Hi everyone,
Just taking a break from cleaning my old house. We have a new house! I am almost completely moved in. By the end of today my share of the old house will be cleaned and all my stuff will be in my new house and pretty much unpacked! The new house is a four story town house/ apartment. It is in a complex located right near the docks. Very close to where I lived last time. Yesterday I saw two seals walking to class, they are often near the docks. One of them got so close I could see it's tummy. So cool!
There is also a resident kitty in the complex. It's name is Stig (for those of you who watch Top Gear). I think this is as close as I am going to get to having a pet cat for a while. It is so sweet and so tiny.
We also have a new housemate as of tomorrow. She seems really nice, so fingers crossed!
My room is HUGE! It feels like a hotel room at this point. I haven't lived in a room this big full time in years. It has a double bed and a single bed (great for when friends come to visit). It is en-suite and has a desk. Everything I wanted and more! New mattresses and more storage than I know what to do with. All for less than I am paying at my old place! I am over the moon this all worked out so well.
Pictures will come once I am all moved in and no longer have a giant pile of stuff in the middle of the floor.
More to update on, but I need to get back to cleaning! I should have cable and Internet in my new place tomorrow, so should be soon for a follow up post.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
New House (fingers crossed)
Hello all,
So it's been a wonderful start of the week. Yesterday I had my second class of Polish lessons. They are free through the college and I finally am able to go because I don't have Monday night classes. It's a bit tricky...similar enough to Russian to be confusing. But, I am loving them. This is in part because of the language and in part because the teacher always brings load of amazing Polish snacks for us to eat. It is a really fun class, only like 7 of us in the course and she focuses a lot on Polish pop-culture. So it's a nice mix of learning a language and getting a taste of Polish culture. It is also helpful because it is an excellent opportunity to pick up some ideas and tips for when/if I do end up teaching English in Georgia next year.
I might/ probably have a new house. I just got off the phone with the woman who works for the agency that lets it out and she said she needs to pass it by the owner to make it official, but she doesn't anticipate any problems with that. It is cheaper than what we have now and my room is huge! Room for me to put in a thrift store desk :) Fingers crossed it goes through. I have been sooo busy with viewings and making appointments, and trying to convince people that even though I am a student I will make a good tenant. I have gotten considerably better at talking people in to things...which is an extremely useful skill. We will have a fourth bedroom to fill, but one of my other housemates said he would spearhead the search. We will have a six month renewable lease which is perfect, they were originally asking for a one year lease, and possibly a parking space that we can rent out....(this is Shane's baby, but if it works that means about 80 euro a month we can put towards electricity). Our old contract was just that we had to give one months notice...so the race was on to find a new place before the end of the month.
Went to a candidate forum for the upcoming elections last night. That was interesting. I was none too impressed with the candidates and none too impressed with the audience. So much obnoxious heckling. Don't people understand that part of a democracy is allowing others to speak their piece even if you don't agree with them? Apparently not...blerg. And it appears Irish politicians are just as (un)skilled at question dodging as their American counterparts. At least I know that the American system might not be as awful as everyone here would like to believe :) Oh but there was something that was kind of cool, most of the candidates delivered their pleasantries in Irish and English.
Tonight there is a free comedy gig on at the college as part of the NUIG arts festival. Hoping it is good, but even if it's just ok...IT'S FREE. Gosh I am going to miss college!
Last week I went to see Paul Collier speak. He is a prof. at Oxford, works with the IMF, WB and UN as a consultant for economic development. I would highly recommend reading some of his stuff. Interesting and extremely intelligent guy.
Classes are going. My Human Rights and Development class is still a bit odd. And by a bit I mean super. No one but the professor seems to be getting anything out of the class. It is all Masters level Poli. Sci. Now I know a little bit of Poli. Sci., but I am by no means qualified to discuss let alone understand development theory at a masters level. I am not alone...last class one of my classmates turned to me and said "I can comfortably said I learned nothing today." Thank goodness I am writing my term paper for my economics class and not for this class!
I am loving Galway though and am up to my eyeballs in working on my papers. Both topic which I actually really enjoy. So all in all this has been an excellent kick off to the new year. Oh and so far I have managed to keep my new years resolution to be more active and eat at least 4 of my 5 fruit and veggies a day. Sam and I bought a badminton set and a soccer ball. So we've been doing that when the weather is nice. It is still too cold for kayaking...
Hope everyone is doing well!
So it's been a wonderful start of the week. Yesterday I had my second class of Polish lessons. They are free through the college and I finally am able to go because I don't have Monday night classes. It's a bit tricky...similar enough to Russian to be confusing. But, I am loving them. This is in part because of the language and in part because the teacher always brings load of amazing Polish snacks for us to eat. It is a really fun class, only like 7 of us in the course and she focuses a lot on Polish pop-culture. So it's a nice mix of learning a language and getting a taste of Polish culture. It is also helpful because it is an excellent opportunity to pick up some ideas and tips for when/if I do end up teaching English in Georgia next year.
