Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Entry in 2 parts

Okay, this one was prewritten, since I couldn't actually post on holidays.
So, since I have unlimited time, I'm gonna do a long post this time.
Apparently today is daylight savings so I get an extra hour. YAY!
So here is the hilights of my weekend (skipping Friday which mainly consisted
of trying to beat the Irish girl I'm living with to the bathroom as
we both had the same stomach bug). I felt better by Saturday afternoon,
so I went to this October Fest at the Fransiscan Well with my friend (the only Irish brewery in Cork,
still owned by the Irish, although technically they are a microbrewery).
There's a jazz festival going on outside of the October fests. They had all these imported beers from
Around Europe, including some from Amsterdam that were like 10%
alcohol, I skipped those as I really wasn't looking to be sick again.
They also had some fruit beers that weren't very alcoholic, I went with the Belgian Framboise(Raspberry)
That was actually pretty good. After that we had dinner at this Indian place (there's a lot of them around in Cork and they tend
to be the cheapest restraunts in Ireland, which isn't saying much as most restraunts here are seriously costly)
Then we kind of wandered around to all the places that had jazz concerts going
some were really good, although there were also some bands that weren't worth the walking and crowds.
Eventually we both went home (with a stop on my part at the All night Chinese take away for chips).
Also this weekend apparently was a circus, which was cool, since I was out on Thursday morning
with a friend who wanted a second opinion on these sweaters she wanted to buy, and while we
were in an accesory store we saw an elephant crossing the street (it used the crosswalk)
It was really cool, but unfortunately neither of us had a camera with us. Today I went out
with my friend Nicole, but all the shops were closed for holidays, so we went to the Mardyke Center (School gym kind of)
and I went swimming. I also went to Tesco and bought Jammie Dodgers which are amazing.
I will be sad when I go home and don't have those. Apparently I missed that it's daylight savings,
so I went home at 7 thinking it was 8. I stopped by the only internet cafe that was open to type up the last blog entry,
and currently I'm typing this, eating chocolate biscuits, and listening to Eddie Izzard-Definite Article
because I believe in multitasking. I'm pondering what to wear for halloween, the gothy kids have been
dressing up all weekend, but I think I'll wait for Tuesday (I'm trying to convince some other people
to go out trick or treating with me, cause when else am I gonna get to go trick
or treating in another country?). Now, since this isn't actually a very long blog entry I'm going to
do that list of differences between Ireland and the US (or at least Cork and Oklahoma) I promised earlier.
Food Stuff: There's a whole obsession with Pringles here, that I just don't get. They're everywhere (They have them in pubs in these
things like gumball machines, and they have
mini ones, as well as having gourmet (these come in crazy flavours) and dipping ones.
Cadbury :) They make totally random stuff and coat it all in chocolate (they also make
hot chocolate and cocoa.
Bisuits=crunchy cookies
Cakes=softer cookies, usually with filling as well as cakes
Fairy Cakes=cupcakes
Chips= french fries
Crisps=chips
Jelly=Jello
Jam=Jam and jelly
Smooth orange juice=pulp free
scones= they're actually more like biscuits than the hard triangular scones you get in the US
They actually use the word cookie, for chocolate chip cookies.
They have a lot of nestle stuff that you can't get in the US, like Aero bars, but
for some reason no chocolate chips.
You can get tea EVERYWHERE (including pubs, although that's primarily during the day) and the tea comes
in cool little tea pots most places. Also most places have juice and other stuff outside of soft drinks, which is nice.
Egg salad apparently involves onions and no mustard :( and for some reason all the premade sandwhiches in shops tend to have bacon, no matter
what the main ingredient is.
One nice thing though, is that everything without meet says suitable for vegetarians, which saves me a lot of time.
Also there is tons of good bread, and they do half loafs of sliced toast bread.
Tons of jam as well as nutella :)
Off license means they sell alcohol to take away. The Pubs all have outdoor sections now as you can no longer
smoke inside.
Also have the best butter. There's also the English market which is open all week except Sunday, which is like a farmers market,
except more meat than produce and it's all indoors (it rains A Lot here). Good place to get eggs and vegetables. but it also has some halls that have random stores like shoe repair
and craft supplys. For some reason the movie theater here has a machine that does coffee, tea, and soup. Soup and a movie is actually quite a good time.
Random Irish expressions:
Randomly say cheers (can mean thanks, can also be used sarcastically, and sometimes just used for no apparent reason) Although still used
more by the British.
Half-whatever= whatver time it is+thirty
Fairy=sneaky/tricky
Still use random British currency terms even though they're on the euro (like quid and fiver)
