IT HAS BEEN A MONTH!

It has been more than a month since my last entry. I somehow never got around to write something on my blog. I have so much to do here, so many things occupying my mind.

So let's start with talking about all the things that happened:

 

Saturday, 9th of September

Our partner organisation took us to a trip through Dublin. Jessie, one of my local coordinators guided us through the city and we had a nice little chat. With us were 2 Japanese girls, 3 Spanish students and Lena, my friend from Germany. After an hour or so we had free time and Lena, the Spanish boy and I went back to Trinity College to look around and then suddenly we were stuck inside because there was a long parade marching in, bands, people in uniforms and with flags. The whole show. It was really nice to watch. After we got back together Lena went off to meet some other friends and the rest of us visited 2 museums with Jessie. After a while it was clear that no one except me was actually interested in what Jess was talking about so we ended up having some nice conversations together while the others parted from us or talked among themselves.  I have to say that I really liked that day in Dublin and I will definitely go back to the museums to spend more time there.

 

Sunday, 10th of September

I started the Personal Skill part of my Gaisce Award, which is cooking and baking. I made "paprikás krumpli", a nice traditional Hungarian dish and it turned out pretty delicious.

Overall this was the week where I started the Gaisce Bronze Award, which is the president's award. To complete this non-competitive challenge, you have to do 13 weeks at least one hour per week of Community Involvement, Personal Skill and Physical Recreation, then choose one of those and do it for additional 13 weeks. The last part to complete will be a 2 day Adventure Journey which will be with the school.

 

Wednesday, 13th of September

It was my birthday! And I didn't know what to expect. But to my surprise my host mother got me a wonderful present (fluffy socks and an onesie) and we celebrated in the evening with a cake. After school my organisation here invited me for lunch in Dublin and I brought along Lena and Benedicta and we had a real fun time together. Lunch was finished with a delicious chocolate cake. I also opened the package my grandma sent me and I was just really happy. That was a beautiful birthday.

Oh and coincidentally, it was also the day where the Transition Year students got their Junior Cert. back so we had 2 periods of Samba drumming workshop and then we watched a juggler's show. After that the International Students were free to go since we haven't done the Junior Cert. So I was home at 11:30 which is early compared to the usual Wednesday 12:55.

 

Saturday, 16th of September

Together with Laura and Carla, I went down to the local GAA Club and helped with the coaching at the Camogie training with the little kids (4-6 years old) it was a nice way to spend the morning and I kinda wanted to try Camogie, too.

Originally the training was until 10:30, but there was a little girl who's parents didn't show up so we waited with her, played with her and kept her occupied so that she was distracted. After almost 2 hours we found her grandfather and her father, who both thanked us but also were worried because the grandfather couldn't find the girl, although we stayed at the same place where the Camogie training took place. When we finally saw the girl in good hands, I felt exhausted but also that I have done a good deed.

 

Sunday, 17th of September

It was finally time to continue my journey to be a high end super chef. I chose cooking for my Gaisce because it is something I am not really good at, or at least gives my brother reason to mock me (I love you too, Peter). This time, Benedicta was around. Now, I don't remember if I have already told you about her, she is basically my small part of home. Benedicta goes into a boarding school in Vienna and it feels good to have someone from the same place you come from. So she came over and helped me with the cooking, since it started to look like a catastrophe (but first Bene just looked at me and started laughing for solid minutes). Really, those crepes were wicked. Together we made "Hortobágyi palacsinta", but with some changes. I have the strange urge to disobey receipts so my self cooked meals are always a little different. In the end, they weren't that bad. 

 

Friday, 22nd of September

It was a very fun day in school. The prefects took us Internationals out of class and we played games and got to know each other instead. Which was a lot of fun, honestly. Afterwards I went bag packing to Dunnes (grocery store) for 2 hours and got to leave school for that time. Our school organised this bag packing as a charity event (?), basically we were collecting money for Portmarnock Community. For your information, bag packing is when you stand at the checkout in a store and help packing away people's groceries. 

In the evening I once again helped out at the Camogie nursery. Afterwards I met up with Bene at the beach and we took a long walk together until it was dark.

 

Saturday, 23rd of september

I went to Dublin for some shopping, or at least I believe I did. The only disadvantage of me not posting regularly is that I can't remember some details. With the help of my calendar and phone I am able to reconstruct some things, but not everything. It's also pretty possible that I have been to swords that day and bought myself birthday presents from my family (a pretty cool watch, a sweater and two lipsticks).

 

Sunday, 24th of September

I was baking again. Benedicta and I attempted a Rainbow Cake, which was a complete mess. But at least it tasted delicious. I will try to get some pictures to upload.

 

Tuesday, 26th of September

 The package sent by my parents arrived and somehow Maya managed to smuggle in something for me and I almost cried of happiness when I opened it. It was a good day.

 

Wednesday, 27th of September

We (Laura, Carla, Bene and I) decided to go to the beach after school. It was one of the colder days and the wind was unbelievably strong. The sand was carried over the beach and created a beautiful scene. We spent hours there, taking pictures and enjoying each others company. I will include some pictures from that day as well.

