Journal for tbrounst

A quick update, and a response to last post.

Wow, this has just been a bad week for blogging. Between being wiped on Monday and being too busy to post yesterday or today, I’ve barely touched this all week. To make matters worse (better?) I’m heading to London in a couple of hours for the weekend. I have no intention of bringing my laptop on this trip, so I doubt I’ll be able to update until I get back on Sunday. Of course, Maggie will be here Sunday, so I might ignore all computer stuff and hang out with her. And, Monday I might post but I’ll probably have a fair amount of homework, e-mail, Facebook and photos to go through, so maybe not. At least I got a long post on Tuesday, with plenty of great responses. Otherwise it would be, what, two weeks without a real post? I’ll try and get something Sunday, but I make no promises.

As for a quick response to Tuesday, a number of people responded. The general consensus is that beer tastes icky, but I should try some other drinks and actually get to the point where I feel something. I agree. I have experimented a bit with sweeter drinks like cider, but it still has that burn at the end I don’t really like. It’s better, but I still have a hard time handing over €3 for a glass. Maybe I’ll just get drunk with Maggie in Prague on their much cheaper beer. That would be nice: I’d be drinking with someone I trust (for some reason) and am really close with. Actually, the way Maggie described the alcohol culture in Prague is exactly how I hoped Ireland would be (see the comments from the last post).

Also, I think I’m going to try German chocolate cake shots, which, from my understanding, is a shot that tastes exactly like German chocolate cake. Maybe that’ll be good enough to experiment with for awhile.

Overall, I do have some interest, and feel like I should try it, but I don’t really care. It’s something I’ll do at some point, but I’m not super excited about. I save my excitement for more important things, like new episodes of Lost or this trip to London.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 05:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This actually brings me to a topic I wanted to talk about for awhile: alcohol. I don’t drink—I simply don’t care enough to do it in the states, and it’s expensive and tastes bad. I’ve always felt I would enjoy a Coke more, it’s cheaper, and it’s legal to purchase, so why don’t I just drink Coke? When I came to Ireland I was a little worried about this. There is such a strong drinking culture here, I was worried that my not drinking would distance me.

Let’s see if I have enough energy today to power through a blog post! I’m a little fired from wasting too much time on Facebook and Last Days of Foxhound. I really should have started this sooner. Meh, whatever, I have internet back so I’m still getting used to the whole “use it whenever I want” thing.

I feel like I should talk about visiting county Kerry, but I don’t really want to. You can go check all those photos I posted on Facebook—all 71 of them—and read all the captions. That will do a better job of talking about it than a blog post could. Perhaps I’ll talk about it tomorrow. Or perhaps I’ll just be so busy tomorrow I won’t post (class from 9-11, and 12-1, group meeting at 3, archery from 4-6 and a play at 8). We’ll see.

So, this week it’s RAG week. RAG week officially stands for “Raise a Grand” week. The much more common usage is “Raise a Glass” week. The goal of the week is to get as incredibly shit-face drunk as you can for seven straight days (I apologize for the profanity, but it’s the best way to describe it). We’re talking houses having egging wars at each other, random shouting and jumping up and down on the floor, and a kitchen that went from clean to exploded in a day. My floor was literally black for a bit, and even now it’s incredibly sticky with something. I think I might be happier not know. I’ve pretty much been hiding out in my room for most of this week so far. It’s insane.

This actually brings me to a topic I wanted to talk about for awhile: alcohol. I don’t drink—I simply don’t care enough to do it in the states, and it’s expensive and tastes bad. I’ve always felt I would enjoy a Coke more, it’s cheaper, and it’s legal to purchase, so why don’t I just drink Coke? When I came to Ireland I was a little worried about this. There is such a strong drinking culture here, I was worried that my not drinking would distance me.

However, what I came to realize before I left was that the drinking culture in America and Ireland were different. In America we have these crazy obsessive parties and revere alcohol with something bordering on mysticism. People play beer pong not because it’s a fun game (God it’s boring) but as an excuse to drink. In Ireland, I thought, people drank more casually. You went to a pub, played some darts and drank some Guinness with friends. Drinking was an excuse to hang out, whereas in America it often feels as though hanging out is an excuse to drink. This is what I thought before coming here.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. Now, I should preface this. A lot of people here don’t drink, or if they do, they do it in moderation. Two of my flat mates, Mike and Roseanne, seem to drink fairly rarely. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Mike drink, or talk about drinking. However, a lot of people here seem just as obsessed with it as in America. I see the same party culture, the same mysticism that we have back home towards alcohol.

If anything, this has made me want to drink even less. I hate the fact that there is such a cultural obsession with this, I hate the fact that it’s such a big deal. I hate the fact that on my 19th birthday I’m supposed to journey to Canada and get drunk in a hotel, and on my 21st I’m supposed go crazy and have a wild party. I hate the fact that so much of the youth culture I’m a part of is focused on this one drink. I’m a contrarian, and the fact it’s so popular makes me like it less (much like Harry Potter).

The fact of the matter is, I don’t feel any pressing need to drink, and the fact that I’m “supposed to” makes me want to do it even less. I am trying to experiment, and I have made some effort to drink since I’ve been here, but more often than not I don’t bother. I have better things to do with my time and money (like sitting in front of the computer for six hours a day, apparently) than consume an expensive liquid that I don’t like. I’m experimenting, but in my own way and in my own time. I don’t mystify it, I don’t revere it, I just don’t care about it. It’s another drink, only it tastes bad and costs more.

