Blarney

This morning I woke up as the two guys in the room were leaving. It's weird cause this is an 8 bed room, and she's full, but last night there were only three of us in here--apparently the other 5 people were out partying all night and didn't come in until after I left at 10. Anyways, I woke up and asked Tracy if there is a place I could print some things off. She is brilliant. There's a place right down the road that only charges a euro an hour and 10 cents a page to print. I was stressing out about this, so I was really happy. I wandered a little bit after that--had the most amazing scone at this really cool little place down an alley from St. Patrick's street. I never thought I would be so happy over a scone. It exceeded my low expectation I guess. I like jam now by the way people. Still not so sure about jelly though. So, got my caffeine fix and went walking again. I thought I'd go to Finbarr's to see what that's all about. It's beautiful and creepy and 4 Euro to get in. I didn't feel like paying that. I took a bunch of pictures, but guess what I forgot? The cord that connects my camera to my computer. Sucks. There will be a lot when I get back though.

I just randomly found the Red Abbey. All that's left of it is the tower. St. Francis always has cool churches. The English market is closed for bank holidays, so I'm seeing that tomorrow.

But forget about Cork. Blarney is where it's at. The castle is awesome. The castle grounds are underrated. The place is huge and it's all kept so well. It's just what I used to think of when I thought of Ireland--rolling green hills, farms, sheep. It's beautiful. There were horses running around and talking to each other and a big private mansion, the "poison garden," a couple of watch towers that seem really short, the wishing steps, there are two really cool caves underneath the roots of a really huge tree. Very cool. Lots of pictures. The castle though. It's awesome. To get up to the top you go up a tiny winding stone staircase. There's a rope going up the middle to pull yourself up the higher steps. There are different rooms on each floor with small entry ways and window set deep into the walls. Going up there aren't any windows in the stair case, so you get to the top and it's just all there in front of you. You can see the whole village, all the lands surrounding it--all green and orange and blue right now. And there at the other end of the walkway is the old man sitting with his feet dangling over the side of the wall where the Blarney stone is. I hadn't decided if I wanted to do it. I know I'm going go back there, so I was thinking I'd wait until I was with other people, but I didn't really know, and then I was walking over there kind of avoiding it while the man is just whistling away and looking cheerful. You have to pass him, you can't just get away from him, so I walked up and he said hello, how are you? do you want to kiss the stone? So I just said fuck it. Of course I want to kiss the stone. I didn't come all the way out here to just walk past it and know it's there right? Sure. Yes please mister. You sit down facing away from in, lay back so you're hanging over the edge, grab onto these two vertical bars, the guy grabs onto you and you have to just keep scooting yourself farther and farther down upside down. He's telling how far to go and he kind of puts his foot underneath the stone, so when you're shoulder is leaning on his leg you've gone far enough. It's a lot farther down than I thought. I just kept thinking I can only go down so much farther before my ass is over the edge and I'm going to break my neck. I also thought it was going to be harder to get back up than it was. That guy is strong though--he just pulls you back up and you're done. So yeah. That was great.

People are singing songs from the Lion King on the street in front of the hostel. Happy Halloween. I haven't seen any pumpkins. Kind of disappointing.

No way

Daylight savings time started today. Everything was running smoothly--me and that other woman at the Maynooth bus stop at 7am are the crazies.

Corcaigh

I'm here! This place is crazy. The city between two rivers. Talk about dreary--you couldn't even see two streets away because of the fog when I got here.

But first of all. It's been a really long day. This morning seems ages ago. I woke up at 6:50. Everything was going well--had time to drink tea, wake up a little, stroll down to the bus stop. But the 8am bus never came and the 8:30 bus never came either. So, I got on the 9am and had to wait around for the noon bus from Dublin to here. And all the Busaras buses were running a whole hour late. I got here at 5 which is okay. I checked into the hostel--the woman who owns it is wonderful. She knows everything there is to know about Cork. She's like Michael's concierge. I walked around a little--bookstores, pubs, fancy restaurants. It's probably going to be weird tomorrow with people all dressed up and trying to be creepy.

Anyway. Tomorrow: Blarney Castle?! For a few hours anyway.

I also walked by a guy puking in a gutter. It's that kind of town.

"I wouldn't hurt a fly."

Breakfast for dinner! Well kind of. I'm eating this granola (which is really good thank you Madre AND Padre equally) as cereal until I work up the gumption to make real dinner. I have to use green onion and bell peppers because they will have "gone off" by the time I come back. Oh yeah I made risotto last night and it wasn't all that great. This recipe I was looking at said 45 minutes. Yeah right. I know better now.

Yesterdays' screening for Film class was Psycho. I really like it. For all it's corny parts and anticlimax, the very very end is still really creepy. And the music is awesome. So dissonant.

I was super tired last night and tried to go to sleep at the relatively early 2am, but I had this weirdly persistent headache. I was worried it was going to turn into a migraine 'cause that's what it felt like, but I just took some ibuprofen and it was fine until I woke up this morning. It didn't hurt while I was laying down, but when I sat up it was like a head rush and then crazy all over again. I drank some tea and it went away. Tea has way more caffeine than coffee. Bad news.

Okay tomorrow I have to wake up at a bright and early 7:30 or 7:45 because the bus I'm taking to Cork leaves at 10am which means I have to get on a bus here around 8 because I don't know exactly where the bus station is. It takes an hour to get into downtown Dublin from here and that gives me the hour to hopefully get something to eat and find the station. I'm not too worried about it though. Just worried about waking up.

Fun!

I wasn't expecting much from today, but it turned out to be really good. Modernism was interesting. The last chapter of Ulysses is all about the only woman in the book. And she's terrible. So that was fun.

Irish wasn't scary in the least. We started with singing, then did some dancing, and ended with singing again. Usually singing and dancing are really not my thing, but this was a lot of fun. Since the songs were in Irish none of us really knew what we were saying or how we were saying it anyway, I really didn't care if I sang a wrong note and my teacher could care less too. So when it's like that, singing is fun. Our new song is about a jealous woman and wants to be "bean Paidin." Patrick's wife. She wants to break real Patrick's wife's legs and bones. And she also stalks her and wears out her shoes following her around. It's grand. And this is a cute little cartoon of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STBpc3rxrT4
(This is a test Madre. Do you remember how to copy and paste?)
The dance was a line dance basically. You have a partner and you know, a few steps forward a few steps back, waltz it out for a few measures, then have way through the song you start doing some fancy heel-toe things, more waltzing and you're done. It was fun. There were only two guys in the class--the combination of two classes. It was silly. These songs have been stuck in my head the rest of the day.

