Reflection on Noise-Making

Here are some more pictures! The first is of my bedroom after I just moved in, not much has changed since then, though. The second is of my tiny bathroom (shower is around to the left) with no shelves.  The last two are from my walk to/from campus today, to kind of give you a feel of where I walk every day. 

  

I swear I am am magnet for noisy living places.  Some have said that I just must have good hearing and that I hear things normal people either can't or that they simply ignore, but I would like to add that my frustration with noise comes from the fact that I have been places where said noise is non-existent. In this case, I have been to different apartments within the same building and in different complexes altogether, and have yet to experience the amount of noise that is present in my flat. Last night was quite bad. It literally sounded as if the people above me where washing metal dishes with baseball bats in a metal sink whilst doing aerobic exercises in a bathtub, taking breaks every once in a while to play marbles on the tile floor and file bricks in steel filing cabinets. I really want to know what is going on up there.  This persisted from about 11 pm to 1 am. I thought I was able to finally sleep until I was awoken by (drunken?) screaming and singing from somewhere in the complex, intermingled with the stomping of feet and slamming of doors. I swear people where not taught how to shut doors quietly, and the same things happen at Gustavus.  I recall my first dorm room last year where our neighbors upstairs would nightly , as Rachel my roommate and I would call it, "build their ark," as the hammering and animal-like noises coming from their room sounded as if they were constructing a giant ark right above us.  The noises in Ireland don't stop with day-break either. No, at many points of the morning I am awaken by the sound of an Irish Devil-bird (a non-scientific name), producing a squawk that is reminiscent of two cars crashing on impact, scaring the bejeebus out of me while I lie in bed.  I also find it a little unsettling yet humorous that my relationship with my flatmate in the the room over consists solely of hearing him use the bathroom and snore at night.  There are, of course, non-animal sounds, such as airplanes and police sirens, that I can handle, but at least three times each morning I am as well awoken by bells. I don't know if they are church bells, or clock bells, or some special Irish magic bells. All I know is that a paranoid student like myself who is terrified of oversleeping their alarm does not like to hear 12 bells go by when their body is telling them it's surely not even sunrise.  And when the bell dings continue to 20...and 25....and up to 35, one can become a little curious of what time it truly is to say the least, perhaps even a little confused.  

It is at times like these when I wish I had my leopard blanket from home, the one which, in my sluggish early-morning half-sleep, I would find among my covers, manage to swirl into a shape not unlike a cinnamon roll, and place on top of my head, blocking out the Minnesotan Devil-birds (also not a scientific term) who would screech away outside my window.  The many layers of fleece created by the swirling provided that many more layers for the sound to penetrate before reaching my ear, I concluded. And it worked.  Alas, I am without my leopard print blanket and am left at the mercy of the Irish Devil-birds, the bells chiming it's 35-o'clock, the bathroom habits of my flatmates, and the unusual exercise routines of the neighbors upstairs. 

Other than that, the last few days were quite uneventful.  My Dad recommends that if next weekend appears to be the same as this past one (me alone and nothing to do), that I might take a trip somewhere near Cork. I think that is a wonderful idea, and will do research. It is just unfortunate that I do not have anyone to share this with, but as I have told my Mom, I prefer to be alone than with people who I prefer not to be around or who don't like me.  I did laundry for the first time here, utilizing both the sink and the shower for hand-washing and "line" drying. All thus far seems okay with that.  I only felt like crying once today, so that's good (?).  I also picked up some books for class at the bookstore on campus, which was not organized in any fashion (the "h" is "fashion seems superfluous considering the "sion"...) so it took me an hour to find 4 books, and I didn't even get all that I needed.  I was also going to go to a Charity Store (Ireland's thrift shops) to find some stuff for my room, but by the time I would ride the bus to town it would be too late.  I had my philosophy class today too, "Philosophy of the Mind," and there are actually two young professors teaching, and they both seem very cool. The male is also nice to look at, so that made my day a little easier and will hopefully make Mondays easier in general, too.  

I think I actually have homework tonight, so I will go work on that after making a grilled-cheese sandwich for dinner (Yum!).