A Little of This and a Little of That

Everything is getting greener day by day, which is extraordinary because it is already so green here. I have to schedule for classes soon, it's very weird to even think about taking classes at Penn State again because they are so different here.

But here's a few things of note that didn't fit into other posts about Ireland:

Wordplay
They use British grammar here so there are a few things that are spelled differently. Like flavour and colour. They also don't seem to like the letter 'z.' It's rarely used. So words that end in 'ized' are actually spelled 'ised.' To wit: theorise, socialise, and realise.

TV
It's awful. Awful. In the apartments we only have about 15 channels, so maybe if we had more there would be better shows to watch. But, basically all we have is early 90s sitcoms and dramas. These shows are always on: Scrubs, Friends, Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, Fraser, Simpsons, One Tree Hill, and Gilmore Girls. Occasionally there's Lost, House and ER. That's pretty much it. There's MTV, too and Nickelodeon. A few sports channels and two news channels. There's also a channel all in Irish. Most of the Irish shows are like soap opera dramas, they're kind of weird.

Recession
The word is every where, on commercials, signs and in the news. America is certainly not the only country suffering from economic woes, most of Europe is as well. There's all sort of recession buster deals, and talk of the economic problems is everywhere.

Newspapers
It seems so far newspapers here aren't suffering as badly as they are in the states. I like the Irish Independent a lot, it has a good mix of national and international news, and prints in a compact form (which is basically like any US paper). However, most papers here seem to be in broadsheet form and are also very tabloid-y, including the Irish Independent. I haven't read too many papers so I can't say if their content is tabloid like, but the layout of the papers definitely is, from the large headlines and photos to ads on the front page.

Common Irish misconceptions
*They all have red hair and freckles. This is SO untrue. The majority of Irish have very dark brown hair and blue eyes. There are red heads, but they are actually pretty rare.

*Also, all of Ireland isn't miles, miles and miles of green farmland. Yes, there is a LOT of farmland, but there are also a lot of towns, cities and smaller villages.

*Leprechauns and four-leaf clovers aren't that abundant either.