I finally got the package from Mom! I don't know why it took that long. OH! This is what I wanted to say. The woman who is in the post room for the apartments during the day is a bitch. Alright, maybe she's not a bitch, but she is definitely very rude. I don't want to just strut into the post room and be like "hey, Lyndsay Wulf, Dodder 4A, check my shit." Normally I just walk up and say "I'm just checking my mail." And then one of the guys will ask my name and it's all very nice and civil. I said that and she goes: "well can I get an address or a name at least?" and kind of bobs her head. I glared at her. I couldn't help it. I stopped when I realized I was doing it, but after that she said "664 of you kids here...grumble." Yeah your job is so hard. You sit in a 20 sq. foot room and write stuff in books or walk three steps to check the mail cubby things. I'm not asking you to memorize me. I thought you people were supposed to like conversation anyway. The other guy who was in there was nice though.

I skipped Poetry.

Fried rice for dinner. It was pretty good. I drank that hot cocoa you sent me mom. It's really good. I used milk instead of water of course, and just for the hell of it threw in some cream too. Gracias.

Hoy

Breakfast was a scone with butter and tea with milk and sugar. That was at 1:30pm. I really need to be better about waking up at a reasonable hour. It's hard though when I never have homework and my earliest class is at 11 and that's only 2 days a week. I also have to stop drinking tea at night. It's like I just have to drink tea constantly as soon as I'm out of class. It's this new weird obsessive thing I have going on.

Film class.

Irish class. I don't know why, but remembering how to say where you're from has been the hardest thing for me so far. Well, actually "The United States" is the longest country we've learned and doesn't follow any of the pronunciation rules we've been learning. So I cheat and say Seattle. Mexico is Meicsiceo. Same pronunciation. America is Meiriceá, pronounced "Merica." Italy is Iodáil, pronounced "ee-doil." Anyways, tomorrow the other class is combining with ours, and in honor of that--our teacher trying to show off--we are going to sing them a song. The song is about a girl wanting to go to a fair in Co. Clare, but her mom says no you're not even 10 years old yet are you crazy? I don't know, it's a catchy tune though. What you would think Irish traditional music would be.

That's kind of it. I walked around for a few hours after class. I can't wait for next week. I'll have better pictures hopefully. More exciting ones anyway. I'm sure everyone is tired of seeing trees and that spire.

What is this though? It's a smoke stack right? We have one at Central too, but they both seem to be unused. There's never any smoke coming out of them--that's a cloud in this picture--and what would they be used for anyway?

My to do list:
-activate my AIB debit card. That means going down to the branch in town, cause they don't do anything useful at the place here on campus besides let you apply for an account.
-"return" a book to the book store. They don't really let you return things though, you just get store credit.
-pay rent
-Modernism essay. That's going to be stupid.
-print confirmations for buses, hostels, and planes.

Bam!

Look at this. I'm not trying to be one of those people who post food pictures to be like "look at what I'm eating because you're not." No. I'm proud of this because I don't cook and this was really good. I could eat this mushroom and wine saucy goodness as soup. It's really pasta sauce basically. I now have cream in my fridge and flour! I can't bake anything because our apartment doesn't come with baking equipment, but the cheapest bag of flour at the store is also the largest. Normally that's a good thing. St. Bernard's stuff is always the cheapest. If you try to wikipedia that guy, you'll find there are 8 different ones...one of them is patron saint of skiers. Another is the patron said of everything to do with wax and also Gibraltar. Anyways, I need recipes with flour. Maybe I'll suck it up and buy a freaking baking tray. Then all cooking options are open to me.

I relearned how not to plagiarize today in Modernism. I spent two hours catching up on reading Ulysses last night and this class was pointless. LAME. The only good thing about it was that I know now, for sure, that I don't have to use footnotes and can just use the regular MLA citation rules I'm used to. Fantastic. They use cover sheets here though. I have to look up the format on those...that's another 8 cents to print though. Stupid.

In Myth the teacher recited the first ten lines of The Odyssey for us in ancient Greek. It was really cool. The point was that it's originally composed using Hexameter--a kind of 5 pattern of emphasis--but when you translate it into English that's all lost. It's also supposed to be sung, but he didn't sing it to us though thank god. He talked about how the bards were revered and considered sacred. I think that's cool.

Walking back here from the store I was thinking of my grocery buying expenses. If I spend 40 a week--which is rounding up--that's 160 a month, and if I round that up to 200 for some leeway, that's 1,600 for 8 months. Which is actually a better estimating for how long I'm going to be here. I'll be back at the end of May probably. Yay. Anyway, that's not too terrible. It's been around 30 a week really. Next week is going to be expensive though since I won't be cooking. It's alright though. That's what the leeway is for.

It's really weirding me out how The Odyssey, Ulysses, and Hamlet are so intertwined. The Odyssey and Ulysses right--same name basically, Joyce is following the outline, whatever. But there's a chapter of Ulysses dedicated to Daedalus's bizarre theory of Hamlet and today Myth man was pointing out Shakespeare's allusions to Homer. It's soooo weird. So coincidental. Good timing I guess.

