Days 53 and 54: more London!!

So I left you all with the intrigue that we'd just missed seeing a prince. Yeah, apparently, we'd just missed him, but that's okay! It wasn't William, Harry, or Charles... eh, just your average British prince. No big deal :) After Westminster Abbey, we walked about the Parliament building, which (in case you didn't know) is absolutely gorgeous! Just beautiful! And it sits rights on the Thames, so you can look down the river and see so much of London, including the London Eye! Unfortunately, you can't actually go inside the Houses of Parliament except during the summer. :( That just means that I have to go back to London sometime during the summer! From Westminster, we walked relatively aimlessly in a northwest direction. We passed by 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives... shame it's not Hugh Grant) and the Horse Guards Palace, where the soldiers are horses have to be very stoic and can't smile or laugh! We then had a short stay in St. James' Park before heading toward Piccadilly Circus! Sadly, there was lots of construction, so it wasn't quite as fabulous as I remembered. Oh, and it was raining! But I did see Lillywhite's, which I distinctly remember spending both too much time and money in when I visited in 10th grade. :) From Piccadilly Circus, we wandered, saw some street vendors, just explored, and ended up getting hot chocolate. By this point, we were all tired and a little wet, so we ventured back to the hostel to get ready for Billy Elliot. Upon arriving at the hostel, we basically crashed for an hour or so (we were allowed to be exhausted after traveling and less than 6 hours of sleep).  Then, it was Billy Elliot time!!! And there were really no words to describe how amazing the show was (I mean, I'll try to describe it anyway since my words are basically all you have :) ) So the three of us are sitting in Row A, yes the front row, about 3 feet from the edge of the stage. Even though you can't see the floor on most of the stage, you get to see the FACES of the performers and they can see you! It's basically the coolest thing ever. Plus, the boy who was playing Billy Elliot is probably the cutest 14 year old I've ever seen. His name is Fox and he looks like he's maybe 12. But really, he could sing, dance, and was so so so cute. The show was just FABULOUS! I mean, if you haven't seen the show, you should definitely have to! (The movie just doesn't suffice!) But anyway, after the show, we dragged ourselves back to the hostel and passed out. Oh, and somewhere in there we got dinner... I don't really remember when or what :)

And now, Friday-- the second full day of London! We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little, but not too much. There's a lot in London (if you didn't know), and we had only 4 days to do it ALL! First stop, Leicester Square. Basically, if you want show tickets (cheaply-ish), this is where you go! It was not as exciting as I remember, but it's London, so it was still awesome. Leicester Square is only a short walk to Trafalgar Square... which is super neat!

The highlight, well the middle of the square is Nelson's column, built to commemorate Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar (a battle that the British won in the Napoleonic Wars). This column is surrounded by four huge lions, which people love to climb and take pictures with. :) But there are also a few fountains and the National Gallery sits on one edge of the square, and although we didn't go in, I hear that it's fantastic! So after Trafalgar Square, we headed to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. We walked along St. James' Park and joined the huge crowds for the ceremony. Now, it was a pretty cold day (as in freezing!) and despite the number of people, I was COLD. Plus, because there are SO many people, it's hard to see anything, and to be honest, I was a little disappointed. But!! It all turned out to be worth it... At one point, the band (the military one) starts to play... and the intro sounds really, really familiar. I mean, it sounded like the beginning of the Star Wars theme, but really?The Changing of the Guard band playing Star Wars? I don't think so. Ah! But these are the times in life that I LOVE being wrong. About ten seconds in, there is the distinctive duh-duh-duh-nuh-nuh-nuh... (and so on... you know the song!) and lo and behold, they're playing the theme to Star Wars. How cool! I was completely flabbergasted! So much for "God Save the Queen." And after, Star Wars, they played music from "Les Miserables" and then Sergeant Pepper's :) But, the highlight (perhaps of my life, well not really, but close) was the band's closing number. Yes, it was ABBA. They played "Dancing Queen" and "Mamma Mia," and I almost passed out with excitement (and maybe a little from cold). After the band stopped playing, we decided that nothing could top that, so we headed out! We walked to the nearest tube station and set our sights on the Tower of London! Upon getting off the tube, we were starved so we searched and found a cute pub-ish place to eat... and this photo is called "Our Drinks of Choice."

