Dispatches from Collegeland, 2013
We haven’t started a new edition of this thread since 2010. It’s high time, wouldn’t you say?
Date: January 31, 2013
Categories: Life, Things We like
Comments RSS TrackBack 29 comments
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Bibliophile
in February 1st, 2013 @ 00:04…I’m trying to figure out whether I have the right to use this thread, since I’m technically enrolled in college, even though it’s not full-time, and I’m in high school as well. But even that’s on a college campus. But I’m not even taking classes with non-high scholars yet; that’s not till next year at the earliest and possibly not until junior year. /indecisiveness/
I guess I’ll post here if I have something to say about a college class in particular or being in an early college program in general. Which I don’t think I do, at the moment, except that I really ought to be working on my lab report due tomorrow morning. I’m developing a huge procrastination problem; it’s somewhat worrying, not so much for my grades as for my sleep. I miss it.
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Jadestone
in February 1st, 2013 @ 06:10HELLO
okay I will start out with a very unfortunate email I had to send this morning because I am still pretty angry about the situation I am in and don’t want to type it up a second time. But then I will follow it with a post of some of the fun things I’ve been doing here in ireland.
UNFORTUNATE NEWS: Some Ireland students are just terrible people koko cake it. In response to an email from the appt complex telling us to clean the egg off our window:
“Hello,
Last night around 4am a group of unidentified individuals repeatedly
banged on the windows of the bedroom where my roommate and I sleep,
often yelling and making comments at us (although they could not see
us and we did not engage them). At one point their pounding was so
violent it caused a window to fall open (where before it was closed &
latched), whereup one of them stuck his head into the room and made
several rude comments/remarks and threw a large stick into our room.
As soon as he withdrew we closed the window and waited for the Garda,
who we had called when they first began beating the windows/making
comments, as this is not the first time we have been harassed this way
by a group of people we don’t know in the middle of the night. While
we waited, they returned with eggs and, as you observed, pelted both
our patio and bedroom window. By the time the Garda arrived about ten
minutes after the egging, all of them appeared to have dispersed.
This morning, we checked the windows, and the handle on the window the
perpetrator was able to open appears to be loser than the other
window. If there is some way maintenance can tighten this, both my
roommate and I would feel much safer.The first incident, which also occurred on a thursday around 4am, the
group stayed for around half an hour making creepy/lewd threats, and
yelling/pounding on the windows, which I can assure you left both my
roommate and I very uncomfortable. Comments such as “We can see you”,
“let us in”, “we’re going to kill you”, “we’re going to rape you” were
repeatedly called through the glass.A few days later, I found a stranger in our kitchen who had gotten
into our room through the patio door my housemate had left unlocked.
Upon seeing me when I turned on the light, he immediately exited,
claiming “it was a dare”, which was when I realized he was not a guest
of my housemate but a stranger who had entered without permission.
Upon checking our fridge/cabinets it became clear that he or someone
else had been in before and stolen a large amount of one of my
housemate’s food and my eggs, which were then assume were used to egg
our windows that night. We filed an incident report with the
reception, but was told since our housemate had left the door unlocked
there was nothing that could be done about the incident.My roommate and I are both visiting students, but I trust that this
sort of behavior is deemed as unacceptable here as it would be at our
home university. We came here to enjoy the beauty and culture of
ireland, not to hide in our room at night afraid of who might come to
harass us. There is a chance that we’re not just arbitrary targets,
and that they might believe the person living in our current room is
the girl who l lived here last semester, which could be an explanation
for such seemingly random harassment, but as we don’t know who the
perpetrators have been we can’t establish this fact–nor would I want
to interact with them after these events.I will also be filing an incident report on last night’s matter with
reception, and if I don’t hear back from you about the window
situation tonight I will file a report to maintenance directly. If you
have any suggestions on how to stop this harassment, my roommate and I
would be grateful, as we are not willing to endure this sort of
behavior for the next four months.” 0 8
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Jadestone
in February 1st, 2013 @ 06:13And part of the happier one I’ve been typing up in a word document because the internet dies ever night around 9pm and only comes back for select minutes.
______
Helloooo!! Okay so LIFE UPDATES FROM JADE as opposed to just like, random short replies and stuff.
