Change is a good thing, right?

So I'm beginning to bring back the tradition of forgetting about this blog I think, and for that I apologize to all my loyal readers (all... two of you?). ;)

The weeks here seem to be flying by, which I find odd as I haven't been extraordinarily busy. It's not that I've gotten lazy or anything, I swear, it's just the Irish way! The Irish are very laid back and I think live much less hectic lives in general than we do in America. The perpetual lateness thing still amuses me as well. The other day, a friend and I attempted to get breakfast at a cafe across the street from our apartment complex. The cafe was supposed to open at 9am, but the owners were just arriving a bit after 9, as we were, and didn't seem to think anything of the fact that they wouldn't be ready to actually serve any food for another half an hour. A completely typical example around here.

I am enjoying my classes for the most part. I think I'm enjoying my History of Irish Films class the most, although listening to my stereotypical Irish professor for my Irish Studies course go on about how the Germans boil children in soups is amusing too... My psychology class is a bit boring I think (not to be offensive, but I feel like psychology is one of those subjects where, at least in the lower level courses, half of the information is really just common sense). I started up my Irish Language class this week (three hours per week), which seems very fun but also very difficult. Irish is a very different looking language, and many, if not most words are not pronounced phonetically. There's also all kinds of strange rules about the structure of sentences. I keep trying to throw in some of my Spanish skills and knowledge, which as it turns out, just doesn't work.

This past week I've been keeping busy outside of class volunteering for the Corona Cork Film Festival. I was kind of hoping to get some shifts working at the venues of the films (tearing tickets is pretty darn easy), but instead I've been spending my time at the box office. It's actually been pretty fun though, and it kind of brings me back to my days of working at the Civic Center in Des Moines (a job I thoroughly enjoyed). Don't get paid of course (it is called volunteering for a reason I guess), but for every four hour shift that a volunteer works, he or she gets a free ticket to any film that is being shown. There are a ton of films put on by the festival, about 15 per day I would guess at various venues, lasting one week. Lots of variety, with everything from feature films, to shorts, to documentaries, to silent films. I've gotten three of my free tickets so far, and will be seeing the "Nightmare Before Christmas 3D" (lol, it was listed as a family showing, but who cares, right?), "Encounters at the End of the World", which is a documentary on Antarctica, and "Hunger", an award-winning feature film about the hunger strikes in Ireland. I'd also like to see some international shorts that are being put on, and maybe another documentary about a gay couple from Australia going to the U.S. to adopt children (the description says they adopted their children from Iowa actually).

I guess the other "big" news I have is that my plans for the end of the semester have been changed. My dear friend Emily, from Canada, is unfortunately unable to accompany me traveling around Europe in December. I was really disappointed, but things happen, plans change, and sometimes things just don't work out the way you wish they would. Of course, this meant things got a little difficult. My plane home has already been booked, leaving from Paris on the 4th of January. After spending the summer, and now fall away from home though, I quickly realized that if I wasn't able to spend Christmas in Europe with Emily, being at home with my family was where I wanted to be. Thinking about the possibility of having to spend the holidays here, alone (all my flatmates and friends are going home themselves), was not very easy. Luckily though, I have very understanding parents and grandparents. I was able to find a relatively cheap flight through Aer Lingus that will have me home on the 22nd of December. I am very relieved to have that flight booked, and am now working on figuring out what I want to do in the time between completing my classes here and heading home. I was extremely excited at the prospect of seeing Paris with Emily, and I would still very much like to visit there. I'm just hoping I'm strong enough to do something of that nature alone. Whatever happens, I have faith that things will work out just fine, because they have to, right?

I once read a quote that went something like this. "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end." It's a quote I like very much (being the optimist I am), and I know that even if my experiences here aren't exactly what I had planned, this is a trip that I will never forget or regret. And you know? Life is often more fun when it's not planned anyway. :)