It's Raining...Boo!!

First day of classes was okay, found a couple that I really like, am dropping another....By the end of today I should have 9 classes total, which isn't too bad.
It started raining here this morning and unfortunately my umbrella is still at Ali and Nicole's. But I do suppose I can count my lucky stars that I'm the only roommate who is not sick. Vanessa and Jenny (Illinois) went to the doctor today with Jenny (Sweden) not looking all that great herself. I'm trying to eat well and take my vitamins and am praying that I won't get sick later.
I might be getting internet tonight if I can find the desire to walk to City Centre, which if I do there will be more pictures. I need to get a nice scarf and some gloves, thankfully Chris bought me a new wallet so I can pay him back during Christmas and I don't have to worry about that now. However, I think two of my blisters are infected as they look rather red and angry so I also need to add band aids and Neosporane (sp?) to my list. That and hitting the bank as well as the Embassy sometime today or tomorrow and my days are filled.
Tonight is the Freshers Ball which should be interesting, all the new and international students meet at the pub tonight. Get to meet some new people which could be kind of nice, as well as tomorrow is the Fresher Mixer where we meet and sign up for some clubs and the such which should be nice.
But I do suppose I am rather rambling and should probably get home to nurse the sick roommates.

I got a Purple People Eater Phone!!

Today has been really good, uneventful but good. After catching up on some sleep, I woke up at about 11:30 with the first of the two boys leaving. Vanessa, Jenny and I ate breakfast in the kitchen, leaving the door closed so we didn’t or hear anything we weren’t supposed to. Finally at almost 1, Jenny’s boy left which left her rather aggravated as she had been trying to get him to leave since like 10. So after showering, I began my laundry which with our tiny washer took three loads for three days worth of clothes, which are now hanging up in my room to dry, I’m betting by day three they will still be damp. After cleaning up a bit, I walked down to Ashley and Heather’s house and we went to Park Centre where I was told to go to City Centre to go get my phone, which pretty much made my day. After heading back to the house to get enough money to pay for my phone, I ate some lunch and met Jenny (Sweden) and Torstein (Norway), when Torstein decided he was going to give me my Birthday gift early...

It is a pencil drawing of an angel that is in a cemetary close by...it's so intricate I was shocked.

After eating some lunch, we all headed down to City Centre. I got my amazing purple phone:

which means I was able to talk to Mom and Chris for free....in the UK all incoming calls and texts are free which is extremely exciting! Getting this phone felt like such a breath of fresh air, being cut off from all contact was the primary source of my homesickness, but that is slowly fading as well.

We cooked in the kitchen as Jenny felt bad about my birthday being so bad and made some amazing Russian recipe chicken courtesy of Vanessa and steamed veggies with rice from Jenny (Illinois). Classes start on Monday, so we'll see how well that goes...*crosses fingers*

Happy Birthday...Let me steal your purse...

Happy Birthday to ME!!!! Yea this had to be the most memorable birthday.

It started out fairly well, I didn’t get to call my family and Chris like I had planned since St. Mary’s was closed. So undeterred I was determined to get a phone, my alarm clock here as been possessed adding or subtracting up to two hours every night and I needed a reliable clock as school was starting shortly. Vanessa, Jenny from Sweden and I headed to the cell phone shop, unfortunately they were out of the cheap phone, so we when grocery shopping and bought cleaning supplies for the house. During this transaction I move my wallet to my front pocket of my backpack as it wouldn’t fit in with the groceries. After returning to the house, we left again and walked down to the City Centre. We walked into a crowded clothing store to see if we could find any deals. While amongst all the bumping and jostling, I was robbed…lost at least 100 pounds, my check card, check blanks, driver’s license, the assortment. Needless to say I cried, nothing like stress, homesickness, and being robbed to make you happy. The police officer was very understanding and honest, so I have to go the Consulate on Monday or Tuesday to get another ID so I can go out at night, although for the most part once they hear the American accent they don’t seem to care.

Once I got home from the robbing and walking home in the rain, I found that the girls had planned a night out in my honor. Ali (Georgia) and Nicole (Pennsylvania) made me cupcakes and the girls from Spain made a pasta salad. We went to a renaming night for a pub, it was crowded and we were obviously younger than the normal crowd. Lessons learned from the pub: Guiness and black currant taste quite nice, boys from Norway can’t dance, boys from Belfast have no rhythm, and being tipsy plus heels equals not the greatest combination. However, the girls made sure that everyone knew it was my birthday with this lovely piece of work...

So after a couple hours of drinking and dancing we decided to make the trek home. I was fairly sober at this point, only wobbling because my feet were so badly swollen. Unfortunately due to some miscommunication the taxi dropped us off at St. Mary’s, approximately 6 blocks from my house. As I walked along I encountered the shirtless drunk who yelled and generally made a fool of himself and reminded me why I don’t get drunk.

Shortly after arriving home, I was summoned to the front door to let a roommate in with a boy, and not an hour after that I was awoken by yet another roommate entering with a boy. I need to invest in some earplugs here shortly.

