MacKat in Ireland

I think it’s worth mentioning that Katherine’s bad luck has followed her to Ireland.  While taking a chemistry class during the summer a few years ago, the lab component didn’t transfer correctly and her general sciences category is a credit short.  For this reason she has to take three classes in Ireland, not two, and she’ll have two extra credits that will count for nothing.

When we were applying to this school it took the Limerick people well over a month to decide that Katherine was indeed an acceptable candidate.  Once accepted she wasn’t given the free pass to the rec center like the other study abroad students and her acceptance letter included the wrong year.  Months later, she finally received a letter with the correct dates.

Once we got here Katherine’s room was infested with spiders, which she hates, and the key to her door is extremely finnicky.  I had neither of these problems.

Today at orientation our group left her behind because she “wasn’t in the system.”  Rather than waiting, our tour guide gave Katherine her cell phone number to call once Katherine “was in the system.”  Of course, Katherine’s phone doesn’t work because we haven’t put any credit on it.  Once Katherine got her ID she had to ask a stranger to call the tour guide and direct her to the main building – which the rest of the group had already passed.  By the end of the day Katherine’s email account still isn’t activated and her print quota has yet to be created.

But wait!  We searched the UL schedules tonight for when Katherine’s approved classes were offered.  Of my three classes, all are offered and my favorite one meets only on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Of Katherine’s eight, the four worst are offered and they meet every day – including Monday morning and Friday afternoon.

It can only get better, right?

-Mark

We went to orientation this morning and stood in line for our information packets which nobody could find.  After sitting through an hour of info we realized during the coffee break that we were in the Erasmus orientation – that’s for EU kids.  We were directed to the Study Abroad/Intl. Student orientation in a different building.  We sat there for another hour listening to the same info (apparently they go a lot slower for the Americans) before lunch.

After lunch we went on a tour in which we learned little because every building on campus was packed with tours and then got our student ID.  The student ID process, like most things here, was extremely unorganized and took forever.  The day was salvaged because we got a free dinner at one of the two pubs on campus.

-Mark