This morning I had my first psychology class, Abnormal Psychology, one of the classes I might actually get academic credit for! The lecturer is a clinical psychologist from the UK who works in a hospital for the criminally insane. He is surprisingly mild mannered.
As Meng and I were walking back towards the main campus from the building, Meng stopped dead in her tracks. I looked ahead, slightly confused, to see a fox gnawing on a bicycle wheel. The fox didn't seem particularly healthy, and we went around the other side of the building.
My next class, Introduction to Multimedia Authoring Systems, basically a graphic, video, and audio editing class, was at 1400. We waited outside the room with a handful of people but the 80 people who are enrolled in the class never seemed to show up. Eventually, I realized that the other students waiting outside were international students, and we concluded that the class was moved and we didn't get the message because we were not a part of the email system yet.
As might have been gathered from the first words of this post, today was Arthur's Day in Ireland, a celebration of Arthur Guinness, the "man behind the pint". Arthur Guinness inherited £100 in 1752 from Archbishop Price, his godfather, which he used to set up a brewery. He first started brewing ales in 1759. The colour of Guinness is derived from the roasted barley used in the fermentation process. It's "tanginess" originally came from mixing aged, ready-to-sell stout with freshly brewed stout. Today, roasted unmalted barley is used to get the tang, but it is unclear if mixing still occurs. Arthur's Day was established as the 27th of September in 2009 to celebrate the 250 year anniversary of Guinness. It exists in Ireland as a large music festival (and a thinly veiled marketing scheme). At 1759, a minute before six pm and the year in which Arthur Guinness first started brewing, the country engages in a toast, shouting "To Arthur!" from pubs across Ireland.
We met up with some friends on South Mall, and our group, having just barely missed the 1759 toast, had our own toast in their apartment. Our first stop was Crane Lane, one of the largest venues in Cork, but we couldn't get any information out of the bouncer as to who would be headlining, and they weren't letting non-ticket holders in until 11pm. We ventured a few streets over to The Oliver Plunkett, and watched some adept tap dancers keeping time with an Irish jig. We managed to make our way to the front of the crowd, and got to watch the local band playing there perform a mix of folk and rock songs. Eventually, we headed upstairs, where another local band was playing "Whiskey in the Jar" to which many were dancing. A group of 30 people or so in front of the stage got into a circle and started a sort of dance off, while pairs of dancers took the center of the ring, spinning around until new partners came in. Dancing here was completely different from the US. Just the composition of the group was radically different. There were mostly 20 year olds, but there were some 30 year olds as well, dancing and enjoying the atmosphere. The dancing was very inclusive and far less newsworthy than was dancing at home. All things considered, it was great craic.
We came back to Crane Lane at eleven, and found out that Ellie Goulding was playing, but that we still could not get in as it was full. We went to the wine bar that was adjacent to Crane Lane, and I got some bruschetta. The wine bar is displayed as an old pharmacy with vintage pharmaceuticals, colognes and perfumes, and other wares displayed on every inch of wall in the place. It also features a wall made completely of empty wine bottles.
To Arthur!
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Go raibh maith agat.
(Irish, literal: A thousand thanks)
Thanks a million!