Unbetitelt

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 40

It's Friday and my last work day here in Ireland. I've been getting used to the monotony here a little, nevertheless I am glad that it's finally over. My French mates and I were tasked with handing out the graduation certificates for the adults who finish this week and that was about it. I also decided to take a closer look at one of the moody printers and even managed to fix it, so I get to leave with one more success in my short carreer as an intern here.

After everything wrapped up I said my goodbyes to everyone at work and collected my reference letter it was time for me to finally leave Malahide for the last time. For now. I got a little teary, not gonna lie. Despite work being okay at best, I'll miss a lot of things about it. Malahide is a very nice place, the park where I always had my lunch break is gorgeous and the harbour was very soothing. Most of my colleagues were amazing and we shared a lot lf laughs and stories and I will cherish the memories I made here. I still have a day and a half to spend in Dublin but I'm guessing they'll be quite uneventful.

After work I watched the first two episodes of Ahsoka and I an hyped for the rest of the show (even though I haven't watched Rebels I can sort of gauge what happened there). Then I met up with my German friends for a couple of beers and Poker at a pub nearby. It was fun but I just was so tired that I decided to leave at midnight. Wanna be refreshed for my final day here.

My song of the day is Without You by Avicii and Sandro Cavazza. Many goodbyes and an overall feeling of wanting/needing to move on sum up my last Friday at work and there is little else to say about it.

Honourable mention for the song that sums up my stay here is a suggestion by a former fellow student and strawberry enthusiast @booksandglitter: Unpaid Intern by Bo Burnham. Think that's self-explanatory. Cheers!

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 39

Today was incredibly unremarkable. Barely anything interesting happened. Because the student were once again not interested in any early activities I could come in late to work. I "fixed" our printers because they suddenly decided to refuse to work (relatable sentiment but still). Wr handled the coffee breaks, chatted with the teachers a little about globalization and the gender pay gap (that was exhausting because some of them are too dense to understand that people sometimes break laws).

After work I devoured my dinner and watched the rebroadcast of the Chess World Cup. I am very happy for Magnus to have now won every single tournament there is at least once but I'd hate for him to retire from classical chess. Classical chess without Magnus Carlsen is like my analogies - just not that exciting. Overall I am really happy with the World Cup overall. Pragg getting the silver medal and a guaranteed spot in the candidates is amazing for the new generation of chess players and India of course. Also Fabi getting the bronze medal is just a testament to all these bombshells of preparation that he tends to drop on his opponents. I hope he doesn't choke during the candidates again.

After I finished watching the rebroadcast I met with my German folks at yet another pub. Wr didn't drink much and opted to check out the harbour. It was great, we had a good time but the evening concluded rather quickly as we all had at least 45 minutes of commute back to our respective accommodations. Dublin at night is fucking weird. So many strange characters roaming about and talking all kinds of nonsense. I also learned why all the streets smell like weed and... other things in the morning.

My song of the day is Ain't No Rest for the Wicked. Lord knows I barely got any rest in the past few days. But also the first two verses resonate very well with my way back from Malahide. God that was uncomfortable.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 38

It is Wednesday, my dudes. I got to sleep in a little as I only had to be in the office by 11. So I met with my French colleagues at the local insomnia for coffee. Well, I got a Vegan Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate - what a mouthful. It was delicious though. In the office I was tasked with decluttering the staff room while the others redecorated the waiting area. It was actually not half bad, at least I had something to do and I got to listen to music while doing it.

We also took care of the usual afternoon coffee breaks, no biggie except the students were like actual vultures. 30 people needed more than 3 liters of milk for their coffee. Might as well just chug it without the coffee. Jesus. I also got to chatting with one of the teachers who promptly suggested I join in on one of the exams on Friday for an assessment of my English proficiency. Kinda weird but he prolly just wants to offer an alternative to whatever I am supposed to do otherwise.

In the evening I once again met up with the Germans to hang out a little in a pub. They stayed sober but I was committed to at least try a new beer, which I didn't regret, ayyyy :D We also played some pool and I completely owned my opponent - I show no restraint in neither love nor war (though we have yet to determine which one it actually was in this instance). The music came from speakers but was good regardless but I also zoned out a lot as I was super tired for some reason. I was also tempted to ask one of the girls out to dance but I decided against it as the music was better for vibing than dancing anyway. Am I making excuses? Yes. Does that mean I haven't truly learned the lessons from the past few weeks? Prolly. Fuck.

