Thursday, January 25, 2007

It's starting to feel a bit like I live here.

Life is settling into a sort of normal here. Mervyn made us all jump into the deep end at the start by doing a week of placements without him, but it worked out. For me at least, it forced me to get used to L/Derry so that I know more of it than just how to get to school and back. It's an easy town to get to know.

Some of my groupmates have a particular interest in exploring the pub scene here, and I've been joining them most nights. I'm not really a drinker, but the company's good and the coke here tastes better than the stuff in the states. I think it's because they still serve it in glass bottles. This weekend, we're going out to a nightclub in celebration of my birthday. I'll try to get pictures.

The big news in the world of Northern Irish current events right now is a report from the police ombudsman (think Internal Affairs on crack) indicating that the police colluded with loyalist paramilitary organizations in the '90s to kill Catholics. Unfortunately, there's very little that can be done to prove that, because the police involved destroyed what evidence there was. From what I've seen, the general feeling here in L/Derry about it is a cynical lack of shock.

Sinn Fein has been holding policing meetings all around town this week, trying to gain support for their position as they gear up for the coming election. I haven't attended any (I live too far away for it to be practical, and there are safer places to be than Bogside (the neighborhood where Sinn Fein has the most support) at night), but some of my groupmates have. I'm sure I'll hear all about it in class on Monday.

The current challenge I've set in front of myself is to keep up with my writing while I'm over here. My first novel, a fantasy mystery, should be ready to go out to publishers very soon unless I neglect it, and my second, a Young Adult fantasy adventure story, is just starting to get up off the ground. I don't want to get so preoccupied with writing that I miss out on being here, but I've certainly got downtime that would be better spent writing than surfing the web or watching imported American movies on tv.

Speaking of which, I've got a couple minutes before my next class. Perhaps I ought to be productive with it.

2 comments:

Ruth said...

*cough* It's a city *cough*, believe it or not, not a town. Unlike Newry and Lisburn, NI's recently-created mini-cities, people are used to thinking it as one.

Also, I've never heard anyone call it just Bogside unless it's part of the address (X Such-and-such St, Bogside, Derry), always the Bogside, but then, I'm down on the other side of the country.

Annalee said...

sorry, I didn't mean 'city' in a dimunitive sense. I call DC a town on occasion too. I've picked up the habbit of calling it bogside from my groupmates who live there. None of the locals have corrected me yet, but I'll be sure to listen and see what they call it.