OH CANADA!!!

aaaaaaI can’t believe I’ve only been here for 2 weeks! When I think back to my first days at accommodation #1, it feels like my priceless art and prehistoric key happened ages ago. Each day goes rather quickly, but the days also seem to last longer. Every day my little group finds something new and exciting to do, even if that means just cooking a big dinner.

aaaaaaMost obviously, the appearance of the longer days is due to the late setting sun. I think most of the international students, with the exception of Jussi, were pleasantly surprised when we first experienced a 10:30 sunset. Secondly, this deception can be attributed to the weather. Today, 14 days after I first arrived in Dublin, was the first day it rained. The weather here has been amazing, it’s almost consistently a comfortable 20°C (68°F for my fellow Americans).

aaaaaaAnyways, as I previously mentioned, this phenomenon has slowly started to subside, but tends to reappear on weekend. During the week, things are pretty calm, but enjoyable. The group now has somewhat of a set schedule and normally follows as such; home from work, grocery shopping, make dinner, play cards/some other kind of game, chill, off to your own quarters for some skyping/chatting, and finally bed. With a few exceptions, this week pretty much followed suit.

aaaaaaDay 14’s excitement came from two different sources, the first being Belfast. After dinner, Brianna came over so we could book our first ‘big-ish’ weekend trip. (Get that thought out of your head (Dad), she only came to my place since I have a wireless connection and thus both of us can search various travel routes, accommodations, etc.) Moving on, booking the trip took forever, since the internet at Shanowen is as fast as the internet was back in ’92 (or at least it’s that bad between the hours of 7-12 p.m.). Also, today was the first day since I left home that I was successfully able to get in touch with Mike (one of my best friends). Can you take a guess whose fault that was??...no hard feelings, just saying.

aaaaaaDay 15 was pretty uneventful. Since my lab mentor was away on vacation this week and didn’t have much to do in the lab, I spent the majority of the day catching up on my blog.

aaaaaaDay 16 wasn’t much better. All the UREKA students were required to attend a seminar on presentation skills and referencing (yawn!). The seminar was pretty much the same thing I’ve heard about 10 times by this point in my academic career. However, there was a bit of a turning point towards the end. Right as Aoife was finishing up, we were told that we would have to submit a 20 page paper at the end of the internship. As you probably guessed, all of our jaws dropped, especially since we were told on day 1 that the report only had to be 10 pages in length. This put a huge damper on the rest of the day! However, given that the following day was Canada Day and I was planning a little party, I was successfully able to distract myself from that scary little detail we were just given.

aaaaaaAfter work, we had finally arranged to play a game of soccer. Initially, we were planning on play at the nice turf fields at DCU, but after we found out the hourly rate (€45), the park right across the street was looking mighty fine! Before heading over to the park, I quickly did some groceries for my Canada Day pancake shin-dig. I was lucky enough to find maple syrup, but saying that it was comparable to the real stuff at home is quite a stretch. Our little soccer match had a pretty decent turn out considering it was our first time, even one of my roommates came to play with us. Later at night, I got my first chance to get somewhat acquainted with all of my roommates (and I’m pretty sure I know which one of them is the source of all the disasters).

aaaaaaThe next day, day 17, was definitely the best day of (work) week 3. The day started off well with a brief chat to my uncle in Switzerland about a possible trip in the next coming weeks. With plans tentatively made, I went into the lab to try and figure out how to do the project I was supposed to be working on all week. Unfortunately, due to all the blogging and trip planning, I had fallen behind. With the exception of one quick thing I had to do with my cells in the lab, I basically didn’t have any reason to actually go to the lab the entire week, but I still did anyways because I’d feel guilty if I didn’t. When I finally did go into the lab, I wasn’t able to do what I needed to (passage my cells for you sciencey-people), since a required solution had run out. With nothing left to do at the lab, I came home and started prepping for CANADA DAY!!! Of course, since I’m the only Canadian, it was up to me to take the reins of the celebrations. Given the vast ‘Canadian culinary menu’ and the somewhat limited selection at Tesco, I decided that pancakes would be the easiest thing to make, especially for a larger group.

aaaaaaWith the food ready and people having already started eating, I started to notice some interesting differences between how the Irish/other international students liked their pancakes and how I liked mine. First off, I found it rather bizarre (and boring) that people seemed to like plain pancakes as opposed to the fruit pancakes. Moreover, people didn’t even know you could have fruit pancakes!! I nearly died! As well, the group barely used any maple syrup…dub-tee-eff, what a bunch of noobs. If they had truly embraced the Canadian spirit, I would have had to make another trip to grab some more of the gold stuff. Throughout the night, I had been playing an All-Canadian playlist that I had previously made (now available on iTunes for $14.99). To my disappointment, people knew very few of the songs I played, and some people were even making fun of some classic Canadian tunes, not cool! But what do the Irish know anyways, U2 isn’t even that good! I’d see Arcade Fire or Sam Roberts over U2 any day. As well, people took their turns poking fun at Canada, but it was all in good fun. Overall, I think the festivities went well and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. With my little Canada Day party, I really started to realize that people here view me as being Canadian and not Italian, as I would ‘classify’ myself back in Toronto. Granted Canada doesn’t have the history of Europe, nor the fame of the States, but Canada is still the definition of greatness.

aaaaaaDay 18 most certainly did not start off on the right foot! After waking up and making my way to the kitchen for breakfast, I found the common room looking like an IRA battle zone (see movie from previous post). I tried not to focus on my apartment too much, as later today was our first big trip and I was very excited. The majority of the work day was spent scrambling to try and finish project Caroline left me. It was somewhat of a successful attempt, and I had planned to finish the rest of it when I got back from Belfast (didn’t exactly happen that way). Anyways, once I got home from school, I immediately started to pack for Belfast and shortly after met up with everyone in the courtyard.

aaaaaaBelfast stories to come soon timesss...