Back to normal

...that is, back to what counts as normal here on my Erasmus. Back to school, to clubs and societies, to trips, to fun.

Late start - Tuesday

As my boyfriend only left Limerick late afternoon on Monday, I did not attend any classes that day so the week only started on Tuesday for me. The EFL class was sooo very boring again, but then I went swimming and did another 3400meters. After that, we pumped the bike tiles with the girls and Vini. Then we had an Irish language class where we learned some vocab connected to family and the teacher announced that there will be a test two weeks from now, probably. Shit, we really should start studying some, right?
In the evening, I was just cooking and reading. These J R Ward books are really good. This week I read two of them, and the only reason it is not more is that I still have some remnants of my self-discipline left.

Chicken breast with apples and pear... :)

Vera and Eszter trying to get a tan... good luck girls :D

Café Wednesday

After skipping the morning lecture on Irish folklore (it was high time we did so, man, they were so boring) we had Irish language again, where we covered some vocabulary on rooms within a house. We seem to be speeding up, a lot. Then we went to the Scholars', Vini joining us there, and had a nice white choco mocca. That drink tastes so good, jeez. Then we left the café/pub only to go to the Red Raisins café, where we could sign up for the International Society's next trip: this time to the Ring of Kerry. We got our places and paid the 20EUR and then sat down to talk some until training.
At archery, we practiced in competition setup, kinda. There were two targets next to each other and u had to shoot 3 arrows and then the other person shot 3 as well. And then you collected the arrows, counted the points, marked them on a chart. It was so cool, but of course we had to get used to it. Next week we are going to have an inside competition at the club, I am so excited about it!

White choco mocca in Scholars'

Charlie shooting as a real pro
(with his own, fancy bow and arrows)

One of my rounds. Not bad, ehh?

I still look like a badass heroine

Disney Thursday

This time I think my Thursday might have been longer than my Wednesday. First we skipped the TESOL lecture with Eszter because we are kinda afraid of and also annoyed by the teacher. But we attended the tutorial and we also went to the language hub to check a coursebook for homework.
After class and a quick lunch I went to swim practice again, where we did sets with front crawl, IM and then main stroke. It was only 50m main stroke (max speed) at the end and there were only 5 sets so I decided I can give a chance to butterfly. And it was a good decision because it went pretty well, the first time I seriously did fly since I stopped swimming. The coach was kinda impressed by my fly, he even said it was beautiful. ^^ :D
In the afternoon all four of us Hungarian girls attended the literature lecture - what a day! I think the last time it happened was the very first week.
Then we went to a table quiz - again. This time, the theme was Disney and it was really awesome, though we were far from knowing all and winning it, I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the questions that you could answer if you knew some Disney lyrics by heart. And after announcing the teams who won and lost (losers got a bunch of condoms so that they wouldn't reprodue, lol), they also held a Disney karaoke! It was really awesome, at some points really funny (like when that guy was singing Sharpay's Fabulous) and sometimes really good (the guys singing You're welcome from Moana and Under the sea from the Little Mermaid were crazy great). And when they had Breaking Free, Vini couldn't help and threw off a small show for us at the table. :D

Nice poster in the Language Hub

Best team name (after Alibaba and the fourty thieves)

Free cider vouchers!
(Out-Cider...ha-ha-ha)

Sleepy and rainy Friday

So after the previous night's table quiz I was pretty tired but I still went to swimming practice in the morning. It was a bit more exhausting than usually, we had a set of 15x100m front crawl with 70% speed and that is not really for my level right now. But I did kinda okay, though not perfect.
After training I came home and went to bed. Slept for two hours like dead. Then I studied some, or at least pretended. I started to write out my notes from Irish language but didn't really get anywhere with it before I had to leave for the village where Oliver and Pontus live. It was time for our regular Friday - presentation group -meeting. The rain was really heavy and so my jacket got soaked through but at least the waterproof pants still hold. At the guys' place we just chilled out with coffee, chocolate, cookies and Pontus played the guitar while Sultan started stretching and doing yoga in the middle of the kitchen-living room and Oliver tapped the rhythm. And they also sang some songs and we started drinking gin tonic. Of course, our project did not get any further but at least we had a great time. Then we cycled home and for a while we went together with Sultan who lives in Elm park and I got to know that her landlord is also Tom. I swear most of the international students live in his houses. :)
By the time I got home I was a bit cold, very tired (both my mind and my muscles) and very unmotivated, so while the others all left for Stables and a good party, I just stayed home and relaxed a bit.

Pontus playing the guitar and Sultan singing Adele

Ring of Kerry Saturday

So on Saturday we got up kinda early, around 7, and Tom took us to the university where we boarded the buses (barely on time) and headed to a nice trip. Our "guide" on the bus was Stephen and I hadn't really liked him before but he turned out to be just fine and kind and he even speaks Irish (later on, this will be an important trait). He made us chat a little with other people on the bus before we could finally all go to sleep or read. I started a new J R Ward book and I was really excited about it.
At the second stop (we usually stop  regularly for a few minutes to be able to take photos of awesome scenery) Vini joined us on the bus, abandoning his original one. So instead of much sleeping and reading we started talking.
We had three bigger stops, the first one being some small city where we walked around, mostly by a lake and in a small forest (or rather a big park), the second one at the Torc waterfall, from where we walked about an hour in the nature (a lake, trees, forest, grass, such things). The last one was the city of Killarney, where we walked around a bit, went in to some shops, walked around a bit more and I ended up finally buying the book I was eyeing since I came here. One copy of Harry Potter agus an Órchloch is now officially part of my collection. :)
On the bus ride home I showed my book to Stephen and he started reading out loud from it - in Irish! So awesome. Though it made me pretty sure that I will never be able to speak Irish. Otherwise, some people slept, some people at the back of the bus were singing while Stephen played the guitar (he even sang Galway girl from Steve Earle in freaking Irish) and I was reading that Ward book. And then we arrived back to the university, Tom picked us up at Stables and we came home. As we were really hungry and earlier that day I suggested ordering pizza together some time, we decided it was just time we did so we ordered three pizzas. And while we waited, Eszter unboxed all the stuff she got by post (or rather some delivery company) while we were on the trip.

Signs in a small town

Beautiful path in the woods

So true man, so true

This is so NOT tipically Irish and yet so amazing

The Torc waterfall

A bunch of crazy people at the waterfall

Playing hide and seek with the camera

Again, the forest looked like a movie set

No matter the season, Ireland keeps being breathtakingly green

Practicing some before getting on the bus

Sooo coool

Still soooo coool

Clem and Vera both had a very bad week
This pic shall stand here to give them better luck for the future

Eszter unboxing her new phone - among other cool stuff

The new Gifted Youngsters in Charles's school

Feasting on the pizza that just got delivered

Look at this beauty!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Productive but slow Sunday

So I slept until 11 or so. But then, even though I didn't feel like it at all, I had to start doing stuff. I had breakfast, went to Lidl with Eszter, where I bought so much stuff, Jesus, and paid so much, Merlin. But now I have a lot of food, both frozen and in the cupboard. And in the fridge. Then I washed and dried my clothes, cooked, vacuum cleaned my room (and the kitchen cause I spilled some of the rice) and so you could say I was pretty productive.
And in the evening we got a message from the university that there would be no classes tomorrow because of the storm (hurricane Ophelia) coming towards Ireland. So I chilled out, not stressing about classes that wouldn't be held anyway.