The caveat to internet in my room: there are a lot of internet-related things which IS Services will not allow. Like Skype, which would have let me talk to my boyfriend for free. Or IMs of any form. Or Gmail Notifier. Or...well, you get the picture. If it goes beyond just visiting webpages or perhaps downloading (PERHAPS. Not everything) or playing a webgame that uses Java...then no.
You know, I came out here because I wanted to expand my horizons, and because I think people who believe the US is the center of the world and the Gratest Place Evar are stupid. What I've learned? I never, ever, ever want to live anywhere outside the US again. Visit, sure. Live, no.
Maybe it's just that we Americans are raised to be snotty and demanding and to make everyone else's lives hell until we get what we want, whereas people in, say, Europe have grown up learning to put up and shut up, but...well, I'm not looking for special treatment or anything. Just basic services that college students in America take for granted, which apparently are not at all basic anywhere else. And, look, I'm paying just as much -- more, actually -- to study here than if I'd just stayed in Chicago. So getting less for more really aggravates me.
This is all rather horrid of me, isn't it? I'm sure I've just had one really extended bad experience with one minor bureaucracy in one non-US country, and I'm overgeneralizing like mad based on it. Once I just get used to this, I'm sure I'll be able to appreciate the other aspects of this country a lot more. But right now, being here has been 98% frustration and only about 2% enjoying Ireland, and that's utter bullshit. I want to go home.
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