The lovelyness of the sunshine is finally gone... it didnt rain here for 6 days!!! but today... brrr *shiverrrs*

Today me and Mari went to see irish dancing in action in a pub, we got to dance too, the average age was around 50 but it was a lot of fun still !! On wednesday im going paintballing and im trying to get everyone go too, shall see how that turns out... wednesday is also Kaisas birthday so party party on thursday (yet again)

life is pretty regular here now, college every weekday (well when we go to class) parties on monday (altho this day im starting to avoid) thursday, then on friday and saturday and then on sunday we are all just braindead and doing nothing all day, in between we got shopping for food and sometimes we wonder to Marshes and turn the clothingshops around and always leave a lot poorer than what we walked in with...

on fridays we have irish dancing classes and were still waiting for hiphop and kickboxing to start...

other rather intresting observations
1. the chiken is RIDICULOUSLY expensive here... and i mean it, its insane...
2. everything is ham, or mixed ham and chiken (were talking about stuff to put on your bread) EWWWWWWW, the ham crap just looks gross so i just go n buy the stupidly expensive chiken... tesco is lovely for that tho...
3. skimmed milk... where is it?!
4.you can get 2 litre soda with 30 cents... YES 30 FRIKKIN CENTS!
5. a litre of orange juice is min. one and half euros the highest ive seen it its been closer to 7 euros...

i got to play juliens guitar, which was blue and gorgeoussss, im gonna borrow it again for sure, only now my fingers are kinda hurting... BUT ALL IS GRAND :D a fun week ahead, the only thing thats kind of a drag is the classes, snore... ah well, gotta do what i gotta do... no school on wednesday though bC paintball WHEEEEE! i cant wait!!!

what's the story?!

= hows it going... yea, learning new local expressions has baffeled our french friends and us a little too...

been a while since i last gave you a piece of my mind, mari and kaisa dont have the passwords in here yet but they'll be getting them soon...

we had our english level test and we're all in the 'advanced' group, with mainly rest of the scandinavians and some german people and a french girl, there is also another advanced group but i have no clue about them, kaisa can tell more about them later...

the situation here is that we have gone to pubs and shopping and clubs and shopping and shopping, therefore some of us are running a little low on cash! if anybody wants to donate we are more than happy to accept some financial aid ;p

today is a student party day, also the freshers ball, to which we decided not to attend, so instead we are throwing our own party, maris birthday party to be exact... now we would've had it here in our dorm but due to recent events (last night the guards were around n gave 200 euro finds to people who were partying) one of the exchangestudents ( pierre) friend Emily kindly said that we can throw the party at her place... NOW Emily has completely hooked us up since we are apparently getting our own dj?!?! more comments on that later...

me and kaisa started the project "lets make mari a kick ass bday cake" along with cristina yesterday (wednesday) ... we nearly finished up today and well the cake looks kinda... um... flat... but its the thought that counts right?!?!?! AND THE EFFORT! I tell you these people havnt even heard of proper thingies that you can whip the cream with... so yes EFFORT! we still need to decorate the cake and kaisa has gone to town with cristina to pick up maris bday gift *mwahahaha* she has nooo idea :P

the classes have been nice, some of them are pretty big which is a pain in the ass cause there is never enough handouts which means we cant really do anything since we dont get the papers to read from... lovelyness...
one of the teachers is kinda annoyed all the time and one of them is just really dry and EVERYTIME states "ooh, there is too many people" (now can we all go 'no shit' at the same time when at every class people are sitting on the floor?! )... also the computer teacher is kinda blah... plus we have basically gone through 4 of the 6 courses we have right now, in finland... so boredom sometimes sets in when you're listening to the same stuff over and over again...

we are also supposed to buy books, which is insane... since theyre about 70 euros per one... not happening, copymachines here we come!

we've had much fun when we've gone out, i for one have encountered with some very freaky/rude/gross approaches and well not have felt flattered at all... like say when a guy comes up to me says his name n tries to kiss me, orrr guy comes up to me and shoves his hand between my legs (and this guy looked like 16 yrs old btw) soooo thats a nooo thank you...
kaisa met this irish guy but shes kinda weirded out cause apparently he reminds her of her brother?! hah aww... <3 and mari has her own irish dude but apparently thats not working out too well either because HE IS TOO NICE... yea... he takes her out n pays for her drinks n food etc.and have a nice time and OBVIOUSLY he adores her but no... ITS HORRIBLE SAYS I! horrible...

the other day at the bartender was great, there was a lot of exchange students like 30-40 of us and everyone got to talk to people they hadnt before which was nice :) generally we always have fun when we go out :D

but now i need to run i think... need to get dressed, finish the cake, do the makeup etc so untill next time!!! see ya!

issues....

issue number 1;
the opposite traffic... not so bad, pretty used to it, all good...

issue number 2;
the locks on the doors... theyre twisted in the 'wrong' direction... i still dont get that... especially when im drunk i dont get that(!!!!!)

issue number 3;
all the crap food is cheap, vegetables are expensive...

