Just follow the little green running man ...

(Note ... this post is about Tuesday, June 22, 2008).

This morning we woke up at 6:30 a.m Ireland time (1:30 a.m. USA Eastern time) to shower and be at breakfast by 8:00 a.m. Traditional Irish breakfast = a lot of food! There's no way I could have tried it all, but I did partake in some yummy ham (sort of like Canadian bacon), hasbrowns, some fruit, and a scone (so good), and even braved the black pudding (which surprisingly didn't taste like much). Add some strong coffee and I bet that didn't add up to 1/3 of the food on the buffet, so I'll have to try some more tomorrow! (Note to those who like strong coffee ... Ireland is for you!).

After breakfast we all gathered to walk to our first institutional visit at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway or NUIG). Upon approaching a building that looked partially like a castle and partially like an old cathedral with a green space in the middle (we later learned this was the original building that comprised NUIG when it was founded in 1845 as one of 3 Queens Colleges), we were greeted by Matt Doran, a cute, elderly Irish gentleman and the Administrator of Student Services - he was our host for the day. After giving us a very brief history about where we were standing, he ushered us inside to a conference room where we would spend the morning hearing from those who work in a variety of student services at NUIG.

I know that many of you aren't studying or working in student affairs, so I won't bore you with all the exciting things that I learned while on this visit, but I will point out some things that I found most interesting. You can skip over this part if you wish!

What became clearly apparent, and was even stated quite often, is that job descriptions are hard to come by at NUIG ... they either don't exist or aren't very structured. Therefore, many of the people that we heard from stated something along the lines of, "I do this, among a lot of other things." Matt happened to mention later in the day that Student Services at NUIG is "personal service driven, not administrative driven. There aren't really job descriptions, we just do whatever it takes to help the students." That was definitely apparent throughout the day. While Student Services at NUIG don't closely mirror those in the states, they do provide an unconditional support system to their students, and it's definitely a team effort.

Interestingly enough, alcohol was a topic of much discussion, which I found to be intriguing. Throughout my years at both Purdue and now at USC, and in general conversation with family, friends, and colleagues, I have often heard the comment made that laws regarding the use of alcohol and other drugs in the U.S. should be limited, with the justification that those countries in Europe who allow their usage earlier in life face fewer problems. Such is definitely not the case in Ireland. Socially, there is an alcohol problem, and in terms of students, far too many participate in extreme binge drinking - a habit that they formed in 2nd level school (high school) and brought with them to 3rd level education (college). Many of those who worked in Student Services at NUIG, particularly those who work in health services, discussed the need to work with students to further minimize their drinking habits. I found it interesting when Matt discussed later that common issues their students face are with alcohol and mental health concerns, and that many students, particularly males, don't seek the help that they need.

In my research prior to coming to Ireland, I had learned about NUIG's Student Connect Mentoring Programme, by which I was fascinated. It appears to be common in Ireland, as NUIG represents, for all first-year students to receive a personal tutor/mentor upon entrance to the institution. This is definitely a model program - student affairs peeps, check it out! It is grounded in the research that we all know that recognizes that students go to peers and family for support first, before coming to SA professionals.

When studying Irish institutions you will find much talk about mature students (students coming to school for the first time who are over the age of 23) and disability students. Without going into too much detail, I thought it was interesting to note that there was legislation passed in Ireland requiring ALL buildings (including those which predate the legislation) to be fully physically and sensory accessible by 2012 ... talk about a major construction project to take on, but also talk about a major support for those individuals!

Approximately 300 students from the USA study abroad at NUIG each year (those interested in studying abroad should definitely check it out) and it was interesting to hear the woman who oversees international student services talk about the amount of phone calls and e-mails she gets from American parents (our "helicopter parents" are reaching out internationally), but noted that she understood their concerns, and being a parent herself, could absolutely related to them. It was inspiring to hear both her and Matt talk about the importance of parental involvement in students' lives and how it should be looked at as an asset for a variety of reasons - a far more positive outlook that a lot of U.S. student affairs professionals give parents to today's students.

Most interesting was the presentation by Muireann O'Dwyer, President of the Students' Union (most similar to our student government). AT NUIG, and apparently at many institutions in Ireland, students who are elected president of the Students' Union take a sabbatical from school (or stay an additional year if they have completed their degree) to serve in a full-time, paid role at the institution, for which they are given an enormous amount of responsibility - including running many buildings and services on campus, such as the sports facilities, the union, the clubs and societies, the bookstore, and even the campus bar. Yes ... there is a campus bar ... complete with beer AND liquor on tap ... we at lunch there after the presentations were over before we went on a campus tour. (And ladies ... as you will notice by the pictures Sabrena and I take, hair is an issue in Ireland due to the great amount of rain and humidity. Have no fear ... the bathroom in the campus bar has a hair straightener for your use ... so you can always look nice while on campus ... strange.)

