The rain fall soft upon your fields

[This is a photo of the sunset over Merville and the view out of our common room window.]










So once again I was struck by the meaninglessness of time and schedules here when I woke up 4 minutes before Contemporary Irish Writing and still managed to show up before class began. Merville is close to the Arts building, but not that close.

Also, clubs and societies seem to have a somewhat more aggressive approach to recruitment here. Or maybe that's just the effect of a big school. This week is "freshers week" which means all the clubs and societies set up booths at the end of campus and literally beseech your membership. I made the mistake of glancing at the sign for the Philosopher's Club and found myself shaking hands with a club officer who insisted that I looked "stunning" (my eyes "sparkled like the moon" and in my voice was "the music of the lyre" - no joke). I have found that the Irish tend to be friendly, but their drafting tactics are a whole other story. Also, joining a club here costs 2 euros, so their palaver has a 2 quid (Irish speak for euros) payoff. So I joined a couple clubs out of guilt, a couple for the smorgasbord of free rewards and a few because they look legit and cool.

As a new member of the L&H (literary and historical) Society, I attended a Pornography Debate with some of the girls in my building tonight. Despite the omnipresence of paper plane-throwing hecklers, the event was really interesting and well designed. We heard from a Rabbi (with a reality show, that part wasn't really relevant though), the manager of the UK's biggest porn website, a man from Kansas (incidentally - and, yes, he used the "not in Kansas anymore" line) who directs the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, a philosophy professor from UChicago and a porn star from the UK (who has only has chlamydia once in 6 years). And a handful of students who were either for or against the industry. Very intense but incredibly enlightening debate.

And just now I got back from the Vengaboys concert in our student bar. For anyone who isn't fully versed in semi-obscure electronic English bands, that's the Boom Boom Boom/We Like to Party people. I look a little worse for the wear right now because they don't joke around with moshes (my shoes lived their last day, I think, and my roommate went out in flip flops and came back with blackened feet), but I feel like I've been cultured with a bit of European proximity adjustment.

Anyway, now I'm off to do some reading for tomorrow's classes (I do actually study - unlike many of the Irish students, though. It's a bit of a culture shock that everyone parties on the weeknights here and then goes home to study every weekend. A little backwards from what I'm used to, but Ireland is small enough that everyone lives within a day's drive and the campus pretty much clears out on the weekends. It's nice, at least, to be able to travel and not miss anything around here).

By the way, the R.A. system here is significantly different from the Student Fellow thing I'm used to. I've seen our R.A. a total of once (two weeks ago when he came to break up our "party" - which consisted of my roommates and I in our pajamas eating cookies and milk) and I have no clue where he lives and by now only have a vague recollection of what he looks like. My mom suggested that I ask him something today and it reminded me just how absent he has been from our lives. Bit different from the lovin' we get at Vassar. Alrighty, out for real now. Best wishes abound!