After settling into our new apartment with new roommates, we went to our first day of work last Monday. We all are working at Tyndall National Institute, which is a research institute that partners with the University College Cork (UCC). UCC is the main university in Cork. There are 12 of us in the program. 7 of us are in the apartment and there are 5 others from Cork. Everyone is super friendly and we've all kind of hit it off. I was really glad to see there are two other girls in the program, too! Shelly and Robin have helped all of us a lot with getting settled in Cork and showing us around.
It hasn't been all work, though. I've spent a lot of time exploring the city and just walking around. The Irish don't really bother labeling their streets, and if they are it is in Gaelic, so looking at a map isn't much help. This means I am lost 90% of the time. Lucky for me, as long as I can find the river, I'll find my apartment eventually. Asking for directions is really no help either, all conversations go something like this: "Oh, yere lost, are ye? Don't werry love, just down dis stret take a shake left down the alley, it's a bit bockety but you may get a good craic outta it." People in Cork speak very very fast with a thick accent and use a lot of slang. If I can understand them, many times they use slang that I have never heard of. All of the surrounding towns are named similar things (ex: Ballybrack, Ballynagual, Ballyhasta are all nearby) which makes it even more confusing! Even with all of that, the Irish are endearing and generally well-intentioned.
The Irish are serious about their butter, alright?
There are nice little parks like this all over the city.
This church tower is called the Four-Faced Liar. There is a clock on each face of the tower, each set to a different time, none of which are correct. This is allegedly why no one in Cork is on time.
Some of the few and not-so-clear street signs in Cork.
No comments:
Post a Comment