Another Week Went By!

Time is going so fast now, I can't believe it! I really like it though, I just need to stop sometimes and think about everything I am doing. Make sure I don't forget it or take an experience for granted.

There have been some problems with blogspot recently, so I haven't been able to update this, and it might have been difficult for others to access as well. Hopefully it's fixed now!

The audition Monday night went really well I think. It literally look 10 minutes. We warmed up for a bit, then they let us in one-by-one to sing the first 18 measure of this song, and then that was it! They said "Thanks" and got our contact info, then we were free to leave. I haven't heard anything back yet, one of the kids I talked to said it would maye be by next Monday when we'd hear something so I still got my fingers crossed! Karen, the Irish girl I met at the first rehearsal, was the only other alto I saw auditioning, so I think our chances of BOTH getting in are high, which would be really fun.

I made "pancakes" on Tuesday night to celebrate Pancake Tuesday, which is reall big here, free pancakes on campus and many food places make them too. But they're more like crepes as I have mentioned, and they turned out wierd again due to the plan I ised I think. But after spending like 40 minutes making them I couldn't even eat all of it, so that was kinda a bummer.

I went to the Thirsty again on Wednesday night and there were many people I knew there! I rarely see people I've met before, either from classes or else, at pubs when I go out, but that night I ran into two different groups of people that I knew, so it was a ton of fun. I was able to talk with "Banjo Boy," as I call him to my friends, for a realy short time. I think I was worried about creeping him out. So nothing much else to say about that...

My bodhran yesterday consisted of Colm and I chatting about stuff for the whole half-hour, as I had thought of a few questions regarding edicate in sessions and some technical stuff, and he's one of those guys who instead of giving a nice consise answer kinda makes a whole production of it. I find this is generally true of "artisits"- You ask a poet to explain his work, or a musician to talk about a song, and they go on forever. He said they were really good questions though, they were "spot-on." I think I am becoming the "teacher's pet." And I'm not sure if I mind that at all! As Garth from Wayne's World says, "I like to play."

This weekend will be even busier than the last: Tonight is movie/pizza night with Erin and Kristina, tomorrow is shopping with Amelia (and I think Erin, but I haven't talked about it with her yet!), then Sunday is a day trip with Amelia. We're thinking Cobh (pronounced "Cove", bh's in Gaelic are like v's), as we heard it is a cute little town, not too far from Cork, we'll take the train, probably spend the day there. Somewhere in the weekend I will do some homework!

I didn't get to see Peter before he left. Kinda a bummer, but understandable. After leaving some friends at GAC and then meeting so many new people here, I am becoming more comfortable with the fact that I might not ever see people again, and that's okay. Like, of course it would be nice to see people again, but sometimes it just doesn't work out and that's life and we keep going.

I have decided to indeed apply to live in the Greens House next year at GAC. I am actually really excited about it, despite my initial doubts. I did some calculations, and despite the 1500$ surcharge for living in the House, if I stay under 100$/month on groceries, I will acutally save money, because I will not have a meal plan that they force you to have if you live in the dorms. So looks like I will be bringing a lot of food back from home!

Well, I need to print off some reading for class, then read it, then meet Amelia for lunch. (I don't remember if I mentioned her in an ealier post: I met her in my Irish class, from St. Louis, goes to school at William and Mary's in Virginia, lives in an apartment place close to me, real fun!) Then I have a re-scheduled class from 3-5, and I am predicting low attendance numbers, as the majority of the students are Irish and thus go home for the weekend, and they need to catch the bus/train home, so I don't think they'll be there...We'll see! Oh! THere were - guess how many?- 6 people in my Gaelic class this morning! 6! Out of like 25! We learned 4 new vocab words and then watched a short movie. I feel so bad for the professor...but I think he does really appreciate that the 6 of us showed up!

That's all for now! Drive safe with the snow (those in MN)!!!

