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I’m going to post this update a few days early since I’ll be headed to Dublin tomorrow. Tourist mode: activating. I don’t know if I’ll post daily but, I’m taking my camera so expect pictures. Without further ado here’s my week in review (Yes, I made it rhyme on purpose).

Thursday night after my last weekly update, I booked a tour at the Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin. So far it’s the only thing that I have planned. It was one of the most recommended things in Dublin so, hopefully it lives up to the hype.

On Friday, I really don’t know what I did for most of the day. In the evening, I went to laser tag with the Snowsports club. Both games I was the second best player. The arena was probably the best one that I’ve ever played which says a lot considering I’ve played at several places in the States. Afterwards we went to the Cooper Rose where I had fish and chips and a pint. I also had a bottle of Angry Orchard cider. It’s the best cider that I’ve tried to date. Better yet, it’s American and is likely in a store near you unlike my previous favorite, woodpecker. Hanging out with the group was fun even though I have no idea what they were taking about most of the time (British accents get hard to understand when there’s more than one Brit in a conversation).

On Saturday, I had scuba in the morning. I completed my fifth and final scuba module. Now I just have to take the final exam and complete my open water dives to become a certified scuba diver. I think that I might move onto my advanced open water certification next semester. For my dives on Saturday I wore a drysuit. The water in the lake that the club dives in is cold, the air temperature here gets into the lower 50s now. This would make the water temperature beneath the surface even lower. This makes a drysuit ideal as air is a better insulator than water which, keeps you much warmer. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be in a vacuum chamber, try diving in a drysuit (it’s not comfortable). Surprisingly when I got out of the pool, I found that I got more soaked from walking to the scuba shop than I actually did from two hours in the pool. After scuba I went grocery shopping and bought a footlong from subway for dinner. Then I went back to Clanny and started working on my film analysis essay. I’m doing an awful job and so far only have 500 of 1500 words. Worse yet, I haven’t found enough sources yet to support my writing. I should be able to get it better before it’s due though (I really don’t want to take my laptop to Dublin with me). Saturday overall was a great day, bring it on homework and laundry Sunday!!!

Sunday
I shouldn’t have asked for Sunday to bring it. I don’t like writing essays. I got 1,150 out of 1,500 words done though. I did laundry and packed too.

It’s Monday!!! I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Dublin. I’m do excited, it’s my first time leaving Sunderland in the eight and a half weeks I’ve been here. I also figured out how to plug my camera into my phone to transfer photos. It’s going to be an early morning to get to the airport on time.

 

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Not much significant has been happening lately as I’ve settled into a routine now. For this reason I’ve decided to start doing weekly updates. This week I read a lot on my kindle. I bought the Maze Runner series and so far have finished the first three books or what is known as the Maze Runner trilogy. I’m on the fourth book now, The Kill Order, and am having a hard time getting into it since it’s a prequel with entirely new characters.

Next week is reading week for most of my classes meaning that I won’t have many classes to go to. I went to RyanAir’s site and found that there are only three places that they fly out of Newcastle to. Two of them are in Spain and the other is Dublin. I decided that Dublin would probably be a better first trip since, I want to be able to speak better Spanish when I go to Spain on a future trip. After booking my flight, I went to HostelWorld.com and booked a bed in a hostel near the city center. I don’t have an itinerary for my trip and plan on winging it. Some of the typical tourist attractions look promising like Trinity College and, the Guinness Storehouse both of which are near where I’m staying. If you’ve ever been to Dublin and have a suggestion of someplace that I should visit or have a question or something to say please leave a comment on this post.

The day after I get back from Dublin, I will probably go on my first open water dives. The air temperature here has been in the mid to upper 50s (Fahrenheit) lately so I’m getting trained on using a drysuit so I don’t become a human popsicle.

Lastly, today is the 5th of November. The fireworks are crazy tonight, maybe even more than the 4th of July. Why? The 5th of November is the day that Guy Fawkes and members of the Catholic church were caught and prevented from carrying out their plot of blowing up the British Parliament and King in 1605.

 

I’ll leave you with this picture facing out over Sunderland from the top of ski hill that I forgot to post a couple of weeks ago.
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And another picture taken off the bridge that go over every day to get to class on the St.Peters campus.
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Today I went to all my Monday classes. My movie screening this week was Lola Rennt (Run Lola) which, is a German action film. It was actually pretty good and I could understand a few of the words (we had English subtitles too). I decided after space law that I was going to go to the library to study. I changed my mind when I got there and had to wait two hours for the next bus to come. Earlier in the day I ordered a kindle and a couple translation dictionaries (one Spanish and one German). So during the wait for the bus I got on my laptop and tried to figure out how to get my nook books onto a kindle. It’s legally impossible because, all of the companies employ DRM or digital rights management. This is basically a way of making sure you can’t use any other reader than the one they provide. Which also means even of you purchased an eBook; you don’t own it. I finally caught the bus home and watched some Netflix before bed.

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Today I forced myself to get up. I started out on homework by getting a rough outline of my space law paper done. Next I worked on my Spanish homework. When I was finished with that, I watched last nights episode of Doctor Who. Afterwards, I started working on my blog. If you visit my blog from a desktop, I now have autumn leaves along the sides. I also Skyped my parents who took me to church with them. I haven’t been up early enough on a Sunday to go in Sunderland yet. Around 16:00, or so I thought,  I realized that my watch and computer times were out of sync. DST ends a week earlier here than it does in Kansas. This works in my favour this tone around because, the time difference is only five hours now. Next spring however, it will work against me and create a 7 hour time difference for a week. I watched some Netflix then went to bed after dinner.

