Random piece of happy

According to one of my professors, summer is now officially on the way. He said he knows this because the rain has started. While the last two weeks have been suspiciously sunny, if the last two days have been an indication of anything, the wet season is upon us. Not that I mind, though-it has actually been warmer the last few days as well. I even walked back to Thomond after class wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and get this-NO JACKET! This was the first time my arms have seen sunlight in weeks, and I'm certain that I have grown quite pale because I noticed just the other day that the skin on my arms matches the skin on my stomach. Not cool.

However, not all weather here is dreary (keep in mind that I actually enjoy rainy days) and rain often brings out awesome things-like rainbows! I was just sitting here at my desk a few minutes ago with my window propped open and the blinds pulled to the side when I looked up and saw this:

Not bad, eh? Then as quickly as it showed up, it disappeared again. Ireland, I love you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, that day many people have waited for is finally upon us. Parades are happening, people are having a good time in city centre, and of all days, my body chooses today to not be cooperative.

I'm not dying or even sick for that matter, I just don't feel all that hot today. My stomach feels weird like it usually does when I'm in the early stage of the 24 hour stomach bug that loves me so much. I'm hoping this will pass over, which I'm going to be positive and say that it will.

Not that I'm upset or anything, really. Parades and stuff like that equals crowds and chaos. I am going to enjoy the day off from class resting, straightening up my room, and later when I (hopefully) feel 100% great, I'm going to take a nice leisurely stroll down by the river.

I do have some sort of plans though, don't worry. I plan on sticking around and hanging out with some of my housemates and their friends tonight-yay!

Getting giddy over here!

Easter Break is fast approaching and I have plans and ideas practically coming out of my ears. My friend Erin (who is currently at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow) is coming, along with two of her friends, to visit me here in Limerick and we are looking to spend the week trekking around Ireland. The possibilities are exciting and quite numerous. Either way, it looks like Dublin is almost certainly in our future!

Also, I had an amazing weekend last week. I went to a concert here at UL and had the chance to meet Orlagh Fallon from Celtic Woman (thanks again, Kelli!) Things are moving along at a nice pace. However, I have three papers due in the next three weeks (don't worry, I have started on them, but none are close to finished) and I can feel the impending doom bearing down. Maybe if I get all of them done more than one of two days before they are due I can avoid the panic. BAHAHAHA-what will I think of next? A consistent season from the Gamecocks?

Picture update. This includes picture of me and Orlagh, a view from the window of my new dorm, my new dorm, one of the many swans that live around here. I named him(?) Kevin.

Et tu?

Today, I saw one of my old housemates. He was one of the two out of six with whom I had regular conversations. I had just finished grocery shopping and got on the bus when I saw him. i gave him a smile and a "Hello, ::insert name here::"

He said "Hello, Brutus."

I don't know whether I should feel proud of myself or upset. I think I am actually going to go with a third option: passive. I didn't betray anyone. I didn't give any specific names (because I really don't know who was doing what), nor did I give a copy of either the video or the pictures I had taken in order to convince my village manager that I needed to be moved. I assured said housemate of this and that I am sorry that things are happening the way they are and that leaving negative feelings behind was not my intention. All I wanted was to live somewhere that I could go to sleep and not be woken up by screaming and slamming doors nightly or not have to deal with extremely unsanitary shower conditions.

Either way, I am going to either forget about this now or go ahead and start laughing about it now. All I did was do what I had to do to deal with the situation at hand. It is called being an adult and being responsible for your actions. Apparently someone else in the house felt the same way because he decided to go to the village manager as well and tell them that what was going on was insane and unacceptable.

On the other hand, after this little encounter I came into my new apartment to find some of my new housemates cleaning the kitchen and listening to Johnny Cash. Fair trade, I'd say.

New digs=AWESOME. The room is twice the size, I have a double bed, and my own shower. The folks here at UL made moving VERY easy and I had no problems convincing them to let me move. It was quite nice.

Now instead of looking out my window and seeing into someone else's bedroom, I can the the Shannon. I also don't have a stupid streetlight outside of my window anymore so it is actually dark in the room when I go to sleep. Sure the sun rises directly into my window but a little sunlight never hurt any, right? (Not counting Nosferatu!)

A Little Vent

I hate making a post simply for the purpose of ranting, but I feel the urge to get this off of my chest so it isnt bugging me all day long. Yes, something small has the ability to annoy me for several hours at a time. I apologize in advance.

Referencing systems-there are a ton of them. MLA, Chicago, APA, Harvard, Oxford, this list goes on and on. I've been using Chicago style (the favorite of historians worldwide) for two years now. I'm so comfortable with it that I don't even need to look at a style guide for more than half of my citations. However, when I got here to UL, I learned that I would be using the Oxford system. While slightly annoyed at first, I quickly picked up a history handbook and got over it.

This morning in my folklore tutorial, however, someone HAD to complain endlessly about having to learn a different referencing system. She had that her school uses MLA format EXCLUSIVELY (maybe just her major-I've always been taught that different disciplines use different styles because they have different methods/needs.) She said that it was stupid to have to learn a new one and that she didn't want to learn a new one because she would get out of the habit of using MLA and mess up her papers once she got back home. She then asked if she could write her in MLA anyway.

Sigh. At this point I resisted the urge to face palm, put my head on my desk, or speak up and say anything other than "You could pick up a handbook from the history department-it has a nice referencing guide in it."

Basically, the point of this post is that I would like to remind everyone that ADAPTING is a big part of the Study Abroad experience. When you adapt, you are successful. I remember a book that I read for my University 101 class way back when titled "Who Moved My Cheese?" The entire (very short) book is about two mice who spend their day looking for cheese. When the cheese is moved to a different location, one mouse takes initiative, accepts the change and thus is successful. The other mouse decides to sit around and wait for the cheese to show up where it was originally. Moral of the story: being able to adapt to your surroundings and situations provides success, while waiting for something to change for YOU gets you nothing.

So, my fellow historians and knowledge-seeking counterparts, try a different referencing style other than MLA. I personally find footnotes and endnotes way easier to work with than parenthetical citations! You might just be surprised.