Surf Club Weekend, International Friends, The Temper Trap, Halloween and...Midterms.

I haven’t written in a while and there is much to catch up on:

1)   1.) I went on the Surf Club weekend trip to Rossnowlaugh, which is close to Donegal in the Republic.  It’s so weird having to change my pounds sterling to euros just to go to another place 2 hours away.  I really got to know the other surfers well and we had a couple surf sessions each day---I was so sore, but I am improving!  There were good swells and I loved being able to wake up in the mornings and see the beach from our window J I also got to know the 3 other internationals better: My friend Lotte from Belgium, Daniela from Germany and Jusse from Finland!  Good craic indeed!

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2)  2.) Early on in my study abroad here, I signed up for ‘International Friends’, which is an organization that connects international students with local Irish families.  I was very luck to score 2 such families! My friend Ellie invited me to go with her to her family’s house, where I had a most delicious home-cooked meal, sat by a cozy fire and had wonderful conversation.  Politics, religion, music and so many other topics were broached, and it was quite a learning experience.  I love just spending time with local people and getting to experience the true Irish hospitality!  My second family (the one allocated to me) consists of a mother, Lesley, and her 14 year-old son Duncan.  She invited me over for lunch, along with her sister and young nephews.  To my surprise, after lunch we went to Whiterocks beach to go dune-surfing! 3 little boys and I lived it up sliding with sleds, on very VERY steep dunes, I might add! I always miss being around kids when I am at school and so it made me happy J

3)   3.) Last weekend was packed with fun…I took the train down to Belfast with a couple Belgian and German friends, in order to see a fabulous band ‘The Temper Trap’ perform!  It was such a fun little trip with shopping, dinner, the concert, meeting some Aussie’s and Kiwis and our hostel was SO nice as far as hostels go.  I got a short nap in on Sunday, and then took a bus full of internationals to Londonderry for Halloween festivities. WOW.  That town does Halloween big.  First there was this amazing parade, which was actually quite spooky. Lots of paper lanterns, paper monsters, costumed dancers and floats.  I have never seen a parade like this one; it was definitely uniquely Irish.  Then there were fireworks over the water, and pub craziness. It’s so cute, lots of groups of middle-aged/older women and men dress up and go out too J

4)   4.) This past week was midterms however…A.K.A. hell week. I had three essays of about 8-12 pages due, and so it was time to buckle down.  I pretty much was a hermit loner in my room for Monday-Thursday.  Then came the chaos: (this gives you a little idea of how Ireland runs…) the day my essays are due, and which I of course decided to print them out, is the day the ENTIRE campus’s internet, network, printers etc. decided to shut down.  So nobody could print anything, people were having breakdowns (myself included…I had about 3 hours of sleep after spending an entire day writing) and tension was high.  Overall I think Ireland is a little lax in the technological advances department J Eventually everything got sorted out, but it was definitely one of the worst days here.