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....)

So this is how my week started

Okay, so first: I finally cooked a meal! So far I have only used the powders I brought from home and simply poured them into boiling water. But now I made an actual hot meal. Yay me! Also, the classrooms at the university seem to be pretty well equipped, though the chairs are a bit strange compared to the ones we have at home. And though it was only Monday, a girl started crying in class! It was so weird, like in first grade probably when 6-year-olds get too scared in a new environment. This girl at Irish Language lecture just put her hand up and started saying that she is not really familiar with plagiarism rules and all of a sudden she started crying. She totally broke down, that poor girl, took her long minutes to get her emotion overflow under control. Must really suck to be this stressed out on freaking day one.

Cinnamon-orange-flavoured chicken with rice - I cooked!

My new (and free) UL T-shirt

On Tuesday, we had no classes as we will only have tutorials that day and they don't yet run - really easy first week, right? So we stayed home and I think this was the first day we did not go anywhere since we arrived here. The sun was shining almost all day, as if to celebrate that we had a day off already. I vacuum cleaned my room (it was full of cat hair, I guess the previous renter of the room let Friday come in - bad decision) and I also washed some of my clothes. The house also has a dryer so I did not have to hang my clothes to dry, that machine dealt with them, and it did the deed indeed wonderfully. My clothes came out dry and warm and soft. I definitely like that dryer.

This butterfly just flew into my room, waited till I took the pic and then flew out

Wednesday morning I felt so well-rested and hungry that I ended up making an omelette.for breakfast. Didn't taste the same as home, Irish eggs and spices are not the same, but it was still cool. By the way, I miss sweets and snacks so much! At home, I usually eat chocolate or nacho or popcorn every day. Shamefully, more than once a day. Kinda lot lately. And here I didn't have as much as a slice of chocolate so far. This makes me equally proud of myself and desperate to go and buy tons of sweets.
In the afternoon, we went swimming with Clémence! She swims surprisingly well and the swimming pool is nice and a student ticket didn't cost much. After swimming, we stayed in the Sport Arena because there was a Clubs&Societies Recruitment Drive where you could ask about clubs and sign up, paying the membership fee. It was really interactive and fun, much better than I'd expected it to be. There were surfers (surf boards placed on skateboards) speeding down the hall and a huge trampoline and football players dressed in their gear strolling casually in the crowd and all kinds of interesting stuff. I ended up signing up for two clubs: the Swim Club, obviously (though they have trainings pretty late, 10pm most days!) and also the Archery Club! Here comes your future Owleye, Orange Arrow, Handolas, Delena Lua or Robin Hoodie*!

This awesome painting is at the entrance of the university swimming pool

Part of the surfing stuff at the Recruitment Drive

ParTEA - a really cool event

Thursday it was raining. Nasty rain. By the time we got to the university we were kinda soaked through (well, we had raincoats but our jeans were so wet as if we jumped into the pool in clothes before going to class). We had a pretty okay lecture on CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) and I was surprised of how much I remembered from my previous studies, that is, last semester's Applied Linguistics. When Chomsky and Krashen and Vygotsky got mentioned, I couldn't help a smile. I hope this will remain the same, that I know most of the stuff already. It would make this module a bit easier. :D After class, we went and fetched some free cycling gear from an office. They will come in handy (already had, in fact) since we cycle to campus basically every day. Later this day, we went to the annual meeting of the international society - not because we were so keen to sit through all that boring stuff but because the girls wanted to but tickets for the trip this Saturday and so we needed to be there. But we got a slice of pizza each for free, so I am not saying it was not worth it. When they finally finished the meeting and we got our pizza slices, we went to the ParTea (aka Tea Party) where we got free tea/coffee and biscuits. And also a nice orange travel mug, as we were among the first ones who arrived! This university seems to give away a lot of stuff for free, Thursday was our 'get-more-free-stuff-day', I suppose. :D
And we talk more and more with the girls, which is awesome!! We laughed so much this week even I got surprised - and I usually laugh a lot. But I am absolutely thrilled by this unexpected feature of my days.

Weather's really crazy...Just look at those dark grey clouds and suddenly clear blue sky!

Friday we only had to go in to the campus in the afternoon to sign up for the EFL classes so we decided to make pancakes in the morning! It was a team work really, I mixed up all the ingredients with help from Vera and Eszter fried them. And then we all ate them, even left some for Clémence who hadn't been there. I also made bolognai for lunch, second proper meal I cooked here. Then we cycled to campus for the sign up and it was rainy and muddy and sweaty and I swear I look like I just shitted myself every time I cycle in rain. My bike has no splasher so both my butt and back get a lot of dirt. In the evening, Josephine, the landlady, took us to SuperValu so that we could do some shopping. And on the way there I saw my very first rainbow in Ireland! It is raining and the sun is shining almost all the time and yet this was the first time I caught sight of a rainbow, Merlin knows why. Also Friday, I boooked my plane ticket back home - I am flying on 18, December.

Guinness and mint-flavour OREO chocolate... treat yourself day :)

Pancaaaakees!

Unhealthy weekend - a very unproductive Saturday and a slightly more productive Sunday 

I finally gave in and bought chocolate in SuperValu on Friday. I ate almost all of it on Saturday. It tasted like heaven. Gods, how I missed chocolate. The others were on a bus trip to Dingle and there was no electricity in the house so I just lay in bed and was reading all day. I finished Day Zero and started Arcana Rising. Then had a late lunch and finished Arcana Rising. Kresley Cole is really cool and I want to talk about how awesome Aric is but I guess this is not the time, nor the place to do so. Anyone interested in my ramblings in this fandom, message me. I also got a guitar to practice on while I am staying here as the landlord and landlady were cleaning the sitting room and found a guitar someone left here. How cool is that? I have been silently suffering about how I cannot play the guitar for months now and they just happen to have one and ask me whether I want it and all! If this is not fate then I don't know what is. Only tiny problem is that the guitar has steel strings and not nylon for G B and E. So my fingers hurt like hell after like two seconds. But I'll try to get used to it. Anyways, I also talked to mom and her sis and my cousin and my lil bro today on the phone. I would say I miss my family but I don't really, not yet. I am too caught up in all the awesome stuff here, the only person I already started missing is my boyfriend, who I miss badly, as expected.

With the guitar I just got offered

Sunday turned out to be a bit more productive than my shill Saturday, gladly. I proofread and corrected my friend's Swedish crime short story translation, as this was my task after she proofread and corrected mine last semester. Can't wait to have the collection published! I also cleaned the bathroom as this week it was my turn. This was the first time I ever cleaned a bathroom as it's mom doing it at home but I think I did a fairly good job. But I did not go swimming, even though I was planning to go yesterday - and then today. I stayed home both days instead. But at least I don't have so much guilt since i did something useful today. :) For dinner I had white pudding with bread, supposing it could be similar to májkrém at home. Well, it seems to be almost the same so let's just say I found the Irish equivalent of májkrém. Good for me. :D And I also ate red cheddar - I don't usually like cheese but this one is not bad.

And finally, Eszter and the chicken before it went to the oven

Talk to ya in my next post!

*For everyone interested, this is list of my favourite archer characters re-written in a very creative shitty way to fit me better and try to be funny. The original list consists of Hawkeye, the Green Arrow, Legolas, Selena Lua and Robin Hood, in this order.