Quick Hits

It hasn't rained for a few days now, and I get the feeling that the people here don't quite know what to make of it. It's almost as though it makes them uneasy. And then it occurred to me: know why there are so many good Irish writers for such a small population? Rain. Rainy days all the time. You're cooped up inside, what else you gonna do? Same goes for why there are so many good drinkers, too. I remember when I was in Japan I read something about why the Japanese are so good at working together in groups and see value in making things smaller and more compact. Well, Japan is a populous nation with, if I remember right, only 1/7th of its land being inhabitable. Result? Everyone has to crowd in like it's the family holiday picture. You wanna be alone in Japan? Fat chance. In fact, it's part of the psyche that wishing to be alone hardly occurs to anyone.

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This coming week is Raise A Grand week on campus. The general premise is that students are asked to donate to charity, with the goal being to raise one thousand euro. It's called RAG week for short. To encourage donation, the campus organizes all kinds of entertainment events. And for some unknown reason (see above), it's also associated with skipping a week's worth of classes and going on the piss. So prepare to see more words misspelled next week.

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I'm pretty sure the Constitutional Law lecturer is pissed off at the class. I think it started about two weeks ago when she wanted people to share their opinions on some Irish cases that held that it was acceptable to treat men and women differently in the eyes of the law, even though the Irish Constitution allegedly has an equality clause. No one had an opinion. In fact, no one participated at all. Then there was another class where hardly anyone showed up because most of them had an essay due the next day. Then we had a mandatory "tutorial" where we were supposed to read four or five articles and come ready to discuss them. I bet less than 1/3 of the class did the readings. You know, lots of people avoiding eye contact. Yes, I had done them, and I almost think the fact that I was one of the few able to participate in the discussion made it worse for the Irish kids - here's someone who's not even from here and he's done the work, what's wrong with the rest of you? (Right, nerd factor still going strong).

So now what's happened is, the two classes this week have gone like this: lecturer comes in at quarter past, gives a handout, essentially reads said handout as fast as she can, does not ask for any opinions at all, and tersely says "that's it." Yesterday the lecture lasted exactly 15 minutes. I asked the flatmates about it and they confirmed my fears.

"Oh yea, sounds like you'll be fooked on the exam. She's probably spendin' her time makin' it dastardly."

And there's no forced curve here. Never thought I'd long for a forced curve. Feck.