Halloween and much more

I hate that everything has been getting away from me recently. Not in bad ways. It's just the more stuff there is going on, the less time I have for other things - like blogging! My internship, society stuff, and school work (if you can believe it) have been taking up a lot of time, which means I have lots and lots to talk about!

Most recent good news first: I just (just = about 2 minutes ago) finished a paper for my Sociology of the Middle East class. The professor said it should be roughly 8 pages, 1.5 spaced. Somehow, mine ended up being 10 pages. I have only written two 10-page papers in my whole life, and I can't believe I just wrote that much on the Middle East. The paper was a book review of Bad News From Israel by Greg Philo and Mike Berry. It's a great study on the Middle East and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and how the audience is affected by the media's portrayal of it. I have always thought of myself as someone pretty uneducated on these types of matters. After reading this book, I feel like I could actually have some semblance of a political debate with a friend about it. And that makes me feel really happy, knowing that I actually learned something worthwhile about events affecting our world today. I just hope my teacher likes it as much as I do.

Now, I have to go backwards a little bit. When we got home from Dingle last Saturday, Kristin and I raced home and had to get ready for a dance performance we were in that night. I'm not exactly sure how I got roped in to Dance Club in the first place. Kristin had asked me if I wanted to go to a dance class with her the Wednesday before. I say yes, and suddenly I'm signing up to perform Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at a Halloween Charity Ball that weekend. We were also dancing at the Classic, which is a club in downtown Cork, for their Halloween night celebration. Our job was to meet at 8:30 that evening, decked out in black and white from head to toe, and looking as spooky as possible. Kristin and I had stopped at Dunne's Store on the way home from Dingle to grab a couple of things. As we walked to the meeting place, we were hoping we hadn't gone too crazy with the black eyeliner and hairspray. NOT POSSIBLE! The UCC Dance Club stops at nothing when they are told to dress up. There was a girl who had taken a black sheet and ripped it up into some type of a toga, and I barely recognized half of the others because they all so closely resembled zombies. The dance went so well! I would never identify myself as a dancer, which is why I think it was so much fun. Part of the fun of being abroad is that since you are only going to be here for a year, you don't need to worry about only getting involved in things you're good at and want to pursue in the long run. You can try anything, from Ultimate Frisbee to Dance to Sky Diving (don't worry Mom, I'm staying on the ground as promised).

Being a part of these clubs and societies is a fool proof way of making friends with UCC students. Since I don't live with any Irish students, I had to go out and find some to hang out with. The Slainte Society had a Committee "night out" last Wednesday in order to get to know everyone and hang out together. We went to Captain America's for dinner and then went to the bar above it called Suas. Learned that means "up" in Irish - the things you'll learn while out with the Irish! It's such a fun group and I met a bunch of really nice girls who hopefully I'll get to hang out with more during the year.

Last piece of news. In the Alumni Office (which is going really well), I am helping head up a new project. They want to become more involved with the visiting students at UCC, so we are holding a competition sponsored by the Alumni Office. Visiting students can submit a photograph, along with a little blurb about what the photo means to them, that is representative of their time abroad We are awarding cash prizes for the best photos. I guess this means I can't participate because the judges would be a little impartial . . . but I'm telling all of my friends to participate! We just had a meeting about it last week with the head of the IEO (International Education Office), Mary Steele, and she is so nice, lively, and happy. Now if I ever have any problems, I have friends in pretty high places! I'll keep you updated on that project.

I'm off to London tomorrow! I'll take lots of pictures and have some tea and crumpets for all of you.

Slan!