In almost direct contrast to the previous sentiments, I do want to try more. Specifically, I want to actually feel something. I’m told this will take around two or three pints, though, and I don’t know if I can stomach that. It really doesn’t taste good. I also can’t see drinking as something I’ll do regularly, or have an interest in. It’s not my thing. It would be good for me to know more about it, to actually try it, but I’ve seen how crazy people my age can get about it, how obsessed, and I don’t want that to be me.

It’s a jungle outside, in large part because of this obsession, and that’s something I don’t want to be a part of. I’d rather just hang out with my friends and play video games, watch movies, or sit around talking.

And, frankly, I’m happy with that choice.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I need sleep.

So...I wanted to post something today since I haven't posted in awhile, what with going to Kerry and all. However, I'm just exhausted right now. Internet is back, and I caught up with all of my Facebook stuff. Specifically, five or six pretty long messages to respond to, seven or so wall posts, and a few new messages to start. All with a pretty slow internet and trying to chat with people on Skype who I haven't talked to in far too long. I also spent a long time trying to post photos, but that didn't really work.

Expect a longer and more interesting blog post tomorrow. Hopefully I can get photos up tomorrow as well. We'll see, though. I think my internet is finally back, so that should help.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Good news everybody!

Good news! The internet is back in my apartment, apparently! I'm typing this up in my room right now. It's just surreal. I find it ironic that the day I wrote an angry rant about not having internet and why it could be, the internet is fixed, but I guess that's how this sort of thing goes.

Anyway, I'm off to go sacrifice some bulls at the shrine of Isidore of Seville, the patron saint of the internet. And, yes, I did just combine classes on The Iliad and medieval Europe.

Unfortunately, I have to go make dinner now, and then we have an archery party, so I probably won't get on again tonight. Then, tomorrow I'm on campus until around 4:30 my time. Then Friday we're leaving until Sunday evening. Still, I'll try and get on whenever I can. I hope to be on Skype for a couple hours tomorrow, probably between 4:30 and 6:30. I'd love to chat!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Tom looks into some of the reasons why his internet might not be working still. Spoiler alert: it's Gort's fault.

I was getting so good. I was starting to write these blogs the night before I posted them so that way I didn’t have to just hammer something out in the library quickly while on my daily hour or two of internet. I could start doing more complex and well thought out blogs, rather than something fast I do before I head over to lunch. But last my nice system got ruined.

It’s Maggie’s fault, of course.

Okay, no, not really. In fact, she was actually being nice to me. What happened is last night I had a couple hours of free time around 8:00 p.m., so I figured I could probably hop on Skype and talk to someone. If not family then Kachina, Allison, Kari, Maggie, Anna, Jess, Jeff, Ryan, or Alex. Long story short, I ended up sitting in a surprisingly used hallway video chatting with Maggie for around an hour and a half. It was completely worth it, and I’m really glad I got the chance to talk to her. Apparently she’s coming to Galway soon, but it’s unfortunately the same weekend that I’m going to London. I’m hoping I can hang out with her for a bit on Sunday, but it won’t be enough. On another note, I’m going to be checking the cost of flights to Prague tomorrow (also trying to talk her into meeting me somewhere like Paris, Florence or Amsterdam…I doubt it will require much convincing). It was a lot of fun talking to her, and completely worth not writing a blog yesterday.

Of course, I’d be able to talk to her on a regular basis and not have to make such a big deal about it if my internet was working. I talked to them yesterday, they said they might have more information in 48 hours, putting it up to Thursday evening. I’m leaving again on Friday for another excursion, so even if it does come back Thursday night (a big if) I won’t have easy and consistent access to it until Sunday at best. Either way, we’re looking at over three weeks to repair this problem.

This is an issue I want to talk about since I think there’s some pretty interesting stuff to be realized. Specifically, why is it taking so long? First, we reject the idea that the problem is that bad and screwed up that it’s taking so long to repair it. I have never heard of a network being down for three weeks. I have never heard of someone being hit this hard. A week, even two, sure that sounds believable and I can imagine it taking that long to fix a problem. Three weeks, or more likely four? That’s just pushing it, I feel. Even 10 years ago when the internet would go out with relative frequency, we never had anything near this bad. Maybe a week or two, but never three or more. This is easily the worst I’ve ever heard of, so I doubt it’s actually taking them this long to fix it, but rather that something else is happening.

The next most plausible idea is that the Irish just don’t care about internet in the same way Americans do, so there’s less of a rush to repair it. In America, we’re addicted, so if something goes wrong we pour a lot of resources into fixing it immediately. Perhaps the Irish aren’t nearly as addicted. Well, they are. I’ve been talking to a lot of people about this and they all agree it’s absurd. My flat mates complain just as much as we do about it (perhaps a little less because they go home and use the internet on the weekend). Teachers who I’ve talked to have been shocked and appalled saying they couldn’t even go a week without internet. It’s not a cultural difference where they don’t care about the internet as much because they clearly do care. A lot.

Before we left we were told that most of the world doesn’t have the absurd work ethic America does. We’ve run into that occasionally already, such as places closing pretty early, opening pretty late, not being open at all on Sundays and having trim hours (at best) on Saturday, and pretty long and inconvenient lunch breaks (mostly there breaks coincide with the best time for me to visit). I wonder if that’s what’s causing this ridiculous amount of time to fix the problem. We have one guy working to fix the problem, and I don’t know his exact hours, but he’s not here at 9:00, and he leaves around 4:30. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he came in at 9:30 and had an hour long lunch break, meaning he only works around six hours a day. And he doesn’t work weekends. That’s not many man hours. Compared to America, where if the internet would go out it would be worked on nearly nonstop by a group of people (because of our work ethic, not because of our addiction), perhaps it’s taking so long just because they haven’t invested that many man hours into it.

