The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow (Well, Maybe Not, But Things Will Get Better)

It drizzled on and of today, but it was a bit warmer, and the few scattered minutes of sunshine certainly helped to brighten my day.

I have a hair dryer (though it was expensive), I have the internet, a converter for my computer plug, pictures on my walls, a pretty pillow sham, and bins for my underwear. I made pictures frames out of the cardboard that my hair dryer and water filter came in. My room is more "mine," and I'm feeling much better already. My biggest worries are classes, food, and my bank account, but I feel better and better each time I get something done.

And I'm also learning a LOT. This morning, when I woke up, I was extremely thirsty. All I'd bought so far to drink was milk and apple-currant juice, so I went for the juice. As I hadn't washed any of the cups yet, I decided to drink straight from the giant bottle. It was very thick and very bitter, and it did NOT quench my thirst. While we were shopping all day, I was even more thirsty than I'd been when I woke up. When I came back to my room later and looked at the bottle, I saw something I hadn't noticed before. The juice was concentrate. To drink, you have to add 3 parts water to one part juice. No wonder I was so thirsty all day! My body was probably working so hard to dilute all that damn juice! Jeesh...

We also learned how to use the "trollies" (or shopping carts as we call them here). You have to put a Euro coin into the slot that hookes the trollies up to eachother in the trolly park. When you push in the Euro, the lock unlocks and you can use the trolly. When you are done with it, you lock it back up, and the Euro pops out. Pretty good idea, huh? It just would have been easier had they had a sign.

Also, Ireland is "green" in more than one sense. The countryside is green because of all the rain, but they are also green in the sense that they are a lot less wasteful than us Americans. At the market you have to buy fabric bags and reuse them instead of just being given plastic bags. They keep the lights and water heater off unless they need them, the oven and many appliances have switches on the walls to save electricity when not in use, and they hardly heat their buildings at all! I'm not sure how I feel about the heat thing, but it's nice to feel like I'm being a little less wasteful.

My roommate poked her head into my room a bit ago to tell me she's leaving for the weekend and she'll be back Sunday. Though she seems really nice, that's about all the talking we've done so far. We're just never in the room together. The rest of my flatmates haven't shown yet, and neither has our supposed "new" shower curtains.

Classes start on Monday, but we register for them the following Friday. We are expected to go to class for a week to figure out which we want to take. And then we have to go to our professors to sign up and have them sign our registration form. As of now I've been planning on taking Biology, but I think I'm going to drop it... I just don't want to take a class I KNOW I won't be good at-- I don't need anything more to stress about. I just don't know what other class I'm going to take...

I've hardly eaten at all these last two days; food is the last thing on my mind. Today I had some cereal, an apple, and a little pizza for dinner. Once everthing is settled, I'm sure I'll have more time and energy to figure out the food thing, but for now, I'm just living day by day.

I'll write more tomorrow, but I've got to go to bed now. I have to meet the Saint Mary's girls early tomorrow morning to go to orientation together. And now that I have a hair dryer, I'll actually be able to make myself look presentable! Yay!