Craich(pronounced crack)If you are asked where it is, don't worry it just means fun.
There is also a lot of other random Irish that I cannot spell and still confuses me utterly, as well
as fun regional stuff. Regional accents are also rather confusing and can lead to lots of difficult to comprehend
conversations, but Cork and Dublin accents I've got down.
Shops:
Groceries : Tesco (cheapest on most things), Dunnes Store, Marks and Spencer (Expensive, but best lemonade) English Market (good for veggies, meat, eggs, some breads)
Convenience stores : Centra,Spar, individually owned things like them
Bookstores : Waterstones<3, Vibes and Scribes (Two of them, one also does used books), Easons (also sell art supplies, magazines, and stationary)
Reads (copy shop, discount books, magazines, writing stuff) Mainly murder (sells thrillers, and mysteries), Other Realms (sci fic, comics, and figurines)
Clothes : Penneys (cheapest, also sell linens, bath stuff, etc),
Marks and Spencer (more expensive), Some Dunnes Stores, Roches (closing), Lots of other individual shops
Music : Virgin Megastore, HMV, Individually owned shops
Electronics : If you know a GOOD electronice store you can tell me (lots of little individual ones, but no major stuff, which is somewhat suprising since Cork is the Europe
headquarters for Apple)
Phone stores : 02, Vodaphone, Meteor (best on prepaid, although I'm somewhat biased)
Tons of jewlry stores, and random one off stores.
I think I have figured out why a lot of stuff in Ireland is more expensive than in other countries in Europe : It all has to be imported, or if it's made here there's a minimum wage that has
to be paid to the workers who live here and have to pay for expensive stuff too. Also A lot of stuff, like magazines, are either British or American, American requires more shipping,
and the British pound is worth about double the euro.
Plus there's the VAT, which is preadded to the prices, it's actually like 20% here, but it's preadded into the listed prices, so at least that's one less thing
to work out when shopping (I get some of mine back :).
I quite like the euro, it comes in different colors, and sizes, and has a cool holographic strip.
It makes it easier to figure out when pulling cash out of wallet, but I'm not as big a fan of the coin stuff.
The euro 1 and 2 euros are coins, and then there are 50, 20, and 10 cent coins that are gold, and then
there are 1, 2, and 5 cent coins that are copper. and these are more difficult to work out when digging through the change in your wallet.
Also on keyboards here, most of the stuff is the same, but some keys are different, which totally messes up how fast I can type, and part of that is
the euro sign instead of @ on top of 2. It totally messes me up when I'm doing e-mails.
I have gotten used to walking everywhere, and the cars being on the other side of the road (left turns on red are okay here, you know who you are)
Also not having to attend as many lectures (my classes are 2 hours one time a week rather than 1 hour classes twice a week) as well as
not having any assigned homework, or quizzes to check up on how we're doing.
And apparently by the grading system in the humanities sections here 70 percent is really great.
I did have another fun suprise today when I went to the pool, apparently you HAVE to wear swimming caps here. So I got to go up to reception were it was freezing in my
swimsuit and buy one. It was fun to go to the pool and have everyone there be as pale as me :)
Another great thing about Ireland they have no : Mosquitoes, Poison snakes (or snakes at all),
Scorpions, Poison spiders, possums (creepy creepy possums)
They also don't have squirrels, but they do have Seagulls and pigeons.
I'm kind of used to the rain, most of the time it's just a constant drizzle, occasionally there's a downpour, and occasionally there is sun,
but most of the time it's drizzle. I've given up on umbrellas, after the 5th one io just decided it wasn't worth it, and I'll just use the school computers, or put my backpack under
my rain coat.
Stop
This part was written on Tuesday.
So yesterday was fun. I did absolutely nothing but read, and eat biscuits. Everything was closed for holidays, so I figured it wasn't worth it to go out. Today it's really windy out, but no rain. I'm thinking of going to Galway this weekend to see the Cliffs of Moher with my friend Nicole (who I'm going to Italy with) and next week I've got London and Paris, and then the week after that I'm going to Italy, so I've got a very busy schedule for a while. Today I've got a bunch of errands to run and tonight I'm going out to some Halloween stuff with friends. But I've got class tomorrow, so I can't stay out to late. I still have one weekend free (I've blocked out December since I've got class one Saturday, and I the 16th is out since I'm leaving then, and I wanted a weekend to get stuff done) that I think I'm going to go to Scotland in, but I haven't got my tickets yet, or talked to some of my friends who wanted to go to Scotland too, to see if they could go that weekend. So that's my schedule for the rest of the time. The exact details are not all set up, but I'm getting close. If I do go to Galway I'll take some pictures and you guys can see if you recognize them (hint: rewatch the Princess Bride, also I think I've talked about them earlier, but I'm not sure where).

