Orange Mocha Cremice anyone?

I've been horribly poor with my posting lately. Constantly reading and doing assignments isn't the only reason. The other reason is, I'm in love................with coffee! My voyages during the year are burning up a cash, so I've become gainfully employed at the campus coffee place "8:15 @Boatwright", the name of which has a surprisingly dull story. Students used to say "Let's meet at the library at 8:15 (before the first class) and so when they set up coffee shop, they called it "8:15 @ Boatwright". Get it?

The pay is dire, only $6.15 and hour plus a few dollars in tips. I've tried to convince management to have an "8.15" theme and pay us that, but so far they haven't come around to it. We're a 'Starbucks Franchise', which means we use their coffee and abide by their standards, but aren't technically a branch. As a result, we can't make 'Frappuccinos' but we can make 'Cremices', which are exactly the same.

I do enjoy working there, since its kinda fun and the rest of the staff are great- Anna and Glenn both work there. Plus, I get two free items per shift. So free Bagle and Latté three days a week!

Midterm break in Boston

Firstly, sorry for the hiatus in posting on my blog. I've been busy over the past few weeks, assignments and my new job (I'll explain that in the next post). But firstly, I want to tell you all about my trip to Boston! I'm not going to lie to you, it was pretty cool!
The excuse for the trip was fall break, which meant we had to find something to do for the 5 day break. Taking a trip to Boston seemed like a good idea, me being Irish and all such a pilgrimage is mandatory. Also, my sister came over the visit me so that was another good reason. Thanks sis!
Since it was a break from all the work on campus, we decided to take it pretty slow. We visited Harvard, went to the theatre, explored the old district of Boston, shopped and went on a "Duck tour". The last one was definitly the best. It involved using WWII amphibious trucks to give tours of the city, including a trip into the bay.
Harvard was also good. Fun fact: Harvard (the college) and Cambridge (the town where its built) HATE eachother. Fun fact II: Cambridge town council is elected by PR-STV. If you're
going to visit Harvard, go on the 'unofficial tours' which are conducted by students. They are way more fun.

Shopping also had to be done, as cold weather threatened to move in. Coats, sweaters and slacks were all purchased. The exchange rate is so good, if it weren't for the carbon miles I'ld encourage you all to come over.

I was silly enough to forget my camera, so no photos on hand. Instead, I've put up a pretty picture of Boston.

"In the event of an active shooter"

You're all aware of the tragic events in Virginia Tech a few months back. In response, UR authorities circulated this helpful information sheet on how to act in the event of an 'active shooter'. Most of it is a common sense, but its still a tad creepy.
For those in Ireland, I've included the photo to your left. This is to remind you that although you don't have the NRA or gun totting rednecks, you still have Willie O'Dea- so watch out!

Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan

When a hostile person(s) is actively causing deadly harm or the imminent threat of deadly harm within a building, we recommend the following procedures be followed:

• Lock yourself in the room you are in at the time of the threatening activity.
• If communication is available, call 911.
• Don't stay in the open hall.
• Do not sound the fire alarm. A fire alarm would signal the occupants in the rooms to evacuate the building and thus place them in potential harm as they attempted to exit.
• Barricade yourself in the room with furniture or anything you can push against the door.
• Lock the window and close blinds or curtains.
• Stay away from windows.
• Turn all lights and audio equipment off.
• Try to stay calm and be as quiet as possible.
• If for some reason you are caught in an open area such as a hallway or lounge type area, you must decide what action to take.
  1. You can try to hide, but make sure it is a well hidden space or you may be found as the intruder moves through the building looking for victims.
  2. If you think you can safely make it out of the building by running, then do so. If you decide to run, do not run in a straight line. Keep any objects you can between you and the hostile person(s) while in the building. Use trees, vehicles or any other object to block you from view as you run. When away from the immediate area of danger, summon help any way you can and warn others.
  3. If the person(s) is causing death or serious physical injury to others and you are unable to run or hide, you may choose to play dead if other victims are around you.
  4. The last option you have if caught in an open area in the dorm, may be to fight back. This is dangerous, but depending on your situation, this could be your last option.
  5. If you are caught by the intruder and are not going to fight back, follow their directions and don't look the intruder in the eyes.
  6. Once the police arrive, obey all commands. This may involve your being handcuffed or made to put your hands in the air. This is done for safety reasons and once circumstances are evaluated by the police, they will give you further directions to follow.

This Emergency Action Plan cannot cover every possible situation that might occur.

Nevertheless, it is a training tool that can reduce the number of injuries or death if put into action as soon as a situation develops. Time is a critical factor in the management of a situation of this manner.

