The Humdrum of University Life

The UCC Western Gateway 

On a normal University school day, students mill along the stone sidewalks probably heading to class or who knows where else. Some are clustered in groups and are chatting loudly about nothing in particular while others are lost in their own world, with their earbuds spouting music.

In front of the library near the windows, there are sometimes tables advertising one thing or another like vendors at a market. In fact, it kind of looks like a market with the windows sunk in behind two gray slates of wall. For society’s day or clubs’ day as we Americans would call it, there were tables aligned all across the library. 

My roommate and I stopped at the musical society one (since she is into theatre) and I stopped at a Medieval Renaissance table and learned that they make their own clothes and practice sword fighting. I was hooked immediately and signed up, but haven’t heard from them since then. A depressing thought but alas, maybe it is not meant to be. 

Currently though, there is a Breast Cancer Awareness table in the circular stone center with “ Bra Pong” instead of “Ping Pong” which I thought was pretty clever. Usually, I don’t have to time to stop and play it. 

One day, there was a giant Ben & Jerry’s tent with a long twisty line of students. They were giving out free samples of ice cream and, as you can imagine, college kids are all about the free food.  

Inside the Student Center, there are people usually eating in the window café (that’s not its official name but one complete wall of tables are pressed against giant glass windows). Sometimes, I choose to do work there, the noise being a pleasant background thrum that helps me focus. I find that too much quiet often makes me go mad, so the cafe is nice.  

The Café itself reminds me more of a cross between Wawa and Turkey Hill with a hot food counter that consists of things ranging from chicken wings to bagels. I noticed that most students get a hot or cold deli sandwich that you can make yourself.  

I don’t blame them, they are quite good except for the fact that they have weird dressings here. Sure, they have ketchup and barbecue sauce at most places, but they don’t have any ranch or honey mustard. Instead, there is lots and lots and lots of mayo. Not sure how I feel about that since I haven’t really tried mayo except for the little bit they sometimes put on sandwiches.  

I usually feel bad for the workers behind the counter because they always seem so busy especially around lunchtime, but I guess it’s their job. Beside the counter there is a long section of refrigerators that hold colorful juice drinks and pre-made sandwiches and  a large counter with two monster coffee drink machines and dark weaved baskets full of baked goods. My personal favorites are the scones. Usually the area is quite packed with hungry students and the lines for the registers are always long, but the workers dressed in their dark purple shirts are quick. 

The UCC Cafe 

If it’s a nice day, most sit outside basking in the sun rays as the sun is rare commodity here in Ireland. Sometimes, the boys would bring a plastic frisbee or a rugby ball and toss it around on the green quad but most laze around, sleeping, working, or chatting.  

One day, I even saw two boys sitting with their acoustic guitars strumming quietly along in the background. I wasn’t sure what they were playing but it reminded me those cool café scenes in movies. Glancing at them, I wondered if they could sing but chose not to ask them, since they were strangers and all. 

However, that’s one thing about Cork City, it doesn’t lack street performers. Usually they just lean up against a wall with a cap of a music case opened for collecting money. They are like your normal street performers except for the addition of a harmonica, accordion, or fiddle.

 What is different about these particular performers is that they play at night during the weekends as girls strut around in their skin-tight dresses and needle-like high heels while the men sometimes join in with the performers singing, probably drunk out of their minds.  It makes the city seem alive in a good way for once.  I wish that it could be that way for cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia. 

Overall though, most students in UCC and in Ireland live much like we do in America but with their own flare. After all, wouldn’t it be boring if everything was the same? 

One of the UCC Quads