My song of the day is Talk Too Much by COIN. I literally found out about this song in the pub today and I really like it. It also fits as a good replacement for the mental asskicking I should give myself. Knowing about the problem is basically solving the problem right? Anyway, I vow to do better for myself once I have gotten the amount of sleep that I need.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 37

It's been a day. It feels like the roles are reversed now. I used to enjoy work way more than my free time but now that's just simply untrue. I clocked in early as usual just so sit around in the office again with the only notable task I had to take care of being the preparation of the early coffee break. After my French colleagues and I grabbed lunch we were told we could go home and come to work tomorrow a couple hours later (:

So I went home, caught up with the Chess World Cup and then met up with the German folks because we wanted to have a karaoke night. Unfortunately, the bars were wayyyy too expensive so we settled for a pub with live music. The evening was brilliant, the two gents who provided the entertainment did a fantastic job, we had such a great time. We mostly talked about home and listened to the music but for the most part I was just enchanted by the atmosphere and the beauty of the bar, music and people. It really felt magical and I feel blessed to have tagged along with these brilliant gorgeous people. I also tried strawberry beer for the first time - it was interesting though I am unsure if I'd go for it again.

My song of the day is Need You Tonight by INXS. These days would suck if it weren't for my colleagues/friends here. Their company gives me so much motivation to not resign myself to the otherwise rather exhausting circumstances. Having them to hangout with during the evening/night is what really keeps me going. We're not even partying hard or anything, we just hangout and shoot the shit and I think I Need You Tonight reflects the mental stimulation I get during these evenings.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 36

Today started off disappointing and then got better - for the most part anyway.

Not a single student showed up for the morning activity, so the three of us had to stay in and we did nothing productive. We basically just sat in the staff room and talked about things or were on our phone. Until the other interns arrived. Turns out there's like 6 other interns I hadn't met until today. And 5 of them are German - and all of them are girls. Kinda funny. They are all very nice and friendly and also very interested in me - I guess that's the appeal of being the stranger.

It was basically just a little hangout session in the morning and then my 2 favourite French people and I went on our well-deserved lunch break. When we got back shit hit the fan because one of the teachers was being a little creep but nobody but me seemed to have noticed. I told the girl he was creeping at but she doesn't want any trouble while being here - I hate that she feels that way but I get it. Maybe I'll just report the teacher anonymously, if she's fine with it.

After the break I tagged along for the afternoon activity for some shopping. We didn't really do any shopping, we rather stuck with making fun of the ridiculous pricing - Balenciaga is a good meme but a terrible brand.

Anyway, the girls invited me to tag along for some after-work fun in Howth. It was great, we went for a stroll at the beach while the sea retreated and afterwards we went to a bar for some cocktails. Overall we had a great evening and it makes me feel good that they felt comfortable enough to hang out with me so late with alcohol in place. Might not be that big of a deal for them as it is to me but still.

My song of the day is Footprints by Tom Gregory. Aside from the literal footprints we left in the sand I think today left some metaphorical footprints as well. While the afternoon sucked a lot I really appreciate just how much I enjoyed the evening with these amazing people who had been total strangers in the morning.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 35

Another day that I needed to get through somehow. I slept in again (still doesn't get me past 10), took my sweet time for my morning routine and then decided to go for a stroll. I decided to actually go to Dublin Castle but it really wasn't for me. It's just a castle turned tourist attraction/office for some important people, really not that interesting.

I decided to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Great fucken movie, for real. Not really into Marvel anymore but James Gunn is such a good writer and director. Cosmo is such a great tribute to Laika and I was thrilled to see her(!) on a screen. At the risk of sounding like an even bigger nerd I wasn't too big of a fan of Adam Warlock. Not every character needs to be comic relief but that wisdom seems to be lost on Marvel in general. That being said, still a good movie.

Also, today was an exciting day for chess. Carlsen vs. Abasov went as expected but if. Magnus really doesn't want to play in the candidates, Abasov will which is amazing! Dude is not even 2700 but might compete against some real big shots to play for the championship! Also, Pragg vs. Caruana will be interesting in the tie breaks not to mention both of them joining the candidates will (hopefully) be an interesting battle of the generarions - assuming this won't be like the last candidates with Nepo just stomping everyone.

The women's sections was way more interesting, though. Salimova vs. Goryachkina is already an interesting match-up as it is but with such high stakes it was so exciting. An IM vs. a GM in the finals of the world cup should have a clear favourite but Salimova creating winning chances was thrilling, it's almost disappointing that Goryachkina defended so well that they drew the game. But that just means more games to watch. It would be such an amazing win for Salimova - winning the world cup AND getting the GM title on the same day would be a dream come true. Kind of makes me want to play in tournaments tbh.