Warning Signs

It must be stressed that if you have had contact with ANY INDIVIDUALS who display the following tendencies, that you contact the police, student affairs officials, a Psychological Services administrator or other university official in a timely manner:

• Threatens harm or talks about killing other students, faculty or staff.
• Constantly starts or participates in fights.
• Loses temper and self-control easily.
• Swears or uses vulgar language most of the time.
• Possesses or draws artwork that depicts graphic images of death or violence.
• Assaults others constantly to include immediate family members.
• Possesses weapons (firearms or edged weapons) or has a preoccupation with them.
• Becomes frustrated easily and converts frustration into uncontrollable physical violence.

Honor Council- for when your word just isn't good enough

Plagiarism is a dirty, dirty thing to do. There's a special place reserved in hell for those who try to cheat their way to college. But at UR, we just can't wait for Satan to do his work, so we've taken it into our own hands.

Many a year ago, 'students' decided to set up an 'Honor Council'. Basically, it has three parts- a pledge you sign at the start of college, a pledge you sign on each assignment/test and an enforcement mechanism. Its concept is that students use their 'honor' to regulate themselves and eachother. Bizarre frankly.

During my orientation week here, we were dragged into a room and told all about this noble institution. What our rights are if accused, how the 'trial works' and what the punishments are. Then we were given an 4 page exam on the topic (I passed) and made to memorise a pledge that we have to write at the end of each assignment/exam, which is as follows-

"I pledge that I have neither received nor given unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work."

I'm a reasonable person. I don't have problems with 'honor' and I've never cheated on an exam. I do have a problem with this bizarre, 'Lord of the Flies' trial procedure. This people can have me expelled and there's nothing the College can do about it! Luckily I haven't paid $40,000 in fees and I don't intend to cheat so I'm good. But it is strange how they keep selling it as a 'voluntary' pledge when really you're forced to sign it. And the people who are on the 'honor council' are complete weirdos.

'Cultural understanding', its a bitch!

What I did last weekend

Midterms are coming up, so we thought we'd spend last weekend touring the state of Virginia, going out on the road to meet 'Real America' as they say.

On Saturday we voyaged to the East of the state, which contains the main tourism areas of Norfolk, Newport News and Virginia Beach. But the really interesting thing was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which at 37kms in length is the 4th largest in the world! Instead of photos of this amazing engineering feet, I've posted a photo of Luc, Anna, Glenn and I at Cape Charles. Lovely place. Its like a photo straight out of 'friends'.

On Sunday we header West to the Shenandoah National Park. Did a little bit of climbing, got some great photos and then drove to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon is the home of George Washington, of 'Washington DC' fame. Interesting factoid- During the Civil War, they kicked everyone out and had a single women move in. The fact that a women lived there meant it couldn't be attacked by either side, so the house survived.

Left and Right do battle in UR

While we didn't get a visit from any Mid Eastern dictators this week- we're already well aware that Iran is gay free, thank you very much- we did get a visit from two witty political hacks who spent 2hrs discussing the '08 race. Its all about fostering a culture of 'debate' and 'communication'.

On the left,we had Prof Susan Estrich. A smart lady who's only sin was running Michael Dukakis's '88 campaign.......into the ground. Funny stories from it though. Turns out she was aware that the campaign was going southward so was dishing out posts to every donor. Funny shit, eh? On the right was FoxNews contributor Richard Lowry, an equally smary guy who regaled us with witty tales about being a Republican in Liberal New York.

I wont be doing them justice by repeating all their jokes. Suffice to say they involved Bill Clinton's next role as First Gentlemen, Rudi's kids and Southern Baptists. It'll all be on webcast shortly, I'll try and post a link to it.

One of the questions from the audience was from a Mitt Romney supporter, who told the hall about the 'Romney '08' support group on campus. He was a bit weird, but four of his five wives seemed lovely. Other then that, the election is going by relatively unnoticed on campus. I'll post if anything exciting does happen here.

Mr Murphy goes to Washington

I spent all of Saturday in Washington. And not just any old Washington, it was Washington DC! There's a picture of me beside the White House. Look, I got closer to it then John Kerry!

Luc kindly drove us up, which didn't take long as Richmond is quite close to the nations capitol. Indeed, parts of the capitol city, including the Pentagon, are located in Virginia.

We saw it all! The Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial (no jokes please!), Georgetown and The White House. There was a massive anti-war protest on that day, with a counter 'pro-war' protest on to,well, counter the protest. We got some photos with some funky 'peace vans' and saw some rednecks talk about surrender.

