The week of strange weather

Hello there.

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Last week I was elected as one of the class reps for my course which means I basically have to do my best to resolve any issues people in my class are having. I also have to attend monthly course board meetings. These are basically meetings where all the lecturers of a particular course, Electronic Engineering in my case, meet once a month and discuss how the course is going and any issues that have come up, the curriculum and ways to improve the course. The reason that me and the other reps in my course have to attend these meetings is because it is the perfect forum for us to raise any issues that keep arising from year to year and try to help find a solution, it also allows us to speak our minds about the teaching styles and ways to improve them if necessary. One of the hardest parts of the meetings is staying awake, I'm sure anyone reading this knows that at board meetings there is always one exceptionally boring person. We are also the go between from the students union to our individual classes. We meet twice a month with the Students union president and discuss upcoming events and issues that classes are having that he can help with. A lot of people think and are mostly right that a class reps main responsibility is to organise class parties. These are a great way for everyone to relax and get absolutely locked on a night out haha.

Life lesson right there

On Tuesday all class reps had the day off college to go to class rep training in Oranmore. We had a lot of people stand up and talk to us about what it means to be a class rep and about communication, mediation and protesting. One of the speakers was Niall O'Farrell from dragons den. He talked to us about his business blacktie formal wear. He also told us not to be afraid to do what we feel is right and if we feel we are right and it isn't something illegal to keep with it and not get pushed around. I used to let people push me around and tell me what to do because I was a shy child, but then I decided that I had had enough and wasn't going to put up with it anymore. I still cave on a few issues, but only if I have come to a stalemate over it and there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it. For instance, my class that I represent wanted me to see if I could get a class time changed, so I approached the lecturer and mentioned it to her, she said she had tried to get it changed but couldn't because there was no room available with the equipment we needed. Now a lot of people would have left it there because the lecturer said she had tried and why would a lecturer lie? Now don't pick this up wrong, I amn't calling her a liar, it's just I had seen that the lab was free during a time on Tuesday that would have suited the class perfectly. So I went back to the lecturer and mentioned this to her, it turns out that another lecturer had already claimed the place, but the room timetable hadn't been updated. So at the moment it isn't possibly to change the class, so I have put it aside for now. I haven't given up though. Sometimes as a class rep you will end up looking like a bad guy and a bit of a hard ass to some of the lecturers, but at the end of the day it's the well being of your classmates that is your responsibility. You can't always be friendly, sometimes it gets you what you need, but most of the time you need to get a bit tough and fight your case.

Typical day in Galway

So I suppose since this post is called the week of strange weather, I should probably explain why. So I live in Ireland and over here we get a LOT of rain. More than that I am from Galway and we get the most rain in the country. But this week on Monday and Tuesday we got an abnormal amount of rain even for us. It seemed as if it rained for the 2 days solid, but it only seemed to rain during the day, the nights were dry as a bone. Hence weird weather, but it get's weirder. On Wednesday it was warm, well warm for Ireland. It was warm enough to go around without a hoodie or a jacket, but being Irish you brought it with you just incase. But then on Thursday and Friday it was dry but old enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Even for Ireland that is weird weather. Now I know a lot of you are probably wondering why the hell is this nut job talking about the weather. Well in Ireland it is one of the biggest topics of discussion. You can greet someone when they come in by saying "Tis a lovely day out there." or "Haven't seen rain like that since last christmas." But I just thought it was odd and would say it.

Wednesday was a slow day in college as usual, but I signed up to do MMA(Mixed Martial Arts) so that should be interesting. I'll write about it after my first training next week, assuming I will be alive after it. Slightly terrified someone is going to break me haha. Especially since one necessary piece of equipment that you have to have or are not allowed to train is a cup. A few friends and I went out on Wednesday night to a gig my friend Aidan was playing with his band mate Fran. Their band is called Cotton Ball Three. They are two lads from Galway who go to NUIG together and won the NUIG got talent and have been going from their. They played a lot of gigs in McSwiggins last year towards the summer. Currently they are playing weekly gigs in the Galway pub called the Merry Fiddler. They play covers, and have a lot of their own songs that both have written separately and together. They also do a lot of Parodies. They have uploaded one of their original songs and a parody to Soundcloud and are working on uploading more. http://soundcloud.com/cotton-ball-three/tracks They are also on facebook at this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aidan-Breen/295828254730?sk=wall They are brilliant band. Go check them out and let them know what you think. We just listened to them play brilliantly, while having a few pints and having a bit of banter with the other people at the gig. It was an unreal night. Ended up meeting a friend outside the club called Karma in Galway and back at one of her friends houses drinking until 5 in the morning. Was unreal, until I had to get up for college. Not much of that day is remembered and it was only yesterday. Oh well, if you can't say as a student that you have gotten so drunk you have forgotten entire days, then you didn't do college correctly. Unless of course you don't drink alcohol at all, then you have done it perfectly :)

The only real interesting thing that happened today(Friday) is that two of the lads were extremely hungover and it was hilarious to watch. Lab work in electronics is not at all easy especially when dying from a hangover. It becomes like a million times more difficult. And trying to do C programming while hungover is like a man giving birth, bloody hard.


Well that's my spiel for the week, hope someone out there is interested :) Let me know by commenting if you are. Also please tell me how I can make the blog better. I'm currently working on a things that annoy me post. It'll have to be over more than one though haha.

Stardansheill o7