And School Begins....

The past few weeks I have kind of forgotten that the whole reason I am here is to go to school. I was reminded of this yesterday. I have decided that the history department thrives on papers....I am semi-used to this, but not quite at this intensity. I will have 2 mid-term essays of 1500-2000 words and 2 final essays of 5000 words. Also, 2 classes are a little vague on the finals so I may have to write essays for those, too! In reality, this may not be so bad, I have no concept of how many words make how many pages, but right now, I'm a little intimidated by the number of words required! Another reason this makes me nervous is their semester ends in April!!! That's a very short length of time to write 4 essays.
On a happier note - I had my first Irish language class today! It's definitely different from anything I've heard before, but it's so much fun! My friends and I have been practicing since we left class. I think one thing that makes it so fun is that it's a non-credit class - we pay 40 euro and we take the class without having to worry about a grade. So far I've gotten really good at Tá mé go maith (pronounced ta meh go mah) which means, I'm well. That's the only one that I think I pronounce even remotely correctly. I'm enjoying my other classes, they're just freaking me out a little bit at the moment. I need to remember that it's only January, I have time! I really like the colliquium that I'm taking, the Mid-Tudor Crisis. I've always focused on Henry VIII and Elizabeth in my Tudor studies. This class focuses more on Edward VI and Mary I and a little bit on Elizabeth's early reign. It's absolutely wonderful!