Too Much For One Concise Title

I hope you're all having a great start to February. This month may bring frigid temperatures and a Groundhog we always hope doesn't see his shadow, but February also means March (and Spring!) is right around the corner, a month I am most definitely looking forward to in Ireland. It will be full of leprechauns, a Doyle European invasion, and my 21st birthday!

For now, though, I am content living in the present. Everything has been great! Only 7 weeks until the end of the second semester? Seriously unreal. I realized that I have been mostly writing about my out-of-school life because, honestly, that's what takes up the majority of my time here. But despite how I make it sound, the answer is yes, I do indeed attend classes! This semester I am taking: Introduction to Irish Traditional Music; the continuation of the Spanish class I was in last semester; Science in Society; Introduction to Anglo-Irish Literature; Introduction to Jazz; and the continuation of Social Theory from last semester. Six classes seems like a lot, but luckily it's about the same amount of classroom time as I would have at Holy Cross . . . so it all evens out. Luckily, I am getting to fulfill my Natural Science core requirement over here because I definitely did not want to be stuck taking some type of Biology topics class my Senior year. While I am not one to value the sciences, Science and Society really isn't that bad. Totally bearable to have for one hour twice a week.

My Mom believes I must be "missing something" because I seriously don't have any day-to-day classwork. All of my assignments are papers and tests that aren't for a couple of weeks. Thus, the lack of mention of my academics. Kind of awesome -- as long as I don't get caught with about 7 papers due right before I leave in May. Sound familiar? Kind of what happened to me back in December. We shall learn from our mistakes!

Last week was great on all fronts. I've started running outside, so thankfully I caught the running bug as the weather is slowly getting better. I'll suffer inside if the weather is dreadful, but I definitely prefer running through the beautiful park next to the river rather than inside on a treadmill.

My plan for this past weekend, along with running, was having a little photo shoot of the UCC Campus and the city. I've realized that it has been many months now and I feel like I have never posted a legit Cork album. How dare I not show off this beautiful city! So that was the plan . . . but Mother Nature decided to intervene and bring along rain storm after rain storm after rain storm for the past couple of days (what did I just say about the weather getting better??). Hopefully sometime soon the weather will cooperate because now it is getting sunnier during the day (instead of just dim and cloudy as it was for most of the winter) and it really is gorgeous some days. So instead of the photo shoot, Kristin, Tracie, and I went out to dinner on Saturday night to a great restaurant called Amicus.

Definitely best part of the week - dinner last night. OH MAN. One of my flatmates, Odelit, had her Mom here visiting for two weeks from China and she made all of us the most unbelievable dinner last night. There must have been a hundred dumplings! Eating true, authentic Chinese dumplings was like a religious experience; I must have eaten twenty dumplings! I wish I was exaggerating. Odelit's Mom told us there was a tiny bit of chocolate in one of the dumplings and whoever ate it was granted luck for the entire Chinese year. Guess who got the chocolate?! I'll take a little Chinese luck! Wendy and Sophia have been teaching me random Chinese words, like "delicious" and "Happy New Year!" because it was their new year last Wednesday. Yeah, I'm basically fluent . . . Who knew I would come to Ireland and learn Chinese!

Upcoming highlights - Yoga class tomorrow night, seeing my first Camogie (Girls Hurling) match, and probably baking more banana bread. It's too good!

Slan!

Wendy, Sophia, and Odelit's Mom
making the dumplings!

Wasn't exaggerating - SO many dumplings!