And I ask you friend, what's a fella to do*

... if the chance is there and the ocean calls. This week was pretty epic, I swear. But no spoilers, go read the full story!

Falling into routines, spending more money

And so my second full week at Limerick came to an end! Guys, I am soooo exhausted. But it was so much fun again, I think my mom might have be right with her suspicion when she says I will never want to go home...

Windy Monday

Monday was a bitch. The wind was howling all day, trying to push us off our bikes - not that I needed any hardships to cycling, after I haven't done any exercise the last 3 days, I had problems riding my bike at a proper speed without fainting before getting to campus. And then there was the wind. And some rain too. How nice! (not nice) And of course the rain stopped just the exact same minute we got off our bikes at campus. If this is not Murphy then I don't know what is.
But I went swimming in the afternoon (this time with Vera, who, just like Clémence, surprised me with how great she swims!). I managed to swim 2600 meters this time. Not much, but it will do for a start until I can get into shape again.

Cycling behind Vera and Eszter

Following Clémence to uni

Yes this is my foot and knee and part of my bike

Typo Tuesday

We had our first EFL class this Tuesday and our names got - surprise, surprise - really mistyped. Apparently, I am called 'Daluia Bereca'. Eszter and Vera got at least one of their names properly spelled, but not me, of course. We laughed for about ten minutes just at this in class. The teacher will sure hate us soon.
In the afternoon, we had our first Gaeilge (Irish language) class!! The teacher, Billy, is kinda sexy with his strange humour and speech, but mostly just funny. He teaches at a really fucking slow pace tho, I have no idea how I will not doze off at his classes if we keep asking all the people in class what their names are and what they mean, what languages they speak and such (in English, of course). This is all intersting but in class I would rather learn something. After school, we went grocery shopping and I bought my second bottle of peanut butter. I won't really have money to buy meat tho, at least not regularly, so I might have to look for other possible types of food that are relatively cheap and have some protein in them. Vera and Eszter both bought Nutella by now - I am still strong and resisting the temptation.

Eszter trying to look guilty with her Nutella - and failing

Long Wednesday

On Wednesday, after a pretty cool lecture about the 'Merry Wake' and the tradition of funerals in Ireland,  we had an unbelievably boring EFL class (most fun (or as the Irish people say here, craic) thing was when we had to talk about what 'nostalgia' might mean. I mean.....bruh). Irish language was okay but not much fun either cause we are really taking it slowly. And we have no homework yet, which is soooo wierd for me after all the 20-30-60 pages of Swedish homework I am used to having to do.
After classes, we had some craic at the courtyard - they had some kind of event there so there was a clown doing tricks and a girl on loooooong legs walking in the crowd and giving away sweets, and the UL mascot (a wolf) was strolling around in the crowd and dancing to the music. Also, we got some free stuff - again. I really can't believe how much stuff we just get for free. This time, we got some instant pasta soup and some Pringles and a small package of Haribo ("Sterben muss Man so wie so, schneller geht's mit Haribo!") and a keychain and more sweets. Oh, and we got invited for coffee too.
When we were seriously stuffed with free stuff, we went to buy our tickets for next weekend's Galway and Aran islands trip. We were there two hours prior to them starting to sell the tickets (and while waiting, I practiced some juggling, but I haven't been doing it for a while so I am kinda rusty) and the line started at least 40 minutes before they actually sold the first ticket. So we had to wait a lot in the line, people queueing like good Swedes all around the cafeteria. But eventually, we got our tickets! (That is, we paid and they took our student number, with no actual evidence of the payment whatsoever, so I really hope we won't be left behind...) But many students were not so lucky, like poor Clémence, who got to stand there and then the tickets were sold out before she could get hers. This trip was really popular, evidently. Can't wait to go there next Saturday!
After buying my ticket (30EURs off my shoulder again....), we went to the sports center with Vera and Eszter, who both had krav maga training. I had to wait some for my archery training to start but I made a new friend while waiting and another few while practicing archery. I was not THAT bad, I mean I got to hit the target several times and once I was even in the middle yellow circle. Which is cool, even if my arrow landed there only accidentally. I was certainly not among the best ones but definitely not among the worst ones either, so I say that is a victory. Also, my team who I got to practice with was really cool, I really look forward meeting them next Wednesday.
After training, I cycled home alone and it was SO FREAKING COLD that I kinda tried to hurry so I ended up clearing the distance in 14 minutes or so. Instead of 20 or more. That is a tough record to break.

Vera and the woman onthe walking poles

The clown

Not only did they give us free coffee, but they also had this!

Chilling out while waiting

The line BEHIND us

Archery training!

University chill

Though university officially started this Monday, we only had a few classes so far. In Ireland, tutorials and labs usually do not start until week 3!! Crazy, right? :D So we only had 5 or so lectures and that's all. But we've done so much interesting stuff that this post sure as hell won't stay boring or short, I promise. ;)
(Not that I could ever write something short and boring, tbh....)

Meet my constants

That is, here's a post about my room and my friends so far. :)

So, tomorrow afternoon is the 1 week anniversary of my arriving in Ireland! For this occassion, I though I would make a special post about how my room looks right now (and will probably for the rest of the semester) and who my Ireland-friends currently are. As I had only two lectures and zero tutorials so far, I did not really have the opportunity to make new friends, so this is a rather short list but having them around every day I actually feel like we've known each other for much longer...

First days in a new life

When you just moved to a totally new country, to a different society and culture than you are used to having around, you don't really comprehend the weight of the change. I have been here in Ireland for four days now and I could not wrap my mind around it yet, I think. It feels so not real. Like... somewhere between a vacation abroad and a funny realistic dream. Some things are already familiar like my bedside table or the kitchen or the route we need to take to the campus. But mostly, everything is new and exciting. And since I don't yet have a sense of settling in here, I don't feel homesick or out of place either. This is really just a holiday as for now.
But not going into detail about that now, since I have A LOT to share about these past four days already! :)

My bags before leaving