Culture Shock Phase X: Utter Disgust
For those of you who’ve spent a spring semester at ISU, picture Saturday night of VEISHEA. For those of you who haven’t spent a spring semester at ISU, picture drunken revelry. There are droves and droves of people flocking to the streets, always with alcohol in their hands, heading toward the bars. They’re loud, obnoxious, and for the most part stupid. There’s a concert going on in the background and everyone’s happy becase there aren’t any classes tomorrow.
This is the scene at UL every night. The droves of people are the students because the drinking age is 18 and the federal government has largely given up on keeping alcohol out of minors’ hands, even as they celebrate the completion of middle school (see today’s Irish Times). The bars in UL’s case are on campus, heavily promoted, and always open – even on Sunday. Not even the library is open on Sunday. The concerts take place near the students’ union; there is someone playing something almost every night, and it’s always loud. Tonight the student body president introduced The Delorentos by screaming about fees and handing condoms out to the crowd (perhaps Mrs. Palin could learn a thing or two). Lastly, classes are of no importance whatsoever to a large portion of the UL students because the vast majority, if not all, of their grade is determined by one end-of-semester test. No academic progress needs to be made until week 9 (since students are quite good at memorizing and regurgitating junk) and classes aren’t widely attended until after Week 1.
There is a distinct divide between those parading around in the streets, and those in their rooms wishing there was something else to do. Katherine and I are most certainly in the latter group and plan on getting as far away from Limerick as we can on the weekends.
