Twelve and a half weeks ago, Florence and I arrived in Ireland. We were really excited, though at first we didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. After one and a half hours on the plane and about 6 hours on a coach (or more), we arrived in Cork, in Victoria Lodge, which was going to be our house for this semester. After a few days alone in my apartment, my flatmates arrived: three of them are Irish (from Limerick) and the last one is American. Apartment 85 is situated on the sixth and last floor of the building and often, at night, the winds are whistling so much that it sounds like some kind of music which helps me to sleep! And just in front of my kitchen window is Cork County Hall which is the second highest building of Ireland if I am right (about 16 floors high to give you an idea!). About three days after our arrival, we had already met at least 30 Erasmus students (many of them from Germany, Italy, France, USA and Austria)! This number has, of course, increased since then. We often go to pubs and nightclubs with them or have parties at their apartments. They are all very nice and friendly and they teach us cultural elements of their own countries and we also do the same about Belgium. With French people, we often laugh at differences in the French language from France or Belgium.
Let's turn to university now: University Cork College (UCC). The buildings are far more beautiful than in Namur (where the science building is not as stable as before if I am not mistaken). UCC is a huge campus but this is normal for it has to welcome 14,500 Irish as well as nearly 1,000 international students! We did not have many lectures per week, but this seemed to be normal. Just as it was normal that lectures began 5 minutes after the hour and finished 5 minutes before.
Another thing I should talk about are clubs and societies. They are a mix between Belgian 'kots-à-projet' and 'cercles'. People with common interests are invited to meet weekly and take part in shared activities. Actually, we can say that clubs are sport societies. For example, we often went to the choir (and at the moment we are taking part in Christmas concerts), the photo, the film societies and we have also joined the pirate society and the aquagym and orienteering clubs. And on Fridays we used to go to parties organized by the International Students Society. All these meetings were free and trips were often organized where we had a lot of fun (or a lot of CRAIC as irish people say). Thanks to those trips, we travelled Ireland quite a lot and it was really worth it for it is a wonderful country. We have already visited Kinsale, Galway, Connemara, the Ring of Kerry, Kilkenny, Dublin and we intend to go to Northern Ireland soon. Apparently, we visited Ireland more than Irish do because none of my flatmates has ever visited all those cities. Ireland does not only mean, as one might expect, the colour green, sheep, ginger-haired people and Guinness everywhere. This is not entirely true! Ireland is also a country of pubs (at least 5 in every street), of beer and whisky, of rainbows (and in order to get rainbows you need clouds and rain as well as sunshine), of people so kind that they are always ready to help you in all circumstances, of wonderful landscapes, of live traditional music and so forth and so on.
This week has been very intense for we had essays and tests but this is also our last week with our international friends. Most of them are leaving to spend Christmas at home and will come back for New Year’s Eve; we just do the opposite. But we hope to see them soon, maybe at Saint Patrick’s Day, when we really would like to come back.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to discover this great country and to live the amazing adventure which I have been living for more than 12 weeks.
See you soon
Tot weerziens
Bis Bald
Hasta luego
A presto
A bientot
Sláng go fóil
NB: I already wish you all the best for Christmas!
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