Week One in Cork: Culinary Delights, Cultural Insights, and a Few Disappointments

More than a week has passed since I arrived in Cork, and it's been quite the adventure. After resolving the host-family dilemma and moving in with a new family, I spent the rest of the week with them. The new family was super nice and provided great insight into life in Ireland. One key takeaway? Small talk is very important here, unlike where I live.

Even though the new host-family was great, my friend and I decided it would be better to live on our own. We moved into a nice student accommodation last Saturday. This decision proved to be excellent as we got to explore the city more closely and weren't bound by our host-families' schedules. We’ve thoroughly explored the city, and today we stumbled upon a fantastic doughnut shop called "Off Beat," with the most delightfully decorated doughnuts. They were absolutely to die for.

We also had some culinary escapades, like making a delightful mushroom risotto. Of course, it came with its difficulties, as the recipe was too small for both of us. I had to make some on-the-fly changes to a dish I had never made before. In the end, it all worked out and tasted delicious.

Now, since we're here for the economics course, let’s talk about that. I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. The course is very underwhelming and quite easy. With two years of business economics and general economics in my background, I expected the course to delve deeper into how to manage and create a business. Instead, we are learning basic English and haven't touched on the topic of economics as a whole. We’re also learning ways of communication mostly used in Ireland. We briefly touched on the concept of doing business, but it was very superficial.

So far, we’ve created a company that could work in Ireland, but without any economic details. Given our prior experience of running a simulated company with every important organizational body, this felt like a letdown. We finished the company project within a week. In other words, I was really expecting more from the course.

We also have company visits, which could have been interesting and informative. However, the first visit was to a farm producing buffalo mozzarella, which offered little in terms of economic education. The second visit is to a whiskey producer. While more interesting to me personally, it still lacks the educational value I hoped for. It's baffling that we couldn't visit companies like Apple or PayPal, which are closer to Cork and would provide genuine insight into the workings of a major corporation.

For now, I see this more as a vacation filled with culinary and cultural discoveries. In that regard, it's been great. From delightful doughnuts to delicious home-cooked meals and from learning about Irish small talk to exploring the beautiful city of Cork, there's much to enjoy.