Can you guess which drink belongs to me? (Yes, it's the beer.) Lunch took a bit longer than we'd expected, so we didn't end up getting to the Tower of London until a bit after two (if I remember correctly). And being the nerd I am, I knew that I would want longer than 2 hours inside, so we bought our entrance tickets (for the next morning) and proceeded to walk across Tower Bridge. And if you didn't know, Tower Bridge, not London Bridge, is the gorgeous, gorgeous bridge across the Thames; I probably took 50 pictures of it. Once across the river, we walked along it, exploring a few shopping streets and seeing Shakespeare's Globe along the way. The Globe is right near the Tate Modern Art Museum, which we did not go into (although again, I hear it's awesome), and the Millenium Bridge. This bridge, even though I'd walked across it before, I was SUPER excited to go across it again. Why? Watch the first few minutes of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and then you'll understand why Genevieve and I kept shouting "Potter fixed it! It's been magically restored!" (Yes, we said that, but no, we did not shout :) ) If you keep walking in the direction that the bridge leads you, literally you run into St. Paul's Cathedral, which is magnificent. Absolutely magnificent.
We walked around the outside, explored the gift shop and then entered the sanctuary to hear an Evensong.  The three of us were probably in the first 15 people there, and I'm so glad we were because one of the priests invited the first group to sit behind the choir, closer to the altar. Sadly, no pictures were allowed... and I'm not sneaky enough to take decent pictures without people seeing me. But we were sitting in the booths where important people or the larger choir would sit. Unbelievable! It was just amazing.  We then left St. Paul's, spent almost 90 minutes in a Starbucks (just relaxing) before walking along the Thames to the London Eye.  We didn't end up going on it (yet), but it was so beautiful at night and there was the backdrop of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Just gorgeous...
And sadly, I have to leave you again. This whole going to classes thing really gets in the way!

Days 45-53: Rock of Cashel and part of London

And I'm back... and this time for real. This will be a real entry! So... a day that was a long time ago (February 10) was just an ordinary day, a Wednesday.  And the day following (Thursday, February 11) was again ordinary, except for the fact that it was the end of R&G week! Since I had not skipped a single class during that week, I skipped my last class on Thursday and instead ate fresh donuts (seriously, the best donuts EVER) and watched lube wrestling (it wasn't quite as weird as it sounds, though close). And then... I might have pretended to accomplish something, probably REU applications (that should have been done already). Friday we were planning to go to Cobh, but someone said that the weather wasn't supposed to be nice, so we didn't. And of course, we had a sunny day :) But that was fine! Sleeping in was fantastic.  And Saturday was the Arcadia trip to the Mitchelstown Caves and the Rock of Cashel. And no photos were allowed inside of the caves, so here’s a photo of me with the sign!
We had a great tour of the caves, which were a fantastic 55 degrees (Fahrenheit) and that felt amazing as it was not nearly that warm outside.  Let’s just say that the caves were absolutely gorgeous! I could have spent a really, really long time inside and I was desperate to take pictures… but oh well! The landscape around the caves was gorgeous too! Oh, and since this was an Arcadia trip, we were having a photo contest, the theme: Romance, as it was the day before Valentine’s Day. So several people tried to take “romantic” photos the whole day… No one really succeeded as far as I know, though. After we left the caves, we stopped in the town of Cashel to have lunch. Arcadia was supposed to have made a deal with a cute little restaurant, but there was definitely a miscommunication, as the restaurant wasn't to open until mid-March. So all of us ate at this Italian restaurant, where I had a hamburger (how very American of me). But then! The Rock of Cashel! And yes, it is a rock but a very large one, i.e. a hill made of rock.  And there's a church and former monastery and cemetery on top, and most importantly, a beautiful view of the countryside.
We had a pretty good tour and learned a lot about the history of the Rock of Cashel (sadly, I don’t remember much of it). Once I upload more pictures, I’ll put the link to them here :) Anyway, the Rock of Cashel was beautiful! And although the weather was cold and a little damp (VERY Irish), it was a good day! Sunday was spent “working,” I’m sure… I might have actually been somewhat diligent since I was going to London in only 3 days, but no promises.  And then Monday was the start of three very crazy, mostly sleep-deprived days...  Not only did I have laundry to do, I also had homework and REU applications... Oh yeah, and packing for 5 days in London! Those three days were definitely a blur... essentially, I remember that somehow I got everything done that needed to be done AND running to the bus station to catch the bus to the airport (we weren't late, just anxious).  But we (Genevieve, Bridget, and I) made it to the bus station, I accidentally threw my bus ticket away, I found it again (in the trash--oops), we got on the bus, rode it to the deserted Cork airport. We managed to get there pretty early and then security was almost a joke... I didn't have to take off my jacket or my shoes--it was fantastic!
We bummed around for a bit and then made it to our gate (not too hard to find, as ours was the only flight leaving Cork at the late hour of 9 pm).  This was our first RyanAir experience, and it was better than I'd expected. While they are very particular about a lot of things, they were not too picky about bag size or bag weight, which was unexpected. Also, even though we were about halfway down the queue to get on the plane, the three of us managed to get a row all to ourselves.  Oh! But the plane was running late arriving from London, and thus, it was late leaving for London.  So, our desired arrival time in London of 11:00 was completely out of the question.  But that was okay... Even though we didn't make it to London-Stansted (about 40 minutes northeast of the city) until late, we managed to catch a crowded bus to the Victoria bus station in downtown London and then take a taxi (woo! exciting!!) to our hostel.  And yes, we finally arrived at the Meininger at 1:55 am (give or take a few minutes). But, we had a happy surprise when we checked in. Instead of being in the 14 person dorm that we had booked, we were placed in a 4 person dorm, which was an excellent surprise. Granted, the three of us probably scared our poor roommate almost to death when we walked in at 2 am... she had her stuff ALL over the room, particularly my bed... but the next day, we discovered that she was a very nice person, just one who thought she had the room to herself.  Anyway, since the original idea behind this trip was to see Billy Elliot, bright and early on Thursday morning, the three of us dragged ourselves out of bed at 8 am (or a bit before) to get ready to wait in line for tickets.  We walked to the nearest tube station (Gloucester Road!) and invested in Oyster cards (which is the way to travel London, just FYI).  We took the tube to Victoria and walked to the Victoria Palace Theatre!

