Free hugs, kissing girls and boys holding hands

17th-20th Feb - Mon-Thu
A normal busy week. Started on working on a couple of essays. If you're wondering about the title, the latter ones are things that I saw on campus. For some reason people seem to be very affectionate this week. Valentines Day?

On Wednesday morning, though, I had a burning headache, so I took some painkillers. After a few hours it'd only gotten worse, so I skipped my remaining lecture and went to bed. It was migraine, and I really hate it.

But I survived, and the week only got better from there on.

21st Feb - Friday
ESN Social had a 'free hugs' drive on Friday. I participated and it was everything I could've hoped for.

Here's mine <3

We started at two in the Global Lounge, made our little posters:












And then we took a bus to the city centre, and stayed at the start of Grafton street. And let me tell you, on a Friday afternoon, that place is packed!

We hadn't been there for five minutes when a three guys came to ask what we were doing and when we explained, they wanted to join us. Someone bought us coffee and we got free candy from people. It was wonderful to see people start smiling when they saw us - even if they didn't hug any of us.

Here's a few pictures as proof that I really was there.

I hugged 82 people. <3

In the end, this is the group that ended up staying there for the three hours we were there. ->

Note: There was only five girls leaving UCD. ;D









22nd Feb - Saturday
A day easily summarised: Essay.
I woke up at around ten, took a shower and started writing. At little after two, my brain felt drained, so I had to stop for a bit. Got lunch from Centra, ate and played some games for a bit. Wrote a little more, but it was getting impossible, so I decided to leave the finishing up for Sunday.

23rd Feb - Sunday
Woke at nine, grabbed my laptop and laundry and went to the launderette we have. While my laundry got done, I finalised my essay - wrote the conclusion and added a little detail. Then I got back to my room, ate a little, played games and skyped with my sister.

Then I decided it was time to start working on the next essay, and I needed some source material for it, so I had to go to the library... On a Sunday, in Finland, that would've been a problem, but not here; our campus library is open from nine or ten 'til nine in the evening every day. Got to love it!

So I got my books and I started making notes, but it's an analysis assignment so I really need to be able to concentrate on that. I'll do that during next week and weekend. Might get a bit rushed, but I need a break.

Week four of term - part 2

13th Feb - Thursday
I can't believe I've been here a month already! Time's going by way too fast.
But at the same time, it's been the longest month of my life, I feel. So much has happened and I've had ups and downs, and I've gotten new experiences to share.

There was a fire alarm in our house in the evening (false alarm), but nothing else special really happened; woke early, had lectures, played games and did some schoolwork; went to bed way too late.

14th Feb - Friday
Finally got around marking my deadlines on my calendar... I've got three in two weeks. Damn, I really got to get cracking with those. Luckily they're not that difficult, or that long.

In the evening I went to a friend's birthday party, talked for hours - I had a bottle of wine (it was good...) and then I decided to leave. Which was really a good idea, because I had a slight panic attack when I got back to our stairs... And luckily there was one girl just going into her apartment - she helped me up the stairs and into my room.

Laid down for a bit, and when I was calm enough, I had a sandwich and some tea. Watched some films and went to bed. It wasn't yet midnight...

15th Feb - Saturday
Woke up at around five. Had some water and went back to bed. My alarm went off at nine, so I got up, had breakfast and went to the city centre.

I was there for around three hours, and the weather stayed nice the whole time!

Got a new shirt, a nail repair kit, some moisturizer and groceries. Had lunch at KFC. Why can't we have those in Finland!? The workers in the stores are so lovely and helpful, and I'm absolutely going to miss that when I get back to Joensuu. I've also found a new favourite candy; Jelly Babies, they're kind of between gummy bears and Turkish delights.

When I got back to Belgrove, one of my housemates had just gone out and the other was having breakfast in the kitchen with her boyfriend who was visiting. And it was closer to two o'clock.

The rest of the day I did some school work and played around with my computer... Again stayed up too late; this is getting ridiculous.

16th Feb - Sunday
Took out the trash, vacuumed my room. Did schoolwork - finally continued my BA essay. In the evening played some games. Again to bed too late.

I really need to start fixing that.

Week four of term - part 1

10th Feb - Monday
Nothing extra-special happening. One of my housemates was missing the whole day. She'd been gone for the weekend, too, so I thought that she might be on a trip. But usually people come back on Sunday evening. That's basically it for my Monday...

It's windy, but at least the sun's showing itself once in a while.