Honestly, though, I feel like our residence (Gort na Coribie) is sort of taking advantage of us. Most of the people who live there don’t pay directly, but rather pay NUIG who then gives them money to house students. Thus, Gort isn’t really answerable to us. They can have crummy service and it doesn’t really matter. We see this in a lot of stuff with Gort, like when it took them two days to fix my front door so I could actually get in my building, or when Elyse spent two weeks complaining about her internet not working and filling out maintenance requests before it magically started working without anyone coming to fix it (a week later the internet went out all over Gort…she had some bad luck). Pretty much everyone here has stories like this. After awhile, you just get the impression they’re hosing us. I wonder if that’s also why it’s taking so long: Gort feels no need to invest the resources to fix the problem because, simply, they don’t care.

What’s made even more insulting is they’re not giving us a refund or any compensation. We’re paying for a utility that we can’t use, and that we won’t be able to use for a solid month. They owe us something for that. This isn’t just me saying “in America it would be like this…”; professor Knorr, who grew up in Germany, said that in Germany they would also compensate us. And, from my experience here so far, I see no reason to believe that the Irish wouldn’t. Rather, Gort just hasn’t.

So why do I still not have internet? Honestly, I feel as though Gort just isn’t doing what it needs to do to fix the problem. They’re not investing enough resources into fixing it, nor are they bothering to take care of their residents. And, I want to state once again, this is not some cultural clash or difference. This is just a problem with Gort. I’ve seen nothing to indicate that there attitude is widespread in Irish culture, and have in fact seen the exact opposite.

But, they’re the ones fixing it, so I really hope we get it back soon. This is just absurd.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 06:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Speaking of being ruled by things other than our brain, let’s talk about love. This is something I’ve been thinking about recently, in part because of Valentine’s Day and in part because of some conversations with friends. As those who know me can tell you, I’ve been screwed over by love quite a bit. What I’m finally starting to figure out, though, is that everyone has. It’s part of life.

Today, I think I’m not going to talk about Ireland. I think I’m also going to forgo my usual three paragraphs of random blustering about events in my life while I try desperately to figure out what I’m writing about today. If you think I plan these ahead, you are sorely mistaken. More often than not it’s me going “let’s see…what can I talk about today?” And then writing the first thing that comes to mind so I can go eat lunch. I am a creature ruled by his stomach.

Speaking of being ruled by things other than our brain, let’s talk about love. This is something I’ve been thinking about recently, in part because of Valentine’s Day and in part because of some conversations with friends. As those who know me can tell you, I’ve been screwed over by love quite a bit. What I’m finally starting to figure out, though, is that everyone has. It’s part of life. You will get hurt in relationships before you find the right person. Things will fall apart. I’ve had my heartbroken before, and I know it will happen again, probably many times.

But I’m also someone who, for whatever reason, has faith. I believe that I will find the right person, at some point. I’ll find someone who appreciates me and likes—I won’t have to be anyone but myself. Like kindergarten. I’ll find someone who likes the idea of dressing as Link and Zelda for Halloween (or perhaps Tidus and Yuna, or, even better, Naked Snake and Eva!)*. I’ll find someone cuddly and warm, who I just like holding. I’ll find someone who I can just talk to for hours and lose myself.

I’ll find that person, someday. The trouble is getting there.

It’s hard. As I said, I will get hurt on the way there. I’ll have crushes and they won’t reciprocate, I’ll date someone and it’ll end poorly. And yet, it’s not even that which hurts the most. It’s the loneliness. It’s the gnawing pain of wanting to be with someone and not being there. Of wanting someone to call your own and not having it. Of not feeling loved.

One of the best lines I’ve ever written was “he knew now it wasn’t love he had been feeling, but loneliness.” I wrote this as a warning to myself. I’ve started relationships out of loneliness and tricked myself into thinking it was love. It never turns out well. I let my urge to be with someone override my good sense, and someone gets hurt. Usually both of us.

It’s hard though, the waiting for the right person, and it’s easy to let yourself get tricked. You want something so bad you ignore everything else and convince yourself this is okay, that this is what you truly want. That loneliness that makes it so you’ll start dating anyone who shows the slightest interest. I’ve been there before, and it’s a hard spot to be in. I’ll be there again, at some point.

And yet, right now, I’m content to wait. I’ll find my girl eventually. If I’ve learned anything it’s that I shouldn’t rush into this kind of thing, that I should let it develop naturally. What happens will happen. I shouldn’t force myself to look for a relationship just because I want one, but let it happen when I really do care about someone. I have a friend who encourages me to pursue any crush I have, but I think that’s the wrong path. You should pursue the ones that are strong, the ones where you really feel something. Those are the ones that are important. Otherwise, you’re pursing someone just to pursue someone. You’re starting a relationship out of loneliness and not love.

Then again, I know I’ll forget my own advice many times over. Which, to be fair, is part of the fun.

*I figured inserting this in at the proper time would ruin the flow I was going for, but I really wanted to make this comment. The three couples I mentioned all appear on Game Informer’s list of the 10 best video game romances ever (which is in part why I picked them), with Tidus and Yuna at number one, Link and Zelda at number two, and Snake and Eva at number seven. Number three on the list? You and the companion cube from Portal. As they explain, they don’t mean the character you control, but you the actual person.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 06:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I’m adjusting to life in Ireland pretty well at this point. There’s still stuff that seems different, and is frustrating, but I have a lot more of it figured out and it’s becoming more natural. I know my way around campus, and I’m starting to actually figure out how to get downtown and back. I know my area well enough. I’m starting to know some students, though not many. I’m attending archery club every week and starting to meet people there, and there are a few other students who I recognize around.