We arrived a bit before 9 am, and we were the second, third, and fourth people in line :) (So the way the tickets work:  The more popular shows reserve a certain number of day tickets that go on sale at 10 am and are usually for seats in the very front row but have a restricted view--meaning you can't see the floor at the back of the stage-- and these tickets are usually 25 or 27.50 pounds, which is much less expensive than many of the other tickets... For some shows, like Billy Elliot, getting there by 8:45 generally guarantees you a ticket, but for Wicked, the queue starts around 6:30!) Anyway, we waited in line for a bit (like 80 minutes) but we got tickets!! And then, although we were all exhausted, we decided to brave the slightly wet weather and explore! The theatre
was only a short walk from Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben/Houses of Parliament.  Westminster Cathedral is an odd building with almost Turkish architecture and it’s hidden away… You could easily walk by it without realizing that it was there.  We didn’t go inside, but took some pictures in front of it! And then, we continued on to Westminster Abbey! By then, it was pouring, so we dashed inside the Abbey giftshop (and no, I didn’t buy anything, even though I wanted to J ). Within ten minutes, the rain had stopped and we began standing in awe at the beauty of Westminster Abbey.  The sign outside said that there was to be a communion in 30 minutes time (and ergo, we could enter for free!), so we decided to walk around the Abbey and take a million pictures while we waited.  But 30 minutes later, instead of people going inside, there was huge crowd of people leaving, most of whom were military men.  We had no idea what was going on, so we asked a lady who had just exited the building, and there was some military commemoration ceremony, and we apparently had just missed a prince (!!!) walking by!

And now, I must finish because I had this annoying thing called class... but I'll be back soon to update you on the past two weeks :)

Another Quick Note

Ah! I'm so so sorry... This week has been ridiculous! REU applications (that should have already been done) and homework and the strong desire to sleep all the time... Ergo, I have not updated and I am leaving for Belfast. in 30 minutes. Ah! So.... I'm sorry. Yet again, I am postponing my blog post! But Sunday night/Monday, it will happen, and you will finally be caught up on my travels :)

A Quick Note!