11th - Tuesday
Bumped into my missing housemate in the morning; she'd been to Scotland. Maybe she has no lessons on Mondays? Don't know. Didn't ask. :P

I'm such a worry wart...

It snowed a bit today. Nothing that stayed on the ground, though, melted right off. It's still damned windy and the weather changes rapidly.

12th - Wednesday
Apparently there was a magpie in our kitchen in the morning... O.o It had pecked through my bag of bread and a packet of noodles... and pooped on the table. ><

We won't be leaving the window open anymore. And I won't be using the table either....

A crazy day, lecture-wise. Started at one, then a two hour break. I came to the rooms, ate, did some school work and took a nap. At four back to class - talked about Joyce. Another break; had coffee. Then a lecture about someone called Spenser; no context, just who he was and what he wrote. Really annoying.

So, it's seven o'clock at this point, and I'm not even done yet. I've one more break and a workshop to do. Yes, I'm at school 'til nine, and I still need to wash my hair today.

Let the Pictures do the talking

7th Feb - Friday
Still being antisocial, but here's a couple of pictures from that day.

Yeah, umbrella's are usually completely useless here. This one's not mine, though...

8th Feb - Saturday
Went on a trip to the Great Sugar loaf Mountain and Glendalough (that's valley of the lakes) park. Took lots of pictures, so I'll do the story with captions. Enjoy!

Sugar loaf Mountain

 Overview from the bottom

 One of the few pictures that show the colours.

 What to you mean, cold and windy?

 Even the ground was colourful. :P

No filters, I took this picture through the bus window. ^^











Glendalough
I really don't know what to say about these. It was so gorgeous and breathtaking

This is the lake from P.S. I love you. <3 

Baa!

After this we went for lunch in Enniskerry (Love the place names!).

Beef and Guinnes stew. Yum.

A pink sweet shop. <3 They had Jelly babies. :P

And that it for my weekend. :) I had fun. <3

It is five o'clock on a Thursday afternoon and I am done!

Bushed! Knackered! >< (Which means there will probably be typos in the following text. :P)

Won't be separating days this time, because nothing noteworthy has happened. Basically the whole week's been a sort of repetition of going to lecture and getting back to the dorm, again and again. The maintenance men have been over a couple of times; to fix the shower (drain) and one of my housemate's window.


And I finally found out how to air my room. :P There's a little slot you can open above the window. That means that I have to climb onto my chair to do it, but at least I'll get fresh air in the room, so it's worth it.

Still having things to sort out with KELA, but we're getting there. I hate the bureaucracy, but not the people working there - they're just doing their job.

Now, I'll take a shower and do some reading for the seminar tomorrow. Here are some photos I've taken this week:

Good end for a weird week

30th Jan - Thursday
Woke up at around ten. I had decided that today would be better, and I was actually feeling it already. The weather was still horrible, but I decided to take a walk to a yarn shop anyway - in the three hour brake between my lectures.

The yarn shop was heaven, and not too far from campus, either. It's called Winnie's Wool Wagon, and there's a cafe at the back.

I bought some yarn and popped into the grocery store on the way back to the room. Sadly, I had no time to cook, because finding the yarn shop had taken more time than I'd planned. I did wash the dishes, though. :P

Nothing special happened the rest of the day, but I could seriously do without the wind. Went to bed way too late, again.

31st Jan - Friday
A workshop at ten. I'd forgotten to eat breakfast and print out today's readings. Vexing, but I managed.

Well, I really don't have much to say about today, because I spent the rest of it at Coffee & Gaming -event, with Gamesoc. :P I watched people play Mario Kart and we played Cards Against Humanity for three hours. It was fun, met a lot of new people, and I will certainly be going there again. It's a good way to spend a Friday.

1st-2nd Feb - Saturday and Sunday
On Saturday I slept as late as I could - the wind woke me up at around ten, though - and decided that this was a good day to tidy up the place. And as both of my house mates were gone for the weekend I decided to clean the common areas as well. Checked out my next week's reading list - nothing at the beginning of the week. Spent almost the rest of the day gaming - started at around four, so it wasn't too long a stint.

Sunday... It was sunny, it wasn't windy. And when I went out it was warm. A rest day; the only thing I did was the laundry, as I was running out of clothes. Good thing I started at around noon, because when I went to get my things from the dryer at half three all the machines were full and people were forced to wait their turn. It was a good day.

Let's see what the new week brings. Probably more wind and rain.