I might/ probably have a new house. I just got off the phone with the woman who works for the agency that lets it out and she said she needs to pass it by the owner to make it official, but she doesn't anticipate any problems with that. It is cheaper than what we have now and my room is huge! Room for me to put in a thrift store desk :) Fingers crossed it goes through. I have been sooo busy with viewings and making appointments, and trying to convince people that even though I am a student I will make a good tenant. I have gotten considerably better at talking people in to things...which is an extremely useful skill. We will have a fourth bedroom to fill, but one of my other housemates said he would spearhead the search. We will have a six month renewable lease which is perfect, they were originally asking for a one year lease, and possibly a parking space that we can rent out....(this is Shane's baby, but if it works that means about 80 euro a month we can put towards electricity). Our old contract was just that we had to give one months notice...so the race was on to find a new place before the end of the month.
Went to a candidate forum for the upcoming elections last night. That was interesting. I was none too impressed with the candidates and none too impressed with the audience. So much obnoxious heckling. Don't people understand that part of a democracy is allowing others to speak their piece even if you don't agree with them? Apparently not...blerg. And it appears Irish politicians are just as (un)skilled at question dodging as their American counterparts. At least I know that the American system might not be as awful as everyone here would like to believe :) Oh but there was something that was kind of cool, most of the candidates delivered their pleasantries in Irish and English.
Tonight there is a free comedy gig on at the college as part of the NUIG arts festival. Hoping it is good, but even if it's just ok...IT'S FREE. Gosh I am going to miss college!
Last week I went to see Paul Collier speak. He is a prof. at Oxford, works with the IMF, WB and UN as a consultant for economic development. I would highly recommend reading some of his stuff. Interesting and extremely intelligent guy.
Classes are going. My Human Rights and Development class is still a bit odd. And by a bit I mean super. No one but the professor seems to be getting anything out of the class. It is all Masters level Poli. Sci. Now I know a little bit of Poli. Sci., but I am by no means qualified to discuss let alone understand development theory at a masters level. I am not alone...last class one of my classmates turned to me and said "I can comfortably said I learned nothing today." Thank goodness I am writing my term paper for my economics class and not for this class!
I am loving Galway though and am up to my eyeballs in working on my papers. Both topic which I actually really enjoy. So all in all this has been an excellent kick off to the new year. Oh and so far I have managed to keep my new years resolution to be more active and eat at least 4 of my 5 fruit and veggies a day. Sam and I bought a badminton set and a soccer ball. So we've been doing that when the weather is nice. It is still too cold for kayaking...
Hope everyone is doing well!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Typos
Hiya all,
It has been brought to my attention by my lovely mom that there are a number of typos in my blog. I went back and read through some of the posts and am a bit embarrassed. It seems that I tend to just the leave the end off of words :) I will be making a more concerted effort to read over my posts!
It has been brought to my attention by my lovely mom that there are a number of typos in my blog. I went back and read through some of the posts and am a bit embarrassed. It seems that I tend to just the leave the end off of words :) I will be making a more concerted effort to read over my posts!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Pt.1 of the trip home
A few highlights from my trip home. So good to see the family and be back in Florida. There is something really exotically beautiful about parts of Florida which I never fully appreciated until coming to Ireland.
In contrast to the last post
In lighter news...Max dyed and cut my hair and I am loving it. I have never gotten so many compliments. He dyed it a silver blonde and then shaved one side short and left the other side longish.
Oh and just a side note for the parents. Don't worry the earring is not a piercing it is just a cuff :)
Moscow
Just turned on the news and saw the coverage on the attacks in Moscow. So sad. Also, scary to think what this is going to mean for Russia's relationship with the Caucasus. Especially since Putin's major focus is security. Tough situation.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Back in Ireland
So Christmas holiday is over. I returned to Ireland to find that my shower, which had been a bit wonky since I moved in finally broke, and the heating was also broken. After not sleeping for two days and a 13 hour layover this was not a pleasant discovery. But, shower is fixed and now works better than ever. I am over the moon about being able to have a full pressure, hot shower that doesn't oscillate between freezing and burning. The heating is getting fixed soon. I let the housemates take the reigns on that one. It has really warmed up here and we found an electric heater in a closet so that is just fine.
It's good to back in the swing of classes.
I had such a wonderful break. It was so nice to see everyone in MN. I am am so fortunate to have been able to go up there and that everyone was free to see me. I love Ireland, but I can't help but miss my college friends.It is weird how close you grow to people when you live with them for 4 years.