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Today I got up around 13:00 because, I was up all night. I decided that I was going to go to Subway for lunch or, to Aldi to get groceries. I left the flat and walked in a direction that I haven’t gone before; down Pallion Street. I knew that there was a Subway and some other restaurants down that way. I was surprised that it was a less than five minute walk with Pizza Hut and, Domino’s also being along the way. If you’re ever in the UK don’t go to an American restaurant for food. The most expensive pizza you can find here in the UK is the cheapest in the US. Instead go to one of the several cheaper local places. So anyway, I found the Subway and decided that I wanted to just buy groceries for cost reasons. Their equivelant to a $5 footlong is a 5 pound footlong. This equates to a footlong costing over $7.50 not including a drink or chips or even a cookie. I walked the 15 minutes to Aldi from where I was and bought fish sticks, milk, a couple pizzas and, some boxes of granola bars. I then went back to the flat. I watched some Netflix until I went to bed. I wish that I could finish watching Supernatural. I’m stuck on season 5 and can’t watch the rest since they don’t have it in the UK Netflix catalog. I also can’t get Hola to work for me here and, I don’t know why probably need to spend some more time figuring it out.

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Today I woke up and decided to clean my room. I haven’t actually finished putting everything away in the 41 previous days that I’ve been here and, I haven’t cleaned my room at all since I’ve been here. I spent two and a half hours putting everything away. My room was a mess. Once I could see my floor, I vacuumed. We have the worst vacuum here, it’s a Hoover named James. This vacuum doesn’t even clean the carpet if you run it over the same area 50 times, no exaggeration. Next, I went downstairs and made myself lunch. Then, I went back up to my room and played in UDK for a while. Making buildings is easy but, lighting and, terrain is awful. After two hours of playing around, I finally quit. From what I’ve designed so far, the level is going to be an old west town on Mars. The lighting that I had fits it better and I don’t want to mess with it. Next, I booked my Spring Break. For spring break, I’m going to go on the University Snow Sports club trip. This is a trip to Val Thorens in France for a full week of skiing and, boarding. They say it’s the biggest party of the year. It was a pain to book though because, the bank froze my debit card. I called the bank and they couldn’t do anything since it’s a third party that does fraud detection. I called the number that they gave me and it told me 800 numbers aren’t free from outside of the States. I hung up since I’m not going to pay some crazy fee to get access to my money. Then I called my mom who called the number which wouldn’t talk to her because, her name isn’t on the card even though her name is on the account. When she hung up, she called the bank which forcefully made them reluctantly unblock my card. Finally, I watched some Netflix and started catching up on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while on my iPad I had the Royals score. I finally went to bed at about 04:00 when the Royals game went into a rain delay.

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Today I woke up and did my German homework that I procrastinated from doing for almost a week. It took me about two and a half hours to do. Then I watched since Netflix until I went to the bus. I missed the bus. I was on time but, when is public transportation ever on time? I walked about fifteen minutes to campus instead. German was OK. It is by far not an easy language so far (Spanish is easier). After German, I went to revs for a USSC social. Revs which is short for r3volutions is a bar near the city center. There I received a revs clubs and societies card which gets me 50% off food, 2-4-1 cocktails (which are still really expensive) and, £1.50 soft drinks along with other drink discounts. I had a Bacon Burger with chips (British chips, I automatically typed chips instead of fries, OH NO!!!), a pint of beer (I don’t like beer) and, two diet Cokes for less than £11.00. After we finished eating, we competed in the pub quiz or as we call it, trivia. We didn’t do great and, I didn’t help much. Though there were since questions about America in the first round that I new the answers to. After the game, I walked home and watched Netflix for a while before the caffeine wore off and I could sleep.

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Today we actually had a lesson in games technology. I feel better about the class now that I know what I’m doing (kind of). The movie analysis workshop was boring this week. We literally analyzed the plot structure of a western for TWO hours. After my classes were over I rode the bus to city campus and, walked to the scuba shop. I took my quiz, got my kit and, received my briefing. Then, I waited a while before it was time to leave. In the pool, I finished my lesson really quickly than swam around until I ran out of air. Apparently, I still swim like I’m riding a bike. When I was leaving, one of the instructors told me that I’ll need a bigger tank for the open water dives. I guess I’m oxygen hungry. After diving, I went home and ate. Then Netflix. And finally sleep.

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Today was a good day. I started with my normal Tuesday classes which were somewhat boring. In Spanish we learned our numbers 0-9 which, I’m sure everyone in America knows. I know the higher numbers and a lot more vocabulary from high school though hence today’s title. After class, I went back to my flat for dinner.

I don’t remember what I had for dinner but, at the flat I was more worried about getting my snowboarding gear together. After I got my snowboarding gear together, I got on the bus and went to CitySpace. I met up with done of the USSC (university snow sports club) members there and we took a taxi to Silksworth dry slope. This week was much better than last. I kind of started to figure out the dry slope and, I didn’t fall as much. I had a lot of fun again. After boarding, we took a taxi back to CitySpace. From there, I walked back to Clanny with one of the other members. I watched some Netflix then went to bed.

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Today I went to so my normal Monday classes. I think Mondays are the most boring day of the week. I don’t have any evening activities and it’s a school night. Mondays are all getting very similar. I stayed watching The War of the Worlds and did some Spanish homework. That’s about it though before I went to bed.