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Holidays

Sorry I couldn't post. I caught a flue bug from the Irish girl who lives with me, and was sick all Friday, but I was fine by Saturday afternoon. However, everything is closed thru Tuesday for holidays, so I couldn't go to any of my usual internet places, finally I just gave in and went to the expensive one that is open 24/7. However, that is cutting my time down. I probably will wait till Tuesday for more internet, so if anyone has any pressing stuff call instead of e-mail please. On the plus side the jazz festival is going on so there's a lot of stuff to do here this weekend. I'll probably post some of that on Tuesday too.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Today was nice

No rain, no class till 3. Happiness. I'm almost out of battery though, so that long post will have to wait another day. I got all my laundry done yesterday, which was good, my shoes are still wet though. It's getting kind of cold here now. Definitely coat weather. So Italy in a few weeks ought to be a nice change. I really wish I had a bath tub here since there is this store called lush that sells all kinds of really cool bath stuff. I really want to try this thing they have called a bubble bar, so I will probably bring one home with me. I'll write more tomorrow, since I'm doing all my hostel arrangements and stuff for England and Italy as well.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

It's raining...again

And I had to get up and take a 3 hour test this morning (essay not multiple choice, so my hand kind of hurts) And then I had class for 2 hours, and I've gone through an outfit already, and once I go home I'm going to have to change again. Today has not been one of my happier Ireland days, although it is somewhat comforting to think that this would have been a sucky day anywhere, so it's not just culture shock. Also the room we took the test in was cool. There were chandeliers, seriously. While that did not make the actual test more enjoyable, it did make me feel slightly better about having to be up that early, and all the studying I've had to do this week. Also there were bookcases all over, I'll try to get a picture later and post it. Tomorrow I'm going to get to sleep in since my class isn't till 3 so that will be good. And I'll try to bring my laptop to school and do a longer post since it won't be timed internet. I was going to take it today, but I'm not sure how water proof the backpack I use for hauling it around is, and I've run out of umbrellas. Which is something I need to buy next time I go to Tesco. Anyways, I'm going to go home and eat and change into dry clothes (and maybe do some laundry, or at least throw everything in the dryer). Apparently this weekend is October fest in Ireland, as well as the pre-halloween parties and stuff so that ought to be fun. Maybe there will be people here on the weekend?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Sorry I was a bit cranky on Saturday