Right okay so I don’t think I’ve talked a lot about my time here in Ireland yet since my internet is terrible and I mostly read stuff on my phone. But hmmmm I think I at least mentioned when I went to the Cliffs of Moher, which was like tree weekends ago, so I’ll start after there.
MONDAY
Nothing much ever happens on Mondays idk maybe I got some grocery shopping doneTUESDAY
Juggling society! Second time I went I think maybe? One girl I recognized from the first day/my Irish language class was there so we stood near each other and attempted to juggle with moderate success. No one really talked to me without the insructor telling us all what to do, and after about an hour I switched to poi (they had makeshift ones, juggling balls in long socks) and played around with them. Had a brif conversation with a guy who was also doing poi (or did that happen on Thursday, doesn’t matter much anyway) who doesn’t actually go to the college he just comes and hangs out at the soc sometime (haven’t seen him since though, that I know of. He hasn’t been spinning there at least).WEDNESDAY THIS WILL BE A LONG ONE IT WAS SUCH A GOOD DAY
That week there was a Quidditch game!! Did I talk about this? I don’t remember so if I did it was probably not in much detail. Anyway, there was a sort of between-societies (society = club, like extracurricular sort) quidditch tournament sponsored by Potter Society. There were 3 matches, each between two different socieites, and FanSci (fantasy/sci fi society) sent out an email being like “we need people!” So I responed being like “heyyyy I’m visiting and I’ve only been to one of the meetings so far so you have no idea who I am, but actually I have experience with this sport from home and I’d love to play.” So the guy who’d sent the email said sure, so after my class (which ended right at the time the match was supposed to start, though the Irish run very late with everything, I dashed over to the spot and met some of the people. A few looked familiar? Though not really. There were 6 people from FanSci there, and we were playing against Anime/Manga society. I beat for that game, which was pretty dull since they use different rules than my school does in the US. But we ended up winning hurrah.
Did I mention it was muddy? It was lightly misting the whole day (with some times where it wasn’t) and there had been the usual rain in the morning and the field was a mess. I had worn pants I wouldn’t wear the rest of the week and an athletic shirt anticipating this, but I still got… very muddy… whoops. And my shoes were caked. There is still a layer of dried dust permiating them, despite the sink-bath I gave them.
After we won, we were standing around for a bit chatting, and the PotterSoc said they needed more members to play, so I said I’d play another game. I got to chase!! Which is my preference. It was lot of fun and I will admit I got to show off a bit because I seemed to know what I was doing the most. However, we were playing against Italian Society, which had several rugby players much larger than I. Wherp. We lost, but it was a valiant effort at least.
Then they had the 3rd and final match, but it was 3pm and I needed to be somewhere by for, so I declined playing again in favor of finding a sink to rinse off the worst of the mud. I found a relatively abandoned bathroom and was glad for the leggings I’d brought in my backpack/tanktop I was wearing under my shirt, so after rinsing off both pants and shirt in the sink (both were quick-dry material, and by wrapping the bottom of the shirt around one of the hand driers and tying the sleeves/neck closed I was able to try that pretty fast, and held the pants under the dryer till they were mostly dry. Tips for making yourself look presentable with few resources, take note! Shoes also got a wipe-down and one of them I even tried to rinse out in the sink but they are pretty hopeless.
So a bit before 4, I headed to the gym for a beginner’s archery lesson! While I was waiting for things to get started, I recognized a girl who was also a visiting student who’d played in the first quidditch game with FanSci, so I talked to her and since there was a lot of downtime while standing in line waiting to shoot arrows (holycake there were a lot of people) we got to know each othe pretty well and made plans to hang out on Friday. And then it turned out she was going to the FanSci meeting that night too! So after archery we walked around and got some food and went to the meeting. We got in just as some general announcements seemed to be ending, and they had been talking about quidditch and had an Anime/Manga soc person sitting in the front looking reproachful and saying that “FanSoc was way better at quidditch than anime/manga and were therefore the best ever” or something, everyone claps etc. And then to my intense embarresment one of the people running the FanSci meeting was like, “oh here’s one of the people who helped with the quidditch match yay!” and people clapped and I hid in my sweater. They probably had made note of everyone else before I came in blrrrrr.
