Ireland on the Home Front

Since I'm still trying to sort of catch my potential followers up on my Ireland experience so far, I thought I should describe my "home life" a bit.  Dunaras, the apartment complex I live in, sometimes feels more like a port of call than a regular house.  We're all somewhat busy with classes during the week, and then are jetting off (or biking, bussing, driving, or ...training off?) to other locations around Ireland for the weekend.  So far I've done weekend or Saturday trips to the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, Cork/Blarney, Achill Island, and Newcastle, England.  That comprises 5 of the 8 weekends I've been here so far, so there's hardly a dull moment!

When not traveling, though, I've had some time to settle into apartment life.  I like in an apartment about 30-35 minutes away from the center of town, walking.  The distance was initially the worst thing about the housing, but we've all gotten used to the walk, and even occasionally enjoy it.  I've had people say "but you're walking 30 minutes in Ireland!  It must be beautiful!"  They are probably imagining pastures of sheep and rolling hills, but it's more like strip malls and sidewalks, at least on this side of town.  Once inside the apartment, however, it starts to feel more like home.  

Both of my roommates are great.  Dorte comes from Hamburg, Germany, and we have fun pretending that I can speak German.  She is the mother-hen of the apartment building, and keeps us all on schedule and occupied, and is always good to chat with.  Erin is from Albany, New York, and is hilarious and sweet and makes me tea when we are rained into our rooms.  We have a huge sitting area, with a lovely functional attached kitchen.  We have about 3 of every utensil, which forces us to do lots of dishes, but that hasn't stopped us from cooking a lot so far.  

Living in an apartment has been great, for the most part.  At the least, it's been good training for the "adult" world.  Even the apartment I lived in last year at Concordia felt like it was still kind of "independent living 101," whereas here it feels like we're actually responsible for ourselves.  However, who knows, that could just be the whole living in another country thing.

All in all, Ireland is a good experience even when we're just staying in.  Stay tuned for our  Thanksgiving feast, which has been planned my Dunaras residents pretty much ever since we got here!