Settling In

For the past few weeks I've just been working on getting into the swing of things and this post is pretty much just a random sampling of some of the things I've been up to.

Shortly after the trip to Kinsale I started hanging out with the girls I met on the trip. The first get-together was at Sarah's apartment. It was a bit of a birthday celebration for Melanie, Liz, and I because our birthdays were all very close together. So Sarah and Emily baked us all a cake and then we all crowded around Sarah's computer and watched Glee! This is a picture of Sarah cutting up the cake.

A few days later a group of us all went out, but first Melanie, Caroline, Ivan, and I went out for Indian food. I don't actually know what I ordered, but it was delicious. It was their special platter for the night, so all of us ordered the same thing, with varying degrees of spiciness. Melanie went for mild, Caroline for medium, and Ivan and I ordered hot. By the end of the meal he was crying and his nose was running and he kept saying that it wasn't that it was too hot, it was that the food was just so sad. At one point he asked me if my food was sad (aka: was it so hot that my eyes were watering) and when I said no he replied with, "Oh, you just must eat a lot of very sad Mexican food at home."

After dinner we met up with a group of people at a bar/music venue called Crane Lane to see a blues band perform. While we were waiting someone walked through the bar and handed out vouchers for free pints of Beamish! Totally made my night.

This is the blues band that we went to see. They're called Sons of Delta and have toured throughout the States a couple of times.

The whole thing was part of the Cork Folk Festival that was sponsored by Beamish (hence the free pint).

This is part of our group (clockwise): Emily, Melanie, Sarah, Ivan.

Ezgi, Sarah, and I.

Most of our group. Front: Ivan, me, Ezgi. Back: Melanie, Caroline, Keely (I think that's her name), and Gearoid.

I just loved this picture.

Moving on, last weekend I found these in Tesco. SO GOOD.

I also decided that I needed to make some yummy food from home, so I made picadillo! This is actually a recipe that's supposed to be filling for empanadas, but I didn't have the time or patience to actually make them, so I just made the filling.

Had it over rice. Actually quite delicious :)

On my birthday a few of us decided to go out for sushi! In this picture I'm holding an origami frog that the guy at the sushi counter made for me when he found out it was my birthday.

First round: Spicy salmon, spicy tuna, crispy salmon, salmon and avocado, tilapia nigiri, and salmon nigiri.

Second round: Salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, 3 fish, and tuna and chive. It was all so good. Cant wait to go back for more!

That evening I went to a sing-along cinema show put on by the Choral Society. They were showing Chicago. It was so much fun! And later this month they're showing Rocky Horror. We all cant wait! But before the show started Ezgi and I stopped into the New Bar (one of the bars on campus) for a quick birthday drink. We ordered Strawberry and Lime cider. So good, but so sweet!

On Friday night I went over to Melanie's apartment for dinner before we went out for the night. She and Caroline made "burritos," but really they were more like enchiladas without the sauce over them. Very strange, but still quite tasty. This is a picture of the chefs preparing dinner!

Later we ended up at a club called Gorbys because there was no entrance fee that night for students. It's not my favorite club in town, but I still had a good time. This is me and Melanie in the club.

This is just the highlights of the past couple of weeks, so there's no real point with this post other than the good times I've had with new friends.

Next up (I'll try to get it posted today): My trip to Fota with my housemate, Becky!