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It’s been a while since I’ve updated. I haven’t really done much different from last semester since I’ve been back.

My snowboarding lessons finally started this semester. They’re on Sundays at 11:30 so I have to get up early. This week the instructor didn’t show up. I hope I get another lesson because of this.

The only new class I have this semester is reading and writing the short story. Which is way more boring than you can imagine. On the first day of class the professor spent an hour explaining in extreme detail two short paragraphs of a story. We actually finished the story in two an a half hours this week.

Space law remains my favorite class. Sadly, it’s also the first class that’s over this semester. Because of this class, I’m hoping to go to law school after graduating from FHSU.

I surprised myself by getting first classes (70%/A) in German and Spanish last semester. I have no idea how I managed this. I’m also going to go to Spain with my Spanish class over spring break.

Lastly, I passed the final exam for scuba. All I have to do now is complete four open water dives then, I’m a PADI certified open water diver.

That’s about all I can think of until my next update.

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Monday
Today I went to all of my normal classes. Instead of having a typical Space law class we had a guest speaker talking about space insurance. After class I went to the pub with my space law professors. It took me an hour after class got out to get there because, the stupid bus never showed up. In the space of 50 minutes, 3 buses should’ve passed instead no buses passed. I wasn’t happy standing in the cold and rain for almost an hour.

Thursday
Today was thanksgiving. My only class for the day was from 1630 to 1900. Afterwards I went to Revs with USSC for trivia. We met there after 2000 which would have been fine except they changed the hours that they serve food without telling anyone in our group. Instead we played trivia and went for food at 2300. I went to a Chinese restaurant that only took cash. You guessed it, I didn’t have any cash.  I walked all the way back to Clanny and had two bagels for thanksgiving dinner at 0000. Then I played Kerbal Space Program until 0200 or 0300.

Friday
Today I relaxed and played Kerbal all day. Since it was black Friday I got on Amazon which, could be seen as a mistake. I bought myself a Nexus 6 64gb for under $300. Which is a really good deal since this phone cost $800 when it came out last November.

Saturday
Today I went to York. York for lack of a better description, is very british. In the city centre the streets are narrow with shops running down both sides it seems like there were an infinite number of streets. Even the alleyways were only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time. It was busy. Being the Christmas festival there were tens of thousands of people. You couldn’t walk six inches without bumping into someone.

Sunday
I didn’t do much today. I did start to get a cold during the evening.

Monday
I didn’t feel like going to class today but, I forced myself anyway. On the bright side the film we watched for my class this week was Die Hard. When I got home from Class, I went to my bed and watched Netflix until it was late enough to sleep.

Tuesday
Very much like Monday. My only class was Spanish and I did not want to go because of this cold. I skyped my mom and she told me that I shouldn’t skip class. Why did I call the one person that won’t call in sick, ever? I regretted going afterwards and laid in bed until I could sleep when I got back.

Wednesday
I woke up and decided to skip class today. Instead I laid in bed an worked on developing my video game level for a while. Then Netflix. After that sleep.

Thursday
I felt much better today. The only symptom I have left is a cough. After my only class, German, I went to Revs for trivia night. We made sure to go earlier this week so that we could eat dinner. We decided not to hang around until trivia and left. I played Kerbal Space and watched Netflix until bed at 0200.

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This week has been surprisingly typical for coming off of a week long holiday.

Saturday
Today I flew home. As soon as I got my stuff into my room, I went to the library. Then I worked on revising my essay for a little while before ordering food on Tesco’s website to be delivered on Sunday.

Sunday
Today I had my food delivered. It’s really convenient not having to carry my food clear across town (literally). After my food was delivered, I did laundry which is not fun. Afterwards I finished my essay; I hope I did it write (see what I did there?).

Monday
It is so weird having to go to class after vacation. Other than that I don’t remember much about Monday.

Tuesday
Today after class I went to Fab Lab Sunderland for a tour. I wanted to volunteer but, was told that they are way too busy to look for volunteers right now and that if I pay my fees and prove that I actually know my stuff then they might pick me as a volunteer. This was really disappointing. They don’t even have a remote knowledge of electronics equipment as far as I could tell. They had soldering stations and oscilloscopes but, nothing else for electronics.

Wednesday
I don’t really remember what I did on Wednesday. I know that I stayed up watching Scorpion until 2:30 though.

Thursday
My only class for the day was canceled. I didn’t eat lunch until 15:00 today. Then I watched Scorpion all day and evening.

Friday
Today I went to Ryman’s and bought some extra-fine markers and two more fountain pens. Then I walked back to the flat stopping at Subway to pick up dinner. After dinner I watched some more Scorpion and finally caught up to where it’s at on TV.

Saturday
Today I was really lazy. I attempted to read a book on international law but, It was really boring and irrelevant. It was focused too much on the English standpoint of international law. I wish that they had American law books in the library. I also finally updated my blog which, I put off for an entire week.

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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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