 

Friday, 29th of September

Since we got a day off from school the squad set off to discover Howth. I already have been there with my host mother the first week I spent here but I was convinced that the rest of us haven't and would enjoy the beautiful nature and everything. Howth is still breathtaking, although Autumn chimed in and took away the vibrant colours from the plants. We had Fish&Chips and ate them in the harbour, sitting on a bench looking at the sea. I felt alive, like I have made all the right choices by coming here.

We took loads of pictures, had ice cream later on and had a great time together.

When I came home I started watching "The Handmaiden", a film recommended to me by my dearest, Maya. I actually really liked it and will probably watch it again. Then in the middle of the film Theresa asked me if I wanted to meet up with her and go on a walk at the beach. I said yes, because why not. So we met up around 19:00 and walked down the beach. We talked and I just really enjoyed the time with her. Turns out we our taste in many things is very similar and I could talk with her openly and we just really clicked. Afterwards we went down to Lidl and bought some food and sat on a bench just continuing to talk. I got home around 21:20 that day.

 

Saturday, 30th of September

Bene came over and we had a Ghibli film marathon. That was such a throwback to my anime phase to be honest, but also a reminder how good these movies actually are. I plan to watch more non-western, non-Hollywood films in the future now.

 

Sunday, 1st of October

Deborah checked in with me. I haven't seen her since my first week here. So we planned to meet up and visit some museums in Dublin. Benedicta joined us. Since Deborah was pretty late, Bene and I walked through the National Art Gallery before meeting up with Deb and going to the Natural Historic Museum where we sat down and talked. It was nice meeting Deborah again and listening to her talking about how she got on. 

In the evening I felt drained from all the human contact I had and just wished for some peace and rest. I did my weekly cooking and then retreated into my room.

 

So last week was a very weird one.

I felt tired, homesick and just wanted to stay home for most of the time. I still got stuff done, I organised my Community Care, which I will be doing in the primary school down the road for two weeks. I am also a member of our school's Debate team and we had our first Debate (out of at least 4) on Tuesday, two days ago. So I was busy writing and perfecting my speech and doing a lot of research. The motion was "To end world hunger, we must embrace GMOs" and we were proposing it (for GMOs). On one side, thanks to the Debate meetings, I got to spend almost every day at lunchtime with a couple of very cool guys. That way I was making friends and engaging with the Irish students. On the other side I had some moments where I could barely focus on anything because I missed home so much.

Well, I didn't really miss my home in particular, more my group of friends and the support system I have built myself there. In Vienna, whenever I had a bad day or was craving closeness, I just called a friend and they were there moments later, embracing you and making you laugh. Here, although I have friends, none of them are so close yet where I feel 100% comfortable. I also noticed that people here aren't that touch-y. While I am used to getting hugs from a lot of my classmates back in Austria (even when we are not that close), having casual body contact like leaning on each other or sitting in each others laps, nothing of that happens here. Students here apparently don't hug each other as a greeting in the morning that much. And body contact between a boy and a girl is close to scandalous, which is a very weird concept to me. Like, I have a lot of friends (guys) whom I hug regularly, lean on them, link my arms together with them etc etc. Here  that doesn't even really happen between girls. I am shook. Since I got here I got overall maybe 6-7 hugs. That's what I'd usually get on a daily basis. I am craving body contact so much it's unreal. Additionally to that, I started missing my room at home, my own four walls, where I have the feeling that everything in that room really belongs to me and is decorated as I want it to be. I had some moments last week where I was so occupied with those thoughts that I couldn't even focus on easy stuff like doing some research for the Debate.

On Friday I joined the Athletics Club. We had training before school at 7:30 and the first run will be on the 26th of October.

Throughout the week, I had my ups and downs. It wasn't an easy time but I am not mad at it.

I also signed up for a Scuba Diving course.

This week, we had our first Debate on Tuesday. I was hyperactive and nervous, after all it was my very first Debate ever. The opposition was an all-boys school from Rathmines. They were good, but we were better. Our team won unanimously. I had a really great time hanging out with all these people and I really enjoyed their company. We had a group hug afterwards and I felt amazing, invincible. What I also noticed, in comparison to our opponents, we were "warmer" to each other. Reassuring each other, a pat on the back here, an encouraging smile there, laughter to ease the tension, we felt and acted like a team. But I think the reason for that was partially that we had two internationals in our team, Bene and I, and we kinda brought our familiar touchiness and team spirit with us. Whereas the other school was more distant with each other.

 

I am still holding my promise to get as much involved as I can, doing all this stuff. It mostly keeps me distracted. But I am still contemplating now whether to stay here for Christmas or not. I mean I still have time to decide and I can find good arguments for both going home and staying here. So we'll see.

 

Last but certainly not least, Maya is coming over for the midterm break and I couldn't be happier. We plan to maybe visit Galway together. I am really looking forward to it.

 

 

So, after this long entry, I hope I have covered everything that has happened to me in that time.

Greetings and best wishes,

 

Evelin