I fully recommend going to Washington DC, its a beautiful city (whatever about what goes on inside the buildings). Especially Georgetown, which has a European flavour to it.

Commemorate innocent victims with chicken

Remember September 11th 2001? The day the world looked in horror as thousands of innocent people were killed, the day that lead the French to declare 'we are all American', that lead to a National day of morning in countries across the world? No?

Worry not, the Campus Republicans are here to remind you! Most commemorative ceremonies have a touch of class and dignity to them. A flag at half mast, a single trumpeter and a minutes silent.

But 'class' and 'dignity' clearly aren't in the Republican gameplan. I mean, these are the people that attacked a war veteran who lost three limbs in defence of his country. Tastefully dressed in "Coulter '08" t-shirts, they decorated the park outside the library with tiny American flags [pictured above]. Just American flags of course, because the victims from the 36 other countries can organise their own fucking ceremony!

Missing a few flags is a minor issue. If the campus Republicans don't remember the one Irish citizen, or the 3 Brazilians, I'm sure someone else will. Its the posters they had beside the ceremony the had me stunned. They used this wonderfully planned ceremony to advertise their first meeting of the year, with, wait for it, a FREE CHIK-FIL-A dinner! When it comes to the tough world of student politics, one must use the deaths of whoever they can use to get a few more members.

A showing of "World Trade Centre" and free chicken? I'm sure when the towers collapsed the people inside would have thought this a fitting tribute of their life. Certainly they were all Republicans and would have loved to see their memory being used to try and scare a few more people to vote for their party [and for chicken, or course]. Don't you remember those last desperate voice messages left on their loved ones phones? I'm pretty certain they were along the lines of 'I love you, and the kids, but I hate that bitch Hillary- don't let her be President. PS Please invade Iraq.'

I won't make my posts this political again, but couldn't let this go by. Freaks.

University of Richmond- best International Programme in the US

If you weren't jealous enough about me as is, you will be now! Every year , US publications do rankings of Universities. This year, Newsweek named University of Richmond as having 'the best international programme in the country'. Yes, that's right, I'm in the best international programme in the country that has the best Universities. Therefore, I am literally in the best International Programme IN THE WORLD! Certainly compensates for the lack of mashed potatoes. Here's a snippet of what Newsweek said:

During the past two decades at Richmond, the number of courses with international content and the number of faculty with international research, teaching and experience have all increased significantly. In addition, study-abroad participation has blossomed and the number of international students attending Richmond has grown from 15 to more than 200. Currently, international students represent more than 70 countries on campus.

To add a dollop of butter to this academic mashed potato of greatness, US News & World Report have listed UR as one of the top tier National Liberal Arts Universities. Not that I'm bragging, of course.

One potato,two potato....... no potato?

I promised ya'll a post on the food here. But this isn't it. Instead, its a post on the humble spud [pictured left during happier times]. I've had my runs in with the food here, but nothing like what happened today. Advertised was mashed potato, but what I got was some sort of watery paste. Certainly nothing I've ever tasted before. I can understand them f**king up meatloaf, but who can't manage mashed potato?

Let me put this in context. This place boasts of a $2.2bn endowment, but they can't afford a few potatoes? This place has a Greek theatre, but can't afford some cheap migrant labour to peel a few spuds? This place can afford automatic blinds for each classroom, but apparently could spring for a bit of milk and butter for the potato paste crap they served up.

I'm being egged on to action by some fellow URians. Not so much because they dislike the potato paste, but more because they find the sight of an Irishmen being upset over potatoes to be quite amusing. But I don't care how many stereotypes I reinforce, I ain't going to stand for this! I'll keep you posted on my actions.

Introducing the posse Part II

Living in America for a year wouldn't be much fun if there wasn't people here to share it with, so I thought I'ld show some of these people off to you. I've already told you about Luke, so today I'm telling you all about Anna, the 'British Chick' I referd to in an earlier post. That's her in the photo, on our way back from 'Chipotle' which is a salmonella-free version of 'TacoBell'. I'll do a seperate post about food here sometime, probably after I've hit the 15 stone mark on the scales ;)

Anyway, back to Anna. Me being Irish, we bonded over our love of tea. Her Being British we fell out over Marmite, and neither of us being American meant we built a solid foundation on hating the sugar laced Carrots they serve here.

This post keeps going back to food, I should probably get dinner after this.

