School's Out For Summer!

Taken on one of the first days I got here. Perks of being short, I fit right in the "C"

Classes end tomorrow. What? You read that right - CLASSES END TOMORROW (April 23)! Seriously, where has the time gone? I for one have no idea; but I figured I should give a little insight as to what classes were and looked like for me this semester.

Class here is 100% different than in the United States. First of all, every class that I took was continuous assessment. That means that I have zero tests, but most of, if not my whole, grade is based off of one paper. It’s still pretty awesome that I don’t have tests though.

I had class Monday-Thursday this semester. All of my lectures met once a week for two hours (with the exception of my Children’s Literature class that met twice a week, one hour each time).

My Schedule:

Monday: Drugs and Society 13:00-15:00

Tuesday: Belief and Communication 10:00-12:00; Children’s Literature 14:00-15:00

Wednesday: Being, Time, and Space with Samuel Beckett 9:00-11:00

Thursday: Children’s Literature 11:00-12:00; Introduction to Modern Ireland 16:00-18:00

Friday: NO CLASS!

Some things that are different here regarding class…

-Irish students don’t have assignments, only finals papers and tests.

-Irish student don’t get to choose their classes. They choose their major and then all of their classes are laid out for them (weird, right!)

-Irish students pay about 2,500 euro in fees per semester (that’s about 2, 680 dollars) compared to the U.S…. – Woah, just woah.

-Most of my classes don’t have textbooks, and when I did have textbooks – they were all under 30 euro – again, dang.

-Discussion in class isn’t really a thing. Many of my teachers really wanted to discuss, but you could tell who the Americans were because we were the ones who would talk.

Class got cancelled, everyone who wasn't American got the memo... Oh well.

-On time? What does that even mean? I tend to show up about 5-10 minutes early for every class, class usually starts 10-15 minutes late.

-Ok, this is the one that gets me. Irish students call professors by their first name. I can’t do it. I can’t. I tried, but I can’t.

It was very, very different attending DCU. The comparison are too many to count, but I’ve loved my time in class.

Most of my days are filled with walks, hikes, basking in the sun, and adventure. This is where the jealousy kicks in, right? Sometimes I sit and watch Netflix like a normal college student; but when the National Botanical Gardens of Ireland are right down the street from you, you tend to spend lots of your time there.

As of late, and really throughout the whole semester, much of my time is spent in the library and coffee shops. I figure, I get everything done, which leads to me basking in the experience that only about 2% of college students get and fighting everyday to live in the moment.

One of my favorite coffee shops. It just happens to be in Bray, which is one of my favorite places to hike.