Blarney Castle

Hello Everyone! After my Irish class on Friday morning (where a grand total of 8 of us showed up!!) I met Erin and Kristina outside the student center, then we walked to the bus station in town to go to Blarney! Round trip was only 6.20 euro, not bad I say.  The castle and grounds were so beautiful! I was just so excited to explore outside of Cork (both Erin and Kristina can vouch for that-I was a little hyper about it...) and I couldn't have pictured a better trip: The weather was beautiful with partially cloudy skies and no rain or wind, the place wasn't crowded at all, and it was just awesome! I took over 100 pictures so I will of course not be able to post all of them here, but I will put up some the more "scenic" ones here, and some of my fav's:

 

My plans for the day include in intense cleaning of my room and bathroom (organizing, vacuuming, cleaning shower, etc etc), laundry, homeworking, and cooking a delicious dinner.  

Groceries I bought today with Erin:

-Honeynut Cheerios (I bought milk earlier in the week)

-frozen corn

-eggs

-bacon

-sausage

-orange juice

-bread

I have so many food options now, it is wonderful! French toast, BLT's (I have lettuce and tomatoes already), scrambled eggs and sausage, still got a whole thing of pancake mix, my mac-n-cheese, corn, oh I am so excited. AND I made a "stew" type meal yesterday with onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes (along with some gravy mix I borrowed from the boys...hehe) with enough leftovers to last me another few meals during the week.  

I want to do another day trip next weekend, perhaps to Kinsale or another town in southwest Ireland, keeping it pretty close to Cork. THEN the weekend after that is my birthday weekend so I want to do a full weekend trip further away, still figuring this out! Some considerations have been Galway, Kerry/Kilarney, oh there are so many places to choose from! I taped my giant map of Ireland on my wall last week (its' literally like 4x4 ft) and it is cool to look at all the places I could go to. 

Speaking of more travel, I found out my exam schedule for May and it looks like I only have 2 exams! One on the 5th and the other on the 22nd! So not only do I have the entire month of April to travel (the parentals are coming too to visit so that will be great fun) but also the time in May when I don't have my finals! I don't think the exams will be that difficult either, if I keep up with things during classes. My "plan," or should I say "completely idealistic mind-thought," for all this time in April/May is to literally bus around Ireland. I don't think I will visit any other countries in Europe (I think we're going to Scotland when the parents come?), as I really want to explore the entirety of Ireland, as much as I can, as that is the reason I came here: I want to see ALL of Ireland. Plus, I can get a student bus pass each month and save uber-amounts of money.  I am so pumped. 

Well its nearly 4pm, so I will get started on my cleaning duties. Then dinner time! Woop!

Oh! Forgot to mention: I got my haircut yesterday by a professional. It was nice. Not that drastic of a change, just cut off the flippy-out parts and cleaned it up a big. Kinda like a bob. I like it. Looks healthier.  

I Hate Thursday Nights After 11pm

So here I am, at midnight, ready to go to bed after a highly successful evening of homeworking, and the boys are hosting their weekly noise-making event in the living room. I really do hate the layout of my apartment. Since it is one long hallway - with the entry door to the apartment on one end and the door to the living room on the other - anyone entering the apartment who wants to get to the living room has to walk the entire hallway, past all of the rooms.  For some, this is a difficult task to do quietly as to not disturb the inhabitants of said rooms.  Lucky for me, my room happens to be situated at the end of the hall near the living room and its noise-making occupiers, as well as its slamming door.  What I find even more irritating is that the long hallway layout has created a sort of vacuum, resulting in the rattling of my door within its hinges upon the opening and closing of another door within the apartment, due to the sucking/expelling of air within/out of the vacuum.  Note to self: Place a lonely sock atop the door to form a cushion to prevent rattling ASAP (Use other lonely sock as a camera case).

Tomorrow Erin and Kristina and I are going to the Blarney Castle! I am so excited, not only because it is a cool and "touristy" kind of place (How can you be in Cork and NOT see Blarney?!) but also because I am for the first time getting out of the city of Cork, to someplace "new." 

Last night Erin and I went to a "Mama Mia" Sing-a-Long hosted by the Choral Soc, where we basically sat in one of the lecture halls with a giant screen, watched the movie with the lyrics, and sang our hearts out with 75 other people. It was amazing.  