The tour of campus was interesting, as the campus is a mix of old, beautiful buildings that you expect when you come to Ireland and much new, modern architecture, a sign of the wealth Ireland has gained over time. Interesting was to find out that most Irish institutions, including NUIG, do not run their own residence hall system. Instead, accommodations for students are privately owned, and the campuses only provide a listing of available offerings. At NUIG, the common place to stay, Corrib Village (named as it sits on the Corrib River which runs along campus ... beautiful!), is quite far away and is about 3000 euro a year. However, keep in mind that Irish students who attend state (national) institutions attend tuition free - so housing is the only major cost. There is also a cute chapel on campus that happened to be hosting a wedding as we walked by (the groomed waved at us). Quote of the day came from Matt when we were passing by here as he pointed to the wall around the church and said "Inside there, God-fearing. Outside here, free willing!"

Once our tour was over, Sabrena and I made our way back to the hotel (stopping to take pictures of the Galway Cathedral along the way) to change clothes before heading out on a little adventure to purchase a converter because .... TA DA, I melted the one I have. (Jenn, you can go ahead and make a bill out to me for that one, and I'll pay you when I get back). A melted converter meant that we couldn't use our straighteners (well ... mine is broken anyway from yesterday) or Sabrena's computer, and thus we were quite frustrated and our hair was looking terrible. After following some terrible directions to Argos (kind of like a strange Best Buy) from a lady that worked at Boots (sort of like a CVS with a lot of personalized makeup counters) and getting lost in residential Galway, we came back empty handed. Therefore, prepare for some curly and wild hair in the rest of our pictures. Luckily we do have a surge protector and can use Sabrena's computer.

Note that Sabrena and I are in room 310, which we follow a maze to get to every time we come back to our hotel. I tend to always pass the lift (elevator) on the way to our room, and Sabrena always laughs at me. While waiting for the elevator today, I happened to look up and see the exit sign and pointed it out to Sabrena, to which she looked at me in disbelief and laughed hysterically saying, "Didn't you hear me yesterday?" The exit signs are green with little stick figures running in the direction of the exit. Yesterday while on the way to our room I had mentioned to Sabrena that hopefully nothing bad would happen that would cause us to have to find our way out of the hotel in the middle of the night or we might never make it, and she had responded, "Just follow the little green running man!" In my disillusionment from lack of sleep, I clearly did not hear her or just didn't pay attention. (Hence the name of this post).

We later met up with the rest of the students at a local pub before heading to dinner at Garvey's, which happens to be caddy corner from our hotel and also happens to have a for sale sign outside (which we all thought was really weird since our dinner had been arranged there). There we had some vegetable soup for an appetizer with was good but admittedly a little odd, as it had all been pureed together so it was like a broth - no chunks of vegetables. We then had some great fish and chips (yay Irish food). The best part of the dinner was the fact that the fish and chips was supposed to be served with mashed peas, which Pam (one of our professors) and I thought was gross (despite my actually liking peas). Luckily our plates were magically served without the mashed peas - hooray for us! Second best part of the dinner was Jen's (another student) explanation of not only her passion for tator tots, but was constitutes the "perfect tot." Guess we're not just learning about the Irish and higher education ... I now know how tator tots are made and what makes them perfect!

After dinner we all did some icebreakers (because we are, after all, student affairs people) now that the whole group was together, through which we learned the following Irish terminology:

Irish term = USA term

afters = dessert
bucketing = raining very heavily
cow juice = milk
dander = a leisurely stroll
eatin' house = restaurant
flea rake = comb
gaff = house
hole in the wall = ATM
"I am in my wick!" = "You must be joking!"
jacked = tired
knick-knacking = ringing a doorbell and running away
lift = elevator
messages = groceries
narky = cranky
odds = loose change
"Pull your socks up!" = "Get to work!"
quare hawk = odd fella
redser = someone w/ red hair
snaps = photographs
tackies = runners/trainers
up the pole = pregnant
vexed = upset
wanker = uninteresting person
yonks = a long time

After the icebreakers, the students headed out for a local pub and then spent some time wandering around Shop Street to see the liveliness of the city at night. Sabrena and I then headed back to the hotel room to write our journals, despite being tired, and ended up wide awake by the time we were done. After singing and dancing to NKOTB, Sugarland, and Kid Rock, we are now going to bed at 1:30 a.m. Ireland time (8:30 p.m. USA Eastern time) ... probably a bad idea in hindsight ... but definitely fun. Sweetdreams!