:)

Hello everyone! Its been a bit since I last updated but I've been busy getting into the swing of things with classes starting this past week. Let me tell you, this campus is awesome but its so incredibly big! Its probably about 20 Sage's put together, maybe more. Which is definitely taking some getting used to, but I tend not to mind getting lost because its so pretty. The room numbering system for classes is probably one of the most confusing things I've encountered thus far on my adventures at UL. It has even lead me to barge into an already started lecture to have the students and professor look at me funny as I promptly turned around and ran out of the room. I quickly noted to myself, "triple check room numbers before entering classes no matter how long I've been wandering around searching for them". The other thing that is a lot different from home is the way they schedule classes. For one class you might have it three days a week but have it on random days, with different professors, and different times and room numbers for each lecture. Plus then there are also tutorials for every module, and sometimes a lab, but thank goodness I have none of them this semester. Its a fun time trying to remember my schedule. It will probably take until the last week of school for me to have my schedule down pat with out having to look at it every so often to see what my days look like. But besides figuring out this delightful but confusing college system I've done a lot of exploring in the city. There is a market that takes place in Limerick every Saturday that is similar to the "farmers market" back home but its called the "milk market" here. Not only do they have fresh produce and meats but they also sell other homemade goodies like breads, jams, honey, soaps, chocolates, jewelry, scarves...est. its so fun to explore. The funny part is that I have yet to find any "milk" being sold at this so called "milk market". The market is all under a huge circus like tent so even on the rainiest of days its a fun place to spend some time wandering through. Its so big that there are even 4 little cafe stands under it that make some of the most delicious food I've had yet here. The four stands are all connected and in the back there are stairs that go up to the top of it and you can sit on the balcony and eat looking over the whole market. Its so neat! My favorite part though is probably seeing the  lovely man playing the accordion every time we enter the tent. I love all the musicians you see around the city playing in different places along the streets. Sometimes the music makes me feel like I'm on the streets of Italy which is interesting. We also went on a double-decker bus tour through the city. We were able to see different sights around the city like St. Johns Castle, the Treaty Stone, the Rugby stadium, many churches, and spectacular looking houses along the Shannon River. The houses here are so neat and every one is so different and unique in its own way. I saw a house worth a million euro, a house that still had the wholes in the bricks from being fired upon in WWII, and many houses covered in vines with the most elaborately decorated courtyards. I love the variety you see even in a short walk through the city. The other cool thing about the houses are how they write their addresses. Home addresses don't have numbers like in the states but names for the houses. So where I would say I live at 133 Lindskoog Rd, they might say they live at Adele House or whatever the name given to the house was when it was build. I really loved learning that little fact, maybe I'll see if the post office will let me name my house when I get home. I'll have to look into that. There is so much I could add to this blog post but I think I'll stop here for now. My bed is calling my name. (little fact for you: birds chirp happily into the night here. its such a relaxing and lovely thing to fall asleep to at night.)