After that we went to the Thirsty and heard some trad music! Yay! What's even better is that it was some of the same guys playing who had been there the first time I went to the pub.  I recognized the banjo player because I remember thinking he was really cute, so, again, when they were taking a break from playing I went up and talked with him.  His name is Diarmuid. (Pronounced "Dear-mid." I know, it took him about 10 times saying at as well as writing it down on a coaster for me to get it. I felt kind of bad...I know it now though!) But he remembered me from the night I jammed with them (or at least he said he did...haha) so that was cool.  I told him I would be there next Wednesday again. Looking forward to that.  

Oh! My parents had sent, per my request, some mac-n-cheese to my apartment here and I picked it up from reception this afternoon. It was so wonderful! I was expecting a couple of boxes, but once I opened the cardboard flaps of the shipping box, I discovered 13 BOXES of Kraft Original mac-n-cheese.  I was so happy, like I had received a puppy or something.  There was also a letter from "Bobber" that made my cry, which was unfortunate because I had just done my make-up. I think a lot about if he wonders where I am.  Surely he has developed some type of long-term memory regarding me, and since this is the longest I have gone without being home, does he think about when I am coming back? Does he even realize how long it's been? I like to think so. Personally, I think humans underestimate animals, especially dogs, in their ability to remember people and feelings associated with those people.  I don't like to think about it too much because it makes me really sad- I miss Bobber so much.  Probably because he loves me unconditionally, he's always there, he's so easily pleased, and I really need that while I am here. In the absence of that, it is really hard being away from him.  (I don't put him on the same relationship level as with my family and human friends, so don't think that I don't miss them any less!!!! I DO! A LOT!!!)

Ahh The boys seemed to have settled now. So I will as well and try to get to sleep. I have re-discovered podcasts on iTunes and have subscribed to two that basically read and talk about poetry. It is quite nice to go to bed to.  I'll post pictures soon!

Wednesday Evening

It's been over a week since I last "blogged," and I apologize. Time just goes so fast here. We're nearly half done with classes for the year, which I find highly amusing since Gustavus just started its Spring semester about a week ago, but also rather awakening to the fact that I feel like I have so much more left to do.  I think, however, that I have discovered the fountainhead from which much of my anxiety flows: I feel like I need to know EVERYBODY.  I need to know who they are, where they're from, their life story, etc etc.  And at Gustavus this is fairly easy, but not at UCC where there are over 17,000 students.  I will be a lot better off once I just get into my head that I WILL NOT and CAN'T POSSIBLY know everyone here.  Easier said that done...

Highlights from the last week:

-Caught up on all the 30 Rock episodes

-Planned out all the classes I need to take and what semesters to take them in order to get my double-major in English and Philosophy

-Looked at J-Term study abroad options for next year, including trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Tanzania, or Australia/New Zealand

-Had a pretty nice Valentines Day 

-Felt semi-motivated to do homework today

-Planning on auditioning for the UCC choir's trip to Budapest for some music festival/competition from April 4-9th. Auditions are Monday!!!!!!!

Lowlights:

-Currently finishing my lag bag of delicious popcorn

-Evening plans fell through Monday

-Was VERY homesick and depressed Tuesday day (but evening was grand)

-Peter leaves in a week

Oh! I finally got my immigration card last Friday! It took like 5 minutes, yet cost me 150 Euro. I was so relieved to have finally gotten everything taken care of that I went shopping afterwards and got some new shoes, organic shampoo, and some porridge oats.  I plan on going shopping again THIS Friday, as well as getting a professional haircut (my lack of skills is beginning to show...yikes!). I am pretty sick of all my clothes here, the little that I brought to begin with, so I am going to treat myself to some new ones.  I think it will make me feel a lot better (not that we all should go out buying things when we're sad!) and increase my confidence a bit, at least make me more comfortable. 

In about an hour I am going with Erin to a "Mama Mia" Sing-a-long on campus, in one of the lecture halls, where for two hours we'll be singing our hearts out to the musical! I am so pumped. There's also free Red Bull, but that stuff is disgusting and I refuse to even try it.  After that its to the Thirsty to (hopefully) FINALLY hear some trad music, maybe even participate myself as I should be playing as much as possible, Colm said.  

I'm still hungry after my bag of popcorn (and the soup and apple I had for dinner) so I will go get some ice cream! I'll post as to how the audition goes, but I will most likely be doing other post before then so keep your eyes peeled! 