Experiment

It closes at 4. I feel like I'm forgetting something. I only need this my ID card and my apartment key-card. Okay. Go. Linger. Why is it so hard to leave? Just go. Won't take 20 minutes. My door wails so loudly and doesn't shut properly. Nothing to really steal in there--my computer's not even that great. Trombone. Stealable for sure. I need to play it. Like starting over. The worst part is lips hurting. No--random zits on your lip. Much worse. Embarrassing. At least at Central they all know you're a brass player. Here I'm just going to look like I have herpes or something. These stairs are disgusting. Sticky brown smear on the floor. Don't fall. Empty bottle at the top. They really are a bunch of drinkers. Downpour. Pour down. Hood, zipper, pockets. Ready. Door number one. This little middle chamber is weird. Push the button to get out. What is this for? Must be to let people in. That's stupid too though--you could just open the door like normal instead of the button. Maybe they don't like doors to be locked on one side. The don't do a lot of efficient and logical things here. Like email mail notices dammit. Just have to walk around and check every post every day. I sound lazy. Leather is grand. Boots grand. Have to thank Mom. They are loose now though. I'm glad. Maybe I don't have monster feet. Or hobbit feet. Not attractive. Always worried cause Whit's so nice. Her feet aren't tiny or anything either though. None of ours are. Whatever. Feet are the least of the worries. Cross street. Hate this street. Lights are pointless. Everything is the same color today--gray. Grass looks gray. Tree looks gray. No leaves. Not on the ground. They always take them away. Leave nature alone. Concrete benches would be a good picture. She looks scared. Pink scarf over her head, clutching...plates? That's weird. Please don't run into me man. And wipe your glasses off. That's why you can't walk straight. Maybe you're drunk already. You could use a pink scarf on your head. Maybe I was on the wrong side of the walkway. Drive on the other side here, maybe they walk on the other side too. Doesn't seem like it. I'm a meanderer. Mean der-er. Anderer. To ander...rubish. Rubish much cooler than garbage. All these doors automatic. Floor's wet. Don't fall. I don't trust you. That guy smells like smoke. What?! You smoke too? I thought you were a music guy. I guess they all smoke. Please don't smoke. Deal breaker that is. Doesn't matter. Didn't bring money. Good thing. Close at four. Twenty minutes. There's no one in here. I don't want to ring the bell--rather just wait. "Hello" "Hi, I'm supposed to have a package and it's not at the apartment post room so I wanted to see if it were here" Everyone has dark hair. "okay, where do you live?" You have a nice voice. "River" "Alright" It's probably not here. You're going to look anyway though. Oh no now that woman is coming in here. They talk quietly here too--can't even hear what he's telling her. "Is it registered?" I don't know what that means. "Registered?" "Yeah" You're helpful. "I don't think so..." "I'll check the red list." "Okay" What the hell is the red list? This guy is still looking around the room. "I don't think so...you checked with the apartment postroom already?" "Yeah a little bit ago" My voice sounds different to me in my head than when I hear it recorded or something. Less mannish...less flat at least in my head. Maybe that's why I can't sing--have a different timbre in my ear. "Hm" Stalling. It's not here. Get back here woman and tell me it's not here so I can just leave and stop being awkward. Occupy myself with all this postage stuff taped to the window. I don't know what the point of any of it is. A piece of him..beetles o'er his base into the sea. Random line to put in Ulysses. Something something deprive your sovereignty of reason. Should that be overtly worried? Hands in the air what the hell are you thinking man?! Or more like something creepy. Like I could say it in his ear or whisper it and be more intense. Yelling it would be easier. Going to be terrible. I can't act. I can pretend. Fake laugh is my best performance. Got that one down. "What's your name?" "Lyndsay Wulf" Don't spell it. Hate spelling it for nothing. They can read. She's gone again. He's still here. He hasn't been here before. Usually just 3 or 4 woman scuttling around. Well, I'm sure he's been here before. We haven't been here at the same time before how's that? Do not assume. Shouldn't assume they can read. Maybe I should have spelled it. "No, you're not on the list Lyndsay" "Okay I'll just check tomorrow" You look like you're going to say more. Let me go. "Sorry about that Lyndsay" why do you keep saying my name? "Thanks for looking" smile, leave. Very antisocial. That wasn't even social. That was business. Whatever. Can't talk. Don't make me talk. Well, I have one tortilla in the fridge. Quesadilla for dinner still and option. And leftovers. All's not lost. Lotus eaters. Tunisia. 9 days. Black ships. Poor Odysseus. I'm going to think Homer was a real guy. Doesn't matter if he was blind and doesn't matter if he could write. It's more interesting if it's one guy coming up with the story than if it's some sort of centuries old compilation. Doesn't matter. No harm believing either way. What is the line...if you ever loved me...but in Shakespeare. If thou didst ever love me? No! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart blah blah blah don't poison yourself Horatio. That's it. Why does Horatio love Hamlet? Don't fall. Very crisp fall. Not fall. It's autumn here. No. The other way around. I don't remember anymore. Guinness is the Irish man's lotus. But I haven't met a single Irish person that likes Guinness. It'd be like my hating starbucks just cause I'm from Seattle. Not so. Anyway. Horatio...why is he so patient and calm all the time? Why does he love Hamlet? Hamlet loving Horatio not so much a mystery. These puddles are huge. Leather. Love that sound. Horatio is like the drop box garbage can journal blog composition therapist...receptical of Hamlet's thoughts and Horatio never says anything. It's always yes my lord aye my lord you're right my lord of course. One time he says no is when he's afraid he's going to be led off the dreadful summit of the cliff. There's no one else walking here and you just have to brush by me. Sorry for being in your way jerk. That's when he's most animated. Don't die my lord that would be tragic and I'd have to kill myself too. And then at the end it's just now cracks a noble heart. I always read it angrily. Carnal bloody unnatural acts rawr anger you guys suck. My sweet prince is dead and you come marching up like what the heck happened man? Why does he love him? Seriously. Hamlet doesn't listen to him anyway. I guess people love the person who will listen to them. I don't trust you. Not going to work out. Ron Weasly is in that window. Should look for that online. Don't come here. Can't trust you. Wish I had the Fellowship. Been more than ten years. I'm older. Older than you. Explains a lot. Impermeable. Jeans aren't. Pretty soaked. No more hood. Did people really get deathly ill from walking in rain? Seems rather pathetic. Weak woman stereotype. Maybe it's true. Don't assume. God, Mason is such an idiot. Igit. Maybe he's just high all the time. Don't talk to me. It's raining you see. Don't feel like singing. Singing! Have to sing on Thursday. Wow really? I thought I'd never have to say that again. At least it's Irish and the whole class. Everyone can sing here. How does that happen? can't be innate. Thesis material that is. Hate writing essays. Never going to grad school--save money, less work, fewer years for school to be priority. I haven't seen a single ant here. Even with the crumbs. Card. Why do I always have a minor heart attack when I get to the door? Stupid. Calm the fuck down. Card's right here. Don't really like my hair sticking to my face. Time to cut it—getting out of hand. What am I going to do? You can't leave me alone. It'd all be easier if you would. Don't know if I'll ever trust you. Read. Have two more of Joyce and two more of Homer tonight. Plan: tea, quesadilla smothered in tapatio. Tapa. Tio. Midday-lunchish-sanwhich-like-variety-uncle. Can you have one tapa? Or are they always plural. Ask Julian. More tea, read forever, email, laundries, read some more, sleep when it comes. My door didn't shut.

Stream of Consciousness. Mine is less random than Joyce's. I'll work on that.

My poetry teacher is pissing me off. I've taken all of 5 lines of notes in the last three classes. He's STILL talking about what literature is. It's a poetry class. Talk about poetry man. The next few classes are going to be history of English as a discipline in schools...what the hell.

Film is turning into a class I'm more used to--rapid note taking the whole time. This Friday is Psycho. I think Silence of the Lambs is the last one. I'm not going to be here though. I'm not sad about that.

I'm pretty sure my male Irish roommate is drunk and so are his friends. They were here and then when they left the first time one of them walked down the hall banging on the walls and yelling shit. Then they came back and were here for a little bit and then they left again and more hitting the walls and this time yelling bitch and cunt and fuck randomly. I can't imagine that being aimed at me. I've seen that guy four times so far. I locked my door anyway.

I fell asleep reading for about an hour today. It was nice though. My accidental naps are usually far longer than an hour.

This is dinner tomorrow. Wish me luck.
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/04/creamy-mushroom-pasta-w-chicken-1004.html

Chili powder

I spent a good hour in the grocery store today. And a majority of that time was looking for Chili powder in the ethnic food section. I finally found it on the end of a random aisle. Salt and pepper is expensive so I didn't buy any. I did buy olive oil though. And a pork loin.

No Dublin today because I woke up this afternoon and it was raining and really windy. Maybe tomorrow. Instead I ate lunch and tried to read at a cafe here in Maynooth. It was pleasant.

Lots of tea and lots of quiet today.

The end.

Humdrum

We don't have blinds in our rooms. We have this white plastic sheet that rolls up or out. It's very effective at blocking out light during the day, and keeping the room warmer at night, and making sure I sleep longer than I want to. That's okay on Fridays though. I got up and made breakfast/lunch and that was a nice change. Tortillas, eggs, and potatoes just remind me of home though.