I have to say, I find the number of comments really interesting for this blog. Pretty much, the number of posts and comments just keep leap-froging each other. I might go a few posts without any comments, and have two more posts than comments, then the next few posts are popular and each gets a few comments and suddenly I’m behind again. I think it’s most interesting just that they’re always neck and neck and within about two of each other. When I post this, team comment will be at +1 thanks to an impressive rally by both Allison Martin and Daniel Woznicki. I think overall MVP is still James, however, but these two up and comers might give him a run for his money. Meanwhile, I guess I need to start blogging more or else team comment might get way ahead of me…

I’m amused by simple things, okay?

So, I just booked some hostel tickets for London. We have a flight and a (I think) bus tickets to the airport already booked. Our hostel is actually pretty centrally located. As in, there is a chance it is literally inside of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I’m pretty excited about that, and am starting to plan my trip. Two people, including my mom, have told me that if I don’t visit the British Museum I’m not allowed home. So…I guess I’m moving to London! And there’s nothing you can do about it now, mom! Well, I guess you could drag me into the museum or something...

So, onto real stuff. I think I’m adjusting to life in Ireland pretty well at this point. There’s still stuff that seems different, and is frustrating, but I have a lot more of it figured out and it’s becoming more natural. I know my way around campus, and I’m starting to actually figure out how to get downtown and back (most people figured this out awhile ago…jerks). I know my area well enough. I’m starting to know some students, though not many. Sadly, I’m only in two classes with Irish students, and one of them is a lecture, so my ability to meet students in class is more limited. However, I’m attending archery club every week and starting to meet people there, and t here are a few other students who I recognize around.

I wrote about the week two wall awhile ago. I think I’m starting to get through it. A lot of the frustration, as I said, was about the internet, but at this point I’ve just accepted that it will never be back ever and working my schedule around that. It’s actually less frustrating to just assume I will never have it, and if I get it then I’m lucky, then it is to think that I should have it, but for some reason it’s gone. Also, this past weekend and spending so much time relaxing and de-stressing helped. And, a stressor was my social situation, but I’m working on that.

I’m feeling a lot more secure than I was a week ago. I’m a creature of habit, and I finally have a routine. Now that classes have actually started and been going on for…a month…I have that routine and it’s pretty secure now. It’s my safety net, and now I can start experimenting more and pushing my boundaries more.

With that said, I’m hungry and it’s 1:00. Huh, that’s something I haven’t mentioned yet that was interesting to me. In Ireland, lunchtime is typically between 1:00 and 2:00; even a 2:30 lunch isn’t that unheard of. I couldn’t help but compare this to America where lunch tends to be anywhere between 11:30 and 1:00. If you’re eating after 1:00, it’s a pretty late lunch and in American I almost never did it. Now I do it daily. This was actually one of the easier transitions for me…

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 05:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Finally, Valentine’s Day was yesterday and I heard from a number of people who felt the same way as me towards that stupid holiday. As for me, it turned out pretty well. I had a really nice dinner with Elyse and Melissa consisting of chicken, rice, asparagus and cake. Afterwards we watched High School Musical and Mamma Mia! The best part of that second one was that Pierce Brosnan was in it, but that’s mostly because I just really love Brosnan.

I survived Valentine’s Day. And I’m posting two days in a row! It’s a miracle. To be fair, I almost didn’t post today. I came into the library knowing I had three things to do, and after finishing my history midterm and working on Collegian stuff for awhile, I forgot what the third thing was and left. Fortunately I was only about 20 feet away when I remembered. Unfortunately, I’ve been in the library for two and a half hours already today—pretty much from 2:00 until 4:30. So, if I’m a little fried I apologize.

So, about this Collegian stuff. I was just officially given the position of Editor in Chief of the Collegian next year. Yay! There was very little doubt about this, actually, seeing as how I had pretty much been handed the position last semester. This is just official now. I’ve started working on applications for next year—for all positions—and there should be a note about it in the Collegian on Wednesday. You all should apply. Or, at least those of you who go to Willamette. Also, Jack should apply for some sort of comic writing position that doesn’t really exist.

On another note, if you remember at the start of this blog I mentioned that I was doing it as part of a requirement for studying abroad. Well, I talked to Stacey West who’s in charge of us study abroad kids—and active fan of Tom’s blog (I need a better name…maybe the blog will be called “Tomopia” and people who read it “citizens of Tomopia.” I see absolutely nothing wrong with this idea)—and she says that I’ve fulfilled the requirements for maintaining a blog. I still plan on updating regularly—maybe even daily again when internet starts working—but it’s nice to know that I’m done with the requirement and don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Finally, Valentine’s Day was yesterday and I heard from a number of people who felt the same way as me towards that stupid holiday. As for me, it turned out pretty well. I had a really nice dinner with Elyse and Melissa consisting of chicken, rice, asparagus and cake. Afterwards we watched High School Musical and Mamma Mia! The best part of that second one was that Pierce Brosnan was in it, but that’s mostly because I just really love Brosnan.

It was a really nice night. It was calm and pretty quiet, there were only a few of us, and they were people who I’m really close with and really like. It was exactly the sort of thing I enjoy: a few close friends hanging out. Like the time Kachina and Allison made us boys enchiladas, which was one of my favorite parts of the semester. It was a nice change of pace from the group I’ve been spending a lot of time with here which is larger, louder, and I can’t connect with as well.

After arriving at dinner, though, Elyse told me that they had an evil scheme for why they had invited me over that night, and why they had decided to watch HSM. They noticed I had been depressed lately and wanted to take care of me. And they were right: I was depressed. Look back at the last few blog posts and you can see how frustrated I was. But, think about that for a moment: they noticed that I seemed to be depressed and then organized something in part to help cheery me up and take care of me. That’s awesome!