My song of the day is Hourglass by Set It Off. It's been another one of these days where I didn't really do anything and instead watched the world have another day without me. And I don't think about it in a self-pitying sort of way (okay, maybe a little) but rather as just the way that it was. I don't think there was much I could have done differently today. I am just not in a place where I belong, so I just throw the metaphorical rocks and the metaphorical walls that I can't climb.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 34

My second Saturday off. I barely knew what to do with all this free time. I didn't really bother with tourist attractions as I figured they'd be just as overcrowded today as they were last weekend. Of course I slept in first of all. Which meant I got up at 10 which is ridiculously early compared to other days that I slept in. Anyway, I took my sweet time for everything before I actually did anything interesting.

I decided to check out Grafton Street as it's where we'll be going with the students on Monday. Found some nice places to hang out with my colleagues in case we don't feel like doing any shopping ourselves. Also, they have some huge shops there, it's mental. Like I got to test out almost the whole Tom Ford fragrance line up (I still don't really get the hype behind Fucking Fabulous, it's just another fresh fragrance to me but okay) and soooo many places to find clothes though they were all rather expensive. Still did some browsing but didn't find anything I liked.

Afterwards I went to the next park and found a nice place to sit down and check out the book by Seamus Heaney that I bought the other day. While I still find metre exhausting to get right, I really enjoy the poems themselves. I like 'em, they're as pretentious as those I'd read for uni - or even the ones by William Blake (though I should have seen that coming considering he thought himself to be a prophet of some sort). It was relaxing and time passed by rather quickly today. I hope the same goes for tomorrow as free time without the need to rest after work is rather hard to get through. Seriously, I don't know what to do with myself besides reading and going for walks - I don't want to watch Netflix or YouTube the whole day, I can feel how much it rots my brain after like 2 hours, it's amazing how I didn't notice that earlier.

Anyway, my song of the day is Outside by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding. To me it's such a basic song and it barely makes any sense to me but I really like listening to it when I am more focused on what I'm doing. Honestly, I didn't listen to music at all today if I had listened to music during my "shopping" or reading I probably would have picked something like Outside; simple, calm and something where I wouldn't regret if I zoned out while playing it.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 33

Art is still lost on me. I just don't get it tbh. We went to the Hugh Lane Gallery and it was fun and I am genuinely impressed by how good some people are/were at painting but there are other things that are equally impressive but don't rake in millions of Euros. Maybe I'm just missing somethint. They had some Monets and a whole section about Francis Bacon and I liked their works. But a whole second floor was dedicated to paintings of shapes. Just shapes...

Anyway, many students will leave this weekend and I am for once not all that sad about it which is good. I don't even think any of them are sad about it. At least none of the ones I talked to today. And honestly I don't blame them. The kids' experience was way more intense and exciting - here they showed up for activities if they wanted to and then had class. So, 5 more days of English lessons and maybe activities for them - and 5 work days for me. Boy am I looking forward to my final day - I don't hate it here, I just wanna go home.

I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Also I don't have to feel bad about my alarm accidentally waking up my roommate. Not that he minds - he says so anyway - but I don't want to think about a whole nother person when making my morning plans. Or when executing said plans. I would probably not make a good boyfriend in the morning but hey at least I am awesome the rest of the day. That's what I was told by the dean anyway and of I have learned anything it's that only the wisest people are the ones in charge so she must be right.

My song of the day is What You Make It by With Confidence. Guess that applies to both art and the second half of my trip. It's been rough but I think so far I have done a pretty good job at staying positive and getting through this. Not that it was that much of a drag but I had a rough start in Dublin and still haven't really recovered from just how much it all sucked when I got here. Guess it could have been worse. Anyway, gonna finish my Bundaberg and then hit the hay, cheers.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland-Day 32

Is it Thursday, yet? Today we went to the Guinness Storehouse for some education about Ireland's most important cultural asset. Well that's what everyone makes it to be. It's quite interesting to learn about the history of the beer even if it's still "just beer" to me. Took some weird fotos but also some fun ones. The students were all thrilled to go, so we actually got them to cooperate with us and we took some great fotos for the website and social media. I also took some pictures of things that I found interesting but nobody asked about those.