Anyway. FanSci was fun. Lots of board games, and some Magic though most play play 60card and I only had an EDH deck (99card format) so I didn’t join. But played several board games with my frined from home-college and the friend I made at quidditch/archery and several new people and yay! Then walked home sleep etc.THURSDAY
More attempted juggling? I don’t remember anything else specific about this day except maybe talked to a dude from FanSci/quidditch at juggling too. Then the aforeposted incident in the night but let’s not dwell on that.FRIDAY
Roomate (C), friend from Archery (G), and one of her friends and I all went down to a café in the city with the intent of practicing some of our irish phrases but none of us really know anything. It was fun though and I had a delicious fruit turnover.SATURDAY (this one might not make the most sense unless you’re vaguely familiar with the trading card game Magic: The Gathering but I tried to make it generally legible)
Get up and get ready for the Magic tournament. Roommate said she’d go with to watch and ensure I wouldn’t be the only one there of female persuasion.
Get to game store, Dungeons $ Donuts, (which is downtown, maybe a bit over a mile away? more? I have lost all sense of how to judge distance), about half an hour before we start building decks. I get my box of cards, which is themed after red/white cards (BOROS GUILD REPRESENT) and a complimentary donut themed to look like the symbol on my box! There were 5 guild options to pick from and 5 different types of donut, it was pretty cool. And also delicious. I was not the only girl playing, there were 3 others, although two looked kinda new.
I built a deck (thankfully had fairly okay cards in the color set I picked, red and white) and played my first match against the guy who was doubling as judge. Eeeeek. But I had a surprisingly strong first game and won in very little time (less than 10 min, there’s generally an hour slotted for eatch match which is comprised of 2-3 games). Whaaat. Second game took a bit longer but I won that too, so we didn’t have to play the 3rd. It sinks in that this place is probably not nearly as competitive as the store back home where I am usually closer to last place than anything.
After I beat the judgedude, his friend (who maybe works there?) came over and told me I was one of the better players in the store and gave me a high five :3 though he said not to tell his friend who I just beat he did. But yay it made me feel good, because idk prerelease events showcase one of my worst skills in Magic (deckbuilding) so I always feel like I’m letting down girls who play magic by not being great at it when other people are around. WEIRD IN THE HEAD I KNOW. But yeah.
Won my second match as well, though it took longer, I still went 2-0. Hurrah!. 3rd match I went up against I guy I actually knew from FanSci/have talked to a few times and knew was really good. He beat me in both games. Then we had a break for lunch and I wandered a little downtown, then came back and won my 4th match! 2-1, had to go to game 3. Was sitting next to the guy I knew who I played the round before, who had lost, so we had the same score smug smug smug. Then I lost my next match brutally. The guy was really good. Oh well. The 6th and final round took a reaaally long time… I won the first game, and then the second game took a good 40 min, a significant portion of which I spent with 1 life point left while he had 10 (you start with 20) and slowly whittled him down. Yessssss. So I ended up 4-2 overall.
Then they read off the places from last to first, and I noticed with growing alarm that my name kept not being called. Top 8 (out of 30) players would go to a second round, with new cards, and draft to build a deck which means you pass cards around in a complicated circle and pick one from a pile and pass the rest on and I don’t understand it very well but it requires you to make descisions on the fly without knowing what other cards you will have. I hate it. I am really bad at it.
So RELIEF when he calls me for 9th place! Hurrah! The highest place I could have gotten without having to stay there for another 4 hours showing how bad I am at drafting. I even got a pack of cards as a prize woo. And also some respect from the people there so maybe I will be able to go back without feeling too weird.
…and then it was raaaining. Roommate and I decide to try to wait it out for an hour, I play a couple games with someone to pass the time and chat, and we eventually go home.
It was a lot of fun and I was really glad I went in the end! Yay! And I didn’t get anything tooo fancy but I got some useful cards and possibly some stuff I can trade away so yeah yay
Okay I’ve started writing about the next sunday but it’s not done yet and this is LOTS O TEXT, so I’ll leave it there for now.
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FantasyFan?!?!
in February 3rd, 2013 @ 17:07So while I was on the Internet the other day, I came across this speech by Alan Watts called, “What if Money was no Object”. No, I don’t really no anything about Alan Watts, and I’m not particularly curious about it either, but I found this thing of his really inspiring. I mean, it’s simple, it’s just telling you to go out and ask yourself what you really would want to do if money wasn’t a problem.
