I seem to be getting worse at this...

I'm so sorry it has been so long. I can't believe how fast time is flying here!

As before, I shall work backwards.

Alright, yesterday I woke up at Ally and Jen's (in Mt. Charles, where I often spend the night), skipped my first class (I was sleepy and I didn't really have to be there), went to a meeting with some members of my group for Math Investigations (which didn't prove to be very fruitful as it was intended to be a time of asking the lecturer questions, but he wasn't in his office), went to my accounting class (which I am incredibly behind in... but I'll get to that later...), and then ventured back to Elm's to "study" (which here does not necessarily mean studying for a test but rather doing any sort of work relating to school). For a change of scenery, I took a break and walked back to Mt. Charles last evening, but then Ally and Jen made me stay again. I haven't showered since Sunday. I'm rather disgusting...

Saturday night I spent in Mt. Charles again, and was intending to study all day Sunday, but I ended up finding this shoe store online that would actually have good shoes for me. Oh, back up. I don't think I've talked about my feet yet. Haha! Ok, so my feet have been killing me pretty much ever since I arrived here. I'm just not used to so much walking, and so I don't have a very good pair of nice, supportive shoes. I do have my grungy tennis shoes, and I was wearing those quite a bit for a while, but they're just so grungy I felt gross. I've been on the lookout for a good pair of shoes ever since. All I wanted was a normal pair of some plain but nice-looking style shoes that didn't cut my feet up or give me blisters (as the number of bandaids I was having to bandage various parts of my feet with kept growing) and also had decent arch support. Apparently, that's a bit too much to ask of any regular shoe store here. All they seem to have are flimsy flats that don't do anyone any good, or 5-inch heels that are neon orange or hot pink. Ridiculous, I know. Anywho, I asked a couple of local girls about it, and they mentioned this store called Clark's, so that's where I went on Sunday. I knew I had a massive amount of work to do, but I figured I couldn't put this off any longer. I'm glad I went, even though I am still behind in schoolwork. But hey, at least my feet aren't crying anymore! ;)

That evening we had a dinner planned with first a few people, then a few more, and a few more, until we ended up with a total of about 13, I think. We had rice, potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, corn, and chicken, along with a salad to begin with, bread somewher along the line, and some delicious, home-made tirramissou for dessert. It was superb!! After that, a few of us had plans to go back to Mt. Charles and watch a movie together, so we did that. (Since it is so much closer to my classes, and it would have taken probably an hour of travel time just to walk there and back, I decided to spend the night there with Jen and Ally... as usual. Hehe!)

Saturday, I caught up on some much-needed sleep and attempted a bit of studying, as much as I could, anyway. My brain wasn't working very well, so not much came of it, sadly.

Friday, I had class in the morning and then met up with Sydney for lunch at a church that was doing free student lunches. We were able to catch up and talk and commune together, so it was really nice! It took much longer than I expected, tho, so I only just had enough time to quickly shower when I got home before heading out again. I had plans with several friends to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I think it was very well accepted among them. For me, I found it to be a very well-made and thought out film. I mean, the story was quite good, and the way it was shot was quite wonderful, in my opinion. The only problem is that it left me feeling really sad afterwards. :( So, I decided I needed a dose of Ally - because she always makes me laugh - and Sydney, Melissa, and I went over there for supper with her and Jen. There was a pirate party at Grant House that night, which Jen later left us for, but the rest of stayed home and hung out. It was really chill. I loved it! :)

Thursday, all I can remember is going to another free student lunch (at a different church than the Friday one, though). Oh, I remember now. Yes, that evening Jen, Melissa, and I went downtown with this British guy named Adam (who I think is rather interested in Jen, whether it be as friends or more, I'm still not sure...) to look for shoes. Of course, I didn't find any, but Jen was quite successful. She also got this really cute pair of jeans. I was jealous. Haha!

