Cork: Days 1-4

With a few days in Cork under my belt, I'm finally feeling a bit settled. We got moved into our apartment, and the first people I met were a few students from St. Norbert. They were talking amongst each other and one of them said "You so just pulled a Jake Demarais!" I cut in, and said "That's my cousin!" They were like, "No way, you're the cousin who goes to school in Minnesota?" They had been told that I was here and definitely knew Jake. With that, I had made my first friend in Ireland... who was from Wisconsin and knew my cousin. My roommate Katie and I ended up in a two person apartment, so we didn't have any roommates to adjust to, but a few of our friends had roommates who we've gotten to know. All Americans so far. We figured out the grocery store and found Penny's, which has really cheap clothes. But beyond that, we didn't have much time to explore the city before orientation yesterday. Orientation was a lot of sitting and listening, ending with a tour. Last night, we all got together to look at the timetable to figure out our classes.
I am taking:

Intro to Anglo-Irish Lit

Intro to Traditional Irish Music (hopefully, I had to apply for this one)

Intro to Modern Irish (Gaelic)

Geological Evolution of Ireland

2 out of the following 3 classes, still to be figured out:

Step Dancing

Tin Whistle

Choir

So this morning, I got up to go to my 9:00 Geology class. I got there perfectly fine, but the prof was flipping through a biology slide show... it turns out my class doesn't start until the second half of the semester. Oops. Since I don't have a class until 4 today, I decided to head back to the apartment via the scenic route. I went to find the big spires I could see from the road I usually take back. Once I found it, I was really glad I had detoured. It was St. Fin Barre's Cathedral, which is the oldest Cathedral in County Cork. It held the founding of the Church of Ireland in the Cork diocese. It was beautiful and I lit a prayer candle. I continued on in the direction of the Grande Parade and St. Patrick's street, to explore the English Market and pick up some milk. I walked back along the river and discovered an Arts and Craft store I should probably stay away from. It's so cool :) I had a lot of fun figuring out the layout of this area and feel much more comfortable getting around, and to and from school. It was also the first time I had done anything away from the group. As much as I like the people I'm with, it's nice to get out on my own and much more efficient. So far, the independence is working well. Well, my class this afternoon is the English class; I hope it goes well!