Holy Pictures Batman!!

So as I left the computer lab on the 25th I walked home to an empty house and was unfortunately locked out. Well, let me rephrase that, I had my key, but as it is a skeleton key no one had yet shown me the proper pushing and pulling and twisting of said door and key to unlock the house. I ended up standing out for only about an hour, until a girl and her boy friend walked past and the boy was able to work the key for me. After that excitement, I decided to take a picture tour of the house for all of you following along :D

The front door with the retched skeleton key hole….the door can’t go over the welcome mat hence its placement in the middle of the hall….as well as the threshold of my room

The left side of my room….that box is the electrical box which we have to top up (buy more energy units) about every week and a half…it is EXTREMELY annoying when we run out of electricity in the middle of the night and the box starts to beep

The back wall of my room….with the extremely large window to the street….it’s nice in the daytime and wretched at night…I always wake up shaking

My bed, I found that duvet and duvet cover for under £20, I was proud of myself…That little niche next to my bed stores my luggage and my dirty clothes

The view of my room from the window…and no that heater does not work (I am going to be so happy to have heat in December)

The right of the living room…the TV doesn’t work but the fireplace does, we just have to ask the landlord if we can use it

The left of the living room….yes it is such a small room that the door can’t open all the way

The left of the kitchen….we were still trying to figure out how to fit everything in…next to the stove is our tiny clothes washer….you can fit about 3 jeans in there and that’s it and I never knew how much fun it could be to attempt to dry clothes with no clothes dryer, no fan, and no heat

The other side of the kitchen from back by the 2 cabinets….this house is tiny

This is the staircase….behind this picture is the door, first door on the left leads to my room, the second leads to the living room.

This is Vanessa’s room, she’s from Germany and is pretty much amazing….she’s so cool and chill and kinda got me addicted to Little Britain. We’re very similar in temperament and ideas.

This is Jenny from Illinois’s room…she’s really cool, a bit of a partier but a really sweet girl. She’s a vegetarian and is obsessive about reading and her books…in her words “I’d rather eat dirt than sell my any of my books.”

This is the shower, yes there is a cabinet in the shower, no we don’t have a shower curtain. The tub is up so high that if I forget about it I tend to fall, oh and yes we have hot water, just no water pressure.
The necessities of a bathroom….pretty self-explanatory

The only full length mirror in the house….luckily I really don’t use one :D and that's our vacuum

Stairway to Jenny from Sweden’s room…

Our skylight….classy ain’t it?
Jenny’s room….nice girl, a little strange, has an obsession with leather and dog collarsOur back alley security system, yes folks that would be broken glass cemented to the brick…I feel safe now

Our back alley through the window in the living room….that giant green thing is our oil supply and behind that is the trash can, nothing like dancing and shimmying to and from the garbage can. Oh and yes our kitchen window gives the amazing view of a brick wall.

And now for mom as I know she worries about what I will be eating…

And the fridge has since been stuffed with food from all 4 of us since this pictures….we are not starving we just need to remember to eat at proper intervals. :D

So after my little photo tour, I cleaned the kitchen and watched a DVD, rather calming until the roommates came home. We stayed up a bit and talked and then went to bed, rather boring for my first 24 hours in Belfast.

It's a greener South Dakota with sheep

So as soon as I arrived I was informed that everyone was going to a disco, so I unpacked quickly and got my room in order and proceeded to a place called The Box….it felt a little like a middle school dance with no one dancing. However the lack of dancing could not compete with the lack of clothes worn by the girls…skirts barely below the bottom, breasts barely restrained, it was crazy. The nice thing was I did bond with my roommate Vanessa very well, we both have the same outlook on life and partying.
After the disco we went home to find that the house was beeping meaning we had little electricity left which is always great as the electricity box and source of the noise was in my room. However, we did find a way to quiet it and proceeded to get ready for bed when I realized how frigid my room was and how frigid it would get. I slept in fuzzy sweatpants, a t-shirt, fuzzy socks, and a sweatshirt with the hood over my head and still woke up shivering. I was woken up at about 2 as Jenny cam down the stairs holding a hairbrush and other Jenny right behind her with a hanger; apparently they heard some men outside talking and thought they were in the house. Yeah I just kinda shook my head and went back to sleep.
When I woke up this morning, my clock had suddenly jumped 2 hours ahead and I freaked out thinking I was late for orientation. I wasn’t and then proceeded to take the coldest shower of my life [I miss heat!]. Orientation was rather slow, but did find out that no tests are required and no homework either, but ironically I am kinda disappointed as I was looking forward to homework taking up some of my idle time. So my classes are starting to get squared away and I don’t have my first class until 5 on Monday…oh yeah and the earliest we can have class here is 9.
Went shopping with Jenny and a guy from Norway after orientation…looked at phones, they need a credit check for a pay as you go phone arg!, and bought some groceries and a duvet so maybe I’ll be slightly warmer tonight…
I miss everyone and wish I could be spending my birthday with you all….it’s rather lonely when you don’t party

Plane Ride...Oh Joy!

