The Classes

So, I realize that my classes started last Monday, I however, was unsure of the proper cultural Irish norms about attending class, so I waited. In other words I didn't go to a single class my first week here and drank 6 out of 7 nights, this week is different. My classes look like this:

Intro to Anglo-Irish Literature
Political Ethics (the professor is hilarious)
Comparative European Government and Administration <-- not my favorite class of all time.
Intro to Modern Irish - that's right, I'll come back talking all Irish and shit.
and
Government and Politics of Ireland

All in all these should be kept me busy without being over loaded, which seems like a pretty decent balance. I know this may sound a tad bit nerdy, but I am a political science major, I am really excited to see how a nation of the EU views international politics. One of the weirdest things I've noticed is how close attention they pay to our politics. When I arrived in Ireland I knew a bit about the troubles and some general political structure, but knew next to nothing about current events and/or political parties. They however, seem to have paid very close attention to the election, and some even knew about the Illinois governor (fuck if I can spell his name) getting impeached. Sort of makes me feel ashamed about how little attention I pay to other countries politics.

As for other international issues, there was a fair sized protests against Israel military incursion into Gaza on campus yesterday and there's been almost constant coverage on Sky News (it's like CNN for the British Isles). It seems that there are quite a few people in Europe that are very pissed about the aggressiveness of the Israeli military. Now I generally disagree with U.S. policy towards Israel, I think we give them too much slack much of the time, as well as a lot of monetary and military aid. And Israel certainly hasn't been kind in its treatment of Muslim Palestinians, but there is something I don't understand. Just one question I would have all these protesters answer. What would you have Israel do? Any hostile action taken towards Israel has to be responded too. They can't not attack or there would be an escalation in rocket attacks (there are sections of Hamas that are purely terrorists) from both Gaza and Southern Lebonon and could lead to an actual war (which could possibly pull the U.S. into it). However, at the same time their military assult into Gaza is killing more civilians than Hamas militants (which is an age old strategy, I'm not a fan of Hamas, just like I'm not a fan of Israel using cluster bombs) and creates an extreme hatred towards their state and people. I need to do some more thinking on this one...