Thursday 3 September 2015

Limerick


Hickory dickory dock,
the mouse ran up the clock;
the clock struck one
and down he run;
hickory dickory dock.

It seemed appropriate to post a limerick considering my current location.  I departed New Zealand on July 14th and have finally made it to Limerick, the original reason for coming to Europe at all.  Only took a month and a half.

Compared so some of the other vibrant cities I've encountered on this adventure Limerick is a lot quieter, smaller and due to the continuous cloud cover, a lot more dull.  However the city isn't without a certain sort of charm.


Outside the Hunt Museum are two colourful horse statues. That's a winner in my books with zero effort.




I'm pretty certain every village, town and city in this part of the world is obliged to have at least one architecturally impressive church.  Limerick is no exception.  Multiple church steeples break the landscape around various parts of the city.  I went into the St Mary's Cathedral which has beautiful stained glass windows.  The church was founded in 1168.  Considering Abel Tasman didn't sight New Zealand until 1642, and James Cook didn't visit until 1769 it puts into perspective how young New Zealand really is.


King John's Castle sits alongside the River Shannon.  The site of the castle dates back to when Vikings lived on the island, but the actual castle was built during the reign of King John in the 13th century.

This semester I am living in one of the universities residential villages, Plassey Village.  Move in day made me feel a little sad because everyone was arriving with their families and unpacking their car loads of stuff, similar to how I was in first year in Wellington.  And I arrived by myself in a taxi with my suitcase and backpack. Sigh.

My room set up, ft. NZ pride

Monday of orientation started with a coffee morning with other international students.  I met two girls from the Netherlands and a girl from Canada who I spent to remainder of the day with.  In the afternoon we took the bus provided for international students to the Parkway shopping centre where I purchased a few essential items like a pillow and duvet so I could return the ones Plassey Village had lent to me.

In the evening we went to the campus bar, The Stables Club and had a few ciders to end a good first day at UL.


Orientation week is nice and relaxed here at Limerick University.  International students are given plenty of time to make friends and find their feet in a new university environment, as well as in a new city and country.  So far I've had a great experience.  The people I've been meeting are awesome!  I have roommates from across the world (Canada, Germany, Finland, America and France).  Looking forward to attending some lectures come Monday!

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