Basically what this did was prompt a bout of soul-searching on what I really wanted to do in life. This question is not new to me. I asked myself it before, in high school, and surprised myself when the answer came back loud and clear, “I want to help people.” I was amazed that there was anything about me that was that altruistic. A bit later, after some things had happened that had upset my family’s economic standing, I asked myself again, and this time I just wanted stable work. It didn’t matter what, I just wanted to know that in the future, I would have a steady source of income. Turns out a brush with being unemployed was enough to change my tune entirely.
This time when I thought about it, my answer was something like, “I want to travel around the world! and also help people along the way” but I have no idea how to do this or even the right way to go about doing it and there are so many ways to help and everything is just so-so-argh. And even with my traveling. Sure, I like the idea of going and seeing a lot of different places around the world, but I also know what my typical reactions toward being in a foreign country where I don’t know the language are and I tend to shut down. I don’t go out and meet new people and do exciting things. I need someone who’s more outgoing than I to introduce me to all of that.
(How does this relate to what I’m majoring in? Absolutely nothing! I’m sure I could find something, but I don’t’ even know what I want to do or how all I know is that I like the classes I’m taking in it. Also I need to get an internship or research position or something for this summer, and I need to start looking now, but I have to do that’s due like, tomorrow, and I need to focus on that, and my computer’s being stupid and everything is just blah.)
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Vendaval
in February 3rd, 2013 @ 19:56It sounds to me like you’d be perfect working for an NGO. I like to look at organizations I think are cool, then check to see if they have any job openings. The requirements for jobs are often similar across companies. Then, how do you become qualified?
For more ultimate-type questions, there are a few videos of Alan Watts lectures animated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the thoughtful lads who went on to do South Park.
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Jadestone
in February 4th, 2013 @ 06:59HOW DO I INTERNSHIP APPLICATIONS
I HAVE NO SKILLS
WHAT IS WORK EXPERIENCE
it feels like cheating to list “titrations” as a skill becuase you literally just sit there but that is basically all we did in introchem classes
Orgo classes we just followed the lab manual like a cookbook
At least I can say I’m familiar with 3 types of microscope and having “petrographic” in there as a word feels like a good move
grebdjkns it’s like the longer I work on this or try to talk about myself, the less of a person I become
the later questions asking things like “why are you interested” are all going to end up like “SHE LIKES ROCKS??” or something at this rate
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POSOC
in February 4th, 2013 @ 13:01Signed up for a creative writing workshop and nervous about it beyond all reason. All the courses I’ve taken in college so far are miles above and beyond high school, and I think it’s probably going to be similar here… Add to that the fact that I haven’t had time or motivation to do much writing since NaNo… yeah, I think I’m going to be outclassed by ~50% of the people in that room.
Yes, I know “competition” is a very silly way to think about writing, given that it’s such a deeply personal endeavor, but my cognitive biases aren’t listening. They’re stubborn little beasts.
Meeting about to start. Further updates later – 0 0
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Jadestone
in February 4th, 2013 @ 13:32For what it’s worth, I think you’re a great writer! You have very interesting ideas
and the Igorpunk one even landed you seven marriage proposals.It’s a good thing to keep in mind though, that sometimes the structure given from creative writing classes doesn’t work for some people. I have a friend who’s a wonderful writer, but never liked her classes in creative writing, and I’ve read a lot of authors say the same thing–sometimes it just doesn’t work for people’s style of writing. For others it works just fine, or makes them a lot better!
So, I hope that it turns out to work well for you, but if you’re in it and you start to feel like you’re not doing well in it/holding up to your or other people’s standards, don’t despair.
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POSOC
in February 4th, 2013 @ 19:27Thanks for the kind words! The atmosphere there is quite low-pressure, though, so I’m less worried.
Now on to classwork, housing application for next year, and FAFSA. Meh. 1 0
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Kittymine
in February 6th, 2013 @ 10:33College-land has certainly kept me off the blog recently (I even missed my birthday
). This semester is proving to be a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. I’m taking 6 classes again, plus choral ensemble. Two of those classes are writing: feature and creative writing. I also joined the school paper last week. The upshot of this is that I will likely have at least one article due every week, plus several poems and, later in the semester, pieces of fiction. Thankfully, some of my other classes do not generate as much work *cough cough Bio for non-majors cough cough* Seriously, it’s like 7th grade and 9th grade rolled into one. I almost wish I was in the really hard majors class, but then I would have no life at all.