I like Singin' in the Rain. Gene Kelly is awesome. I think it's weird that I'd heard of Gene Kelly before and not Donald O'Connor even though in most of the numbers they have the same choreography. The movie made it look like everyone wore tap shoes all the time in the 50s. And apparently girls could tap in heels back then too.

Tonight was going to be Chinese food night. There's a place in town that is take away only and they give you the food in Tupperware. Huge plus. But, when dinner time came around a burger sounded better. They put salt and vinegar on their fries. Chips rather. Fries are chips and chips are crisps.

That's been it really. I came back here, drank a pint and have been reading and being online since.

Plans

I couldn't sleep last night 'cause I was really cold. Okay really it was because I drank so much tea, but that was because I was cold. My heater doesn't work. I'm going to complain sometime. I'll put it off for so long I won't do it though. That's what always happens. All of our windows get steamy at night now. thefuckingweather.com says it's 50 degrees though. Maybe it's not the most reliable source.

I definitely didn't want to wake up this morning. The snooze time on my phone is four minutes, so I woke up every four minutes for an hour before I really got up--15 minutes before class. I don't want to get into this habit. It's inevitable though really. The little alarm clock before I left is so loud. I feel like I'm waking up the whole apartment when I use it. But really, I' probably the last one to wake up anyway, so I should just use it.

Alright. I have my "reading week" figured out for the most part. Bus tickets bought, hostels lined up (almost).
Oct29-Nov1: Cork. Their jazz fest is that weekend. I don't know anybody playing at the bigger venues so I'm not paying for those, but they advertise a lot of street performances so that'll be cool. There is of course the Blarney stone to be kissed, some really old abbey's, and the English market to wander around.
Nov1-4: Galway. The Aran Islands! The Cliffs of Moher! Killary Fjord? I don't know how to get there yet, but it looks pretty.
Nov4-6: Donegal. There's a castle and a boat tour of the bay...other than that I really don't think there's that much in Donegal town besides some really pretty nature, but that is perfect.

The only thing I don't have yet is a hostel for the very first night in Cork. All the ones on the two websites I've been using were full that Saturday...so hopefully someone will cancel their reservation or I'm going to be paying something outrageous for a hotel.
I put a deposit on a hostel in Madrid too. That's exciting.

Tomorrow we're watching Singin' in the Rain.

Modernism teacher said "defecate" about ten times today. She repeats herself a lot anyway, but I don't know why she was dwelling on this one particular paragraph of Ulysses. I guess it's very modern.

Today my walking was through all the backstreets of Maynooth. It's a really small town. People's houses/apartments are crammed in everywhere. They all have display windows too, and it's interesting to see what people put in them. Vases and bowls are popular. There's a walkway that goes a long a "river" that runs the length of the town. I only followed it for ten minutes, but sometime soon I'm going to find out where it goes. It's kind of cool because there are a bunch of bridges and overpasses that it goes underneath.

http://www.wicklowway.com/
Look at that. I really want to do it. It's just under 80 miles. They say it takes 10 days. Eight miles in a whole day isn't a lot though. I'm going to do it. If not sometime next semester--we get three weeks off: one for Easter and two that are just other "reading weeks"--then after exams right before I come home.

I miss my guitar today.

Food

I was making a grocery list for next week, and then I decided that I was going to plan what I cook each night, and then I started looking at recipes online. Bad move. It's been two hours now and I only have three recipes that are possible in this apartment. The bulk of what I've been eating is stir fry because it's really easy, pretty good, and rice is cheap. With this next grocery shopping trip I'm going to finally get the essentials. I still don't have salt and pepper. I just steal my roommates'.

I finished Pride and Prejudice.

Today's been pretty boring.

Pet Peeve #2

I've noticed that one or more of my roommates doesn't see the point in washes the backside or outside or end of dishes. I get that you aren't eating from the opposite side of a plate and that you aren't putting the handle-end of a fork in your mouth, but c'mon people. I don't want to innocently pick up a plate and get spaghetti sauce or soggy vegetables on my hands. Also. Rinsing something does not make some clean. Not even close. My last dish washing complaint: soaking. I've always thought soaking dishes in a sink was just a way of getting out of doing your dishes promptly. Especially when you are "soaking" for a whole weekend. I will say though, rice sticking to the bottom of a pot is soak worthy--but only as long as the water is hot.

I only had one class today. Technically I had two, but the lecturer for the Greek myth and poetry class changed it from 5pm to 10am today. And I was not prepared for class at 10am this morning. I was barely prepared for Modernism at 3. There will be no more missing that class though. She just talks the entire hour and you're left with all this information you really don't know what to do with. Apparently she's posting "essay titles" tomorrow...and in two weeks it's on to Mrs. Dalloway. And some Faulkner after that. Fantastic.

Monday Monday

For about half an hour it was raining today. Like really raining. Like sheets, buckets, drenching, cats, dogs, hamsters, everything. It was great. I love it.

The Odyssey is grand. Hermes is my favorite Greek god.

My new poetry teacher is not so cool. He's a McCarthy. Not that that is inherently bad or anything. Maybe this one will go backwards. I don't like him much now, but maybe by the end of the term I will. He's just kind of bland and he spent the whole hour talking about different examples of historical context. You see something in a museum. It means something different to you than it did to whomever wrote it or whomever that guy wrote it for. Yes, right, great. He went on a little rant about how bad it is to say that something is "timeless." He used Jane Austen a lot too. He said, you say that Pride and Prejudice is timeless it means that everything Jane Austen had to deal with it irrelevant. The fact that she was a woman and had to hide the fact that she was writing because it was improper and blah blah blah it all doesn't matter if you say it's a timeless novel. I say, lighten up man.

Film was rather interesting. We're kind of getting into theory stuff instead of just "this is what a fade out looks like" or "this is how a long shot works" or "those bird noises were produced in a studio, but you couldn't tell could you?" Today he was talking about indeterminacy. I like this idea. It's basically only giving so much information and then the rest is just left to be inferred by the audience. In Casablanca the example was: did Rick and Ilsa have sex in the movie? Well, you can say no and justify it by saying that you don't ever see it on screen. Orrr you could say yes and justify it by symbolism and gaps in the narrative time. I think it's interesting. I mean, if it's all just given to you all the time, what is there left to think about? Sure, I like a lot of movies where everything is laid out and clear and everything makes sense and it's entertaining. But it's also nice and frustrating to be left wondering sometimes.

The rest of the day I've just been reading. It's kind of cool to read The Odyssey and Ulysses at the same time. I really have no idea what's going on in Ulysses though. It's definitely a steam of consciousness thing and this guy doesn't tell you when he's switching from narration to being inside his head. And there is a lot of history he alludes to that I just don't know anything about. There's a lot of Irish history brought up in all my classes that just goes over my head. But I'm hoping I won't really need to know that much in detail for exams. Anyway, Ulysses is a Anglicized and Irish-ized Odysseus. He's mentioned a few characters from the Odyssey, but I'm not seeing the bigger connection yet. I'm only 20 dense pages in though I guess. He's also talked about and quoted Shakespeare a lot so far--mostly Hamlet. It's kind of weird.

