I'm a Rebel with Illegal Berries.

Haha so before I get questions about the title of this post, let me explain. For the semester I am a Rebel and a Husky. Make sense?? Haha I was actually confused for a while because I hadn’t seen anything about a school mascot or symbol anywhere, even at sporting events. Then I found out they are the UCC Rebels and their symbol is a skull and cross bones. Of which Katie and I agree would be much cooler if we were the Pirates. Either way we’re the Rebels. I’ve asked why and I have yet to get a real answer on that. All I’ve gotten is something about the revolution and being rebels and something a really long time ago. So now that I’m actually curious about it I’m sure I’ll manage to find out the real reason behind their school mascot. I don’t even know if it’s really a mascot to be honest. There are just skulls and crossbones on things.

As far as the illegal berries go, Monday night our Study Abroad program took us all out for a “welcome” dinner. Basically their way of saying sorry we ditched a few weeks ago, hope you’re still alive, and if it makes you feel any better we’ll feed you. So we went to Wagamamas. Haha yeah I pretty much laugh every time I think about that name. It’s a ramen/ noodle place, I really don’t know how else to describe it, I want to say it was Asian or Thai but honestly I’m clueless about things like that, so I’ll just stick to noodles. They are really good. I had fried greens and beef teriyaki soba, which I had never even heard of before. I’m pretty sure it’s also the first time I’ve ever had asparagus. I really don’t know but I enjoyed dinner. For dessert they had their own fresh made ice cream with in season berries. The two kinds of berries that I recognized were strawberries and blueberries. Then there was another berry that made me think of holly berries, which I know are poisonous, so I was really confused. Suzy was sitting next to me (she’s kind of like our handler, she attends UCC as well and makes sure that we’re all still alive every few weeks) so I asked her and she laughed and goes, “oh those are illegal in the US.” Apparently they were red currant berries which were banned years ago from the US because they were considered a threat to the US logging system. I really don’t know what that means, I feel like it has to do with economics and I had my share of that freshman year. So we were all proud that we can say we ate something that back home is illegal. I have a feeling that may happen a few more time while I’m out here, but that’s okay. I’m curious enough to at least try things.

Speaking of trying things, I am currently attempting to understand the sport of Rugby. All I can say is that I’m completely lost. A few of the girls I know play on the UCC team and we went to see their match. It was certainly interesting, I don’t understand much of it but it’s definitely something different. The parts that I did get is that to score it’s pretty much like a touchdown in football, except it’s not about running across the line, it’s about the ball  touching the ground on the other side of the line. So you have to make it across the line and with the ball still in hand touch it to the ground. Also while a bunch of other people are running after you to stop you. Then you get a field goal attempt, except the kicker is the only person on the field for that, the rest of the teams have walked to their respective sides and are out of the way. Then there are throw-ins, which are like soccer, which I kind of understand. But really that’s about it. I can’t explain to you anything else about the game. There are things called Scrums, of which Casey I appreciate your effort to help but you don’t yell scrum. It’s really still confusing to me even though the girls tried explaining it later. There will be more rugby matches to go to and be confused at, and maybe by the time I leave Ireland I’ll have actually learned something about rugby.

Besides going to see the match this was seriously a do nothing weekend, which was nice, we don’t really have those too often since we’re always making plans to be elsewhere. But staying in Cork this weekend was nice. So there really isn’t much else here to tell. I will attempt to post things on a more regular basis. I write them in word and then just wait till I find a time to sit down and post them. Which it would probably also help if I remembered half the time about the blog.

With Love Always