A Wee Bit of News

Greetings from Coleraine, Northern Ireland! This post is mostly for those with mothering tendencies and I'll post more in the next week after I've had a little more time to think and more to say...

So, I'm writing this from the University of Ulster campus library on a mildly gloomy, albeit warm, Saturday afternoon and it feels like I've been here for much more than two days. A quick recap: The flight (my first trans-Atlantic one) wasn't bad except for the fact that I didn't sleep much so I was pretty tired and jet lagged Thursday and yesterday, getting really tired for a short period before being really energetic. It was interesting to leave Newark at night, flying over New York City, Connecticut, Providence, and Boston and landing in Belfast in the morning. The area between New York and Boston (what up megalopolis) is so dense and bright and urban, especially this time of year. On the other end of the pond, the first thing I noticed once we broke the cloud cover was how green everything was. Yeah, I know, its the Emerald Isle and all of that but I wasn't expecting it to be SO green in February! This fact was only compounded by how rural it is here. While I've flown across the Midwest many times, the landscape here is much more similar to rural New England (minus the trees) than the large industrial looking farms of the Midwest. Plus, most of these tracts don't seem to actually be farmed, more like grazing pastures except I've only seen a couple of sheep and a handful of cows :(

Moving right along: After we met our program director, Nigel (extremely sarcastic and very helpful), we took about an hour bus to Portrush on the North Coast of the island. Portrush is part of the "triangle" of Portrush, Coleraine, and Portstewart. For the first 3 weeks we'll be taking classes at the University of Ulster in Coleraine and commuting by train (yes!) about10 minutes one way. Portrush is pretty sleepy and a little rough around the edges- we've been told it used to be the height of seaside tourism in decades past but now everyone just goes to Spain or Italy or other actually warm places.

The 15 of us are split between 4 flats, which are very pleasant and cozy. The best part is that we're about 10 seconds from the sea. So far, we've explored a bit of Portrush, including a couple coffee shops, bars, and restaurants, and gone for some walks on the "strands" (re: beaches). Yesterday we came to campus for the first time and did a bunch of administrative stuff before heading into the town of Coleraine, which seems to the most happening of the three towns. We got our phones (and lots of intel on the local scene), wandered around a bit, and had lunch before heading back to our flats. Last night we all went out to a bar where there was a cover band playing lots of songs we all knew (with a singer who looked exactly like Alec Baldwin minus the star treatment). We all had some drinks and danced and had a good time- it was a little odd, or so we all thought, because very, very few people were dancing on the dance floor or even with their friends. So far, everyone I've met or spoken to has been really nice and friendly, giving lots of information about places to go and things to do. We certainly stick out, particularly when we travel in a pack, but so far people have been really accommodating, if not amused, by us. This weekend, I'm planing on fully unpacking, exploring Portstewart, finding myself some fish and chips, and definitely going for another walk on the beach. I think that's all for now, hope to hear from all of you soon!

Oh! I've decided at the end of each post to make a few notes on food and drink that I try. That said, In the past few days not much of note has been consumed other than my first pint of Guinness- delicious, a hard cider called Magners- also delicious, and the chocolate digestives (basically graham cracker cookies with a chocolate covering) which sort of creeped me out by name but are pretty tasty (and sadly have all been eaten). Next up: Fish and Chips!