I only had a sample in the tasting room as we had to leave like 5 minutes after we reached the Gravity Bar and I didn't want to chug my free Guinness and then be drunk on the job. So I got my voucher as a little souvenir. I couldn't get myself to buy anything from the gift shop though I really should have; 2 of my dear friends sent me a little care package with sweets, some very cute socks, a little gummy pizza and sparkling water (I told them I missed frozen pizza and sparkling water a lot) - such a lovely gesture and I sometimes wonder what I have done to deserve such awesome friends. It's absolutely amazing and I totally regret not buying them some souvenirs from the gift shop - I might just go back again to get them something.

Anyway, we're gonna go to the Hugh Lane Gallery - literally not a single student has signed up. I hope some will show up regardless as one of the teachers spoke very highly of it saying it's her favourite art gallery. And since I am not sick anymore, I might be able to appreciate the gallery a little more. Or not, we'll see.

Also I read today that the FIDE won't allow trans women to compete in the women's sections of tournaments until they have done an assessment of their gender change - what the fuck is wrong with them? Chess is like the worst sport where one could make a case that gender has any influence on the performance (even in "normal" sports the argument that amab people have any physical advantage post-transition has been refuted). Also, some people who have women's titles such as Woman Fide Master or Woman Grandmaster might lose their titles after they request they be recognized as male. Maybe, just maybe these titles should be abolished and the disadvantages women face be demolished so they can obtain the regular titles and respect they deserve. This just makes me so angry, the chess community is just so damn toxic.

With that rant out of the way, my song of the day is Victor and his Demons by Fiddler's Green. It's a good drinking song and lord knows I could easily take on the role of Victor with the amount of demons I bring to my blog. Especially today.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 31

Did I overreact yesterday? Probably. Has today confirmed my worries? Kinda. We (the 3 of us) went to the National Museum with a grand total of 4 adult students. At least the museum was somewhat interesting and I had a good time there.

We got back early so as to avoid trouble with public transport and that was a good call seeing as the next 3(!) trains were either canceled or delayed. We also browsed some shops after we brought the students back to find some souvenirs. We didn't find anything we liked but I did find a book. The office walls and the mugs I have to wash and carry around all day have Seamus Heaney quotes on them and when I saw a book with his poetry I couldn't resist. I am not immune to propaganda. At all.

Anyway, I got to chat with the only other German intern who is here (I genuinely didn't know she was here nor that she was German - she literally has the opposite schedule of me). Apparently she not only has to be here for 5 months (good God) but also gets ordered around to do the most stupid shit I have heard of for most of the morning as she doesn't have any breaks to take care of. Like "Go to the shop to buy a new cable" or "Go water the plants" type of tasks. Ridiculous. She seems somewhat fine with it and I really shouldn't do anything on her behalf without her permission but I really wanna help her out :(

Maybe I can get our Dean to let her come with us on the trip tomorrow as we'll going to be Guinness Storehouse (the school will pay the entrance fee for us employees, yay). Looking forward to that, a little at least but since I don't like Guinness there is not that much hype. However, a whole bunch of students signed up for it so maybe it won't feel like a total waste of time going there.

Because we returned to the office so much earlier, I also got to chatting with some of the teachers and they are all quite some characters; one is a 50-something year old dude who talks a lot but uses questions instead of phrases like "You're quite tall, aren't you?" or "I forgot my pen in the classroom, didn't I?". Love him. Also, one is apparently sorta famous on IG but not for teaching but for modeling (slay, Queen) and she showed some really bold outfits, lol. Then there is also that other guy who is prolly in his 30s, who loves cursing in a monotone voice (" Morning, assholes") and expresses his love by insulting you, that's a rough thing to get used to, at least for me. But they're all mostly fine, I think we all just bond through our dislike of some of the people in administration. Healthy office culture here.

My song of the day is Revolution Radio by Green Day. I listened to it on repeat today, 'cause I totally forgot how much I love that song. Also, I feel a little rebellious today what with me being unhappy about my one colleague's situation and also I watched The Order Season 2 and the characters got their fears stolen and did a whole bunch of rebellious and reckless stuff so yeah, it does fit fairly well.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland-Day 30

Things are starting to get a little frustrating. I am getting used to the routine but the more I live it, the more I realise that I don't like it.

Today we went to Dublin Castle - a grand total of 3 interns and 4 students. They are adults and really don't need anyone supervising them. Not to mention that us interns don't get any entrance fees or anything paid for us so we just leave to get some coffee instead. Not to mention that my commute was nonsense; wake up, get on a 30 minute train ride to the school, then take the same train back for another 30 minutes, then again 30 minutes for the afternoon part of the job. It's annoying though at least I have my two colleagues who are great company.

