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June 3, 2007

I am settling into both my working and living situations. I am living with two graduate students at the university (one Irish, one a recent Harvard alum; both involved in drama studies and work with their own theater company), and another housemate who is here to enjoy Ireland for a few months before heading back to work in the States. The house is located in a quiet neighborhood about ten minutes from the university. It is near a small park with a grassy area, a swing set, a basketball
court often frequented by young footballers, and a little hill topped by a stone mound and a cross.  This was the site of a speech given by an Irish nationalist before a crowd of thousands at the end of the 19th century, evidently... I pass this small, unassuming historical site every day on my way to work.

The Centre is located at the edge of the university campus close to the city centre, at the foot of the Salmon Weir bridge (from which one can often see fishermen standing hip-deep in the Corrib River) and across from the Galway Cathedral. It is a small, two-story yellow building that is stylish in its own right – though perhaps dwarfed by the cathedral's soaring dome, which can be seen from nearly all of Galway City. I spend most of my time working from my laptop in the conference
room along with the other interns. As this is also the room where the tea kettle is located, students and faculty are frequent visitors...

Some of the issues I have researched in my work thus far include subsidiary protection for asylum seekers in Ireland and Europe, and the requirements that the Centre would have to meet for a collaborative master's programme between NUI Galway and the University of Cyprus under
the European Union's Erasmus Mundus initiative. When I begin work on an assignment, I am never quite sure if the material I produce is what Peter has in mind – compared to research paper assignments from class, for instance, the instructions I receive here leave ample room for
interpretation and exploration. But from what I gather in talking with him, I think my contributions have been of some help. And at any rate, perhaps I am getting a taste of research as done by "real" researchers?

In addition to the interesting issues I've been able to learn about in my assignments, I've enjoyed the luxury of long, sociable lunch breaks, often with the other interns and some of the students studying at the Centre (who hail from all over the world, including Greece, Japan, Iran, the U.S., and of course Ireland). At an academic institution where work can be quite solitary at times, it's always a nice break to head out to the cafeteria or into the city centre for food and conversation.