My Week in Review

Well, I've been here for three weeks now and I guess I'm still adjusting. I've done some cool stuff but it has also been hard in some ways. Meeting people is easy, I've met a lot of people who seem really great and who I really like. But making friends is tougher. I don't feel like I've really made a lot of friends yet, because I don't really have a mastery on that awkward transition where you move from saying hey to someone when you run into them in the hall to calling them to hang out. There's lots of people I like, but there's not really anybody yet who I really spend time with outside of the allotted time we're supposed to spend together for a club (sailing club) or a society (FanSci). That being said, I'm still hopeful for this changing. I was supposed to go sailing yesterday and I didn't make it, partly because I've been feeling sick the past few days and partly because it was freezing and raining and going out on the lake sounded really awful. But once I really jump into things with them, I'm hoping to get to know them better. FanSci especially has a few members that I just think are really great, and they invited me to come up to Cork with them this weekend for a gaming convention, so I'm hoping that'll be kind of a turning point for me. Like, after going up there and living with them all in a hostel for a weekend, we'll be more apt to do stuff together afterward. Hopefully! Another thing that has been frustrating and really bringing me down is my internet situation over here. The internet at my house is really hopelessly bad. Even on a good day, I can barely use Skype and on a bad day, I can forget about even being able to check my email while I'm at home. It just kills me because internet is the only way I can get a hold of people from home. I was hoping with Skype I'd be able to call people whenever I wanted and the fact that I can't is making me feel really homesick. I've been using the wireless internet at school, which is a lot better, but with the time difference it's kind of awkward to walk all the way to campus at midnight to be able to call someone at home when it's 7 for them. So I guess I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about that. And while I've definitely started to get a hang of the food situation, my eating habits are still far from being back to normal and I think it's weirding up my body a little.

So no, it isn't a cakewalk over here but in the past week, I have definitely done some fun stuff too! Last weekend I got invited to a house party with the sailing club and, like I was saying, everyone seems really nice and I want to get to know them better. After the sailing club meeting last week, me and Melissa got to hang out with Charles and Aidan for a while and chat and it was a nice time. Aidan started to teach  me some basic stuff about sailing, like some of the fancy lingo, and it got me really excited to try it out. So it sucks that I didn't go yesterday, but hopefully I'll get another crack at it soon.

On Wednesday, I had to register for my seminar classes and it was pretty much a huge nightmare. I've only ever done online registration... but we had to actually queue up, outside in the cold. I got there hours before registration opened and there was already a huge line in front of us. The people who worked at the college seemed really irritated that we were queuing up so early, but I don't know what they expected because there were only three spots available for visiting students in each seminar. So once registration did open, the more popular classes were filling up within seconds. Luckily, I got the classes I needed - an English seminar called "Film and Shakespeare" and Irish language for beginners, which I'm really excited about. Wednesdays are also good days because FanSci has game night in the evening, so I went there and hung out for a while and played some board games with a cool guy I met named Barry. And after game night, another friend of mine, Fergal invited me out with them to the pub so I was pretty excited that they wanted me to come along, and that's when they convinced me to come to Cork with them! We had a couple drinks and talked about Science Fiction, it was a pretty good time too. (A lot of people here are pretty into Doctor Who so that gives me something to talk about people with. Melissa's friend Peter is also really into DW and Torchwood, he's like a closet nerd, and we like to chat about it. We're trying to get Melissa into it, he had us over one day earlier in the week to watch a few episodes and it was fun.) But overall, that's kind of what we do. We go out to pubs a lot and talk to people and listen to music.

Saturday there was also an anime convention at the school. It was a small one and I didn't really know a lot of people, but it was pretty fun. For one thing, I met LittleKuriboh and MasakoX - which I'm sure means nothing to anyone reading this blog but they're internet personalities that I look up to, so that was exciting. And they're awesome guys and really funny!

I also got to play video games and wear my Amy Pond costume! Not a lot of people recognized it - I guess it is pretty obscure, especially when I don't have a Doctor to go with it... but I think it came out well anyway.

And yesterday and today I've been feeling really sick so I haven't been doing much other than sitting around at home, playing my banjolele. Yes, I just wanted to brag that I have a banjolele now. It. Is. Awesome. I've been practicing a lot but I haven't started busking yet. But I'm planning to do some street performing and some open mic nights. It's SO COOL. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of me with it yet, but expect one soon. And maybe something extra special too. But yeah, my banjolele is awesome. It plays the same as a ukulele so I don't have to learn anything, but I want to memorize a pretty good portfolio of songs and hopefully I can go out and busk with it soon. Can't wait!

Anyway, I'll try to blog more regularly in the future. I guess that's about all I have to say about the past week, other than it's foggy and I can prove it.