I've had this rather atrocius cold thing going on, which I am prepared to blame on Erin and her plane germs. I basically spent the last couple of days doing nothing but reading and eating chocolate biscuits (cookies). I did go see Marie Antoinette on Saturday with Nicole, we snuck in ice cream and massive amounts of other junk food, also the theater for some reason sells soup, so I got some of that. But after that I just went home and collapsed. I did get my room all picked up yesterday, which was good since I tend to be really messy when I'm sick. I'm going to Italy from November 16-21 with Nicole we're going to do 2 days each in Rome, Florence, and Venice. I also booked my trip to London from the 9th through 14th of November, I'm not missing any classes either since I booked the flights for after my class on Thursday and I get back on Tuesday so I can go to my Wedensday classes. I'm going to spend some of my London trip in Paris, as I can take a train or bus to get there (or ferry, but I'm not up for any more boats). I have my early start final tomorrow, so I didn't go anywhere this weekend, and I have studied for it some, and plan to do some more studying tonight. I might do something this weekend, but I'm not sure what yet. I will definitely be back in Cork for Halloween, since I am not exactly sure what to expect, but there are lots of parties and stuff being advertised around campus. I have to go study now, but I'll try to do a big post on Thursday.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

No posts till someone comments

Blog on hiatus.

Friday, October 20, 2006

It was actually sunny today

It's getting cloudy again, but for a few hours, there was hope that maybe it wouldn't rain. I don't have any classes on Friday, so I went to the Library (Public, not school) and returned some books, and checked out a couple. I decided that with the influx of birthday money I could go shopping, which was fun, but took forever, since they have a 4 items per entry to dressing room rule. I still am not sure what sizes I wear here, and some items are a lot harder than others. I did get some cute stuff though, and I think I've got my size stuff down here for the most part. I also went to Marks and Spencers for some more lemonade. Seriously, it's almost as good as Simply Lemonade, but sadly they leave in pulp, so points are deducted. However, it is the only option outside of carbonated lemonade and anything is better than that. I'm thinking of going to Scotland and Wales next weekend if I can find a cheap way to do them both. I'm saving London as half of a trip to London and Paris. And Italy I'm doing all on it's own. I haven't got exact dates yet, since I'm going to Italy with my friend Nicole, I need to sort all the details of that one out with her. I'll probably do that tomorrow, or maybe Monday. I still have that Folklore final to study for too, but as we know basically what we are going to be asked, and the format, and since I'm used to essay exams from all those English classes, I think I will do okay on it. I'm gonna go home and take a nap now, since I'm going to the international student party thing tonight, and I'm kind of tired (could be the weather).

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Another Blustery day in the Hundred Acre City

But the leaves are changing colors, so it's quite pretty. Nothing really happened yesterday, I went to class, and helped a friend set up a blog of her own. Today I did some laundry, actually straightened my hair, and then went outside and my hair went right back to it's poofy semicurly original stage. Oh Irish weather, how you do love to thwart me in my clothes and hair plans. (Weeping internally about poor suede flats) I found out when my final for early start is on the 25th of October. I also got all my enrollment stuff completely finalized (3 weeks into the semester) I'm probably going to go home and do more laundry tonight, tomorrow night is another international student club hosted party. Yay! Am not even going to try to take pictures though, as a) clubs are not really lit for that, and b)My poor camera is still acting a bit nuts. This weekend I'm not going anywhere, as I have that giant 3 hour final to study for, but I might spend some time working on blog and slideshow stuff. Probably not, but there is always hope. Maybe I'll got through and grammar/spell check. Plus I've been thinking of changing how some of the slide shows are laid out, so that's all on my list. Also doing a template for my Kansai Gaidai blog, so I don't have to do it at the last minute like I did with this one, at least I've managed to get most of the kinks out, and can work with the ones that are still here. If anybody else has any problems though, tell me and I'll work on it, since I only know how it looks in internet explorer.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