Gotta run – lab in 10 minutes. 3 0
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Cinnamoon
in February 11th, 2013 @ 00:44Are there any other engineering majors on the ‘blog? I’ve seen quite a few people who are humanities of some kind, and a couple sciences… Anyone any kind of engineering?
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Dodecahedron
in February 11th, 2013 @ 07:25Computer science is an engineering discipline, and two of my courses this semester are actually in the electrical/computer engineering department. Additionally, my parents are both adjunct professors of electrical engineering. So if you have any questions, I’m here!
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Cinnamoon
in February 11th, 2013 @ 09:46Ah, true! I’m mechanical, though, so that’s fairly different. Still, same discipline! I don’t really have any questions, just curious if there was anyone else around in the same boat as me.
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Dodecahedron
in February 11th, 2013 @ 14:10I’m afraid I can’t say I’m in the same boat — the same fleet, maybe. (I googled “fleet of ships” to make sure the word meant what I thought it meant — the correct word is flotilla, apparently)
I almost went into mechanical engineering, specifically acoustics, but I had a physics class I hated in high school that kind of turned me away from it. I still think it’s cool, though! 1 0
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Emmatheduck
in February 12th, 2013 @ 00:14Hello! It’s been a long time since I posted on the blog, but I was reminded of its existence today because it’s the 42nd day of the year, so I decided to come take a look, and then I noticed this thread and it seemed like something I should post on.
I’m currently a sophomore in Collegeland, planning to major in linguistics and minor in math and classics. More specifically, currently procrastinating on my syntax reading. Also on summer job/internship applications that really need to get done very soon. Hence my ignoring them and posting here instead.
Though I’m really not sure what more to say, when I haven’t been here in forever and most people probably don’t even remember me. So maybe I’ll get back to the things I should actually be doing now. Or sleep. Sleep sounds nice too.
Maybe I’ll be back again soon.
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Cinnamoon
in February 12th, 2013 @ 01:51I remember you! Good to see you.
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Choklit Orange
in February 18th, 2013 @ 00:13I remember you! Hi.
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POSOC
in February 15th, 2013 @ 02:02My slightly amended version of Jadestone’s Credo:
“Sleep is for the weekend.” 6 0
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Selenium the Quafflebird
in February 15th, 2013 @ 10:04So true. And also for the holidays.
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Emmatheduck
in February 17th, 2013 @ 21:22Weekend? What’s that?
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Lizzie
in February 17th, 2013 @ 23:20First of six grad school auditions was today. Not completely successful; plan: World Domination has encountered a temporary setback. On the other hand, this was for my current school, so all the professors know and I hope like me / my playing… plus I felt like I had an awful undergrad audition here, and look where I ended up…
but probably what’s going to happen is that I’ll get into the studio I want but not get as much scholarship as I wanted. God, I hope I get in… I really want to go here again…. 1 1
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Jadestone
in February 22nd, 2013 @ 16:02Hello still alive in Ireland etc!
I dont think I’ve done an update post in a while?? I end up bouncing around the place a lot so I usually check things on my phone and only post short stuff
I went to Belfast and Northern Ireland two weekends ago, I don’t remember if i mentioned that on here or not. We went ot Giant’s Causeway and it was so cool, the rocks are so interesting and I want to go back when it’s not as misty-cloudy out.
Also went on a black taxi tour of Belfast ad heard about the history/troubles and everything that’s gone on there, and is still going on today.
Had a free afternoon so I walked to the botanical garden and saw many nice plants and found a tropical plant house and it was so WARM inside, I stayed there for 30 minutes and only left because it closed. There were two koi ponds in the back, and one of them had this lil’ guy who kept swimming very fast and trying to jump out of the water. It was adorable, we bonded.
On the way back from the gardens to the hotel I saw a big sign that said “REPTILES” so of course I had to go inside. There was a guy holding his big pretty burmese python (not selling them though, which I was pleased to see, idk how they are here but they’re big pests in the US bcause people think they can take care of them until they get big and then they just let them go and now they’re an invasive species ). Also all manner of other snakes and lizards I got to stare at. An auspicious start to the year of the snake! Even though that was technically Chinese New Year’s Eve.Last weekend I went to the Connemara Gaeltacht with my Irish language class, which is a place where they still speak Irish (as well as English) and a lot of the traditional irish culture is preserved. It was very cool, there were some singing/dancing/music demonstrations and they fed us so much delicious food oh my squids I nearly exploded. Also irish language stuff, also I am really bad at languages. People who say “immersion is the best way to learn a language!” always seem to be people who are good at learning them because let me tell you I just get flummoxed. I can’t pick out different grammar patterns, it just doesn’t come naturally to me. Our class keeps having to ask our teacher things she thinks should be obvious because none of us get them x_x
Today was a geography class trip to Connemara again and we even drove past some of the place I was last weekend, heh. But it was still cool, we stopped in different areas and extracted a tree core. Neat.
