Rat and Santa Claus

Time goes by and Dublin keeps surprising me:
- Enjoyed more great live music, not only The Wild Rover even though it's a nice song.
- Saw a wonderful play, Oscar Wilde's Woman of No Importanve, including pink umbrellas and enchanting make up.
- "Celebrated" Valentine's day with speed dating and love auction. An interesting experience, if you could put it that way.
- We organized a surprise party with awsome food (eg. Finnish laskiaispulla) for a birthday girl who thought we were leaving her alone on her birthday.
- One day I spent in bed trying to figure out what's important in life.
- Sunday in honour I had a cinnamon bun at Ikea.

And I still haven't seen the Trinity cat or the fox (apparently there are lots of animals on campus) but the other day when I was enjoying the warm spring sun I saw the most disgusting and biggest rat ever. The cat is not impressing me at all.

Today I spent three hours of my life queuing. First to the GP's and afterwards for the Trinity Ball ticket. During the first 15 minutes after the online registration opened at 9am 4000 tickets for the Trinity Ball were sold. I was lucky to get at ticket at noon today. I also figured out that there are lots of things you can do when standing in a line. My favourites are to see for how long you can stan on one foot and trying to think of nothing at all. This day ended with getting henna tattoos and spotting Santa Claus in a pub.
Tomorrow is all about studying and preparing for the road trip around Ireland. Mostly studying, I hope.

Sorry, we don't accept Euro coins

On Saturday I went with about 80 other international students to Northern Ireland to experience friendly rain, how it feels to jump on clouds (aka lots of grass), and hear the waves beat against the cliffs in the fog. Breathtaking, if I may use such a cliché.

One sheep. Many sheep.

Slippery?

Hej, säger Amalia.

Otherwise, I am trying to create a daily life here in Dublin. On Monday mornings I go swimming. The best part is the sauna, even if it's not as good as the Finnish ones.

"It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid."

If weekend was all about the sea and the sun, then this week is all about culture. Trinity Art Festival is going on on campus, which means that students organize all different kinds of happenings from rave joga to knitting hearts and political debates.
Monday evening the English lady and I enjoyed the 1920s night with some jazz and free drinks.

On Tuesday I was running around the campus like a fool since I was taking part in disposable camera competition. One basically had to take pictures of things listed on a paper that was given with the camera. One of the challenges was to take a picture of the Trinity Cat that is supposed to walk around at campus. I still haven't seen it so maybe it's just a legend. I chose to draw it on an old blackboard instead. Another nice theme was to take a picture of the most alternative student. As the College is filled up with "hipsters" (whatever that concept then eventually is) I chose to shoot an mature madam who's in my social policy module. She's really charming and always listening to the lecturer, compared to other instagramming/twittering/facebooking students.

In the evening we watched Father Ted with the International Society. I think this is an Irish version of Salatut Elämät. Not that the content is the same, but the thing that everybody (ehm) is watching it even though it's not that good. Afterwards we have to do something more entertaining so we went to glance at some local young talents playing at Whealan's. Very Grand. A new acquaintance is Guinness with Blackcurrant syrup. The bartender wasn't too frolic to serve that, though.

Today I have been a good student and done some reading. We also saw a intense play called the Woman Who Cooked Her Husband performed by the Duplayers. It more than grand to have the opportunity to watch student theatre every night for 3,50€. And they do new plays every week.

Most people trying to guess where I'm from are guessing Germany. "It's your look and the accent". I might have to sleep more to avoid that in the future (no offence to Germans, you're lovely people, but I'm a Finn). No lectures tomorrow, which means I'm going to sleep. Very long.

And sometimes you enjoy a moment that isn't that special, but there is still that something.

Yesterday was so far the most beautiful day in Ireland. We took the advantage of it and visited Bray and Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Don Liri). Didn't find Gerry there, though.