… And who can tell, what’s on the journey?
Okay, to be frank and honest (great coffee/hot chocolate brand too)… I got lost here a lot. On my way to my classes, to my piano lessons, to the bus station, not once, not twice, but…I will save myself from the trouble of counting.
Aside from getting lost, I would say my study abroad experience is really great so far, but also in an overwhelming way (with the weather, impending internship deadlines, and most of all, how big the school is and how that sorta changes everything)! That comes into play in academics (when my smallest class has around 20-30 people and my biggest class probably has 200+) pretty significantly, and is definitely something that I am not quite used to since the biggest class that I have ever taken is around 50 people, max. But this also makes whoever I end up hanging out and becoming friends with all the more valuable and interesting!
In terms of classes, I have always wanted to do a lot more classes outside of my major. Sadly, because of the restraints of being a double major and starting the Computer Science major late (and also I want to take as much electives as I can in the major), I don’t get a lot of chances to take non-major classes. Fortunately, we are allowed to take 6 classes here in UCD (because every 3 classes meets for the same amount of time every week as every 2 classes in Holy Cross does).
And this semester, I have eventually decided that I will take three Computer Science classes (Operating Systems, Graphics and Ethics), a class about Post-Truth, Politics and Music, Statistics, and also a class about contemporary Irish theater. All of those classes turned out to have really fun contents, but my favorites so far are probably the Ethics and Music classes, because, somehow, they utilizes philosophy that would be otherwise be a lot more “inaccessible” by relating deeper concepts to things that I am familiar with through social phenomenon and knowledge that I learned about another expertise.
I have also started piano lessons in the Royal Irish Academy of Music (located next to Trinity College), and the first lesson went really well, but I am also very much challenged by another level of expectation. I am very excited to learn another piano sonata from Beethoven, while also continuing my work on Mozart and Chopin from last semester (some attempt here to get a senior recital repertoire together).
Despite the constantly gloomy weather there are a couple of highlights in the weather here. On, I am also trying to pick up photography as a hobby again (because of better pictures for this blog, and… just, why not? I am not sure about why I lost it in the first place).
Other than classes, one of the highlights of this week is a trip to Glendalough. The view was absolutely gorgeous despite the rain and the wind (which almost blew my hat off), and it was definitely intriguing to look at what is left from thousands of years ago (in terms of the monastery and the gradual changes in the tombstones that they have in that big field of graveyard…)
After the trip, ESN (Erasmus Student Network, who is responsible for organizing the trip to Glendalough) also lead a group of people to the River Bar in Dublin, where a salsa class was held that night. Personally, I am not much of a dancer, but I had a ton of fun posing my horrible dance moves, watching people learning salsa dancing and pretending that I speak fluent Spanish (with an international student from Chile who is in the same Drama class as me)!
Overall, still in shock that I have been here for two weeks, but still moving. Going to bed!
