Research, Rugby, and Other Assorted Random Ramblings (starting with 'R')

This week started off like every other week of my life: with grand ambitions of Being Productive. I don't just mean short-term productive, as in Do Your Homework. I mean, Revolutionize Your Study Habits productive...Become a Better Person productive...Start Planning Your Future productive. And like every other week, my lofty ambitions didn't go as planned. Looking back, however, a lot of important things did happen this week.

I started it off--if you can call Sunday the start--with a day trip to Waterford. Two friends and I caught the noon:40 bus from Cork's main bus station and two hours later arrived in Waterford. It isn't a huge city, but has the 5th largest population in Ireland. It is also apparently Ireland's oldest city. Founded by Vikings, Waterford contains plenty of historic sites to visit. As we had very limited time, we chose to go to the old Viking Reginald's Tower, which is now a sort of Viking museum containing various artifacts of the time and a presentation covering the history of the city based from the history of the Tower. I particularly liked learning the general history of the entire city, as it is somewhat similar to Cork's. And guess who's in the process of busting out an essay on the archaeology of Early Medieval Cork? I was digging the connections. 

Unfortunately, by the time we were done in the Tower, the supposedly excellent Medieval Museum was closed. So we booked it through the pouring rain into a nearby cathedral. Cathedrals are generally spectacular fun for the architecture. That you will feel like a puny little human as soon as you enter is a given. What took me off guard in this cathedral were the ornaments hanging from the ceiling: chandeliers of Waterford crystal. I don't know much about crystal. In fact, "yeah, whatever" probably best sums up my feelings towards it. I don't think it's particularly beautiful. But people like to make a big deal about Waterford crystal: it is highly advertised and probably the main way in which the city differentiates itself. Not by its "oldest city in Ireland" status, or museum, or intense history of Vikings and uprisings and plague. By its crystal. I suppose people come for the crystal and stay for the history. Or maybe just to conduct photo shoots in the sweet Viking stand-ups about the historic center. Hey, to each their own....

(Obviously I am better husband material.)

Sunday past and with little work completed on my archaeology paper, I awoke Monday morning with fierce determination to finish my paper THIS week. That result remains to be seen. I did, however, spend a good chunk of time on Monday and Tuesday in the Special Collections and Archives center of the library researching. That was quite the experience, especially when one considers that this is really the first time Wymana has taken liberal arts courses. First, I had hardly any idea what to expect, or how to access the Special Collections, or where it was. I found it in a quiet corner of the basement, a moderate room fronted by an office and row of cubbies. This corner did not remain quiet for long, as Wymana obviously had no idea what she was doing and could not understand half of what the librarian at the counter was telling her. This can be attributed to two factors: a heavy Irish accent and uncommonly forceful speech not unlike yelling. Regardless, it all worked out in the end. I had to lock up everything that was not a laptop, notebook, and pencil (pens and laptop cases are not allowed). And when I finally entered the room...access to crazy old books dating to the early 1800s, falling apart. It was intense--not only handling the books, but also the study atmosphere. There's something about the Special Collections and Archives center that makes Facebook an extremely guilty study break. Which meant that my study density was incredibly high...when I wasn't trying to hide my computer screen.

Despite these two events, probably the defining factor of my week was and is the stress: everything is due around the same time, and that due date is really not too far off. I have quite a bit of work to do in terms of reading, writing papers, and studying for exams. 

In addition to schoolwork, I was also concerned with finalising plans for this summer and for the upcoming school year. On Wednesday, I interviewed for a job for next year through OSU's College of Engineering. The interview was conducted over Skype, something that I was worried about because I could imagine about 10 different technology-related disasters to go with a Skype call. My computer might freeze, or automatically shut off, or Windows might not boot, or Windows might boot but crash, or Skype might crash, or something might decide to update (yes you, Windows), or the internet connection might give out. All of which happen regularly. Luckily, none of these things happened and the interview was technologically successful. I was very lucky to have a friend who lent me her room and internet connection at another UCC dorm, since the internet connection at my apartment is not strong enough to simultaneously support video and audio streaming through Skype. And as if that wasn't cool enough, she hiked with me afterwards IN THE RAIN to the nearby Centra grocery so I could find some discount ice cream. It was wonderful.

Interesting fact: I have not yet come across froyo and ice cream isn't super easy to find outside the main grocery stores. Chocolate and caramel and candy bar squares, however, occur in very large quantities.

Most recently, I attended a girl's rugby match against UCC's rival, CIT (Cork Institute of Technology) this evening. My friend is on the team and I had my camera ready for some hardcore proud-parenting. Let's just say I will be a little more cautious next time I bother her about the spider haunting her bedroom, most likely the closet.

There were some pretty intense tackles. (Also: note that every member on each team is wearing a prom dress. This was a special event game to help raise donations to charity.)