So Linda and I wanted to take the bus at 13.25 last Saturday to go to Galway.. We would meet everyone at 6 at the hostel, and people could decide for themselves if they wanted to spend the entire day in the city or not. We had already been there a couple of times, so we chose not to be there the entire day and catch up on some sleep instead. So we went to the station (we were running a bit late) and the bus was still there. And usually you can just buy your tickets in the bus, but this was the occasionally asshole busdriver, and he told us we had to go inside. We bought the tickets, walked out again and… yes, the bus left! At moments like these, I really want to beat people to a pulp (but as he was already gone, we couldn’t). So we went back inside, bought some food and drinks for on the bus, Linda went to the Meteor store to buy some top-up for both of us (didn’t feel like walking all the way to the store) and after an hour we took the next bus, with Andrea and her friend from Germany. Had a nice and bumpy busride, but did manage to fall asleep after some time. I mean, what better thing to do in a bus besides sleeping?

So we were in Galway around a quarter to 5, and some people were at the station waiting for us. Walked around the city a little bit, bougth a new shirt, as we forgot to take a clean shirt along. Well, what can I say? Just love Penneys.. About an hour later we decided to go and look for the hostel, which took us about 45 minutes, as we walked in the opposite direction and had a nice tour through the city (the hostel was about a 100m from Eyre Square). At half 6 we were finally there, after having made a short stop at Lidl to buy some wine and beer (and they actually asked all of us for our IDs, even the 24 year olds!). Turned out we weren’t allowed to have any alcohol in the hostel, so we took it back outside, went to a pizza place to get some food (me, Akili and Brittany), went back to the hostel, got dressed, went out, got drunk… And then we went out to this place called Cuba, which was on 2 different floors. Ground floor was your standard club music (though they did play Hot Chip and Cansei de ser Sexy) and on the first floor there was rock music and at one point even a live band. So when there was crappy music upstairs, we went down, and the other way round. Had a nice night, took some crazy/drunk pics, but nothing really worth seeing.. Anyway, this was one of the last times we’re going out here in Ireland, so we had a good time!

Sunday we went back to Limerick, after not having had a lot of sleep, so didn’t really do anything the rest of the day.

Monday idem. We had to get started on our History, but didn’t feel like it, so we didn’t.. Instead spent some time on facebook, procrastination station #1!! Tuesday idem.. Though today Linda and I actually printed a shitload of reading materials for Early/Medieval Ireland. So much in fact, that we first ran out of paper (I bought some new paper when I did groceries an hour later) and then ran out of ink.. So we managed to print about 65 pages each, and tried to start reading them..

Wednesday I planned on getting up early, which I didn’t, and then started reading history. The pages we had already printed took me about 4 hours, as it was extremely boring and I had to read parts over and over again to register what was written there. And besides the text being completely mind-numbing, there were a lot (and I mean a lot!) of writing errors, which makes it even more annoying to read.. So I finished this part around 5, decided to take a short break from studying, which lasted till 1.15am, when I went to bed.

And today we actually did wake up rather early, around half 10 (yes, this is very early for me!) after a very bad night’s sleep.. I mean, when your throat is all swollen and your nose is blocked, it’s really not that easy to breathe. So when I was awake I sat at my laptop, reading (or at least, trying to) the last part (about 150 pages) of history for the exam today at half 3. After reading for about 2 hours I gave up and quickly had a look at the powerpoints that we took from the lan. Pretty much the same information, though a bit less detailed, but way easier to go through when you don’t have that much time left! At a quarter to 3 we left the apartment, walked to school, bought a bottle of water and tissues and walked to the gym.. Only to find a huge amount of people waiting to register for the exam and to find out where to sit! Yes, they actually have lists here with all the people who are taking an exam, you have to sign next to your name and you have an appointed table. It went from A to O, seats 1 to 25.. Mine was K21.. But all in all there were about 375 people taking this exam, so yeah, a LOT of people! The exam consisted of 5 essay type questions, of which you had to answer 2. Very nice if you’ve never learnt to write an essay! Anyway, after about an hour and a half I left, as I didn’t know what to write anymore, had been looking around about half the time I had been sitting there and the Irish people were getting to my nerves as they all just kept writing and writing and writing. And unlike back home, you can’t leave your sheets on your table, which was apparantly mentioned in the rules on the answer sheets, but which were in my case in Irish. And my understanding of Irish is not as good so as to understand what it all meant. After about 5 minutes of waiting outside, Linda joined me, also having fucked up the entire exam. We had some fun about it while walking back home. And Linda’s rules were in English, and she told me that if you have to go to the bathroom, someone will walk with you, and if you have a cellphone or calculator with you on the exam, they can kick you out of school for 12 months.. What the fuck?!?! Yeah, next exam I’m going to try to take the rules with me, as they’re absolutely ridiculous. But anyway, now we know the rules, sort of, and we also know that bottles of water are allowed in, and you have to have your college card on the upper right corner of your table.

And some time ago Linda made us some dinner, not wanting me to cook and make her ill as well. Had some lovely pasta, which did taste very good, despite the fact that I’m unable to smell anything at the moment.

And right now it’s 10 to 9, and I’m going to bed, trying to get rid of this flue before tomorrow, as it’s Akili’s goodbye party tomorrownight! And on Saturday there’s a Christmas party at shared housing, Sunday probably Magdalena’s birthday party and Monday we have a Christmas gathering with all the internationals at school, including mince pies and mulled wine. And after that, I think I might start packing my stuff, as I only have 11 more days before I’m back home!