Oh yes. Pride and Prejudice. I feel like this is the kind of book where you could just start at the last hundred pages and be alright. She has lots of quotable lines though.

My bathroom drain was clogged and I didn't know it, so I flooded about a square foot of my room last night. It's all under control now though.

It was a beautiful day. I woke up and looked out my window and saw blue skies. I didn't do much with it though--just walked through town to the cash machine that isn't temporarily out of service then strolled back to the grocery store. I was hungry when I bought groceries though. I have kiwi, chicken strips, more beef, chips, and scones. Lots of things that go bad quickly. Okay bread is a completely waste of money here. I bough a loaf five days ago and it had some fuzziness going on today.

I just came back here after that, started catching up on reading for classes, cooked dinner, watched the last half of Independence Day with Nate, got made fun of for buying Guinness. Tony--one of my roommate's boyfriend--asked me if I would drink it at home. As if I'm only drinking it because I'm an American in Ireland. That irritated me. I like it. The end.

Wandering again

I didn't wake up as early as I wanted to this morning, naturally. But when I got out of here I went to the Elite Confectionery here in Maynooth. I got a "breakfast bun" which turned out to be bacon and sausage piled onto this thick piece of bread. It was okay. Weirdly salty. They have really good tea though. Whenever you get tea with something it's always "traditional tea" and I really don't know what it is. It was pretty cheap though, so I'm satisfied.


After that it was Dublin time. I'm going to make an itinerary for the next time I go. Today I just walked around aimlessly again. It's really fun though. I browsed some bookstores and did not buy anything. There's a problem with bookstores. All the ones that have a lot of classics are expensive, and all the second hand stores only have Penguin classics. I'm on the lookout for a Don Quixote that isn't 20 Euro. And preferably in Spanish. I might just have to wait and steal Whitney's when I get home.

I ran across a kind of farmer's market that looked cool and smelled really good. They were starting to close up when I got there though. There was Asian food and cheese and vegetables and jewelry and grilled meats and wine and quiche and wooden bowls. Oh yeah, some guy was advertising "straight from the farm: horse, lamb, ox meat."

I went into a Celtic touristy shop. It was interesting. They had a bunch of huge Celtic crosses and leprechaun everything of course. Cheaper postcards though.

I walked by "Occupy Dame Street." When I got back here I saw all the stuff about Rome freaking out. The demonstration here was really small--about ten tents and maybe fifty people standing listen to this guy talk through a megaphone about how to get involved. I didn't even see any Garda there. Not to say that it doesn't count...just that it's not dangerous here or anything.

It started raining pretty good as it was getting later, so I decided to walk toward Merrion Square which is the end of the bus line I wanted. I ended up on the end with the Oscar Wilde statue. It's in a weird place though--you can kind of make it out behind the gate and behind some shrubbery, but to really get to it you have to enter a park and there are only so many entrances in this fence. And today most of them were closed for some reason, so I didn't get any good pictures. But I'm positive I'll be back.

On the way back to the apartment I stopped at Dunnes to get some dinner things--2 dollar frozen pizza. Not in the mood for cooking. I did pretty well this week though. I always thought cooking was fun but I just attributed it to whomever I was cooking with, but it's still fun even by myself. Anyway, Guinness is on sale! 10 Euro for an 8 pack. It's usually 14 I think. I was disappointed when I got here and our big glass isn't in the kitchen. Some jerk has it in his room. I may have to buy myself one. Guinness isn't the same in a short glass.

Play it again Sam

Casablanca is a great movie. I definitely recommend it. Our teacher talked a little bit about all the famous quotes from the movie, and that one--Play it again Sam--isn't actually ever in the movie. I think that's interesting. I didn't mind out teacher talking about the movie today. Usually it's kind of like he has to and he's just pointing out things in the film we should have noticed and that we might need to know later, but today you could tell that he actually really likes the movie and was excited to talk about it. He mumbled a lot less and talked with his hands and made jokes. It was cool to see.

I've drunken 6 cups of tea today. I'm very awake.

I made quesadillas for dinner and smothered them in Tapatio. I also fried potatoes because the few I had left were started to sprout. I've never been able to make them like Grandma and I don't know what I'm missing. I really miss breakfast and Grandma's house.

I have five empty water bottles on my desk. I always say that I'm going to fill them up and reuse them, but then I forget to and I leave and end up buying another one. And I don't throw them away...

I decided to get organized yesterday. Not actually organized--my room is still functionally cluttered which is how I like it--but I opened this calendar on my computer and spent some time filling in my classes and clubs and trips and when things are due and when classes end and when all my breaks are. I get a whole week for Easter and a weird kind of combination of breaks for winter. Classes end on December 16th and then you have 3 weeks I think. Then exams start and go for two or three weeks and then you have another week off before second semester starts on the 30 of January. It's weird. Who's going to remember anything for exams after a month?

Dublin tomorrow! Maybe on Sunday too.

Trees

I went down to the international office today to ask if I do need a student visa like people have been telling me that I do. And technically I don't. It's not really a student visa. It's some Irish immigration card, and yeah I do need it. Well my name wasn't even on the list that they send to the Garda. Now it is. She said hopefully it would only take a week or two. That's fine. I have a month. The system is really stupid though. There is one guy who handles the immigration cards for all the colleges in a few different counties. You have to wait for him to call you and he tells you when your appointment is. I don't even think it's something you figure out together--he just tells you when you need to be there and if you have class or something else going on it's too damn bad. Rather irritating. But yeah--no way I'm going to Belfast tomorrow.

I went to class. Nothing too exciting. I can say the time in Irish now. My poetry teacher got chocked up reading an elegy. I'm bummed because we are going to have some other teacher for the rest of the term.

It was actually really nice out today, so I went for a walk. Instead of going down to south campus again I went the other way which is into town. There's really only one main street in Maynooth and that's cool. First thing I did was walk by a bookstore and I have to stop. I did not buy a book though. I was really pissed to find Ulysses for 3 Euro though. Anyway, keep waking. At the end of the street there are few things--a St. Someone's girl's school where all the girls have to wear school girl skirts and blue sweaters, and a Tesco which I guess is like Walmart or Costco. In between these things is this cool gate and a very very straightly paved walking path. At first there are houses on both sides, but by the end there are cows on one side and horses on the other. Then, if you cross the street you come to the Carton estate. Apparently the Cartons were the shit a while ago and had all kind of land. Now it's a huge golf course and there is a house somewhere farther than I was prepared to walk today. But it's awesome.

