Roughly two weeks ago marked our first Texas group outing, where we visited Glendalough, a gorgeous small town full of lush greenery all about. It was so picturesque and unbelievable. If it weren't for the hundred + foot drop from the roadside, I would have definitely been running through those valleys Julie Andrews-style, singing, "The Hills are Alive."
About a week and a half ago the Texans (all 15 of us) moved into the dorms at University College Dublin. The campus has huge green fields all around and the dorms resemble something straight from Ikea's Fall 2009 catalog. Though all Irish students are gone for the summer, we have been cohabitating with what appears to be the largest Ohio law school party of the 21st century. It's been a blast.
Day-to-day life in Ireland is relatively similar to that in the US, but with some slight cultural differences here and there. One being the fact that they're not big on distributing plastic/paper grocery bags when you shop here; which either means you bring your own bag, or your buy a cloth bag there. In an attempt to save 2 euro, my friend Sly and I attempted to load our +/- 25 pounds worth of groceries into the 33 gallon trash bags we had just purchased. Long story short, I'm 2 euro broker.
Last Friday proved to be a night of intense fun and a test of extreme physical endurance. The Texans were taken to the Dublin coast to a small community center to do what Texans do best, coordinated partner dancing. Instead of busting out our famous Texas two step, our talented, yet demanding-non nonsense instructor showed us some Irish dancing steps. I had to take a picture of the list of dances we learned because I can't remember the names.... all I can remember is the instructor yelling "jump, kick, turn the lady.....jump, kick, turn the lady back."In all honesty, my body has never been pushed as far as it was that night. As soon as you'd sit down to catch your breath, she'd MAKE you get up. This woman WASN'T messing around. Needless to say, my calves are still sore.
Just in case you were starting to question whether or not I was doing ANYTHING at all related to academics, let me bring you up to speed. Class is held here on campus for about 1-2 hours a day with an awesome professor from back at UT. I'm learning a lot of new concepts about PR and communications. We even touched on some stuff I learned in my social work classes, like the transtheoretical model (sorry, nerdy social work pride moment). It's amazing how similar PR/Communications and social work are. It's all about tuning into people and tailoring whatever you're doing to meet their needs... (and your own needs, when it comes to PR). As far as the research project I'm working on, it's going great! In the last week, I've managed to interview 4 nonprofit CEOs/Communication directors. Everyone has been so friendly, and so accommodating. One CEO even sent me home with a publication containing all their campaign/press release info for the last year and a t-shirt!
All in all, Ireland's still amazing. Stay tuned for PICTURES and more rants. ;-D