Then I got back to campus in time for the last event of Potter Fest of today, which was a talk titled “Death in the Harry Potter Series” and it was very interesting. Tomorrow is Quidditch! The first intercollegiate matches in Ireland. Very fun to be participating in!
Other things: have started going to card game nights on mondays, and playing magic with people. It’s fun, and good to have something to do on mondays now, even if next monday I’ll actually be going to a movie instead.
Tuesdays are still juggling and last tuesday I got to a new record of EIGHTY throws. I made it to 80 twice, and past 60 (my record from the previous week) a good 2 or 3 other times.
Oh last tuesday I also helped a friend bake things! It was tasty and fun, and we talked and stuff. I am trying to make more friends here, this one isn’t Irish (she’s from the US) but it’s still good for me.
Wednesday: archery! I graduated to the friday intermediate sessions instead of the beginner wednesday ones, but I go to both. Even though I missed this friday (today), TRAGIC SIGH. But last week I got a bow ALL TO MYSELF for like an hour! It was magical. I am really loving archery a lot? Like a lot a lot. Maybe if I get good I will think about getting my own bow someday. Recurve probably, haven’t shot more than twice barebow. The line’s always longer for it.
Wednesday is also FanSci board games night which is always fun. I learned how to play a new board game I don’t remember the name of but won the first two games of, and Warewolves, which is rather like the game Mafia, if anyone’s played that.Thursday: also juggling day but yesterday this guy I found who knows how to contact juggle said he was going! And would show me things! So I learned some basic contact juggling moves, it was a lot of fun
I am not good at it but maybe if I buy more oranges I can practice and learn. My goal is to learn all the random circus skills I can. Yes. I hink that’s most of the update? Yeah. Overall things are really good! Even if I have a lot of weird random anxiety today that I’m not sure why I have. Eating chocolate and reading and ignoring things I should be doing in hopes it’ll go away. “I can do them tomorrow!” but actually maybe it’s a good idea to just take it easy and not do things that will stress me more? trying it, but guilt might make it worse. I dunno. We’ll see. THINK ABOUT FUN THINGS ETC.
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Jadestone
in February 22nd, 2013 @ 18:41okay also
I
do not
understand the scheduling here.Classes end march 27th. “Study week” and Easter Break is march 28th-april 23rd (that’s NEARLY A MONTH).
“Examination period” is april 24th to May 15th which is like THREE WEEKS.So I have one month of classes left, then there’s a month off, and then a three week period over which I will have I think two exams and some papers due.
I don’t understand how anyone learns here?? The semester is effectively like… 2 and a half months long, considering we started January 7th.
????
like it will be super nice for travel! As soon as I figure out for sure what dates parents will be here/when I am going to visit Paul I will have a lot of free time for things!
But I don’t know if the clubs here will keep going then since I don’t know if other Irish students will still be here (I hope so, but idk. They all go home on weekends, so might stay home for breaks too…) so it could potentially be lonely : / Hopefully most things will keep going? We’ll see I guess. I’m also PRETTY FREAKED OUT that this means I’m pretty much halfway done wiht my semester here. NO. I AM NOT READY. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I STILL NEED TO DO!
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Jadestone
in March 8th, 2013 @ 20:09TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY
I had archery in the morning, from around 10(or 10:20 when I got there) to 1:30. I don’t know if I’ve emphasized it enough here but I really like archery!! It is a lot of fun and I have some also-studying-abroad friends I made who go and the past two weeks I have been becoming friends with the Irish members of the archery team. I started out on recurve, which I liked and would be fine shooting more, but I switched to bare bow because my two friends do it and I like standing in line with them/you don’t have to worry about a sight being off/the archery team person who gives the most helpfull comments and goes out of his way to talk to us most often shoots barebow (though will be switching back to recurve) and I appreciated his willingness to help and stuff.
