Orientation and KINSALE TRIP!!!

Hello hello!  Yesterday (Friday), was Orientation day for international students.  We had a long day of speakers, welcomes, etc....but it wasn't anything too special unfortunately.  I headed over to campus with my roommate Jordan and a bunch of girls from my apartment building at about 9 in the morning.  We got there a little earlier, but started to meet more people right away. There ended up being about 150-200 students at this orientation!  All american except for one girl from Norway whose name is Caroline...she was very nice and fun to talk to!!!  The program consisted of welcomes from the International student offices, the student union, and others including each early start class professor talking briefly talking about the class.  There are 8 different classes the 150-200 students are broken into, and my professor seemed very cool and energetic.  She got me really excited for the class!  And, she had all the boys in her class raise their hands and there are 6 of us!  Its a new record apparently...But us men are definitely outnumbered!  I bet there were 130 girls and 25-30 guys at most!  The rest of the speakers were not too exciting, but we did find out some valuable information about classes, technology, and sorts.  The tour was not done very well either but it was good to get a full look at the layout of campus. 

I did get a nice surprise during the day when I met a girl that will be in my class starting Monday.  We started talking, and I quickly found out that we have definite potential of being great friends.  She is a Religious studies major and education minor....so we share two loves: religious studies and of course teaching! 

Last night, Jordan and I headed over to the entertainment the student union had set up for us at a local entertainment/pub complex!  Super FUN!  Considering the normal charge to get in is 15 euro and they got us in for 3 euro, it was awesome.  There was pool tables galore, then we got to go bowling, and then karaoke!  Not to mention having my first guinness ( I think I like Murphy's better just fyi)  I ended up meeting quite a few more girls (surprise surprise) including two more girls from the east coast that are in my class for the next four weeks!  Jordan and I teamed up to take down the bowling championship on our lane and my friend Catherine and I rocked karaoke dancing up a storm!  The Irish students from the student union were a riot as well not being afraid to show off their lovely dancing and singing skills!  All in all it was a great night!













Nowww, a little bit about Jordan and I's trip today!  KINSALE, IRELAND!!!! woohoo! Simply put, it was gorgeous.  We took the 9:45 bus from the Cork bus station (10 minutes from our apartment) and arrived in Kinsale at about 10:30!  It was an awesome day full of Irish Beauty, Irish history, and Irish food! And for those of you who don't know, Kinsale is a small Irish fishing village that is rich in history with the two Irish forts: Charles Fort and James Fort as well as Desmond Castle. 


We started off the day eating an Irish breakfast at Dino's.  I had waffles and Irish honey with a cup of fresh roasted IRISH coffee..haha!  Good good! 




Then, we moved on into the city to check out Desmond castle which is also home to the International Museum of Wine.   I guess Kinsale was a huge port used for wine transport!  There was a lot of information on the Irish wine familes and such.  We also learned a lot about Irish history.  I won't go into detail because it would take too long to explain but, the Battle of Kinsale is actually known as one of the biggest, if not the biggest battle in Irish history.   The Irish and Spanish, who were fighting together, were taken over by the British crown!  Desmond castle was used as a prisoners of war several times throughout the wars! 

 We also had the opportunity to talk to these three Irish men about late 1500s-1600s warfare which was very interesting!  Jordan knew a lot more than I did...but I just nodded and looked like I knew what they were talking about!  Some pretty cool swords and armor though!  haha! 

After that, Jordan and I ran into Carmelite Church, a Catholic church run by the Carmelite sisters!  It was gorgeous!

Then, we took the Scilly walk along the coastline up to Charles Fort...SOO AWESOME!  I don't really have much to say about it..and the pictures don't really do it justice.  The fort was built around 1677 and is the newly improved star-shaped style (I learned a lot about the history of fort building and the advantages of this shape of fort!)  Basically, it was awesome and beautiful!

Fort from walk!

Outside of the fort - had to climb down some walls to get here!

Looking back at Kinsale from the fort! The walk was along the coastline on the right

Looking out to sea from inside the fort!

 We ended the day sharing an Irish pizza (It was made in Ireland so it is Irish!!) and peppermint tea..yum yum! 
All in all it was a great day!  And didn't spend more than 30 dollars for it all!  Crazy!  Tomorrow should be fun picking a church to go to and then watching the All-Ireland Gaelic football semifinal match between Cork and Dublin in a pub!  Talk to you all soon!