More paperwork

I thought I was done with paperwork for school, but apparently not. It's okay though, they gave me 5 hours for my early start, so I only have to take 3 classes (that'll be 14 hours) and then I can take 15 hours in Japan which I was planning on at least that many hours anyways, so that all works out well. I need to go take my stuff over to the International Office thing though. I just realized the other day that pants here button on the other side, or at least the corduroys that I got on sale at Penney's do. Hmm. I think some day in the near future I will just do a catalogue of differences. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, and some of them are just different. An example of good is that all the magazines here come with stuff which is both entertaining and useful, for instance if you spill something on your shirt, and the only store around is a bookstore, you can just buy a copy of Elle and there you go. An example of bad is that the roads are narrow, so cars get really close to the sidewalk, so you always get splashed on rainy days (like today). An example of just different is the pant button thing (or driving on the other side of the road)not really a huge deal, just not what your used to type of thing.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Barcelona...lots of fun, but bring a good map

Also comfortable shoes. And lots of cash. So after my last post I went to Tesco to get food and Marks and Spencer for the good lemonade and then went to the bus station. I read until the bus was ready to go and then I got on the bus and didn't read so as to avoid throwing up. Instead I ate lots of bread products and lemonade. Then we (me and Rachel and Courtney) got to the airport, waited half an hour for the check in to open, waited in line for 15 minutes to check in, and then waited another 2 hours for the plane. It was one of those little planes, and they didn't have the bridge across from inside the airport, instead everybody walked out onto the tarmac and up stairs into the plane. Then I had a lovely 5 minutes trying to shove my backpack under the seat in front of me. Finally I gave in and put it in the overhead bin. I finished my book about 15 minutes before we got into Barcelona and spent the time watching the small child in the seat in front of me who was standing in his mother's lap and giggling at the people behind him. Then we landed and went through customs. I always wish I was from and EU country at that point, since they always just wave them through everything. I mean it was this tiny airport and security was pretty non existent, but we still had to fill out this form since we are American and not EU. Anyways we did that and then went to track down a bus to Barcelona. It took about an hour to get to Barcelona. When we got there it was around midnight and the metro was closed. Also there were no taxis at the bus station, and only Courtney speaks very much Spanish (which isn't even what they speak in Barcelona mainly, but it'll get you by) Anyways, we called Erin to get directions, and ended up at this hotel. Erin had left a key for me at the desk, so I went up and was like key for room 315? unfortunately the concierge didn't speak English, and I do not speak catalan. But I managed to make it clear that I wanted the key to room 315 and I guess he just wanted to get rid of me, so he gave it to me, since he gave me one. We went up, and I opened the door, turned on the lights... and the two people whose room it actually was started yelling at me in Italian. I got out of there very quickly (So quickly that I still have the key card) Anyways I called Erin again and she came and got us, which was good since some of us were freaking out (not naming names, but it wasn't me). Anyways Erin and Mark who lives in Barcelona came and got us and took Courtney and Rachel to their hostel and then we stopped at this Irish pub in Barcelona which was rather different than Irish pubs in Ireland. And I got some food, and water which was nice since planes really dehydrate you. Then me and Erin went to the hotel, where I realized that I totally want to travel on a business expense account from now on, but as I am a student I don't see that happening for a while. Then since it was around 3 in the morning we went to bed. The next day I went out to look at monuments and stuff with COurtney and Rachel. We went to the Barcelona Cathedral and Santa Anna, which was closed for siesta. Then we went to find lunch, and ended up going to this place called Nostrums, which was cool. They had prepackaged things (I got tortellini, they had a bunch of different stuff though). Then we went back to the