Strange and Exciting Stuff...

So here, finally, is the post I've been promising, maybe not as long as I suggested it would be, but hey, longer than nothing. Luckily Laurie and I hang out a lot, so she has already covered a lot of the things I was going to post about. Meaning now I don't have to. First off, though, let me warn you, that to listen to the following recording of my Celtic Religion and Mythology teacher, you may need to turn up the volume. Recording's bad, so, no, he's not that hard to understand in real life. The key point of the recording is to listen for him say strange and exciting stuff and mean it, while also speaking in a monotone way. He's an awesome teacher with his orange corduroy pants and gold rimmed glasses and the only person I know who can be excited and subdued at the same time!

That was Thursday. Nothing much exciting happened on Friday. But Saturday was quite nice, even if I woke up unnecessarily early. I was ready by ten, but Laurie thought we were supposed to wake up at ten, thus the confusion. Meanwhile, I got to watch the food channel all morning, which is highly exciting when the focus is on British, Welsh and Irish meals. Yay for Irish eels and Scottish mutton! We eventually did get on our way, however, and found the day to be absolutely sunny and gorgeous.


After two hours, we had finally found everything we needed and made it back, but not without a few mishaps. The shortening incident, for instance, I found very funny. I got to watch the whole thing while enjoying a cheese sample. Then of course we had a nice long wait in the sun as the bus took its sweet time to get there. With fivemillion pounds of groceries in my over the shoulder bag, there was no way I was walking back and not dislocating my collar bone. I didn't mind the wait, I quite enjoyed it actually. The glare pictured below is from the sun, not impatience.

Then of course we missed the stop for Victoria Lodge and had to walk back a short ways, which I also thought was funny.
Back in the apartments, we all had lunch. Sarah came over and had beans on toast with me. I enjoyed the best thing since sliced brown soda bread...cinnamon raison soda bread!!! Great with jam or peanut butter or by itself, which is what I had for lunch...all three of those combinations.


By the time we had lunch and coffee and tea, we figured it was too late to visit St. Fin Barre's Cathedral as we had planned. Instead we went to The Roundy and had an interesting time. Afterwards, we decided to check out a arts and crafts shop Mika and Laurie knew about. I'm in desperate need of turpentine to use my oil paints with. Not that I don't enjoy watercolor, but I'd hate to think I toted ten pounds of oil paint over here for no reason. We stopped in a few pet fish stores. Popped into a hippie-esque hand knitted sweaters type place. I bought a cool little earring that's yellow and has a stick. Can't get much cooler than that.

The stick can be seen on both sides of the ear, which I thought was neat, but I'll be in trouble if it ever breaks.
Finally making it to the Vibes and Scribes crafts shop I discovered a HUGE thing of turpentine that could last me the rest of my life. However, since I only need it for the next few months, I asked if they had anything smaller. So, now they have my number and will call me when a new shipment of smaller bottles comes in. Woo-hoo!! We rounded up the day at Tung Sing's Chinese Restaurant. I had the Tung Sing special chow mein. It was special alright--a huge mound of noodles topped with an omelet and walled in with chicken and pork. And there was shrimp. One-eighth of my plate was also pretending to be a salad, but it didn't fool me.
Today has been nothing but notes notes notes, mainly on the Book of Kells, since I have to do a paper on it soon. But in thirty minutes I'll be eating steak and enjoying the good company of my friends. I'm sure everyone over there will be eating lunch about now, so enjoy!!!