I don't even bother complaining though since my alternative is even worse; for the afternoon part I was not on coffee break duty but instead had the pleasure of doing other stupid shit; resize fotos so we can put them on the website (done in 5 minutes), replace a power box (i.e. a mini computer) with another power box (done in 5 minutes) or go buy some milk (done in 10 minutes because there was a rather long line at the supermarket). I was literally just the guy everyone dumped their tasks on that they were too lazy to do. I hope this doesn't become the rest of my stay here that would suck so much.

I can't really bring myself to try and find something positive to see here, today flat out sucked. While it would have been naive to think that I wouldn't have any bad days here, I am really worried that this will be my live for my last 8 working days here. I will survive this, it could be so much worse but I know that it could be so much better as well. I adore (most of) my colleagues and I do not regret coming here, meeting them and working with all these people who want to learn English not to mention all the things I have learned here. But today was just a bad day, plain and simple.

My song of the day is a rather rough one as I have so many choices like Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash, Break by Three Days Grace or even Free Me by Paul Jones. Yes, I am being dramatic but I haven't found a good song yet that is about how work sucks. Would be funny if there were one, like it's not even anti-capitalist or anything, just "man, I hate my job". Anyway, my song of the day is World's Smallest Violin by AJR. Yes, because I am complaining so much but also because it reminds me of a wonderful late night walk that I went on with a good friend. Just two tipsy idiots walking/dancing down the street blasting random music from their phones.

Moments like these are magical - no obligations, no self-consciousness, just feels and the other people around you. And I am looking forward to having these moments again when I am back in Germany.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 29

Today was a rough one. Not only were both of the other interns fighting with sickness (one literally threw up), we had a bunch of new arrivals who were a tad overwhelmed with the program.

We visited Phoenix Park and checked out the Wellington Monument. Unfortunately there was very little else that was interesting but that's how it is sometimes. We got some coffee and hot chocolate against the cold and had some pastries as well.

When it was time to get back, we had terrible luck; our first bus got canceled, the second one was delayed due to traffic meaning we missed our first train as well, the second one was canceled and the third one was delayed. Meaning we got back way too late and had to cut our break short to prepare the students' coffee break in time.

After we took care of the coffee break we left right away and I went to get some snacks and ran into a former colleague who was on vacation in Dublin and we had a short chat. It still amazes me how often Irish folks manage to use the word "fuck" without wanting offend anyone. But yeah, it was great fun talking to him, as he is prolly the most Irish person I have ever met both by his demeanor but also his alcohol consumption (he finished a whole guiness and a half in the 15 minutes we talked but I guess that's what you do on vacation).

When I got back to the accommodation I did some chores and then joined an online session of DnD. I really didn't miss that - especially since I used my laptop that really isn't suited to do more than one thing at once. But it was fun and I really enjoyed spending some time virtually hanging out with my friends.

My song of the day is Fever Dream by mxmtoon. The day was a whole rush and there was very little time for a breather and while the song has fairly little to do with that I think it passes the vibe check.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 28

Another Sunday, another day off. At least one thing that hasn't changed since my transfer. I woke up with a fairly strong hangover though I also the blame the lack of sleep that I got because my room gets so hot.

I had some phone calls with friends and family, all of which were very nice and refreshing - since my German colleague left today I won't have anyone to talk to in German from now on :(

I also went on a small sightseeing tour and checked out the Dublin castle (it was way too crowded to actually go inside), the creepy church one street over (also fairly crowded but still as nice sight) and an art exhibit about ceramic sculptures (art is kind of lost on me but some sculptures were kind of funny).

I also checked out an interesting store that sells vinyls, comics and DVDs and found some nice stuff though I couldn't get myself to buy anything. Maybe I'm out of touch but these comics were just so expensive...

Other than that there wasn't really anything else that happened - we have another person in the apartment so for some stupid reason I now have 3 more roommates that I was promised. While they are all nice people I am still angry about this. Just two more weeks of this and then I'm outta here.

I like the people here they're great and I am looking forward to seeing my colleagues tomorrow but other than that I feel ready to go home. Or rather, I want to go home. Staying here has been exhausting the whole time but it was fun in the beginning. But now I feel drained and disillusioned. Maybe it's just my brain recovering from yesterday. Oh well.