issue number 4;
the people in the taxi company dont understand me when i speak english, and i speak fairly good english... ITS KILLIN MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! ONE OF THEM ASKED WHEN I CALLED THEM IF THERES ANY ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE THERE, I AINT THE ONE WITH THE ACCENT, YOUUUUUU AREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! *rips a pillow*

issue number 5;
everything in Dundalk is fenced, not around something, but across... there's fences EVERYWHERE and its driving me nuts... ok ok, from the tesco shopping mall ( and im callin it tht cause i cant remember the real name ) we can get to lidl, BUT, if there were NO FENCES... we could oh SO easily get to Marshes shopping centre and not have to walk 6 effin blocks to get to the first entrance... its beyond me... if someone knows the reason for this, please explain... PLEASE.....

issue number 6;
this one has already been fixed... NO WELLIES... no wellies bloody anywhere... this is Ireland for fks sake!!!! and all women wear is high heels?!?!?! DO YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN??!?!
ok, did not find wellies, but fake leather boots, which hopefully keep rain better than my sneakers... which were wet after 30 something hours of drying off... also paid 18 euros for a raincoat (and i kno this one was my fk up, but penneys didnt have any cheaper ones so in to dunnes stores i went ) but that raincoat i LOVE! it aint fashionable, oh no but it keeps the rain OUT and the warmth IN :) mmmm.... warmth.... *curls up*

thats all so far, and if thats all, then i think we're pretty well off :D

The first days...

The journey to the unknown (well to the fairly unknown) started after couple days of goodbye parties, after leaving the house thinking we had everything me (elina) and kaisa realized that my camera charger was at home. Swiftly turning around and figuring out where it was, i also found kaisas watch. :P also had to make a quick stop to a local shop to get a computerbackpack...



we finally arrived to the airport, where we finally met another elina. we waited to board the plane and the flight, with two slightly nervous girls; kaisa and the other elina, since they both dislike flying. after the liftoff girls started feeling alright and especially after some wine everything was definately alright! at one point kaisa fell asleep and the two elinas got another bottles of wine...

we finally landed, got our luggage and something to eat and went to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Dundalk, which, surprise surprise! was eventually over half an hour late! we also met another finnish girl on the way called mervi, she lives in the same building with us.

we walked around aimlessly in dundalk trying to find our apartments after the lovely taxi driver dropped us off to the wrong place, but nothing, until finally we found mari who had spent her whole summer in dublin, under a windmill on the campus! she guided us in to the right place, where she also lives

we got our flat keys, and entered our cozy small rooms, we all have 4 roommates, lots of french and spanish people here. the other elina lives in a different house than me, kaisa and mari. kaisa is on the 0 floor, im on the 1st floor and mari is on the 2nd floor. theres been some trouble like the internet not working for the 2 first days, now we do have it and tho its 54.0 Mbps fast, it takes forever to load a youtube video, plus it keeps cutting off every now and again. also theres been issues with no hot water, no cold water from the shower, fridges not working, no mattresses etc. so yeah we've been busy running around getting all that sorted =)

because of our late arrival, me and kaisa slept without blankets or pillows, we did manage to buy some food, and get the radiators working after nearly beating them up (still need to learn how to use the waterheater)

the first official day we ran throug all possible shops, for blankets n pillows n towels n such things and ofcourse food. by this time we had met a lot of french people, including my roommate fanny, and kaisas boys (who walk in their flat without shirts on, she is dying! hahaha xD) one of maris flatmates is spanish girl called christina whos been hanging out with us :)

so we all (10 people and dont even ask me their names cause i cant remember) went to a pub called charlies, they had karaoke and laurent got all excited and sang his heart out, christina also bravely tried but there were no 'spanish songs' (when she asked one they put on shakiras whenever wherever in english!!! xD) but she saved her ass by dancing hahaha.
there was also this old grandmum n grandpa there and they were just danging their asses off (80 yr olds) and she ever jumped off the stage like alice cooper!!! i thought she was gonna break her hip! so that was the night with guinness and bulmers. we also managed to piss off a taxi driver since we took another one since he took so bloody long... woops, at least we can blame that on us being foreign and clueless :P...

yesterday (wednesday) we had our frist day at school, just about all exchange students were there (about 120 people) and we went through of listening speaches and meeting the head of departments and campus tours etc. later on we went to town to get food and wellies and raincoats. can you believe there are NO wellies in this country for sale... and it rains here all the time!!! what the heck are you people thinking?!?!? theres only high heels for girls...

today (thursday) well i for one slept in and decided not to go for the "fun day" since i was sick and figured since the day before we couldnt find waterproof boots i dont wanna take the chance of getting even more sick! (to which our landlord gave a good direction for, lots of paracetamol and whiskey and some stuff from the shop and then ure good to go! - flu is gone, old irish remedy) plus i could sleep late, but the others went and apparently pissed off the woman in the tourist information since she called and complained to the school that the erasmus students are harrassing her!!! xD haha... yeah they went in and asked questions so thats was harrassing in irish standards?!... lovely!

today theres a party in apartment 6, no idea who lives there but ah well! were going anyways! but for now, we are going to go to lidl or tesco and get mari some chocolate and i guess some alcohol for all of us :P

we have a 2 hour english exam tomorrow haha... woopdeedoo! we'll see how that turns out!!!

-Elina-