First of all, I'm super sorry that it's been soooo long, and I'm even sorrier that it's going to be a few days longer. I'm actually headed out the door to London as I write (well, sort of...), but I solemnly swear (that I am up to no good :) ) that I will update you all and with pictures when I return on Monday! So until then, adieu!

Days 36-44: Another week, an amazing weekend trip, and the start of another week

Oh no, it's been long enough since I' ve written that I'm sure I won't be able to remember everything (or even close to everything) that's happened in the past few days...
So on Monday, February started... which was absolutely crazy. It marked the beginning of the second whole month that I'll be in Ireland. I can't believe one has already gone by. Monday also marked the beginning of the first week that I had to study... I had two exams on Wednesday and Thursday (one on each day). But exams didn't stop me from having an excellent week! Monday was not terribly exciting, as per usual, but Tuesday was fun! I did laundry (not the fun part), and I decided to do only one load to save some money. But I did not realize that the pair of jeans I was washing had not been washed many times... so yes, all of my whites (well a couple of them, especially socks and towels) are now light blue... But at least, it's nothing really noticeable and who cares what color my towel is? :) But after laundry and classes and whatnot, a bunch of us went to An Spailpin Fanach, a pub, where we tried our skills at Ceili dancing. Although none of us knew what we were doing, it was so much fun... I now know how to do some traditional Irish dancing! Wednesday was marked with an exam... Granted, it wasn't too hard and didn't take too long, but I still didn't want to take it. (And I still haven't gotten the marks back, so it might have been harder than I thought.) And sadly, Wednesday night I had to study... although I did have the usuals over for dessert and "Fat Families"... and then my Irish flatmate came back from the SU Council meeting and tried to get me to go out with her... I really wanted to, but Differential Equations (somehow) won out. And Thursday happened, exam and all... Classes were decent, and then I had to pack and get ready for our weekend in Galway! Of course, no Thursday is complete without some sort of outing, so the usuals headed out on a pub crawl (led by some Irish students)... We hit four pubs in Cork, some of which I'm definitely going to again. The highlight of the night was running across Cork City to get free Guinness at the next pub... Needless to say, I was one few people there and was happily rewarded with my free pint of Guinness. After the pub crawl, we headed to "The Classic," but we didn't stay too late, as we had to be on the bus at 8 the next morning...
Oh, and how could I forget? This week, Genevieve, Bridget and I bought plane tickets to go to London, baby! How exciting! As of yet, we still don't have a place to stay (eek!), but we are leaving Cork on Wednesday night (Feb 17) and returning Monday morning, really early (Feb 22). It's going to be such a fun trip!!