hotel to wait for Erin since she was going to be done with work soon. When she got there we went out to shop. There is a whole taxi story, which yo can get from Erin. Shopping was cool, we found this whole long street that was just shops. I bought some sunglasses, which I needed, since I had broken mine my first day in Cork, and some scarves. After a while we decided to head back to get dressed for dinner, which was rahter more complicated than it sounds. We ended up taking 2 cabs, one for me and Erin and Joyce (who works with Erin), and another for Courtney and Rachel. We got back finally and got all changed to go out. Courtney and Rachel were going to meet us after dinner, but they didn't so no more talking about them for quite some time. We went to dinner at this fusion restraunt down on the beach. It was all really good, except for some reason with my dessert there was some sort of coffee flavored jello. Jello should not be coffee flavored, in case anyone else ever runs across it just skip it. Then we went to this club called shoko, which was fun. The DJ played technoey music which is better than the continuous 80's/Boy band and Britney Spears stuff that is the rage in Cork. Also they did mixed drinks. Yay daquiris (Don't worry mom I only had one, but seriously all they have in Cork is beer, which I don't like, so given the opportunity for a daquiri I said yes) We stayed till they closed and then went out to the beach which was cool, it's still really warm in Barcelona, unlike Cork where it is starting to get chilly (not freezing, you just have to wear a coat and sometimes hats and gloves would be nice) The water was around tap temprature, although I did not feel the need to get more than my feet wet, unlike some other people who we didn't know. Anyway, we went back to the hotel and got some sleep in preparation for a hard day of shopping on Saturday. We started around 11 something, although we got food first (and I got a box of 6 Dunkin Donuts not quite Krispy Kreme, but they keep better, and donuts in Cork tend towards the cakey) We then went to the market, which was fun except the sections with meat (most of it). And since I'm sure you don't want a blow by blow account of shopping, fast forward till siesta when we had goldfish bowl size sangrias (didn't drink them all, don't worry) and then looked at art. After that we decided to go look at this cathedral, which we eventually got to after some more stops for shopping, a wedding, and a snack. (I got some cute shoes to around this point) We went back to look at the art, took a cab back to the hotel and decided that we wanted food and sleep in that order. So me and Erin went to this pasta restraunt, which was really good. They had really good salad too. After that we went back to the hotel and packed since I had to be at the bus station at 8 in the morning (refraining from making snide comments about travelling companions at this point). I watched Shall We Dance (the new one) with Spanish dubs, and then went to sleep. We got up (somewhat reluctantly) the next morning, I caught a cab to the bus station, got on the bus and went back to the airport (Spain looks really cool early in the morning it was still sort of sunrise since it's really hilly in some points, so the sun has to get over that too. Got to the airport, and reversed the first bit. except I didn't try to shove my stuff under the seat this time. I got back to Cork, went home and collapsed onto my bed for about an hour. Then my friend Nicole called and since I said I didn't want to walk and Cork is a bit dead on Sundays, she suggested a movie. We were going to go to one of the Cork Film Festival movies, but they were all sold out, so we went to see Little Miss Sunshine, which was reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaally good. It was soooo funny. Everyone needs to go see it and then call me and talk about it. After that we went to this Italian restraunt and had pizza, which was good, and then we went to the spar for dessert. After that it started getting drizzly so we went home, and I watched a movie until I started falling asleep and then I just went to bed. Today I just kind of hung out and watched my birthday presnet from mom and dad the Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth :) I think I pulled a muscle/tendon in my foot, so I was trying to rest it so it will stop hurting. Then I came over to school to do this, and check e-mail and stuff.
Here are pictures. My camera is officially messed up, so while it will do the occasional picture, there will not be as many as there were.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Okay I haven't left yet.

