Holy Week

What did this Easter week offer so far? Well, Irish movie night (they're making as depressive movies as Finns) and chocolate fondue in school to cheer up my Wednesday. The colourful Indian Holi festival celebrating spring although is was snowing and a debate evening about the extreme right party in Ireland.  I also saw a touching play about two brothers and received some self-made birthday cards. The Easter part is yet to come: Egg hunt and Catholic mass.

 

Next week is the last teaching week. After that we have a reading period before the comprehensive and terrifying exams are taking place. I'm mostly going to read my Finnish friends' faces during that period, though. Looking forward to that!

Landscapes- they puzzle me

And it's Sunday again. I wonder if we should invent another day in the week to avoid the time to go by so fast?
Today I participated in the second last walk of Trinity Hiking Society. Saw a couple of waterfalls, some deers and lots of snow. I was also made fun of because I was freezing even though I'm from Finland. But I tell you, the Irish coldness is humid and windy, not like home at all. Anyway, I survived the 786m top and it was totally worth frozen fingers and red eyes. And much better than walking down Grafton Street.

Shamrocks and other green stuff

Saint Patrick's day (or the whole last week) in Dublin was for sure an experience. I cannot say that I know that much about the saint we celebrated  yesterday, but I guess that's not the point. It's just a reason to have fun and enjoy oneself. I chose to do it by wearing a green dress, hat and nails, lots of fake tattoos, watch the parade, eat shamrock crisps and drink Guinness. Today is the national "hangover-day" (it's a red day, yes) and tomorrow life starts again.

How to make peace.

When I was about eight years old I wanted to become the president of Finland. So far I have just been the president of the society for Sociology students, but that's not too bad either, right?

Martti Ahtisaari was a guest at Trinity College today. He didn't remember what pakettiauto (van) is in English and felt sorry for the Finnish students that have been forced to see his picture in classrooms everyday during their time in elementary school. Martti is apparently a human being. He has come this far because he doesn't think that he's the best, but that the people he is working with are best. He also emphasized the importance of including all relevant stakeholders in a process. And that's how he brings more peace to the world. I shook his hand and said thank you.

Of Mice and Men

Today's update:

- I didn't find a dress for the Trinity Ball even though we found many vintage shops, but we had cake, or tarts, so that's good. Lovely Saturday afternoon in other words.

-  The mystery with my pictures (they were disappeared but now found and viewable) from the roadtrip is solved thanks to the Boston girl.

- And there is a mouse in our kitchen. I should also mention something about men as the title of this blog post refers to John Steinbeck's novel and to our new flatmate, but I have no comments about men at the moment.

Almost Too Many Beautiful Landscapes

Today was the first day in two weeks that I had some rain on me. March means spring!

That was the obligatory weather update.

Last week was the reading week or, as some lecturers call it, "get out of town"-week. We had a 5-day-road trip with the lovely ladies. Mighty craic with this great team. 

Glendalough-Cork-Kinsale-Blarney-Killarney-Ring of Kerry with several stops-Dingle-Anascul-Cliffs of Moher-Galway-Dublin. 

The wrong side of the road didn't feel that wrong any moore after a while behind the steering wheel.

Photo by Tildy. 

The nature in Ireland is stunning. I'm just a bit annoyed that the human being thinks that something that the nature has created can be theirs to charge other human beings for. 

I hope that the mankind never finds out how to fully reign the nature.

After the roadtrip I finally got a visitor from Finland. My sister brought me rye bread, Carelian pie and salmiakki. She got to taste Guinness in three different ways in different pubs, see a bit of the city and a cliff walk in Howth. Salmiakki was appreciated by the German friends of mine, but the English lady wasn't too impressed.

March means also that the countdown for St Patrick's festival has begun.

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.