And now to the weekend... SO MUCH FUN. So we didn't actually stay in Galway... we stayed in this really cute cabins in the middle of beautiful nowhere. Had it been 10-15 degrees warmer outside, it would have been absolutely amazing, and as it was, I was very happy :) On the way to these cabins, we stopped at Bunratty Castle, which was so cool! We had a tour with a quite entertaining tour guide, and got to explore the reconstructed village surrounding the castle. (Pictures at some point) And after lunch, we went to the Cliffs of Moher, which if you don't know what they are, you must google them right now. They are unbelievably gorgeous and just unbelievable overall! The day was a bit cold and windy, but that couldn't take away from the pure amazingness of the cliffs... And then, we stopped at a store to buy some food for the weekend, and headed to the cabins. That night, there was a party, but I was a bit too exhausted to really partake...
Saturday morning, we got up and headed out to the Aran Islands-- actually Inis Mor, the biggest of the three islands. We took a bus to the ferry and then spent about 30 minutes on board... I love ferries! It was really fun and the weather was gorgeous. Once on the island, the group of international students (about 50 of us) got into three buses and had a spectacular bus tour. The first stop was Dun Aonghosa... another place that if you don't what it is, you must google it now. So beautiful and so dangerous!! There are no ropes, no warning signs... basically, they just assume that you don't want to die any more than they don't want you to die. Let's just say that a few of us sat on the edge... feet over water, and it was intense! I think it's like 75 meters from where you're standing to the ocean down below... Just unbelievable. I could have stayed all day! The rest of the day basically paled in comparison to Dun Aonghosa, but compared to any other day, it was still awesome.We stopped at an old monastery that is now a cemetery, walked along a rocky beach, and went shopping! The Aran Islands are known (I think) for their traditional woolen sweaters... now, I didn't get one (although I might have to soon), but I did get myself some hand-knitted gloves that I absolutely love. Then, we had the ferry ride back to the mainland and the ISSoc guys (the people in charge of us) threw another party! This time, I was much more in the mood and ended up talking to these three really sweet Italian girls and a lovely French girl. Plus, in our cabin, there were two Chinese girls, who were also super friendly and nice... That was actually one of the highlights of the weekend-- getting to meet people from so many different places!
Sunday morning, we got up and were all on the bus by 10:15 or so, but apparently, we weren't leaving until 11... so some people were a little mad. But we headed into Galway city, but since it was a Sunday, not much was open until 1 or 2, and we had to leave about 1:30... But the city seemed really cool, and Bridget and I hung out with two of the Italian girls that we'd met the night before! The bus ride home was one of the longest 4 hours ever... Just wasn't comfortable, although my exhaustion did allow me to sleep somewhat. My neck was not so happy when I woke up though... And that was the weekend, and pictures (or at least a link to pictures to come soon!)
And Sunday night, I had planned to watch the Super Bowl... but yeah, sleep happened. I think that was probably a smart decision, although the game sounded exciting! And yeah, Monday happened, again, nothing too exciting... I feel like all Mondays everywhere are just kind of boring... Although, this week is Raise and Give (RAG) week at UCC, so basically people just party and drink all week long, and very few of the Irish students bother to go to class... But yes, I (like a good little American) have been going to all of my classes and have not been drinking any more than usual!
Tuesday (yesterday), I had classes as usual and then did a little work (haha) before going out to a pub called "The Bierhaus" with Lindsey, Mike, and Therese (some of the usuals). I had O'Hara's Stout, which was a very dark (but delicious) beer. And I feel like more exciting things than just that happened, but I can't remember (I must be getting old)... Anyway, I'll be updating soon, and hopefully, by the end of this week, I'll have a pretty good idea of my April plans, so I'll let you know :)

