Study Abroad, Day 16

Well we are finished with our first day at INCORE. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so that is good. I was pretty nervous that it would be intimidating & hard, but so far it's pretty good. We got to the University of Ulster, checked in, & sat in the cafeteria for a bit. When we checked in we got name tags & a binder full of information. Hooray for free stuff! We headed to orientation, where we learned more about how things were going to run & stuff. We then separated into our separate modules, & took a quick tour of the campus. So we are all in one group & have a separate schedule then everyone else. Except for the end of the day when all the groups go to the main hall & have a lecture.

Anyways, so our first lecture was by Professor Brandon Hamber, who is also our facilitator.... Basically he just tells us where to go & stays with us. He talked about peacemaking/building theory. It was nice to have a change of topic! We have been hearing mostly about Irish history, so this was good for different. We had lunch next, & we just ate in the cafeteria. Our next lecture was by Dr. Brendan Lynn (our other facilitator) & was about how the Northern Ireland conflict fits on the conflict cycle (a theory Professor Hamber spoke about). Our final lecture was back in the main hall with everyone else & was given by Professor Paul Arthur. The final lectures each day are going to revolve around the Northern Ireland conflict. So this lecture was about the Troubles starting in the 60s, until now.

Next we all had to go outside & get a group picture, & then it was dinner time. It was a buffet & was pretty good. Frank, our bus driver, picked us about at about 7:45, & now we are back at Inch House. So it was a good day all-in-all, & now we know what to expect for the rest of the week. The only mystery about the program now is the group presentations that are scheduled for Friday. We aren't sure exactly how that will work, so I'm a bit nervous about that. We should learn more about that tomorrow... I'll keep you posted!