I’ve had this happen to me a fair amount, where people go out of their way to take care of me, and I’ve been on the other end before, where I know someone is feeling bad so I organize people to take care of them, but I always think it’s something that deserves special mention and praise. It’s easy to get swept away with our own things, our own issues, and forget about those around us. Even if it’s not malicious, it takes energy to think about others, and sometimes we just don’t have that energy. So when people breach this and help each other, it’s a special moment. One that I’m always thankful for, at least.

I had a lot of fun last night, and I feel a lot better after it. Most importantly, though, I’m just thankful I have friends like that who look out for me.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I really hate Valentine's Day, but it's better this year.

Internet is still out. What happened was someone has a virus that attacks the network (or something) and it took them about two weeks to fix it. They got the internet working again on Thursday for about 45 minutes…then the person with the virus logged on again and crashed the system again. They say Tuesday at the absolute earliest, but most likely not. I’m feeling it will be another week or two before we get it back at this point. It’s frustrating, but we’re doing what we can. I’m just camping out in the library (which does have internet) on a regular basis.

Also, I apologize for the lack of blog posting yesterday. I decided to post my Cork photos instead. There were 79 photos, and I wrote captions for all of them. It’s sort of equivalent to several blog posts, really. Especially when you remember I wrote 79 captions. If you have Facebook, go thumb through them and write comments. That said, I did have an awesome moment when I hopped on today and had 51 new comments. That was impressive.

On another note, remember when I mentioned I had a little bit of spam on the comment system? I got three more pieces. I have no idea where this even comes from—who even knows about this blog? Like, how am I getting spammed? Do they just spam all sorts of random blogs? Either way, it was sort of a funny experience to read these “comments,” and I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of idiot would take them for a real post.

So, onto real stuff. Today is Valentine’s Day. I really hate this holiday. Typically, it just serves to make me feel lonely and miserable. I get hurt repeatedly. It doesn’t help that at this point in the semester most classes are starting to layer on the work more heavily. This is actually one of the hardest parts of the semester, typically, because you transition from the easy stuff to the hard stuff that serves as an important foundation. You need to learn this stuff, but you’re having troubles adjusting to it, and it’s more complicated than what you learned before. Thus, school has an added pressure, and the stress of being single and lonely and desperately wanting someone just makes today really, really suck. I imagine it might be better if I was in some sort of relationship, but then there’s the pressure to make sure today is amazing, and that can only backfire.

I’m actually glad I’m in Ireland for Valentine’s Day. It’s not a big deal here. In fact, they’re pretty apathetic about it. It’s mostly an American holiday, after all, created by greeting card companies as a way to push more products (same for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day). It’s slowly spreading to other countries along with the rest of America’s influence. The same force that lets me watch Lost in Ireland is also dragging this stupid holiday to Ireland. Fortunately, while Lost is popular here, Valentine’s Day isn’t as much. People seem to be doing small things, maybe flowers and chocolates, but I haven’t seen anything close to a Valentine’s Day sale, or “get this gift for your Valentine.” I was even in a truffle shop earlier today and they weren’t having discounts (though I wish they did…).

It’s a nice change. While I’m used to these holidays being overly marketed to the point of losing all meaning, it’s interesting to have the day pass by without giving it too much of a special value. It’s a day, and you should do something special—tell her you love her and how much she means to you, but that’s it. No need for extravagance. It’s not the built up expectations and hype that we have in America, but just a day where you remember to do something a little nice for someone.

All of us Americans are celebrating it in our own little way. The girls I hang out with are going out to dinner, and the guys thought we might do something (probably dinner followed by them drinking). Brian and Chase are still planning on doing this, I think. I, however, got a text from Elyse saying her and Mellissa were doing dinner and movie if I wanted to join. I responded saying sure, I would like to join, and what movie are we watching?

High School Musical.

It’s a Valentine’s Day miracle! Okay, she said that’s what they were considering, and that it wasn’t set in stone or anything, so perhaps we’ll watch Love Actually (ick) or Sweet Home Alabama (yay). Either way, it doesn’t matter. I plan to spend today with friends enjoying myself. None of this stupid pressure or angst or lonely feelings. Just a day with friends having fun.

And isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas? I mean, Valentine’s Day.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Thank you to those who have been writing awesome comments, and other details.

Just a quick note, I wanted to thank everyone for the comments they’ve been posting! I had a nice joy logging on today and seeing four new comments, and getting the chance to read through them. They’re all well thought out and interesting, and I really appreciate them. My biggest regret is that by the time I publish the comments (remember, I have to click a button before they appear; more on that later), I feel most people have already read the entry and don’t see the comments! If you get bored, just scan through some old entries and read the comments, they’re pretty cool.

I said awhile ago that I wanted to see if I could change the system for comments. As is, when someone posts a comment I get the chance to read it and decided if it should be published or not, and I thought that this was sort of unnecessary. I just accept all the comments I get anyway. Well, a couple weeks ago I actually got a bit of spam pretending to be comments. It was only two messages, so not a big deal at all, and I just didn’t post them, but it makes me want to stick with the system already in place. If those weren’t spam, whoever wrote them just send me an e-mail or something and I’ll post them, and I’m sorry. However, I don’t know anyone whose name is “the best pub in Dublin…” Also, please use your real names (or whatever it is you go by), just so I know who you are.

Mostly, though, I just want to than those people who have been posting cool and insightful replies. It means a lot to me.

Thank you very much!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In National Novel Writing Month there’s something we talk about called the week two wall, when your awesome adventure suddenly gets hit by reality and the small problems you got to ignore during the joy of the first part begin to take center stage as that cloud of euphoria dissipates. I mention this because I think we just hit that wall.