Days 33-35: The Weekend!

See? I told you it wouldn't be another two weeks before I wrote again... YAY! Anyway, I'm currently sitting in the UCC computer lab accomplishing things (and yes, updating my blog definitely counts as accomplishing something). I thought about going back to Deanshall, but I knew if I went there, I would do nothing. For 4 or so hours... And with all that I have to do, that would be a waste of time (an actual waste, not updating-my-blog waste). So Friday-- January 29th, the one-month anniversary of my arrival in Ireland... That's just so crazy, especially because a few of my friends still hadn't left (and a few still haven't)! So for the one-month anniversary, I did nothing special. Actually, that's not entirely true-- I went to my Graph Theory and Combinatorics Tutorial... and I was one of maybe five people who went... in a class of about thirty. Yeah, the lecturer really should have picked a different time. And because there were so few people, no one wanted to ask questions, so I did. And in doing so, I realized that I need to really study for my GT&C exam on Wednesday (but have I yet? No... oops). So after my tutorial, I made an executive decision and dropped Celtic Religion and Mythology to take Italian... I'll miss the other people in the class and the stories, but... I think Italian is both more practical and more fun! :) Friday afternoon was spent at the grocery store... well, not the entire afternoon, and then Friday night, we had a girls' night, which for awhile included a few guys... We watched "Good Luck Chuck," and then a lot of people left (because there was an Archaeology field trip at 9am on Saturday)... By then, it was just a few of us girls, so we decided to play Mao (a card game). Let's just say, it was quite entertaining :) And that was Friday...
On Saturday, I didn't really do a whole lot. I cleaned my apartment's kitchen because it was soooooooo gross, and almost every dish that we have was dirty... I was going crazy, so I cleaned! After cleaning, I was rewarded with a fabulous Pizza and Wings dinner at Kat's apartment, followed by apple pie and ice cream... Needless to say, if I keep eating like that, I'll be on "Fat Families." Not everyone could make it to Kat's, so we had a smaller crowd and thus decided to play Mao again... Part of the appeal of the game is that unless you've played before, you don't know the rules :) So it's quite easy to get frustrated... The eventual plan was to watch a movie (originally, "Silence of the Lambs" but with fewer people, "Moulin Rouge"), but Mao took over and then YouTube videos... I finally saw the "JK Wedding Dance," and finally, Jim and Pam's wedding ("The Office") makes much more sense. So Saturday wasn't terribly productive, but fun :)
Sunday-- I actually tried to be productive; I did... and I succeeded somewhat. I finally submitted my first REU application and have a few weeks before the next few are due... But I figure I'll just go ahead and get those done so I don't have to worry about them. On Sunday morning (about 11:30), I headed over to Liam's apartment, where he was making pancakes... There were a lot of pancakes to be made, so we didn't end up eating until about 1 or so... But that was fine because the pancakes were sooooo delicious. He made banana pancakes and apple cinnamon ones... Yum, yum, yum. I could do with some of those now actually... And he shelled out and bought real maple syrup (really hard to find in Ireland). Yum, yum, yum... I also cleaned my bathroom and vacuumed the living room on Sunday... I basically just hit a point this weekend where I couldn't stand the grossness of my apartment, so I cleaned.
That was basically my weekend... Oh, I also received an email that the International Student Society trip to Killarney got moved to the same weekend as the Belfast trip, so sadly I won't be going to Killarney. But at least, I'm going to Galway this weekend. Also, it's possible that a friend (Genevieve--have I mentioned her before??) and I will be spending our formerly Killarney-filled weekend in London, watching "Billy Elliot" and exploring :) Sounds like a pretty good back-up plan to me!
And now, back to actual productivity. Arrivederci :)