I had to do some stuff for my mom, so lucky you guys get a post to tide you over the weekend. I found the gym last night. Well actually I was shown the gym by my friend Nicole (in the Qube pictures). Apparently they have special classes for people over 55 and here is a selection: Yoga, Belly Dancing, and Pilates. Now I admit that I do not spend a lot of time trying to become more flexible, but I cannot do pilates and I'm 20. I'm not sure it would be a good thing to take up in your 50's or later is all I'm saying. Sadly this is the only yoga class they are offering, so I might just go and be like, no I'm 60 I just aged really well. The only classes they offer through my school are spin classes and water aerobics, neither of which really excites me. I'm going to see Marie Antoinette at the Cork Film Festival when I get back to Cork on Sunday, so that'll be fun. I keep meaning to go to something, but thus far I have not. I'll try to get some pictures in Barcelona and post them on Monday. Maybe they will even have people in them since Erin will be there and can take some pictures too. I'm gonna go buy batteries for my camera now, so adios.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Could someone

look at the UCC web page and tell me if that is Pierce Brosnan in a funky hat on the front, or if I just really need to get some sleep. Just keep refreshing, it'll cycle back eventually. So I'm adding pictures, at the request of my parents some of them have people in them, but since Dance Clubs are probably one of the worst places to take pictures (bad lighting, to crowded, etc) I'm just tacking on the few decent pictures I got there to the pictures I took in Waterford. So, no, we were not all partying in the Waterford Crystal factory (as fun as that would be, someone would enevitably do somehting stupid with the furnace which is apparently kept constantly at some really high temprature Centigrade, and that would just be very bad). I might post again in the morning, but if not this is my last post before Barcelona. I got some sleep last night, and put a bandaid on my blister so I'm much better today. I also found out that Marks and Spencer has really good lemonade, so that made me happy. I had another round of Forensic Psychology class this afternoon, which I enjoy, although the government and legal system here are a lot different, so some of it is confusing. I need the Irish version of school house rocks, but I don't think there is one. I am very excited about going to court though, apparently we all have to either go to the district or circuit court, and in the circuit court they wear wigs and gowns, so guess which I'm going to. I'm not sure if they allow you to take pictures there, but if you can I will. But that's all later in the semester. So without further ado, here are pictures.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Hey people were are my comments?

I'm holding pictures hostage until there are at least 3 comments. (or until I have the time and energy to haul my laptop to a wifi area, whichever comes first) I had a good time in Waterford today, my camera went crazy so I'm not sure how good the pictures are, but I've got them. Lots of pretty sparkly stuff, and really hot glass. Also some blisters, I didn't add quite enough padding to my new hightops (Penney's 6 euro :) and I walked like 5 miles (not an exaggeration, seriously I'm all buff now and can do that, also seriously sleepy, but that's okay) I'll try to post pics tomorrow, but otherwise it will have to wait till I get back from Barcelona, and I'll just do a big batch. Provided my camera will work there, which I can't gurantee after it's behavior today.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Technical Difficulties

I'm having some problems getting onto my blog through my laptop, but I've emailed them to fix it, so I'll post everything tomorrow.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pictures on Monday

I'm at the library, so 1 limited time and 2 no pictures can be posted, but I have some which I will post Monday. It was fun. They don't do mixed drinks here though, and I don't really like beer so that basically leaves rum or whiskey which are ridiculously expensive. (So don't worry mom and dad I don't have the funding to go out and drink evcessively, not that I want to) The international society was hosting it kind of, so there were a lot of people I knew, and it was at a dance club rather than a pub, so lots of dancing which was fun (although the DJ continuosly played 80's songs and stuff by ex- boy band members, so lots of mocking, also lots of mocking of the people who couldn't dance but thought they could). It's started getting a little bit cold here, so jackets are necessary now, and tights under skirts, which I didn't do last night, but will in the future since I got really cold walking home.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Sorry I didn't post yesterday

I was going to at school, but the network crashed, and then I had class and by the time that was over it was to late, and besides I was too tired. Not that you missed anything scintillating, more paper work, still slightly messed up schedule, but I think I'm going to book stuff anyways now. I did get into my program in Japan in the spring so that is very exciting. I also got almost all of my shopping errands done (okay maybe some of the stuff I didn't actually need, but sparkly nail polish is quite high on my hierarchy of self actualization) While shopping is quite fun for me, you probably don't really want to read about it, so we'll skip that. And if you want to find out more about my classes you can read my notes when I get home. Today I just did laundry and wrote essays (I don't even want to write about that, just ergh) But I'm going out tonight which might make for an interesting topic for tomorrow. (I'll keep it PG for the kiddies)And maybe I'll take some pictures with people in them! I'm going to Waterford either Monday or Tuesday, so I'll also try to get some pictures there. With any luck the crystal factory won't mind pictures being taken and I'll get one of the giant chandelier, it's supposed to be pretty cool (and by cool I mean giant and sparkly.)

