Another week gone by, but thankfully without major dilemmas or disasters: missing the bus from Dundalk to Galway on Sunday and having to get the train from Dublin was the height of my bad luck.
I have only noticed how manic and haphazard the roads in our country are since I started walking to college with my American flatmate, Jenny. Every time we have to cross a road her face turns taut with fear.
The only way to get across in rush-hour traffic is to take a chance, a fact taken for granted by most jaywalkers, hmmm, pedestrians. She is more used to proper crossings and waiting for the little green man.
I have come to the end of my stint as a part-time journalist for The Irish Times. I am running low on material, especially since my bike is in good working order again. Don't get me wrong: college life is certainly not boring, but the social stories can't really be published. As I tell the people who ask why I haven't mentioned them in the paper yet, it's not an "it girl" column. Now I have to psych myself up for a life of anonymity, not seeing my face in the paper every week and people saying: "Is that really you?"
Strangely enough I think I might just cope.
It was a good way to get the lecturers to know me, though sharing the role of class rep with Laura would ensure that anyway - even if we're not too sure what we are meant to do, apart from organising a night out for our class.
Back to business this week was not without excitement. I have finally managed to get around to some of the societies and clubs I joined. My favourites are undoubtedly the kayaking club, Cumann na Craic and Ecosoc, partly because they don't clash with my timetable and mainly because they are brilliant fun. Last Wednesday, I was practicing my T-rescues on the Corrib, before we went diving off the bridge in the kayak.
A T-rescue is when the kayak goes bottom up and you have to pull yourself up by holding on to someone else's kayak.
In Ecosoc they were organising a "table quiz with a twist" to raise funds for the people travelling to Scotland to protest at the British nuclear submarine plant. Next week we do the less exciting but rewarding task of setting up recycling bins around the college. It's the little things that count after all.
Cumann na Craic is self explanatory: ceilis + trad music + students = fun. I am doing so much maths these days that everything can be related to functions and equations. I'll be talking numbers soon. It may sound like all fun and games but the study side of college is beginning to get fairly intense.
The worst part is that we are not spoonfed the methods and solutions here - you have to find out how to do things and excuses handing in assignments late are not tolerated.
It is most definitely up to yourself to make sure you get on and that is why I'm off to try and figure out how to do computer programming - the excitement that waits.
