Holidays

I've been on holidays for about a week now and I'm having a blast. I have gotten the chance to hang out with my cousins which I always love doing because I never get to see them since I live in America. And my cousin Danny just came back from a trip to Spain, doing exactly what I'm doing, but I have so much more respect for him because he was able to go there with only school spanish and force himself to speak it, and now he's fluent. I also worked in the Bake House down town which is owned by a relative of ours (I know shocker right?), Sean Sutton. Sean is probably about 75-80 I'd say, and still works in the bake house. He has the funniest sense of humor ever, making jokes, saying, "Aoife my Darling," and being very sarcastic but in a very humorous way. His daughter, Barbara was extremely nice and she helped me learn different tips and tricks at making life easier when I bake. I also loved that se was very laid back and she allowed me to help her make a new batch of biscuit cake, which I love because I had never had it before I came over here, and try and find a new recipe because she didn't like how theirs always turned out dry. So I also had the chance to experiment with different ingredients and see the results.
Oh, and I went to University of College Cork last Thursday and had the BEST day with my friend Naimh! We rode on the bus together and talked about everything and then when we arrived to UCC we walked around the campus, and she talked about all the different places and Universities in Ireland that are worth while to go to. Then at CIT (Cork IT) we were chatted up by two college boys who mistook us for college students (well Naimh probably sold it because she's so tall and gorgeous) which led to me saying I work with the police (as a "hey your kinda creeping me out and I'm going to let you know that I'm not really digging this convo") and then we frantically ran away. And so then in a shopping centre we ran through the mall, across the road, through a parking lot all in 2 minutes just to get a Carmel Frapp at Starbucks for the first time for me in like 3 months, and it was SO worth it! And basically that day was a blast and ended with my friend Michaela braiding my hair in a fishtail like she does a lot which I am okay with because she does it so perfect. I normally don't like people touching my hair, but since I've had so many young children pull on it and play with it since I've been here, I'm just used to it.

And just an update on my camogie-ing, I've been getting pretty fed up with how the team handles communication. The way they tell you your practice is cancelled is by saying every one else's is on. So you get a text message right before practice is supposed to be on, and then you have to read all of the teams that are playing and if yours isn't listed then its not on, instead of just telling us that practice is cancelled. Also, on Monday I made plans to go stay overnight at my cousin Jane's house for Wednesday. Then I went to play a camogie game later that day (only the last 5 minutes but I don't mind) and then the coaches told us we also had a game on Wednesday, a little too late don't you think? And then I went to the pitch on Tuesday for practice, only to find out practice had been cancelled, then I sat around for a half hour and then decided to just go and practice with a younger team. Then my coach came over to where I was practicing and asked if I was coming to Wed's game, I tried to tell him that I couldn't come on Wednesday because I had prior engagements, but he just said to have Aunt Carol call him, not listening to me. We did and he was upset. Then today, Aunt Carol called the same person to ask him for a number, only to be shamed for not making me go to the game because they needed more substitutes. I am very upset because I didn't come here to just play camogie. I came to get the whole experience, and the coaches know that. Wouldn't that upset you?!

I would also like to give my Aunt Carol a shoutout for finishing her term doing a college course for Irish. It's really been stressing her out these last couple of days and I'm so happy she's finally done!! Woop Woop!! Now she can take us places, go out for a bit, and just be energized instead of studying all the time. I'm so very excited!

Aoife

UCD

On Thursday, I went to Dublin to visit UCD (University of Dublin) with my class. The campus is the biggest in Ireland and has the only veterinary course in Ireland as well. Before we went on the trip, our teacher asked us to look through the website and see what interests us and what would be a good future course for us to take. I know what I'm going to do with my life just as much as I know how to properly play the bag pipes. So I didn't even know where to start, however I decided to look in the Arts division and see what it offers. I didn't see really anything that jumped out at me however I did see a couple that i had interest in which were English with Film, Spanish, and English with Drama. I felt that they were very basic choices so it might be a gate way into various careers, seeing as I have no clue what I'm going to do.  So when we arrived, we had a brief introduction about the school and then a student Ambassador took us around the campus. The college was really big and there was a lot of sculptures around and a lot of the buildings were painted bright colors which made it really appealing. The school had an olympic swimming pool, a gym, a radio stain, two newspapers, a 3D movie theater, several restaurants, super markets, pharmacies, cafes, and much more. I really enjoyed the school and actually consider going there when I'm older!
I also wanted to mention that I got invited to my friend Naimh's birthday dinner on friday and had a blast. I'm really happy that I found a good group of friends to hang out with and I can also visit them when I visit ever 2 years or so!
Aoife