I don't know what it is about walking, but I always just get goofy elated by it. Maybe it's cause I also go after classes at around 5 or 6 and everything looks amazing in that light. But I thought this place was beautiful and felt like I've never been more impressed by trees. I took way too many pictures of them.















































Look at that. I even have a tree silhouette. I like the one with the couple walking though. I passed them and got passed by them five times. The lady looked at me funny each time. But yeah. Nature man. I should have been a painter. Colors and lighting and composition and just things make me kind of dopey inspired I guess.

Enough of that. Twas a good day. I ran into Nate coming back to the apartment and he talked to me more about sexism and how he still says everything is dollars and he's dehydrated and that scares him and he's just a weird hyperactive guy.

I broke my cooking streak with a frozen pizza today.

Casablanca tomorrow for Film. That'll be good. I've never seen it.

Dublin on Saturday for sure since I can't do Belfast yet. I also have to be here for fall break, and that is totally fine with me. I'm really looking forward to it.

One Month Down!

8 more of these and I'll be home. Not too bad right?

Today has been not so fun though. I couldn't get to sleep until 4ish last night and I woke up at around 11 to get my student travel card. You have to do it before noon for some reason. It only took five minutes though. So now I have that and I don't know how to use it. Then I met up with the girls I just met and was introduced to another girl from St. Mary's. We went down to the train station hoping to get tickets ahead of time. Turns out you can't do that. But it also turns out that it's a good thing you can't because I don't have my student visa. I don't know who to trust about this student visa shit though. When I got my acceptance letters and when I was applying they said that I didn't need one. But these girls are saying I need one. And since Northern Ireland is part of the UK, if I go, they won't let me back into normal Ireland because my passport only says I'm supposed to be here until the 13th of October. That part makes sense--I am for sure supposed to register with the Guarda sometime, but the international office is supposed to take care of that. But we'll see. We're going down to talk to Deirdre tomorrow. She is the international student coordinator woman. She's really really nice. And she is always sitting up very straight.

Anyway. I had three hours of class. This Friday in Film he's showing Casablanca. I've never seen it and I kind of want to. So, I guess if I'm not in Belfast, not ALL is lost. In Irish I learned colors and classroom words. For two hours. It's a long class.

After that I hung around waiting for people to not be in the kitchen. It took a few hours though 'cause Aoife made dinner for her friends. I didn't go to MUCK today because I just wasn't feeling it and my arms are really sore from Monday still and we didn't end up doing much on Monday anyway. But the guy I met on Monday who knows Aoife--his name is Leo--he was here while I was hiding in my room. And it was weird because the kayaking thing starts at 7 and at 7:10 he knocked on my door and asked if I was going. No man.

Anyway, this morning I was talking to new girl about wanting to go to Rome and Prague and all these places. We both don't really have anyone to go with to those places so why not go together. I didn't know she was going to be in such a hurry though. She had me to over to her room to look at flights and buy them. Well, she talks a lot and fast and I was caught off guard and I ended up buying a ticket for the same weekend that Julian is coming up here. It's really not the end of the world because you can reschedule tickets (with a fee dammit). She was freaking out though because she agreed to go with this group of girls to Paris and Prague and somewhere else and they turned around and said they were just going to Paris for a whole week instead. I guess she was crying about it and everything. That threw me off. But I felt really bad, because when I got back here I had to message her and be like oh guess what, we have to change flights just when you thought it was all figured out. But whatever, we changed them. I'm going to be in Rome from November 16-20th. She's having me miss two days of class, but what the hell. This is all assuming I get that freaking visa in time. I think a month is enough time considering they've been going through them for a month as it is.

So, if I don't get the stupid card in another two weeks, I'll be spending my study week in Ireland. Which is totally fine. There are tons of things I want to see here. And it'll be cheaper than gallivanting around everywhere else.

Oh yes. We passed our inspections. Hurrah. I wasn't here when the woman came in.

I made stir fry for dinner again tonight. It was a lot better this time though because I found this soy sauce that is actually "chili soy sauce." It's not bad. I used that and I threw in some red chilies that Adrianna sent me. It was hot and I was happy. They aren't big on spicy food here. And I cannot find cilantro anywhere. Tomorrow I'm making quesadillas.

Inspections

are tomorrow. I did all the dishes and put them away and cleaned all the counter tops. My shelf in the fridge is perfectly clean. I'm not touching the oven because it was already dirty when we got here and I've only used it once anyway. I'll do the microwave tomorrow if no one else has done it by then. Nate said he'd take out the garbage. Our "hoover" is broken. They don't say vacuum here. I think my room is tidy. A little cluttered, but there's a real lack of space and they can't get too mad at me about that. And our hoover is broken. Carpet never looks clean unless it's been hoovered so I have given up hope. I'm not worried about failing though. I also don't plan on being here in they hours they are coming around--12 to 6.

My new American peeps invited me to go to Belfast with them this weekend! I'm really excited. I have to go down to the Student Union building in the morning to get my FREE student travel card. I should have done it when I first got here, but I didn't want to pay for it. Since I opened an Irish bank account and I'm technically a first year student here, I get one for free. After I get that I'm meeting Madison at noon to walk down to the train station and get tickets. They are around 60 Euro round trip...kind of expensive, but I'm not going to think about it. If I want everything to cheap I'll never get anywhere. My roommate was saying they have different money in northern Ireland. I think they use pounds, but I don't remember right now. That's an even worse exchange rate.

I've been looking at hostels in Madrid too. The highest rated one is booked for the weekend I'm going to be there, but second highest is actually one of the cheapest, so I'm prepping myself to pay that 70 Euro for three nights in a few more days.

So, I bought Ulysses today. I forgot how huge it was. And it's written really weirdly so it's kind of hard to understand. It's going to be tough to get though, but I am determined. For the class I need it for--Modernism--we aren't even reading the whole thing, but I can't just read half a book. It will forever bother me until I suck it up and just finish it. I still bothers me that I didn't finish Without Remorse and The Poinson Wood Bible. They are going on my list.

I came here with two books. Look what happened.

Chlorine

I washed my hair and it still smells like chlorine. Today for MUCK I learned how to be "T rescued." The first time I tried I failed and had to just bail. It's when you're flipped upside down and another boat comes and basically bumps into you and you grab the other boat's nose and pull yourself back up. It was weird. You can't just push down on the other boat 'cause you'll just push them into the water instead of pulling yourself up, so you have to grab onto the other boat and then shift your hips really hard to turn over. The first time I messed up because my hands kept slipping off the other boat. But after that it was okay. I do have these big bruises all over my legs though. Apparently that's something to be proud of. But anyway after the first half hour I was just hanging out in the pool talking to people. The teachers aren't always on the same page so some groups end up doing more than others. And my group just didn't know what to do with itself so we did nothing. It was fine though. I met a guy that actually knows two of my roommates from high school, so I'll probably be seeing more of him.

Poetry class and Greek Myth and Poetry class are my favorites. I really like my Poetry teacher. I've only ever had one woman English teacher that was decent, so I'm always wary of them, but this one is really good. She's funny and interesting and not at all pretentious, and she's American.