Anyway I shot the best today I have so far I think! I was using a bow that is probably much too lgiht for me but my friend uses the other one and there was no reason to share and cut down both our arrows/shooting time when there was another bow available. But I hit the gold many times, though outside it many times as well. But I only missed the target entirely twice and both times was with the arrow with only 2 fletches.
And P, the aforementioned barebow guy, told me I should score myself next week, and that he’d help a couple of us with it. And he wanted to know if I’d be willing to compete! I said yes as long as I’m around, and now I’m PRAYING that the comp isn’t on the weekend when I’m scheduled to be away with my program. But then right after he asked I went to shoot and I shot really well (2 arrows in the red (just outside gold/middle), one in the gold) and a few people said “good job” and P said “we have to get you two (to othergirl next to me) to competition” and just. yay. warm feelings. I like being good at things. I am not great, but I am only slightly-above-average at most things and I haven’t found anything I really excel at so whenever I do find something I am even just good at it is nice. And I only call myself “good” because I’ve been shooting for like… 8 weeks now, once a week for most, twice a week for three of those. And later P said AF2 and I would need to get above 140/300 on barebow to qualify for advanced training on mondays/go to comp or something but that we should get it easily and ahh. yes. yay.
I don’t know when monday practices happen, but I only have class 10-11 and the 2-3 so I should be able to go to some of it if/when I do make it. Anyway after archery ended, American friend 1 and I hung around with AF2 and an irish archery person and talked about the linguistic differences between here and America, and then the whole archery group wandered to the cafe-place in the main concourse building, and AF1 and I had class from 2-3 but so only hung around for like 10 minutes, but then after class we found them again and hung around till like… 6:30pm. It was really nice, I don’t have any close Irish friends really (several okay ones, but I usually see them on different days) but I got to talk to them and it wasn’t awkward and we played card games and chatted. And I don’t get the “they all secretly hate me” vibe I get from people when I have no reason to that probably isn’t real but psyches me out and makes me uncomfortable, which is also good. It’s really weird to think how less introverted I am than I used to be. Most of it is due to sheer force of willpower, but being actually capable to hang out wit a group of people I don’t know super well for that long without panicking shows marked success from my high school days.
But yeah. FRIENDS and SPORTS and I really want my own bow now and I am like 800% sure I do not want the semester to end in 2 and a half weeks, that is not enough time.
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14.1
Jadestone
in March 8th, 2013 @ 20:11oh and then I spent the evening watching a movie and youtube videos and listening to music with a friend, which was good, since my roommate is visiting her frined from home in France this weekend. And tomorrow friend and I are gonna go walk to a nearby cool park place thing, which will be fun!
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Jadestone
in March 9th, 2013 @ 20:44today I walked to a nearby town with a friend, and went to the AQUARIUM where I got to hold a starfish and they had TWO TANKS OF CUTTLEFISH BFJNKSDMA
I went back to it three times, I probably squeed at them for a at least 15 minutes total, possibly more. Cuttlefish!!! ADORABLE. And they changed color a bit depending on where they were and their EYES: 3 ! just like that.
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15.1
KaiYves
in March 10th, 2013 @ 08:33Sounds great! I was at the New England Aquarium with my family yesterday, and they had baby epaulette sharks, which are so cute! They’re super-bendy and they like to sleep inside PVC pipes, and they do all of this accidental slapstick like getting stuck swimming-crawling over a tank decoration or trying to swim into a tube but being a little too far to one side and crashing into the side– but then they swim away just fine afterwards!
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Midnight Fiddler
in April 15th, 2013 @ 19:13So I’m doing a project on underwater archaeology but then I ended up reading about gender and queer sexuality. I’m still not sure how that happened.
But now I’m happily ensconced in a nook in the library surrounded by books.
And trying not to think of the fact that this annotated bibliography is due tomorrow and that I need more sources and then eventually (read: SOON) I will need to actually USE those sources and write a paper and make a powerpoint and aaaaaaahhhgh. 2 3
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KaiYves
in April 15th, 2013 @ 20:15Libraries are distracting, I totally understand. I got sidetracked by the polar exploration shelf when I was getting a book I needed for research two Thursdays ago.
I don’t get how anybody can study in libraries for long periods of time– libraries have BOOKS and books are distracting!
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