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

I have a schedule:)

I have 2 classes on Wedensday, 1 on Thursday, and 1 online. With my early start that is 5 classes total. So I have really long weekends to travel on yay! I'm pretty sure the computer lab is going to close shortly, and I've got some other stuff to do, so I'm going now, but tomorrow I'm bringing my laptop over to school and buying all my plane tickets and stuff for traveling, so I'll post that schedule stuff then.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

I'm at the library again, so limited time

I went to Tesco today and bought groceries, and Argos and bought a webcam (they had a good sale and I can use it with skype and stuff if anyone wants to talk to me...)Now I'm at the library using the internet since I couldn't face walking all the way back uphill just yet. I found a store that sells crochet hooks which was good, and my bank has finally moved my stuff over so I can get cash out of the ATM. I'm going to go track down the Psych building today so that I can get to my classes tomorrow. And then do laundry since I finally bought some laundry cubes :) Also I need to do some stuff for school involving the library, which I would normally do over weekends, but the libraries close here over the weekends. So I'm actually getting stuff done before it's due which is fairly novel. If I don't take any pics of Cork today I'll get some over the weekend, there are a few things that I keep thinking I need to get pictures of that I haven't yet. I'll try to link some pictures of me in, but they will mostly be through other peoples facebook, live journal, and blogs since I don't normally take pictures of myself. Also at some point I'll try to go in and edit and proof all this stuff, and clean up my pictures and stuff. So that's something.

Monday, October 02, 2006

I get to throw my self on the mercy of the psych department today,

So that should be fun. But if they don't just laugh in my face and throw me out, I should have a whole schedule and some interesting classes. I thought I had my schedule down until last Thursday when I found out that the Gaelic class makes you take either Monday or Friday classes, so that was out. Anyways onward to the fun stories and pictures of Dublin.
I'm in a somewhat better mood, and I intend to do some shopping today so by the end of that I should be ok. (I actually need some things, like groceries, but I think I should probably avoid the bookstores.) And for Grandma who asked, apparently the Guinness book of world records was created when the managing director of Guinness missed shooting a bird, and went to a pub afterwards, he and some other guys were talking about what the fastest game bird was, and then later he had a similar conversation in a bar, and he decided that what they needed in bars was a book of all these things to sort it all out.
Anyways, I'm going to skip Friday since I already wrote about it and go on to Saturday. We got up and had breakfast (there would have been tea and toast, except the toaster broke, so there was tea and sandwhiches). That was fun, we talked to these girls from Australia and that was fun. Then we went to meet the rest of our group at their hostel. We went to the National Gallery first which was interesting for a while, there were bog bodies, and gold stuff, and mummies, and then we went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Sadly neither of those places allowed you to take pictures. After that we went to Hard Rock for lunch which was expensive and touristy, but they all wanted to go so I went. Anyways after that we wandered around for a bit, I got some pictures of the Molly Malone Statue, and we went to Easons, and this used bookstore we found (Easons is kind of like Borders). I got a book at the used bookstore for the bus ride back, but nobody wanted to go with me to the Market Arcade where there are supposed to be some cool fabric stores and vintage clothes stores, I thought about tracking it down myself, but it started pouring and I didn't have an umbrella, so I tracked down my hostel and hung out and talked to some of the other people staying there. There weren't a lot of pubs around the hostel I was staying at, and I didn't want to go find one in the rain, so I went to bed early, besides I had to get up at 8 anyways since we had decided to take the 10 AM bus since nothing opened till noon and everyone had stuff to do back in Cork. So I made it to the bus station on time the next day, and after that my day was kind of boring, I just did some paperwork, and took a nap. Today I've just been sorting out my schedule, I'm staying in Cork this weekend and some people have invited me to go out with them, so maybe I'll have some wilder stories then. Personally, I like Cork better than Dublin, it's way less touristy, and it feels a lot safer. Admittedly at least part of the safeness thing is that I know my way around Cork a lot better, but even when I was still getting totally lost here I never felt like I was in any danger here, whereas in Dublin I felt more edgy about it. Of course Dublin is a bigger city and there are less people here, especially when school isn't in session.
And now on to the pictures.