I went to the store. It was raining. A weeks worth of groceries for 20 Euro. Not too terrible. I got things like pasta and rice so it should last longer than a week too. I'm going to come back knowing how to cook--I'm not spending money at places on campus to eat anymore. They are way too expensive.

I have to buy Ulysses. I wish I'd have known that. I have a copy at home.

Next Sunday there is a "paddling session" on the Liffey. That will be really cool. It's 10 Euro for all your equipment and transportation. Not bad at all.

My room is a nightmare. Our kitchen is even worse. I hope these stupid inspectors aren't too critical. I don't know what happens if you fail inspections either. They can't kick you out or anything...it's just dumb.

I guess everyone thinks it's going to snow soon. People are freaking me out 'cause they keep talking about how dangerous campus is if it snows--they actually close buildings and cancel lectures. That makes me think it's bad cause it'll snow three feet in Ellensburg and you still have to get your ass to class. But maybe they just aren't used to it here...I hope so. Ice really puts me in a bad mood.

Sleep

That's kind of what I spent the day doing. In my defense, it was pouring and windy all day long.

We're getting into the Odyssey next week for my Classics class, so I'm supposed to read the introduction. I hate reading introductions. And this introduction is seeming to assume that if you're reading the Odyssey you've read the Iliad first. I have not. I haven't read anything by Dante either. I don't know what I was doing in high school.

Woooooo

I just bought a ticket to Madrid! I'm visiting Julian the first week of December. I'm excited.

Hung Over

Yesterday I didn't have real class, but we watched A Star is Born for film--the original one from 1937. It's terribly sad. It was actually sunny after that so I went for a walk down in south campus again, this time with my camera. I didn't go back to the cemetery though. I wasn't feeling up for anything creepy.

When I was almost back to my apartment Nate sticks his head out of a window on the top floor and starts yelling my name. He basically told me to go up to whatever apartment he was in and they had extra food. Well I was starving and not wanting to cook, so I went. It was a little American party. It was Nate (one of my roommates if I haven't mentioned him before) and two girls from St. Mary's college in Indiana. It was fun. There was real Russian vodka and Jameson and Irish cider and Heineken. So yeah. I didn't leave the apartment today...

I ate vegetables for dinner. Terrible. I need to go grocery shopping again tomorrow for sure. What I really need is containers or baggies. I keep having to freeze everything and then thaw it all and refreeze what I don't use. So I have pork but was frozen, and now it's in the fridge so I can use some of it tomorrow. Anyway, "dinner" was at 4:30 because I was bored and hungry, so maybe I'll make a quesadilla in a little while.

My laundry experiment is going well actually. I might have to start ironing though--Madre you'd be appalled at the wrinkles going on.

We have apartment inspections next week. I think it's bullshit. They come in here once a term and make sure your rooms are clean. You have to make sure all your stuff is put away, vacuum your room, clean your bathroom and the desk in your room, clean the oven and microwave and counters and sweep. Nothing outrageous, but what do they care? And they can come in any time on a certain day to inspect. Even if you aren't there they can go in your room and poke around. People would be pissed about this at home.

Should I go to Rome or Paris with my week "study break"? I'm thinking Rome because I've never been there. But Paris has the Louvre...

Slow

Alright well, the last two days have been a little lacking. Yesterday was Wednesday. I had three hours of class. I made a steak with potatoes and asparagus. That was really good. More Shakespeare. It's getting less and less scary which is fantastic. I have to read a few sonnets for poetry class too and today we broke down the pattern of To be or Not to be. That was actually more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I like to listen to different people explain Hamlet and his motives. Anyway, on Wednesday I also got my schedule figured out--for better or worse...MUCK was a little tedious. We were split into groups again and we got a girl who wasn't there on Monday so the rest of us had to wait around until she got caught up. Then all we did was flip ourselves over and then right ourselves by pulling on the side of the pool. On Sunday we are going to a lake or something.

I opened a bank account here today. It was easier than I thought.

I'm going to get a lot of reading done while I'm here.

Great day

Today has been the best day so far. I woke up at a bright and early 10:30 and got to class at 11 exactly. I think Greek mythology is so cool. Poetry was kind of boring today--rhythm and meter. Film was REALLY boring. I was kind of spacing out the whole hour. After that I was done with class for the day.

I check my mail because I've been told I should make sure I'm up to date on that. Well, Adrianna sent me stuff! It was awesome--tortillas, brownies, spices, jarritos, Hamlet, crackers, and some empanadas that didn't quite survive...but I'm sure they were delicious. Oh yes, red chilis too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but they're hot so that's excellent.

I had a few hours until MUCK started and I knew that if I stayed in my room until then I wouldn't go. I was already starting to talk myself out of going, so I ditched all my notebooks and filled my bag with shorts and a tshirt (I forgot a towel) and my book and my journal and I left. I was starving so I got something to eat at this place on campus and sat there for an hour. Someone came and started cleaning the place up at around 5 and I felt like I should leave so I did, but I had almost two hours until the meeting started. I decided to walk around south campus cause I really didn't know what was down there. It's amazing down there. I didn't have my camera with me and in a way I'm kind of glad. I just got to enjoy it without putting everything into a shot.

So, the main part of south campus is a cluster of beautiful old old old buildings with ivy and some other plant growing up all the walls. There's the big huge cathedral with this massively tall bell tower--I now know the bells ring on the hour and then there's a shorter jingle thing every fifteen minutes. I walked around the backside of this tower and there's path that was paved a long time ago. It's one of those perfect walking paths you see pictures of all the time--you can't see the end of it and the trees on either side grow over and make a canopy and there are fallen red and orange leafs covering the path itself. I had to go down there. On one side is a pristine rugby field. They probably mow it every single day whether there's practice or not. When you get down to what looks like it should be the end of the path you'll find that there is no end to the path--it circles the rugby field. One corner goes off down another long path with a canopy made of different trees. I went down there and at the end is what used to be a farm. There's this really great sign that I have to go back and take a picture of. It says you are leaving the campus and entering a farm. That there are dangerous animals and you're taking you life in you hands when you go in there. It really says something like that. I went in anyway cause it very obviously isn't be used anymore. It's amazing in there. Old stone buildings with wooden doors painted bright blue, broken windows, a small pond looking thing overflowing into what was the road and huge empty tent looking things. It was really eerie actually. And I got freaked out when I heard a car drive up and a bunch of guys voices kind of yelling and laughing. So I left.

Back down the path. I only had one more edge of the rugby field to go so I went that way and it keeps going straight. There's another abandoned looking field--there are still rugby end zone post things but plants are in between instead of grass. It's awesome looking. By this time it was getting to be dusk time--still really bright and light outside, but that sideways light that make the best pictures. The path goes into a little park, and then you come to Jesus on the cross...thing. I guess it's a statue. It's really tall and really creepy and I couldn't stop looking at it. Behind it is the creepiest shrubbery canopy ever. I don't know what kind of plants they are by they look like really tall, dark green, incredibly stiff bushes. The two facing off on either side come together at a point probably 20 feet up. These go for like 50 feet and then there's an old stone wall with an open gate--these bush things looking like their growing into the wall. Outside of this thing it was still really bright out but if you look into it was getting dark. It was so creepy and menacing looking I had to go into it. It looked like it came straight out of a movie where you walk down to the end and turn around and there's someone behind you. It freaked me out but I really wanted to know what was behind that gate.