It's One of those Confusing Days

I am having one of those days where I am persistently  flustered with everything.  I keep forgetting what day it is, at what time my classes are, and what all I have to do. 

I blame it on last night when I was awoken at 3am by the fire alarm in my room going off, which completely freaked me out. Then I heard a lot of people going in and out of the apartment so I thought something might actually be wrong (they had been testing the alarms the last week, so we didn't have to do anything then), so I wandered out of the room, looking mighty attractive in my saggy-butt pj pants, flannel shirt, and damp bed-head hair, and waited to see if one of the boys came out of their rooms. Oren did, holding a bottle of vodka in one hand and what looked to be a bowl of cereal in the other, to whom I asked in my sore-throat and groggy mumbling, "Is this, like, a legit fire?" He said, "No, someone's probably just cooking something...fire alarms...it's fine...go back to bed." So I shuffled back into my room, that was now fully alight not with flames but the devil halogen bubble-light affixed on the wall opposite my bed, the one that I had  flicked on as I tried to listen to possible shouts of "Fire!" or "Get out of the building!" a few minutes earlier.  I flicked it off and locked the door.  The alarm was still blaring.  I fell into bed with a clunk and formed my blankets into a mass over my head.  It eventually did turn off, to which I was slightly relieved only to be annoyed again with the fact that the boys must have been having some type of get-together and thus may voices and door-slamming could be heard. They must have started after I had gone to bed (which was at 12:30- the earliest I have gone to bed for a while now...). I probably was kept up until 4am, not that it was an easier to go to bed now after the jolt of the alarm.  It was in this hour, though, that I remembered that not only was I planning on going to the Guarda in the morning, but that I also had an in-class essay exam at 1 for which I had not reviewed.  I had completely forgotten about both of these.  In my tiredness and frustration, I figured one more day wouldn't hurt and I would go to the Guarda on Friday and that I could study some then in the morning instead.  After that decision I just lay there, waiting for the Ibuprofin I took to kick in  because my throat was so sore and painful that I thought it was swelling up and would suffocate me in my sleep.  I kept waking up off-and-on in the morning hours, glad I was indeed still living, but irked that I could just sleep through everything.  

I literally just ate an entire half-roll of Tesco chocolate chip cookies that I got for under a Euro while typing this. That's about 8 cookies. Oops.

But the in-class essay went fine, I guess. I didn't write that much, but I feel that what I did write was insightful and organized.  I thought, though, that I had a class at 2 right when the exam was finished, so I rushed over to the classroom, looked in, and saw NOT my professor and NOT the other students in my class.  I didn't have class until 3...  I have no idea what I was thinking.  

I am staying in tonight because I have gone out the last two nights and stayed up really late Monday night working on a presentation.  On Tuesday night, Erin and a friend Kristina and I went to town and had some wonderful and well-need Girl Time.  Last night Erin and I went out again, originally planning to go to a pub called the Thirsty Scholar for some live music (for those paying close attention to my blog, you might remember that this is the same place Peter took me the first time we went out...you know, where I played the bodhran despite only having one lesson?...) Anyhoo, there wasn't any music because there was some important football/soccer/I am not sure game on so the pub was packed with guys all staring at the multiple TVs.  So we went to Costigans, where we were the night before too, and they actually had two guitarists/singers there who, in addition to being quite good-looking, could also sing very well.  "A velvety voice," we said.  But tonight I must mentally prepare myself for the 9am class and both the long walk to the Guarda and having to talk with the people there again about my immigration card.  So I will stay in. And rest. And update the blog! 

My hair has not been cooperating lately. I am not quite sure what to do about it.  I feel like it is already growing back.  I am keeping the scissors far way though. At least for a while.  

I had my bodhran lesson on Wednesday this week (also adding to my confusion with my schedule) and Colm says that the only thing I have left to do now is just play as much as I can, either with a CD or actual people.   I am doing very well, he says, which makes his job a lot easier.  So that's kinda cool!

I have discovered the best microwave popcorn on Earth: The brand is Kelkin, and it is called "Micro Pop." It is all-natural, cheap, and incredibly delicious.  And I have sampled many micro-popcorn in my day, so you know it has to be good. 

I feel an episode of House is in my near future.  Take care!