I went to New York City on Wednesday to see a friend and the city before I don’t see it for a year or more. I went to New Hampshire this weekend to see family before I don’t see them for a year or more. Because I’m going to Ireland on Thursday. Oh my god, I’m going to Ireland on Thursday.
Everybody I talk to asks me: “Are you excited?” Well, yeah, I’m excited. But I’m also more nervous than I thought I would be. A lot of this has to do with the fact that, as of now, I don’t know where I’m living. I was supposed to find out last week at the latest, but I still don’t know. I tend to be the sort that gives everything extreme benefit-of-the-doubt, up until the last second — “Maybe it’ll be in my inbox by the end of today.” I sent my adviser an e-mail and hopefully I’ll know by Monday, but it’s pretty nerve-wracking being unsure of my living situation this close to my actually needing one. Eeek.
Let’s talk about other things: let’s talk about books. More specifically, let’s talk about the fact that I want to bring all of mine with me and there’s just no way that’s going to happen. Not only is it unfeasible to bring my mini-library overseas with me, I’m an English literature and history student, so I’m going to be getting a lot more when I’m over there anyway. I’ve decided firmly on at least two of mine that are coming with: Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series, which I have in one volume (and has traveled with me everywhere and will not be left behind no matter what), and Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy.
I’m not even going to try to pretend that I’m not the literary version of a fan-girl when it comes to McCabe’s writing. It’s a little embarrassing how much I love his books, and one of the reasons that I was interested in Trinity is the fact that his books are taught there a lot as part of the modern Irish canon. Unfortunately, he’s just as popular with Irish students as he is with yours truly — and Irish literature is a major reason that visiting students study at Trinity, no surprise there — so I foresee a lot of trouble actually getting into a class that teaches one of his books. Nevertheless, I will try. Even if I only sit in on a lecture and don’t get any credit for it, I’m going to try to see one of his books taught.
Now the foreboding rest: clothes packing (what shoes to bring? which coats?!), looking up somewhere to get a mobile (Tesco?), talking to my bank to figure out how I’m going to get my money into an Irish one, and I’m sure other stuff which I’ve temporarily wiped out of my brain to spare myself hysteria.
Ireland is coming, am I ready?
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Hannah Vose
<p><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">Hannah Vose is a University of Rochester junior, majoring in English with an interest in literary translation studies. When not burying her nose in whichever book has most recently been plucked from atop the dangerously tall pile on her desk, she can be found obsessively learning new languages, squinting through her (very stylish, thank you!) bifocals at someone else's writing in her job as a Writing Fellow, drinking stupid amounts of tea, squinting through her bifocals at her own writing in her job as a scathing self-critic, or dreaming of living somewhere which gets even less sun than Rochester. Born in England but having lived most of her life in Endicott, New York, she has traveled back to the Land of Her People twice and visited Dublin once on the way over. She considered applying to Trinity College as an international student, but was deterred by tuition costs (yikes!) so she's absolutely 100% thrilled to be living in Dublin and taking classes at Trinity for an entire year (and only about 34% of that is because she might get to take a class on Patrick McCabe -- will it happen? Stay tuned!)</span></p>
