Post #3- I hate thinking of titles and other randomness

Sorry about the lame name of the post but I am so not creative when it comes to these things and I didn't have an overly eventful week to name my blog after. I am just going to write a light blog entry while I have the free time and partiality so I can remember things so this will probably be boring, even though I have been writing pretty regularly in my journal given to me by the awesome Schneider's!

I have been here for 3 full weeks tomorrow and that is so crazy to think about! This week I definitely got more into the flow of classes and realized how much free time I am going to have this semester. Before this week I never really realized how busy I was back home between my job, my clubs, my classes and my sorority I rarely ever had any free time. However this week I have found myself swimming in so much free time I don't know what to do with myself. We had an activities fair at the college and I really wanted to be involved in something so I went to check it out but I was a little disappointed in the prospective clubs. I signed up for the volleyball team but due to my appointment at the GNIB (I will mention later) I was late and missed the tryouts, also I was looking for something a little more of a relaxed team then super competitiveness since I am not very good. My roommate, Jiah, joined the Irish society (or something like this) so I may have to tag along with her to that so I can be involved in something! Anywho I am sure I will become more busy when my classes pick up (which I hope they don't) and I start to travel.

Speaking of traveling I have 3 trips booked so far and I am probably going to book another tomorrow! I am really excited about all of it and wish I didn't have to wait so long for them to come but I am lucky that I will have time to get used to Ireland before I jet off. For my spring break as I mentioned I am traveling to Italy and Paris. Then in April I am going to Madrid to visit my friend Allison and in February I am going to Scotland! There are a few more places that I hope to travel to but besides that I feel like I am going to be seeing most of the places that I wanted too and still have enough time to see Ireland! It is nice that Ireland is small so that a lot of places can be seen in just one day.

So as I said this week wasn't super eventful and sometimes I felt like I needed to be doing more but I just need to remind myself that I am here for a full semester and that I don't need to be doing something every minute. I had my appointment with the Garda, which is the police, where I register to stay in the country and get and GNIB card which I think is like a licence. The GNIB is just like the DMV at home and moves even slower as we had to wait for over 3 hours and bring a bunch of documents which they barley even looked at. On the bright side I am allowed to work in Ireland now, even though I probably wont be getting a job.

On Saturday I finally got to tour inside the Dublin Castle which I have seen from the outside but I have been wanting to check out inside. It was really cool to see how it was furnished and so hard to believe that people actually lived such lavish lives. I also saw Trinity College which is home to the famous Library and The Book of Kells. We decided to skip going into see it since it was a fee of 8 euro which I think is pretty redic considering I just want to look in there for a second! Maybe if I have any money at the end of my stay I can pay to see it. I think I have gotten to know my way around the city pretty well for not even living in the city center and I am glad that there is a bus that takes us downtown so easily.

Today it was the first time all week that the sun came out for more than an hour and it was a beautiful day so I decided that I would finally go and find the sea. It was a really easy ride and then I found a path by the water which was so nice and relaxing! It was good to be outside without being pelted with rain or wind. The water was blocked a fence and train tracks and I really wanted to be a little closer so when I saw a sketchy looking bridge I definitely had to cross it. I couldn't find anywhere to lock up my bike so I totted it up the skinny stairs with me and on the other side of the bridge I was finally at the sea! I was a little disappointed though because there were people there who I thought was a father and daughter until they started kissing! It was pretty uncomfortable for me so I had to retreat, but I am definitely going to go back. Anyway I came to a really cute little town with really adorable cafes which I am going to try and eat at sometime soon.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am living in Ireland because some days when exploring the city it all feels so normal and natural and its so weird to me how it can feel so normal when just a month ago I couldn't even imagine what being in a foreign city was like. Its important to remember how lucky I am to have these experiences. These feelings that I am having are pretty hard to put to words so sorry for the confusion.

Anyway one Irish girl I met asked what the biggest difference was here and what was most surprising which made me reflect on some of the differences that I have experienced since I have been here, I will list some of the things I can think of:

• Irish people are very environmentally aware, at the grocery store you have to pay if you want plastic bags and everyone brings their own bags. You also have to bag everything yourself and the cashier usually just stares at you to hurry up which puts on a lot of pressure.
• Time- It seems like the Irish people have hardly any regard for time, sometimes my professors show up late and most of the time they continue teaching even after class was supposed to end--this makes me very anxious when I have back to back classes. If a professor at Marquette kept going way later people would get angry and probably some would walk out but everyone just sits here calmly. 
• Most of the Irish students go home every weekend. On Friday I saw tons of people leaving with rolly suitcases. Its so weird that campus is so quiet on Fridays and Saturdays and rowdy during the week. People like to go out basically any day of the week especially Wednesdays. Pretty different from Marquette. Its also weird to me that even though students live close enough to go home every weekend they still live on campus during the week. 

Well there are plenty of other differences but this is getting long and boring so I will wrap it up! I added some photos from the Castle and a bonus photo at the end!

A room in the Castle 

                     

The Kings Throne

Trinity College

LOL that photo of Kaity on the left cracked me up so much I had to make a comparison (sorry Kaity)

Cheers for now!

-A