Then being home was great. Spending time with family is always so nice. They spoiled me, of course, it was restaurants, daytrips and movies. Christmas dinner featured a homemade turducken which was amazing!
I am also so glad I wasn't here for Christmas; sounds like the theme was ice, bursting pipes, transportation being shut down and no water. The whole country basically shut down for a month. Thank goodness my parents didn't come visit me for Christmas!
Classes so far seem good. I am taking Business and Human Rights and Human Rights and Development. I didn't go into the course planning to have my focus be so much on the business and economics side of things, but I am enjoying learning about them since I know next to nothing about the topic. Also, I think one of the largest challenges facing human rights is convincing people that it is economically feasible to support and fund human right initiatives.
I am finally over my killer jet lag and am finally able to function without 13 hours of sleep. Haven't been doing too much. Been spending a fair amount of time with Sam's family; catching up on Christmas and stuff.
I have been eating my weight in pudding and brown sauce. This is by far my favorite food of Ireland. It is a spiced sausage mixed with grain, kind of like a haggis. There are two kinds white and black. Black originally was made with blood, but the cheap stuff I buy I am pretty sure it just dyed or something. And then brown sauce is almost like a steak sauce. It is the consistency of ketchup and is made from tomatoes and fruit, with a strong vinegar kick. It can also be used on just about anything in my opinion.
My favorite club in Galway has closed due to the economy. I heard from a former employee it costs 23,000 Euro to run a week. I have absolutely no concept of how that could be possible and think my facts might be a bit off. The entire business went under meaning that over 150 people have lost their jobs. Two bars, a club and a chain of liquor stores were all owned by the same guy and all of them have had to close their doors. I think the December weather really was the nail in the coffin.
In happier news I got one of my grades and was pleased with it. Four points away from an A which is killing me. But, having talked to others about it, and having heard that the prof. is apparently a hard grader I am pretty content. He said it was very well written:) YAYAYAYAY! So I feel pretty good about next semester. I am so happy that I did my distinction paper at Olaf because it really did an amazing job of preparing me for writing papers. This course has really made me realize what an education I got at Olaf.
Anyways sorry about the length of the post, so much to update on!
Hope everyone is well!
It's good to back in the swing of classes.
I had such a wonderful break. It was so nice to see everyone in MN. I am am so fortunate to have been able to go up there and that everyone was free to see me. I love Ireland, but I can't help but miss my college friends.It is weird how close you grow to people when you live with them for 4 years.
Then being home was great. Spending time with family is always so nice. They spoiled me, of course, it was restaurants, daytrips and movies. Christmas dinner featured a homemade turducken which was amazing!
I am also so glad I wasn't here for Christmas; sounds like the theme was ice, bursting pipes, transportation being shut down and no water. The whole country basically shut down for a month. Thank goodness my parents didn't come visit me for Christmas!
Classes so far seem good. I am taking Business and Human Rights and Human Rights and Development. I didn't go into the course planning to have my focus be so much on the business and economics side of things, but I am enjoying learning about them since I know next to nothing about the topic. Also, I think one of the largest challenges facing human rights is convincing people that it is economically feasible to support and fund human right initiatives.
I am finally over my killer jet lag and am finally able to function without 13 hours of sleep. Haven't been doing too much. Been spending a fair amount of time with Sam's family; catching up on Christmas and stuff.
I have been eating my weight in pudding and brown sauce. This is by far my favorite food of Ireland. It is a spiced sausage mixed with grain, kind of like a haggis. There are two kinds white and black. Black originally was made with blood, but the cheap stuff I buy I am pretty sure it just dyed or something. And then brown sauce is almost like a steak sauce. It is the consistency of ketchup and is made from tomatoes and fruit, with a strong vinegar kick. It can also be used on just about anything in my opinion.
My favorite club in Galway has closed due to the economy. I heard from a former employee it costs 23,000 Euro to run a week. I have absolutely no concept of how that could be possible and think my facts might be a bit off. The entire business went under meaning that over 150 people have lost their jobs. Two bars, a club and a chain of liquor stores were all owned by the same guy and all of them have had to close their doors. I think the December weather really was the nail in the coffin.
In happier news I got one of my grades and was pleased with it. Four points away from an A which is killing me. But, having talked to others about it, and having heard that the prof. is apparently a hard grader I am pretty content. He said it was very well written:) YAYAYAYAY! So I feel pretty good about next semester. I am so happy that I did my distinction paper at Olaf because it really did an amazing job of preparing me for writing papers. This course has really made me realize what an education I got at Olaf.
Anyways sorry about the length of the post, so much to update on!
Hope everyone is well!
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