It's a cemetery. Huge grave markers , a tomb, small unmarked crosses, completely surrounded by a ten-ish foot tall wall. It was really cool. And really silent. There were graves facing in on all sides of the wall. It was a lot creepier and I walked a lot faster through that tunnel the second time. And that Jesus thing freaked me out again. But then it was light again and I went back toward the inhabited part of campus. I came upon this beautiful garden in between two buildings with huge windows and nobody inside. Then it was legitimately dusk and everything looked pretty no matter what it was.

I walked around the library twice looking for people before I found them. Half a million people signed up for this club. It's awesome. The pool is pretty small though. We form into groups of five, go inside, get changed, get out to the pool, and the first thing our person says is that today we are going to learn how to get out of the boat when it flips over. I was really hoping that was more of an advanced thing that I wouldn't have to do on the first day. We had to do this stupid "swim test" which was just swimming from one end of the pool to the other without drowning. Everyone passed. Even if it took you ten minutes.

I started freaking out about the being upside down underwater though. I can't do a flip in water. I always get really disorientated. I knew the people weren't going to let me drown or anything, but I was still scared to do it. I just kept picturing myself panicking. So, I was standing there on the side of the pool watching all these other people do it before me and it didn't look that hard--we had to do it twice. The first time they flipped you over and you tap on the sides of the kayak and then they flip you back over. No problem. The second time they flip you over and you tap on the side of the kayak and then you have to pull the "Jesus cord" which frees you from this suction like skirt they put you in. You put it around your waste and the bottom goes all the way around the opening in the kayak--it's so that your boat doesn't fill with water. Anyway, there's no way you're going to get out of a flipped over kayak without that thing coming out with you, so you pull the Jesus cord and then you're supposed to just be able to push yourself out and get to the surface. It doesn't sound that bad. But I was stressing. I was standing there with my arms crossed across my chest for a few minutes and when it was getting closer to my turn I straightened my arms and everything from my elbows down was just tight. I had to focus on trying to unclench my fists and when I would relax they would go back into a fist and my elbows would bend. It was the weirdest thing I've ever felt. So, then that was freaking me out more than anything that you could ever do in a kayak and I just focused on calming the hell down cause I didn't want the rest of me to tense up and then it'd be like having that one muscle disease. Well soon enough it was my turn and I did it and the worst of it is getting water up your nose. I still was disoriented when I pushed myself out of the boat, but people float. So if you just relax, you come out on top of the water.

Then we did other things like rescuing someone who can't flip their boat over or get out and how to hold your paddle and the last thing we did was a relay race. For my team, Team One, the challenge just became steering straight and not falling out of the thing. We won, but barely. The hardest part for me was getting out of the damn thing in a hurry without tipping it over.

I am very very glad that I went. They are doing two trips this weekend. I'll do one them for sure. I missed the sign up for the Glendalough trip cause I just completely forgot about it. It's not far though, I'll get there.

I think I'll actually be able to sleep tonight.

Sundays are weird. Since I don't have class on Friday, Friday feel like Saturday and then Saturday like Sunday, and Sunday is now just this tacked on day where I don't know what to do with myself. What happened this particular weekend is that I stayed up really super late on Saturday and probably would have slept the whole day away today instead of just most of it if it hadn't been for best friend calling to wake me up and read Shakespeare. It really was a good start to the afternoon. That was followed by getting back into bed and reading a frivolous novel for a few hours. Then I realized I had a headache, and that I was going to try washing some socks. This is what that looked like:

Now they are hanging in there on the "clothes horse" that was in the same closet as the water heater. I really don't think they are going to be dry by the morning. I'm going to put off thinking about that until I really need to.

I wasn't hungry until midnight, so then I made some pasta. That was really my only option. I was supposed to go grocery shopping today, but before i knew it it was 4 o'clock and the day was over and then it got dark at 7 and the store closes at 8 so I said oh well. I only have three hours of class tomorrow.

Also tomorrow: kayaking club things starts. I have to go down to south campus at 19:00 with clothes that can handle getting chlorinated for two hours. I don't know what we're going to be doing. Especially in a kind of small swimming pool. I'm really hoping they don't walk us through how to paddle. That would be annoying.

But, family, how was oyster fest? I hope it wasn't raining like that one year. How about the beer-garitas? They sound weird to me, but I'm sure I'll give them a shot when I get back.

Good day

Today has been great. I woke up late, then woke up a little later, and it was raining. It hasn't stopped raining yet. I almost didn't go into Dublin because I'm a lazy loser, but I did. I got on a 3ish pm bus after buying an Irish breakfast which is identical to an American breakfast--egg, sausage, ham, potatoes of some sort, and toast. You aren't going to find pancakes or waffles around here though. I drank tea with milk in it! It was good. I didn't have very high expectations, but it wasn't bad.

I didn't know where I wanted to get off the bus 'cause I wasn't trying to get anywhere specific. Before I left, Mom gave me this article from a travel magazine and the woman that wrote the article talked a lot about the Winding Stair--it's a restaurant and a bookstore. Well, we passed that and I got off at the next stop. I just went to the bookstore part and ended up buying 3: this old copy of Pride and Prejudice (I STILL haven't read that), the Pickwick Papers, and Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. From another store I two book that have been written in the last 20 years. Then one more in one last bookstore. After that I said no more bookstores.

Other than that I just walked around the city. I wandered into the Keeling Gallery. I don't actually know who Keeling is, but I like his paintings. I was all over Grafton street for some reason. That's the high end shopping street, but I was not interested on spending money on anything other than books apparently. If you go to the other end of Grafton street you'll run into Stephen's Green. I saw one corner of it. I don't really get it, cause the part I saw was all closed off. There's a really cool and ornate fence there, but I don't know why a park would be closed at 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday. That's prime park attendance time. I got a little lost back in those streets--they are narrow for sure. Somewhere over there you run into the Temple Bar district. I walked by the Temple Bar again. I was on my way to Christ Church Cathedral but got distracted by alleys and other walkways that looked cooler until I ended up where I started--on Grafton near O'Connell street. So then I didn't know what else to really do with myself and by then it was 6ish and it would be getting dark soon so I started walking to a bus stop and saw a sign for Merrion Square. That's the beginning, or end, of the bus line that goes between Maynooth and Dublin. So I went there. I didn't know it until I was there, but that's the Georgian district--the place with the colorful doors. I forgot until I got back here, but Oscar Wilde lived at No. 1 Merrion Square. I have the perfect opportunity to look at that, but nope. I just have to go back.

When I got back here I talked to Mom on Skype!

The only thing that sucked about today was my camera was dead...