She's an 'American Studies' major in Edinburgh, hence her being on this side of the puddle for the next year, but her interesting sides extends beyond liking Marmite [and being proud of it]. She was a Hong Kong native for most of her life, and still retains residence rights [ and checks what the weather is like there, oddly]. She also shares a cycnical side, meaning we have many a good chat discussing our temporary home.

Don't have a bad word to say about her, meaning this post will be short and dull. In fact, its going to end right now.

I'm off to get food. Bye!

What am I studying?

Just finished my International Relations class, which is one of four courses I'm doing. The others are
Crime & Justice in Post Modern Society, Constitutional Law and Sociology of Immigration. Needless to say, courses and college are way different here then they are at home. But thats what you get with an endowment of $2.2bn dollars. Thats right, 2.2 BILLION!


We all have several large lectures back home and a couple of small tutorials. Here, its tutorials all the time. Every class is small (between 12 and 18 people) and can be anywhere between 50mins and 170mins long. The structure isn't one lecturer talking endlessly and students taking notes. Instead, the lecturer [called a 'Professor' even if they aren't technically one] talk for a few minutes and then open the floor to discussion. Participation counts for anywhere between 10 and 40% of your grade, so staying mute isn't an option!

Reading is assigned for each class, and since they form the basis of the discussion then you have to do the reading. Papers, presentations and pop quizes all make up a large chunk of your final grade. So if I'm slow responding to e-mails, you'll understand why!

The good news is classes are kinda easy. The perception of Americans being uninformed is somewhat true, especially in Sociology and Politics courses [which are the ones I'm doing] so the Professors take it quite slow. I'm not saying American students are stupid, just that when you have FoxNews as your primary source of information then getting a sane grasp of the world can be hard.

Right, thats all for today. I've gotta get some reading done for tomorrow!

Why a blog, Andrew?

There's a little upset among some over my setting up of a blog and my discontinuation of my e-mail updates. If you were one of the offended few- you're an idiot. I dont mean I dislike getting e-mails from you, or want you to stop e-mailing. I'm simply stating that I dislike sending out bulk e-mails about the ins and outs of my day. I'll keep internet harassment the preserve of viagra companies, if you don't mind.

This way, if you're interested in my voyage through American life, you can simply log on and check what I'm up to. You can still e-mail me (and please do, I enjoy hearing whats going on back home) . Alternatively, you can post comments on my blog.

There, this should clear up the confusion.

Introducing the posse

Thought you may like to know who I'm sharing my life with here in Richmond, Virginia.

I thought I'd start with the person who's a few feet from me, my roommate Lucien Lensen. He's from Belgium/Germany but studies in Holland, giving him something of an international flavour.

That's him on the left [Anna is the chick behind him, but she's worthy of her own post so I'll discuss her later]. What can I say about him? Well, not much since he'll be checking this site. He's very well dressed, dislikes poor people, is determined to escape this campus as much as possible and has a knack for not keeping ANY opinion to himself. Its fun for now, but will probably get us killed.

We mange to get on quite well, which is a surprise since most international students dislike their room mates. It probably helps that we're both from Northern Europe and have a love of Sarcasm. Unfortunately he's only here for one semester, and will be absent for many weekends visiting his lady in San Diego [who he never shuts up about] so I'll have to enjoy him [and his car] while I have him.

He's pictured in our dorm room, which like Anna is worthy of its own (very long) post which I will attempt to write this week.

My second post will be better

Right, lets hope this post is a little better [Don't know how Deputy Cuffe and other 'hip' pols manage this internet stuff and manage to get elected, kudos to them!].

That's a pic of my good self at Colonial Jamesburg, the first settlement here which was founded in 16o4. I managed to voyage there with the assistance of my room mate, Lucien Lennsen, aka 'Luke', aka 'Politically incorrect German dude'. You'll be hearing a lot about him over coming months, mainly because I hear a lot of him each day. If you're wondering why I look so dopey in that pic its because I'm wearing a metal hat which was popular in the day. There'll be no more photos of me from this trip due to chronic helmet hair I suffered as a result.

Luke purchased a motor vehicle last week which means we're liberated from the confines of Richmond campus. The gas guzzling monster is totally against everything I stand before, but I do love it so. The Dark Side calls............

We've pimped it out with some US flags and an 'I support the troops' sticker. That would help us blend in, but unfortunately Luke's Prada sunglasses pretty much undo all of that. Oh well, I'll make him ditch them if we ever go to the deep south. Right, that's all for now, I've do get some reading done for class tomorrow.

Bye!

Welcome!

I hate e-mailing people, so I've set up this blog so if you want confirmation that I'm still alive then you can log on here.