(I apologize for any typos or odd sentences. As I write this I’m pretty tired, and one of the first things to go when I get tired is my typing.)

It’s Wednesday. The internet is still out. That brings out total up to 15 days and counting. I’m not complaining at this point. I’m just going with it. Tomorrow I’ll spend a lot of time in the library catching up on everything. They say we’ll have it back tomorrow afternoon, and I believe them. In fact, I’ll probably have it back by the time you read this. That said, they could be wrong again. They’ve been wrong more than a few times before. I bring this all up because it will be relevant later.

In National Novel Writing Month there’s something we talk about called the week two wall. For those who don’t know, National Novel Writing Month, also called NaNoWriMo, or more commonly Nano, is a challenge to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. Thus, it’s easy to break down Nano into a series of weeks, and while weeks one, three and four are awesome (though week four is bittersweet), week two is something only talked about in hushed tones, something best forgotten and ignored.

You see, what happens is you start Nano and in week one have an adrenaline high from doing something so crazy, absurd and fun. You have a million ideas and are ready to set them in print, ready to set aside your life to type a novel and, against all odds, it will be the most brilliant work ever crafted. At week two you realize your work sucks, the novel isn’t turning out like you had hoped, the characters are flat and bland, you’re wasting time, and the entire stupid thing isn’t even fun anymore. No one is going to want to read your stupid book, and more importantly you don’t want them to. This is called the week two wall, when your awesome adventure suddenly gets hit by reality and the small problems you got to ignore during the joy of the first part begin to take center stage as that cloud of euphoria dissipates. For those of you who care, you get a second wind during the third week, where you realize some awesome stuff is happening and your novel is taking new and exciting turns you never expected. Then in week four you pretty much just drop everything and rush as quickly as you can to the conclusion.

I mention this because I think we just hit that wall. All of us here in Ireland. We’re all getting frustrated, and all of those little things we got to ignore early on in the excitement of being abroad are finally catching up to us. I think there are a few reasons for this. One, obviously, is the internet being out for 15 days. For me the worst part is simply that the internet is my connection to home—Facebook, e-mail and Skype are all how I communicate and connect with those I left behind. Having that connection severed is incredibly hard on me, and while it’s unimportant for a day or two, after this long it’s starting to take its toll. Other people are frustrated at the length of time it’s taking to repair the problem getting offended at how “inefficient” Ireland is (not knowing what the problem is or what they’re doing to fix it, I have no idea how true this is). Others just feel lied to by the office who has given us four or five deadlines for when the internet will be back, all of which have passed now. I don’t feel that they lied to us, that implies a certain level of malice and intentional misdirection, but I can also see why some people would feel this way.

Another problem is the constant excursions. While the excursions themselves are awesome, and I’m happy to get to visit these places, the sheer quantity in such a short time has really taken a toll on us. The past four weekends we’ve had excursions, three of them were for three or more days. In the past month we’ve had three days without class or excursions. I haven’t been able to sleep in for the past 12 days. While realistically these are fairly minor issues, they can be mentally taxing over time. We haven’t had much of a chance to decompress. Either we have the stress of school, or the stress of running around between destinations we, realistically, will get to visit once in our lives. To compound this problem, since we spend so much time on excursions, we need to squeeze all of our schoolwork into the four days at school, making it that much more stressful than usual. While I normally wouldn’t have a problem reading three books of The Illiad between Wednesday and Monday, I’m gone Friday, Saturday and Sunday which severely limits the amount of time I have. It’s still possible, but it increases my stress and workload for those days.

Thus, between the mental exhaustion from the constant excursions and the frustration over the internet, I think it’s easy to see why we’re all a little on edge and frustrated. I’m trying hard to keep an open mind, and I feel as though I’m doing a pretty good job—better than a lot of people I’ve talked to, I think—but it’s hard. I’m really looking forward to this weekend. After class tomorrow I have a three day weekend without an excursion and hopefully with internet. I plan to just relax, take a load off and do nothing. Hopefully I’ll turn into a vegetable.

I just thought of something else, though. At school when I’m feeling fried and exhausted I have a very simple solution: I hang out with my friends. This is why I practically lived in Kachina and Allison’s apartment. This is why I played so much DotA—it was an excuse to hang out with people. Talking to my family—especially Jack—was the same sort of thing. Just talking about what kind of pokemon I would want as pet, while stupid, really helped relieve a lot of this frustation. It’s definitely a bulbasaur, by the way.

Sadly, I don’t have that here.

Either way, I’m hoping the week two, or perhaps month two, wall will be behind me soon.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A quick update

Since writing the last blog entry (actually, halfway through it, but I didn't feel like changing anything because I'm lazy) I found out I had the date of the London trip wrong. It's at the end of the month, not next week. So that actually gives me two weeks of not doing anything. Any ideas on where I should go or what I should do?

Also, wow, it's been a long time since I posted. Nearly a week is it? I apologize. I want to do this daily, and once the internet is back I'll try and get back on that rotation. This was just a crummy week as I was gone for three days and the way my schedule worked I just didn't update it on the day before or after the trip. Once again, I apologize. I'll try and be a bit more consistent in the future.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 06:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Tom goes to Cork to protest, kiss rocks and get drunk. Well, he only did one of those three, but which one?