So as I sit finally having been granted access to the internet thanks to a generous roommate and completing my extra 5 hour long flight i figure i might grace you with some ramblings from said almost 20 hour flight =D
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Chicago:
Greetings from the windy city which i saw approximately a mile of while walking through O’Hare airport. Yes i do realize that the smart thing to do would have been to take the terminal train; however, the almost 2 mile walk was invigorating and interesting [Erica can't figure the train schedule]. I met Benny the Brontosaurus and saw the cheap version of Fleet Street i.e. going down an escalator to a ceiling of mirrors and neon lights lasting about a half a mile. Found the Terminal amid the mall like masquerade of Wolfgang Puck expresses and Quizno moveable carts. So now I sit on the largest plane of my life and pray that the sharks aren’t hungry

In the air over Quebec:
Approximately 2 h ours into my flight, stuffed with cheese ravoli and salad, I must admit dining over Quebec has been the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, my dinner and a movie plans were throw to the wayside when Kung Fu Panda went on the fritz.
So after a 45 minute delay, thank goodness we boarded 10 minutes early, I am only slightly panicked about making my connection flight. I do believe the current time count is approximately 30 minutes between landing and leaving. However as my seat mate said, “Nothing you can do about it now.”
So as I attempt to get any sleep on this flight, surprisingly barren of babies, I can’t help but wonder how I’ll feel in three months time, only this time dining over the Atlantic

Sitting in Amsterdam:
So my now hour and a half connecting flight from Amsterdam to Belfast has been transformed into two separate flights that push my total travel time to almost 20 hours
I must admit though that ESL students amaze me, as I sit in Amsterdam I am assaulted with an unknown language even getting yelled at in what I assume was Dutch for running over some toes as I tried to bolt out of my overnight flight.
I feel extremely out of place and extremely Midwesterner and it’s not at all a comfortable feeling. It is extremely frustrating and a lonely feeling, amazing me that I am feeling such a culture shock in the airports alone.
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So after my plane rides I arrived at Belfast and had to figure out how to get the college as I had no way of contacting anyone….so I took 2 busses and lugged my luggage about 2 miles before getting to St. Mary’s. unfortunately, the transferring of luggage and carting of luggage ripped my big pink suitcase so unless I can find a patch I’ll need to buy a new one before I leave.
I live in a small house with 3 other girls who are all extremely nice, my only complaint is that we have little to no heat and my room not only has the largest window but also my door doesn’t latch close so I get a rather large draft from the front door.

Never before has laundry been so Daunting

Finally got to sleep in today, not as late as I would have liked; however, I did catch up on some sleep slightly.

Amazingly, I leave in 2 days and although I have yet to pack, the simple fact of packing in itself is the scariest part of this whole trip. Random, I know.

So as I chill and fold laundry, I sit and ponder how much my life will change. Maybe I'll come back with an accent, or a taste for beer, or (heaven forbid) my natural hair color? It is easier to ponder the superficial rather than the serious, yet that will have to cross my mind within the next 48 hours. ARG!

Two Languages...What?!?!

So I got up and checked my email....and apparently they speak two languages in Belfast?
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CAIFÉ NA CULTÚRLAINNE
LIGHT BITES MENU
Biachlár an Tráthnóna


LUAN – DÉARDAOIN / MONDAY – THURSDAY 3:00 – 7:00in

Trinsiúr do bheirt / Platter for 2 £10.00
Beacáin Aránaithe / Breaded Mushrooms £3.25
Fajitas Sicín nó Veigeatóra / Chicken or Vegetarian Fajitas £5.95
Curaí Sicín agus Rís / Chicken Curry and Rice £5.95
Stéig Chaoldroma 8oz / 8oz Sirloin £8.95
Lasáinne le Sceallóga & Sailéad / Lasagne with Chips and Salad £5.95
Stobhach / Stew £3.25
Anraith / Soup £2.75

Rogha na bPáistí (le deoch) /Children’s Specials (with a drink) £3.50
Ispíní & Sceallóga / Sausages & Chips
Cnaipíní Sicín & Sceallóga / Chicken Nuggets & Chips
Píotsa Cáise & Sceallóga / Cheese Pizza & Chips

Dé Domhnaigh: Margadh Teaghlaigh!! Béile do pháistí faoi 5 SAOR IN AISCE!
Sunday: Family Deal!! Children under 5 eat FREE!

Seirbhís Tábla / Table Service

Ag glacadh le háirithintí do Dhinnéar na Nollag 08
NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER 08
ONLY £19.95 Teagmháil 02890 964184

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So I'm not quite sure what language it is, but thank goodness for English subtitles.

And The Panic Sets In...

So less than two weeks until I hop on a big bird and fly across the endless blue ocean...how strange to think that 7 months ago I wrote an essay out of boredom and it took me this far