Days 18-32: Friday, 15 Jan to Thursday, 28 Jan (Brief Edition)

Hello!! I'm sorry that it has been sooooo long... much longer than I intended! Things have been crazy, and I'm finally settled in. Of course, I've thought that before, only to be proven wrong (and usually only minutes later). But anyway, a brief overview of the past two weeks:
15 Jan (Fri)-- No class! A few of us tried to go to the Garda station to register (so we wouldn't be illegal immigrants), but we went to the wrong station, the right station was closed when we arrived, so we killed time and then by the time we got back, the computers were broken. Garda fail. But then, that same few of us had a fabulous pizza and wings dinner! We planned to watch "Scarface," but we accidentally rented the old one (the not-Al Pacino one), so we watched "The Maltese Falcon" instead.
16 Jan (Sat)-- Is it sad that I can't remember? At all...
17 Jan (Sun)-- Did work (haha), well I tried to do homework... Some people went mountain climbing, but I (as a relatively lazy bum) did not.
18 Jan (Mon)-- Monday again... Three day weekends really do fly by! And again, I can't really remember, but I figure, if I can't remember, it's probably so boring that you don't care anyway! :)
19 Jan (Tue)-- Rain! Again... I think it rains every Tuesday (except the 26th :) ), which is fine, except that I spend lots of time walking on Tuesdays... so I would prefer sun! It was raining and I was soaked walking to my Irish history class. We had a new professor; he started off really interesting and pretty cool... seems like a good guy to have a conversation with. But as a lecturer, he's terrible, no main focus, and says "um... uh" way too much... also, my cell phone was in my backpack, which got wet-- ergo, my phone got wet, soaked is more like it. So yeah, it died. Boo. Despite all of my attempts with dryers, rice, etc., my 2 1/2 week old phone bit the dust. Sad.
20 Jan (Wed)-- So Wednesday was my family dinner day! I decided to make chicken parmesan and eggplant parmesan (for the vegetarians). I got up at a decent hour, went into the city, got a new phone (wah!), went grocery shopping, etc. -- Very exciting! Got back to my apartment, began fixing dinner (prepping the chicken, the eggplant, and making breadcrumbs--which I'm never doing again...), skipped my noon class (how lazy!), and did some work for Topology. Went to my afternoon classes... then came back and actually cooked dinner! People came over and ate, and then we discovered the best show on television... It's called "Fat Families" and basically, this "former fatty" goes to people's homes, tells them they are too fat, and makes them lose weight. But these people are really, really fat... like 5'2" and over 20 stone (which is 280 pounds)... And my favorite part of the show... his catchphrase "massive fatties"... which he calls them to their faces. And those of us who watch decided to always eat dessert while watching... It makes it soooo much better. Oh, and another thing, I wore heels to my afternoon classes on Wednesday. Let's just say that I have a new respect for people who wear heels all the time and can actually walk (at a decent pace) in them. :)
21 Jan (Thu)-- First Topology homework due. How exciting! Classes were classes, nothing spectacular. But that evening, Bridget, Emily and I went to college to see "The Wind That Shakes The Barley," a movie about the IRA in 1920-1. I was not prepared for this movie... so much more violent than I expected. Good film, but not a light movie... Several times, we almost left because it was so much. BUT! After the movie and a little chocolate to make us feel better (just like in Harry Potter), we met up with some of Emily's flatmates and we partied like it was 1999... Well, maybe not that much, but we had a good night. I did, however, try to be Irish and wear heels out. Never again. Flats are the best things EVER. But going out was a ton of fun, other than my dead feet. :)
22 Jan (Fri)-- No class!!! Well, not really, I have a tutorial on Fridays now. But I made an executive decision to rarely go. Problem solved. Instead, I went shopping with Bridget! Got two shirts and two dresses for 14 euro :) and bought FLAT shoes!!! We also went to the Garda (again), but this time, we were successful! So I am no longer an illegal resident in Ireland... whew! After registering, we rushed to UCC, where the sign-ups for two fantastic trips were. Despite how crazy the sign-ups were, I managed to register for both trips-- one to Galway, and one to Killarney :) A bunch of people went to see Avatar, but I didn't and instead went grocery shopping with a few folks (different than my usual group) and then we had a delicious taco dinner. I was so happy to have beef-- you have no idea! And then, after dinner, clean-up, etc., we went to a pub to watch a rugby match. And I made a miraculous discovery-- I LOVE RUGBY. I had no clue that I would like it but I do... It's such a great sport to watch, even though I don't really know the rules... maybe I'll learn them while I'm here. :)
23 Jan (Sat)-- Blarney Castle!! Took a bus to Blarney, walked to the castle... It was soooo fun! And (of course) I kissed the Blarney Stone, so now I have the Gift of Gab (as if I didn't before)... But supposedly, I should be a bit more eloquent... (Don't think it's kicked in yet) Despite rumors that the Blarney Stone is disgusting and whatnot, it tasted like disinfectant... so I'm hoping that it was clean-ish. There are pictures on my facebook (the only place that will load pictures), so here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024433&id=1565430037&l=ebaef68c2e
This should work even if you don't have facebook! And then after getting back from Blarney (about 20 minutes from Cork), Kat made a fabulous roast chicken and mashed potato dinner... soooo delicious... She's quite the chef. :)
24 Jan (Sun)-- Again... nothing?? My memory isn't serving me well, but I'm pretty sure I just bummed around and pretended to do work. :)
25 Jan (Mon)-- MONDAY! again...
26 Jan (Tue)-- Had classes as usual... Nothing terribly exciting. Although in my Topology tutorial, I had real (as in NOT math) conversations with a few of the guys in my class... We basically were laughing for about 40 minutes... The professor was not too happy, but whatever. It was hilarious. :) Oh, and we still had the bad professor in Irish history... and he was still not good... most people left halfway through the class. I felt bad for him (bad enough to stay in class but not so bad that I paid attention).
27 Jan (Wed)-- Started taking Italian!! Soooo fantastic! I really like Italian... such a neat language, and now I think I have to travel to Italy :) That evening, after dinner, we all went to someone's apartment to watch "Fat Families" and eat ice cream :) This episode was not nearly as good as the first one, but definitely enjoyable... After our gathering, I was planning to be a good little Katie and go to my room and sleep/do work, but plans change. I went to Emily's apartment and was convinced to go out... I'm glad I did too... There was a UV party at Freakscene (a club), and it was a blast... Of course, I had paint everywhere (well, mostly my face and arms) when I left, but it was super fun!
28 Jan (Thu)-- Usually my last day of classes for the week... (this week I had to go to my Friday tutorial, but I'll explain that later) Nothing too exciting happened... I had classes and then they were over, and I did nothing until I got a text from Bridget threatening me to come to a tea party... Needless to say, I went! And it was sooo much fun, although I ate too much, especially because after the tea party, I headed to family dinner... But the dinner was soup (delicious but not necessarily super filling) and potatoes... Then, we did some quality hanging out :) A few people went to hear live music, but I actually was a good Katie and attempted to accomplish something on Thursday evening...
And that's where I'll leave you... I hope that I will write again soon... or at least, I won't let it be two weeks before I post again :)