playing an instrument either (reference: my three horrible years of playing the clarinet). So I guess dance it is. When Riverdance was big I always wanted to learn how to dance like that, so I guess this is my chance to live the dream of a 10-year-old. Ten years later.

And did I mention that no one reads here? One of my lecturers said he stopped putting together a reading list because it's not like the Irish students looked at it at all. So it was just a waste of his time. And apparently they often don't go to class, choosing instead to stay up until 5 am drinking and singing at the top of their lungs. My Irish housemates think it's weird that I plan on going to all my classes. And reading. So even though I knew I was an overachiever in America, apparently I'm an ever bigger anomaly here. Great. And I had just gotten used to kind of fitting in with the majority of the student population at a school for overachievers (except you Leslie, who somehow manages to never do homework or reading but still passes everything. Did I ever tell you you're my hero?) And boy do they love to party. Not party in our sense of partying once every few weeks, but I mean every night. And "going out" is more of, hey let's go to someone's house and get smashed. Every night. But hey, they all make good use of taxis. It's something every American college student should learn to do. I can't imagine what it's like to be a taxi driver though. I'd get kind of sick of shepherding drunken college students around. But that's just me.

I know I keep saying this, but I really do hope to put up some pictures eventually. Once I get my computer back. Which hopefully is very soon.

Kim