Moose Knowledge

     Yesterday marked my first day of class at Emmaus Scripture School; I absolutely loved it. With only 4 of us is the course we receive one-on-one attention and are able to freely ask questions as well as engage in discussion. I'm really looking forward to growing in my knowledge of Christ's word and experiencing His grace and love through it. This class will be by far my favorite out of the courses I'm taking while in Ireland. With that said I also had my first sociology seminar today. The courses title is Revisiting Violence: Aggression and Abuse in Contemporary Irish Family and Institutional Life. With 17,000 students on campus and only 17 seats in the class I was very excited to secure a spot. Our classroom is absolutely tiny. I've never seen such a room, but we're positioned in a squished horseshoe shape allowing for great discussion. Todays class was intimidating, but very informative and interesting. My professor Dr. Declan Coogen does a wonderful job teaching by facilitating conversation, bringing in differing viewpoints and creating a welcoming classroom atmosphere.

     Today during my psych class we had a speaker come in and talk about decision making. He threw out a hypothetical situation saying it in a rhetorical manner "So what if a moose stepped out in front of your car? What do you do then? Do you swerve left? Swerve right? What happens?" As he was about to continue on with his presentation, explaining the decision making process, the kid in the front row apparently didn't catch on that it was a rhetorical question and went on to give a 5 minute speech on how you should swerve to hit the moose in the behind quarters. He had a full explanation as to why, but unfortunately I couldn't tell you, because it took all I had to keep it together. Really kid? A 5 minute speech as to why you hit a moose in the butt? If only you could have seen the professors face...priceless. His response: "Well then, obviously someone has moose knowledge, but for the rest of us, we would have a decision making process" ahah.

     This morning I received my package from Mom and Dad! Finally I have my pillow, I can't tell you how excited I am to sleep on it tonight. Hopefully this will mean an end to the headaches :  ) Also included in my package were my rain pants, jeans, Reese's peanut butter cups, a few crafty items and colored pens! Thanks mom and dad! Mom I so appreciate you sifting through my pen collection to get me my colored pens, but I'm going to guess you didn't try them before sending them? The "lime green" pen is actually black ink, the purple and pink pens have no ink and the blue pen is leaky and makes a dreadful mess. lol Thanks for trying! If anything it made me laugh. Functional or not I appreciate your effort.

Hooray it came!

Random items I've learned while here:

         Windshields are called windscreens. The last month or so it's been "cold" here in Ireland meaning in the 20's...I know, I know those of you back in Wisconsin are thinking, that's not cold! One day Dad called and said the wind chill was -35, so I checked the temp in Galway. It was the same, but positive 35! Anyway in my lecture our speaker was complaining that his windscreen was frosted over. I thought, if you're complaining about one day of your windscreen being frosted you should not move to Wisconsin, this happens to be a daily occurrence for many months.

      There are are little to none when it comes to water fountains. Back in the U.S. if you can spot a bathroom you're almost guaranteed to find a water fountain near by. Not so, in Ireland. I have seen 2 so far on campus. My poor camelbak water bottle rarely gets filled!

      Traffic lights change very quickly at cross walks for pedestrians. In the U.S. it seems as though you have to wait awhile before the light will change for you to cross a road. However, in Ireland it's only a matter of a few seconds before the traffic light will change allowing you to cross. I believe traffic lights are the only thing I would classify as "quick" in Ireland.
  
     A full rain suit is a necessity in Ireland. Most people wear dark colors here and almost all rain pants are black, with the exception of one navy blue pair I've seen. Do you think I'm going to stick out?

Full Rain Suit

     This morning on my walk to school I passed a man who had a little problem keeping his pants up. Let's just say he looked like a plumber, I definitely got a nice view of his crack. I wanted to take a picture for all of you, but I thought that was a little creepy. But I've learned a lesson, say yes to craic in a pub, say no to crack in pants.

Prayer Requests:
1. God would provide a bike for me to use. The 30-40 minute commute to school is really nice when the sun is shining and I can enjoy God's creation. However, it gets quite long when walking in pouring rain. Not to mention it's kept me from getting involved, because after 2 hours of walking, I just don't feel like another hour long walk to attend a club meeting or bible study on campus.

2. Sore throat and sickness. Yesterday I developed a bit of a sore throat and today I've been sneezing and had quite the runny nose. Certainly not the end of the world, but this weekend I'll be doing quite a bit of traveling and would like to be feeling well and enjoy my time.

    Bright and early tomorrow morning I leave to see the Kylemore Abbey. I will be there most of the day   returning to Galway at 5:00pm. Running to the bus station I'll catch another bus at 6:30pm and head off to Cork for the weekend. Hopefully I'll have many picture to share with you!

With Love from Galway