Half-time, Homesick, Headache

So I have spent exactly two months in Ireand by now (that is, by the end of the week this post is about). And this week was the first when I felt homesick. By the time I have to go home I might not even mind it that much...

Moody Monday

After my mood took a dive by the end of last week, I still wasn't really feeling enthusiastic or happy, but the week nevertheless had to start. We had a literature tutorial where we had not much idea of what was going on since we haven't read anything for class. Then we had a 4-hour-long break during which we spent some time in the library and then were hanging out with Vini. In the afternoon we had an Irish folklore tutorial where, for the first time since the semester started, we had fun! We made these weird crosses called St Brigid's Cross and we could keep them so now I have a bunch of half-dried rushes. To end the day we had a fucking boring lecture with Aengus. When going to bed, I had a slight headache, which is kinda rare here, even though I have it at home all the time.

before starting to make the cross

during the making of the crosses

St Brigid's Cross

Vini playing the no-internet-Dino-game
(he was fecking good at it)

Tuesday - skipped EFL for a change

No, really, I should get back to attending those classes. I have skipped now 4 or 5 in a row. But this day I had a great excuse: I had to start writing my essay for the literature module. I ended up choosing a topic and reading the material for it, so I am not saying it was totally worth skipping EFL but I am not saying it wasn't worth it either.
But we still had to cycle to campus because we had an Irish language tutorial with Billy, after which we made an interview with him, Vera and me. We had a video project for Irish folklore and the material we used for our topic was a book written by Billy, so we asked him about it and also had a nice chat with him afterwards. That guy is really cool and his wife apparently has a beautiful voice.
Also, I have been eating a lot these days and poor Clem got ill - the two not related. And I had headache again.

Wednesday - Annacotty and essay

The morning started out rather unusually as the moment I stepped out of my room I bumped into a Russian woman with some cleaning gear in her hands. Apparently, we have a cleaning lady who comes now and then to rub away some dirt from the common areas like kitchen. She was really friendly and talkative, by the way, and I almost greeted her in Russian but then I chickened out and rather went for English.
So after breakfast we all skipped Irish folklore, and I started actually composing my essay for Contemporary Women's Writing instead. I had to stop because we had an Irish language test so we had to go in to the university - the test was, by the way, mostly super easy, as the teacher knows it would be unnecessarily cruel to expect anything from us, and added only a few questions that were considerably harder. Then we cycled back home, dropped our bags, and went on to Annacotty, which is the town(?) right next to Limerick and is actually closer to our house than the university is. Or even a decent shop. So we went there, Eszter's friends already being there and drinking in a pub, joined them and had fun. But not much later we had to leave because 1, we were hungry and wanted to have lunch 2, we had to work on our essays. So I ended up finishing my essay in the afternoon, without really using any sources or proper referencing, but at least I had the word count (1900words and we were supposed to write 1600-1800 or so). Oh, and what a surprise, we skipped EFL again. :D
Then I went to archery, and Aleksandra persuaded my into trying left-handed shooting. I fucked up mightily, of course, and went right back to right-handed. After training (which I left earlier than usually) we met up with Vera, Eszter and her friends, and Vini, and went to Stables together. It was a pretty nice party, the music gradually better than on Friday evenings (we had Rumadai and even Year 3000 from Jonas Brothers!!). It was great craic but, unfortunately, ended pretty soon, even before midnight. Not so cathastrophic for me, since my headache from Tuesday was still present and I needed rest. It's like a fucking headache week.....

Haven't even known we had this sign
until the cleaning lady left it out...

With Eszter's friends in a pub in Annacotty

Bought these AWESOME mugs in Annacotty

Vera helping out with my bike while I take pics...

In Stables with Vera and Vini

That blue vodka looked SO COOL

Tough Thursday - TESOL test and training

So we skipped the TESOL lecture again this week, but I don't even feel bad about it anymore. I get goosebumps from the grumpy teacher and not in a good way. On the tutorial, which we still attend, we had a test in the first half of the class, which was super easy (well, at least for us, who had studied English as a foreign language, I guess I wouldn't really be able to write the same test in Hungarian...). Then we corrected it together and the teacher divided the class into groups in which we will have to do the peer teaching. My group will teach on Week12 which is really upsetting because my bf will come that week. And so far I have an oral exam on Wednesday and this shit on Thursday for that week. A normal class I can skip but these....fuck.
After the tutorial we went to the library with Eszter and while she sat down to complete her essay, I just printed mine (haha, how clever it was of me to finish writing it on Wednesday), then left it with her to hand in with her own paper, and I left for swimming practice. Which was nice, but challenging, as we had 12x100, 1 front crawl and 1main stroke (x6) - I only swam 4 of the 6 100s in fly but it was I think the first time I've done 100 flys in like 4 years now so that's kind of an achievement.
Just when coming out of the UL Arena after training, I met Peter and Michael, two German guys from archery, so we stopped to talk for a while and then on my way home I had a quick shopping tour in Lidl (bought only popcorn). At home I cooked bolognai and then watched the new wpisode of Big Bang Theory with my bf. Not much later, I went to bed cause Friday morning is training morning.

Good old mug soup from home came in handy

This cider tasted sooo great!

Procrastination Friday

On my way home from the training (which, by the way, went pretty bad, my muscles tired and all - not good signs and the Swimming Gala is coming up soon...) I had to stop at SuperValu to do some serious grocery shopping. Which sucks with bike. But it's not like I had a choice cause none of the others needed to shop and I just refuse to ask the landlord or landlady for a lift all by myself.
When I got home Vera just came down to the kitchen so we talked some, not wanting to start studying, then I washed my hair and she cooked, then we gathered together to listen to (and sing) Disney songs and procrastinate some more. Then Clem got home from university and she joined us. We kept doing nothing until late evening, when we cycled to Lena and Alex's place to a pre-party, which was cool, as usual. Then we walked over to Stables and had a nice party with Vini.

The sun was shining! Couldn't believe it!!

Lena being spooky, Vera being majestic :D

Beer pong - advanced

With a Spanish friend
- she was one of the few people who actually dressed up for Halloween TGIF

Fuck my life Saturday

I had a lazy morning and then did some preparation for the EFL presentation. Then we went grocery shopping with Clem, because I couldn't buy all the things I needed in one turn on Friday, even though I had a big bagpack and another bag with me.
Concerning my mood, it got gradually better during the week but this afternoon it went to the worst ever since in Ireland. The landlady really disappointed me. And my homesickness was also coming back with full force, and this was the second or third day in a row that I couldn't really talk to my bf on the phone because he was always working or tired, or I was not available, but we just couldn't make it work. And not talking to him was taking its toll on my mood as well. This day, for the first time since I came to Ireland two months ago, I felt it wouldn't even be that horrible to go home.

Sunday - productive and definitely improved

In the morning we taped our video interviews with Vera for the Irish folklore project, then I made potato salad (surprisingly good) and cleaned the bathrooom. When finished with all this I talked to mom on a phone for a short time and all this productivity and the talking helped improve my mood. I mean, I was so low it could easily be improved but still.
Then I went swimming with Clem (and did 3400ms again, it would really be high time to start swimming a bit more...) and in the evening we started editing our videos with Vera, using Movie Maker on my laptop. Which I am clearly not a master of.

Vera preparing the scene for the interviews