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday.... What happened Wednesday?? I should keep up on this so things aren't too far gone from my memory... Hm... Oh yeah! We had a dinner planned that evening in Mt. Charles. A few of the South Korean girls wanted to start learning to cook (because apparently this one girl in particular had been living off of Snickers bars - lol). It felt like we were a family, making food and sitting down to eat together. Jisun (the Snickers girl) and I also made some cake for dessert - yum! Then, Jen and I discovered that a few of the Belgian guys had never seen The Princess Bride, and as it is such a part of our culture, we convinced them they had to see it, whether they liked it or not. Hehe! It turns out they really loved it, though, so that's good. Oh, I spent the night at Ally's again that night. It's just so much easier! Sigh...

Hm, I think that's all since I've last written? There are a few random things, though. Like, for example, my accounting class. I am having SUCH a hard time in it. First of all, I still feel like I don't fully understand how the system works here, as far as what homework we have and where it's posted and all that jazz. Plus, my lecturer is an Indian guy who has a very thick accent, so I often find myself focusing all my efforts on just translating what he's saying in my head. Furthermore, I've found that they use slightly different terms for various things over here. For example, they say "opening stock" instead of "beginning inventory" as I learned it. It might not seem like much, but it adds up enough to make me feel like I know NOTHING of this subject. On top of all this, I realized last week that this class is technically Managament and Cost Accounting, which is what I would normally take my 3rd semester of Accounting classes, not 2nd. At CCU, they split Financial Accounting (known as Accounting I and II) into the first two semeesters. Then, you can take things like Management and Cost Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, etc. I guess here they lump all of Financial Accounting into the first semester, so I'm already missing half of the base I should have before taking this class. Yikes! I've been gradually working my way through the book, yet again, to try and understand what in the world is going. Over the past three days of study, I've only made it up to ch. 3, and we're starting ch. 6 in class next week. :/ I hope I can catch up, and understand something so I'm not entirely lost, like I am now. It'll be alright, tho. All I have to do is pass the test at the end of the semester, and I'm typically a good test taker, and I'm sure I'll understand more by then, what with all the review and such. But still. Sigh

OH! Here's another piece of news: we've officially booked our flights for spring break! It is going to be Melissa, me, Sydney, and Jen. I am so excited! Melissa is a very experienced traveler, especially around Europe, so she planned it all. First, we are going to Brussels in Belgium for a couple of days. Our Belgian friend from here, Nicolas, will be at home there during that time, so he said we can stay at his house. :) I love going to people's homes and meeting their families! :D Then we are going to Barcelona for several days - yay warmth and sunshine! Then, it's either Paris or Rome. We're going to both, I just can't remember now which one we visit first... And after that, we fly back to Belfast for classes to start back up. I am so excited!!!!!!! And I can't get over how inexpensive it is to fly all of those different places. I mean, it's roughly the same cost as getting a cheap two-way ticket to and from some place in the U.S. except that we're going to four different countries!!! It's great! And the costs of hotels/hostels/b and b's aren't looking like they'll be very expensive at all. I mean, compared to what one might pay for a night in a hotel in the States, this is crazy cheap! Oh man, it's gonna be great! :D

Alright, well I need to go write a report now for my Mathematical Invenstigations class. Bleh. I will try to write again soon, though. Also, I may be moving to Mt. Charles permanantly in the next couple weeks or so. (I've talked to the housing people, and the have my name and are waiting to hear back when a certain room will be open). It would a much better place for me. I need a community feel surrounding me, and I definitely am not getting that here in Elm's. Plus, Mt. Charles is WAY closer to the building where all my classes are. For example, I would normally have to leave at half past the hour from Elm's in order to make it to my class that starts in 35 minutes, whereas when I leave from Mt. Charles, I only have to leave 5 minutes before the class starts. I think it would just be a much better situation for me, so I hope that it works out. I'll post my new address if it does! :)

Until next time, cheers! ;)