So…internet is still out. It’s quite impressive, really. At about 8:00 tonight the internet will have been out for two straight weeks. Honestly, I’m sort of forgetting how school works when I actually have easy access to the internet. On the bright side, not having this constant distraction has made me do more homework. Not that doing homework was ever a problem of mine, but now I just sit around in my room, bored, and realize the only thing to do is read more Dubliners. It actually works out well: between the weekly excursions and the extra hour or three I spend on campus daily to use the internet, I feel a time crunch, but since I can’t use internet at home that frees up plenty of time to do the work! It’s a brilliant system, and I’ll be glad when it’s over. I really want my easy access to the internet back.

Speaking of weekly excursions, we had one last week to Cork. By last week I mean a couple of days ago. Next weekend is the first weekend in something like a month that we don’t have a Willamette trip scheduled, so instead we’re going to London. I’m leaving just after class on Thursday, and coming home around midday Sunday. I get the feeling that’s not really enough time, but you have to make the best of what you’ve got. Speaking of which…what should I do in London? Where should I visit and what should I see? What should I avoid? I don’t plan on bringing my laptop to London, so that means I’ll have internet on Wednesday, then not again until Sunday. Fortunately, if all goes well, I can Skype Jack after Lost. So, Jack, be near your computer at 2:00 on Sunday.

Also, I’m finally an official immigrant! I went to immigration yesterday, turned in all of my forms and I now have a wonderful green card. I plan to use my new “Irish immigrant” powers to travel across Europe, like to London! And, hopefully Greece, Italy, France and Spain. I apparently want to visit Venice and Florence now…who would have guessed?

So, that concludes the “what is Tom up to?” section of my blog. Now to get onto whatever random topic I feel like talking about.

So, Cork was pretty awesome. I think I liked in more than Dublin, though a large part of that is simply because we had more free time and better weather. As in, it was actually pretty sunny and somewhat warm. It didn’t suck to walk in, unlike Dublin’s weather. Also, I had an innovative new strategy to allow me to explore what I wanted and on my own time: I just said “hey guys, I’m going to wander off on my own. Give me a call when we start making dinner plans.” I now understand why dad wanders away every time we go anywhere. It’s not that I dislike the company of other people, but I really like the freedom to do what I want for how long I want without worrying about anyone else.

I think the best part, though, was when I joined a protest. I was hoping it would turn into a mob and eventually a riot, but it never quite got there. Disappointing, I know. The protest was concerning the Cork hurling team, specifically they wanted a new manager because the current one sucked. Apparently the players even went on strike to get a new manager. This just makes me think of the Mariners. Seattle, take note. My favorite part of the protest, though, was that they had a full length parody of “Hallelujah” (the Rufus Wainwright version) about the rugby team. It was actually pretty impressive.

We visited some places nearby Cork as well, specifically Cobh (pronounced Cove) and Blarney Castle. Cobh was interesting, but not great. It was a cute little seaside town with adorable buildings in bright colors and a nice park. It was the sort of place you spend an hour at, eat some ice cream, and never talk about again. Sadly, I didn’t get any ice cream.

Blarney castle, however, was pretty much the most awesome thing ever in the history of awesome. I have a lot of photos from it, but they don’t do it justice. We had an hour there; I wanted a day. Seriously, the place was just amazing. We had almost the perfect weather too. It rained in the morning before we left, then warmed up and the clouds parted so it was bright and sunny, but still cool. More importantly, that rain left a nice mist and crystal dew lying over the land as we came in. The trees shimmered, and the mist gave it all an ethereal quality. It was like stepping into a world of magic. It was amazing. We only had enough time to go through Blarney castle (I didn’t kiss the Blarney stone, don’t worry) and didn’t get a chance to visit the grounds around it, which was a little frustrating. They looked beautiful and I would have liked to explore them. Oh well, when my parents come we’re going back there. They don’t know it yet, but we are.

Otherwise…I think that’s all I’ve really got to say about Cork. Wait, two other quick things. One, we visited a college in Cork that had some beautiful architecture and such. The important thing about it (to me) was that the mathematician George Boole was a professor there, and their library is named after him. I found this exciting because it was the first time we had seen anything math-y. For those who don’t know Boole is the creator of Boolian logic, which is the logic used by computers to do their thing. The other cool thing in Cork, and this was more impressive to everyone other than me, was that we found a place that served pints for €2.90, which is significantly less than anywhere else. I guess that’s cool, but let's be honest, which is more interesting, cheap beer or a mathematician? I thought so.

I took a lot of photos of the trip. I think it was around 100…This was also the first time I took multiple photos of the same thing, though. As in, stand there and take three or four photos and decide what goes on Facebook. Thus, it’ll take me longer to upload the photos, simply because there are more captions to write, and more photos to wade through and decide what goes up. I hope to do that tomorrow, but don’t quote me on it.

Well, this is really long, I’ve been in the library for an hour and a half, and I need to read three books of The Iliad. I should probably go.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

There’s several differences between the teaching style here at National University of Ireland, Galway and Willamette University. One of the biggest differences I’ve found between NUIG and WU is how they assign readings.

So they say that the internet won’t be back until Friday…Great. Of course I take everything they say with a grain of salt at this point. I’m hoping I’ll have internet by the end of the semester, but I’m not counting on it. Seriously, though, it’s down in half of Galway for 11 days. Something’s not right with that. The only thing I can think of is it must be a pretty major problem that they’ve run into. We’ll see. Either way, this Friday we have an excursion to Cork to…Cork it up, I guess. I’ll have details about that on Monday, and new photos. Also, I plan on uploading my Aran Island photos soon, hopefully on Wednesday (I’m writing this in my room on Tuesday night and figure I’ll post it tomorrow when I go to the library…which would be today when you read this…). With any luck we’ll have internet when I get back, though I’m not counting on it.

