Hey Youghal!

So the first place that Mom and I went outside of Cork was Youghal (pronounced "ya'll"). This was a bit of a spur of the moment trip. We felt like we had an extra day in Cork because there are only so many days that you can deal with "moving" (read: dragging heavy things up a big hill to my house), so I suggested that we try a day trip somewhere in Co. Cork. I'd heard that Youghal was great, so off we went! Turns out it was a great decision :)

First thing we did was attempt to eat lunch (it was insanely large so it was a hopeless endeavor) and then off we went on a self-guided walking tour!

I think that this is my favorite picture from that day. Mom had no idea that I was taking a picture of her. She thought I was getting one of the Clock Tower.

A few stops later were the Alms Houses which are still in use as a retirement home.

We had fun wandering around the cemetery at one of the churches. This is Mom standing in the coffin hole :)



The organ inside of the church. So beautiful!

The view's not half bad...



Taking a break before continuing the tour.



Now, this is the outside of the Catholic church...

...and this is the inside. One of my friends described it "like being inside a holy marshmallow!"

Moby Dicks!


Mom found sea glass!

Doesn't this look like a park?!?

Pretty...

So that was a bit of our trip to Youghal. Sorry it was a bit short...the website is having issues uploading pictures so this is the best I could do. I'll try to do a bit better on the next post...Macroom!

Human Osteoarchaeology

I know that I promised updates with pretty pictures, but first I'm going to put in a quick overview of the programme that I'm enrolled in. Mostly because if I'm writing about my classes, then I'm thinking about my classes. And if I'm thinking about my classes, then I'm practically studying for my classes...right?

A bit of information about the course:

I will be a full-time taught masters student for one year. A taught masters means that I am required to take a set course of study (specific classes) in addition to researching and writing my dissertation. My classes for the year are:

Regional and Topographical Anatomy

Mortuary Theory

Archaeogenetics

Biocultural Approaches to Human Remains

Paleopathology

Quantitative Methods in Bioarchaeology

Osteology Laboratory

These classes last anywhere from 6 weeks to the entire academic year in length, though, thankfully, only the anatomy course has a written final (because it is not specific to archaeology students).

As for my dissertation, it is expected to be approximately 20,000 words in length and is due on my birthday next year.

The programme currently has 6 students (there was a max of 8), though we originally had 7. One girl dropped out after the first day, though that really wasn't a surprise to anyone. There are 2 Americans in the class, including myself. The other American is a student from California (studied at UCLA) named Gereme (pronounced like Jeremy). He is the only student in the class who has not previously studied at UCC. The rest of the class is made up of 4 Irish girls who all graduated from UCC in the past 2 years.

So far the programme seems challenging but pretty interesting, though I won't really know the extent of the workload until mid-October when all of the labs and whatnot have started up.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way I'll move on to putting up some posts with pretty pictures!

Back In Ireland Once Again

Well, here I am, back in Cork! And this time I'll come home with a Master's in Human Osteoarchaeology!

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

Mom and I touched down in Ireland about 3 and a half weeks ago and life has been a bit of a whirlwind since then. Everything from moving into a new house to traveling to starting my programme. Not to mention meeting new people and going to social events. Busy busy busy.

First thing first, this is my house!

It's in a great location. About 5 minutes to the main UCC campus, about 10 minutes to the Archaeology department, about 15 minutes to the city centre. My room is the window to the right of the front door in this picture (ground floor). I live with 7 other people (2 girls and 5 boys) and so far everyone is great. Becky and Kyle live on the top floor and they are the people that I've had the most contact with so far. Both of them are in their final year of undergrad. Becky is at Crawford College of Art and Design and Kyle is studying Microbiology at UCC. Two (maybe 3) of the other boys are Electrical Engineering majors at UCC and Kim (the other girl) is studying Recreation and Leisure at UCC. The last guy...well, in all honesty I haven't met him. I've heard that his name is Mark, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. He never seems to be home.

And here is my room:

It isn't very extensively decorated yet, but hopefully it will get better soon :)

Well, I believe that I'll be ending this post here because it's getting a bit late and I am going on an international postgrad student trip to Kinsale tomorrow.

I will work on keeping this fairly up to date, but I can't make any promises since it looks like my program is going to be very time consuming. Before coursework takes over my life I'll try to get posts together for the places that Mom and I visited: Youghal, Macroom, Galway, Donegal, Derry, Belfast, Waterford, and, of course, Cork!