On a completely unrelated note, there’s several differences between the teaching style here at National University of Ireland, Galway (or NUIG as those of us who don’t want to type much call it) and Willamette University (or WU as those of us who don’t want to type much call it). In case you are wondering, I actually did type out that phrase twice rather than copy and paste, because it wouldn’t have been ironic otherwise.

One of the biggest differences I’ve found between NUIG and WU is how they assign readings. The way it works at WU is at the start of the term the teacher makes you spend around $100 on books. Then, on the first day they give you a syllabus that says exactly how many pages and of which book to read each day. Then, they discuss that day’s readings in class as the main topic for the day. Some classes at NUIG do that too (though they much more heavily encourage the use of the library and not buying books)—the seminars most specifically. However, what’s also common is that a class will just hand out a reading list with a dozen or so books on it and say “read one of these at some point,” and that’s that. My history teacher hands out a new reading list nearly weekly.

Now, I should stress that I don’t know if this is a difference between America and Ireland, or small school and big school, or math department and history department (okay, I don’t think it’s that one), or maybe just different schools have different styles. I don’t know.

I have to say this system seems a lot harder on the students and puts more emphasis on us teaching ourselves. We have to decide which book to read, find it (library!) and read it according to our own schedule. Thus, we must take more ownership of our learning, as opposed to the Willamette system which someone described as “handholding” earlier today.

While it’s true that the NUIG system creates more independence among the students, that it shifts the burden onto us where it probably belongs, it also has a serious flaw: we’ve all read different things. This makes discussion much harder. For example, the teacher could want to discuss the church during the Late Antiquity period (I really like my medieval history class), but perhaps half the class never read anything about it. Immediately half the class can’t contribute to the discussion, or the class has to spend most of the time catching them up. Even if they all read on the same topic, they still have a hard time discussing the details—one author might go in depth on person A while another might gloss over them.

To be fair, though, I can also see some pluses to this idea. Too often I’ve seen classes come down to just regurgitation of the reading, and everyone reading different things might encourage more discussion of the topics and issues, rather than the readings. I’ve seen too many classes where the topic is understand what this writer is saying about this thing, rather than discussing the thing itself, and this system seems as though it would prevent that.

I think there’s some pros and cons with it. It’s not better, nor is it worse, but different. Of course, all of this silly talk about class discussions makes no sense for a lecture class, and I’ve even been finding that many of my seminar classes seem more lecture based than discussion based. Maybe I got spoiled by Willamette and all of its discussion and handholding and internet that works goodness.

Either way, I think I’m going to eat a Cadbury Egg and play some Final Fantasy III. Those crystals won’t save themselves, after all!

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 03:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We went to the Aran Islands yesterday. I think I would have liked it a lot more if I, you know, had biked sometime in the last 10 years. Even before that, I never rode a bike much. My dad doesn’t even think I know how to ride a bike! Though, to be fair, he also thinks I hate black and white movies which stopped being true at least 10 years ago.

I’m in the library right now on one of my rare opportunities to get internet, so I feel like I should write something. We might have internet back in the room by now, I’m not sure, but I doubt it. They said “Monday at the earliest” so I’m hoping it’ll be on sometime this week…

We went to the Aran Islands yesterday. I think I would have liked it a lot more if I, you know, had biked sometime in the last 10 years. Even before that, I never rode a bike much. My dad doesn’t even think I know how to ride a bike! Though, to be fair, he also thinks I hate black and white movies which stopped being true at least 10 years ago.

Huh, I should probably explain. The Aran Islands are some islands just off the western coast of Ireland, from Galway it’s about a 45 minute drive to the ferry, and then another 45 minute ferry ride to the islands. Once there, we hopped on some bikes and rode out to Dun Aengus, an ancient fort built on cliffs 100 meters above the ocean. I talked to the tour guide and he said that occasionally he would have people who, I kid you not, sat on the edge of the cliffs dangling their feet over the side. I got within a meter of the edge, and that was enough for me. I should mention, I’m afraid of heights, so even that much was quite a stretch for me. That said, it was one of the most beautiful places to push my limits, and I’m glad I did it. I’m never doing it again, though.

Speaking of never doing something again, I hate bicycles. They’re painful, uncomfortable, and just frustrating. I’m still hurting from the ride. To be perfectly fair, the way there was easy: it was gentle slopes downward interrupted with occasional steep slopes downward and, rarely, a hill up. However, the way back was just the opposite (who would have guessed?). I don’t feel bad, though: the entire class seemed to be feeling it and everyone talked about how tired and sore they were.

Outside of the evil bikes, the Aran Islands were pretty incredible. They’re very rural; the big town only had a few buildings and for most of the bike ride we didn’t see any modern developments. Something that struck me halfway through the ride was that we didn’t see any power lines for most of the trip. They have electricity, but the population is so little that power lines are just more rare. The roads we road on were narrow and rarely used. Less than 10 cars passed us over the course of the day. It was nice to step into a rural Ireland, a nice change of pace from Galway and it’s big city with zooming cars (stupid cars that almost hit me all the time). It was a lot more peaceful and beautiful—a rural community that seems like it’s from the past. Still, a day there was enough and I don’t mind being in Galway right now. When my parents come at the end of the term, they had wanted to visit the Aran Islands, but I think I’d rather go back to Carraroe. It seemed like there was more to do, and I liked it a little more. Still, the Aran Islands were great. Except for the bikes.

I took plenty of photos, don’t worry. Some of them even include people in them! Yeah, I’m improving. Unfortunately, since I don’t have internet I can’t post them yet. Since I believe all photos should have captions, I end up spending around half an hour creating the Facebook albums, which is frankly something I don’t want to sit around doing in the library. As soon as the internet is back in my room, I’ll post the photos.

Posted by Thomas R Brounstein at 04:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)