My song of the day is Walk by Kwabs. Lord knows I did a lot of walking but also it sort of describes a certain restlessness that I can relate to. Also as a sidenote, I really could have picked so many better songs for yesterday; The Nights by Avicii, We Are Young by Fun. or even Can't Hold Us by Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Ray Dalton. My brain just didn't work properly but oh well.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 27

It's my first weekend off! Yay! Because one of my colleagues leaves on Sunday we decided to have a little reunion. In total, 6 former members of the castle crew met up for a little pub crawl. We went to 5 different bars and had a blast. I didn't want to drink much (Dublin so so damn expensive) but my friends basically bought a round at every pub.

After we had dinner at the first one we went to one that a mix of a pub and and an arcade where I was mainly occupied with the various Pinball machines. That was quite a throwback to back when I played it on our old computer. The other games really didn't do it for me; the Mario Kart machines had terrible controls, Tetris is still boring to me and the fighting games just don't do it for me.

The other pubs were just regular Irish pubs though all of them had live music which was very nice also made for some great sing-alongs (Take me Home, Country Roads and Fuck you I'm drunk and especially You're Gonna Go Far, Kid are just great songs to slurr the words to).

After we left the last pub we went to the Trinity College campus as it was the place that one of us stayed at. We played some Never Have I Ever with the bottle of Vodka that we confiscated from one of the students at castle (thank you, for your contribution) and eventually just talked about stupid things and had some friendly banter. Eventually we said our farewells and went our own ways back to our accommodations.

My song of the day is An Irish Pub Song by the Rumjacks (shocker). Guess that's self-explanatory. Good yard :)

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 26

It's Friday and I'll actually get a weekend off after today! Today we went to Howth with the students, which was stressfull. It still annoys and astonishes me how childish these people who are in their 20s are. From physically showing each other next to roads to yelling on public transport they do it all.

Anyway, Howth was beautiful. It was very windy (as it usually is at the coast) but the sun was shining and we had a nearly clear blue sky. We attempted to do one of the tours at the summit but the students just couldn't get themselves to stay on the path so we dismissed that plan and just sat down at the benches to relax while the students went off to do whatever they wanted. We had some brownies, some hot beverages and just enjoyed the view. Also there were lots of dogs which was great.

After we got back and had our usual lunch at the park we prepared the coffee break and were visited by some more good boys as the dean of our school recently rescued/adopted a new dog who accompanied her for the day. It was short-lived fun as we wrapped up the break rather quickly and then left as we all were very tired. I bought some groceries on the way home, had dinner and then read until I fell asleep, so all in all it was quite an uneventful day.

My song of the day is Take It All in by Russ and Rexx Life Raj. While "Taking it all in" was basically what I did for most of the day - I just get so tired super quickly - it also is a song that fits my state of mind and the vibe of the day :)

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 25

It's been an exhausting but fun day. We went to the Botanic Gardens today though it took a while to get there because 1) the students were walking so damn slowly that we missed the first train (they're gonna drive me insane) and 2) the next train came in 10 minutes late. So in total we got like an hour out of the trip. We did some walking around and the dean sponsored breakfast at the café for us interns so that was fantastic :)

Afterwards we went back to the office and we once again ate lunch and the nearby park and enjoyed the view of the ocean (or whatever it would be referred to; the body of water that surrounds the Isle of Man and is squished by GB and Ireland). It's very nice, spending some time with my colleagues and watching the birds and boats go by.

Back at the office/school we were once again task with preparing and overseeing the coffee break. One colleague and I were also asked to design some parts of the coming update of the school's website. I think it's weird that a school as big and profitable as this one doesn't have professionals doing that for them. These things are not easy and they make us interns do it?

Anyway, my cold is still kicking my ass but it's not as bad as it was yesterday. Which means I can enjoy all these beautiful moments way better. I got called a slut today was well, which is good crack as the Irish say - maybe I'm using it the wrong way or missspelling it but that's not my problem.

My song of the day is Feel the Vibe by BJ the Chicago Kid and Anderson .Paak. It's a tune I was introduced to last winter and while its lyrics are not really applicable to my current situation, the very soft lyrics and the smooth instrumentals really fit the vibe of the day. It wasn't exciting or "a lot" but it was nice and enjoyable and just feeling the vibe was something I didn't see myself doing yesterday or any other the of this week so far, so that's nice :)

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 24

I'm starting to get a sense of the what and why at work. Namely, that nearly everything that I am put in charge of is improvised. Prepare the coffee break - > but the table we used yesterday is now in an occupied classroom - > find a new one. It's a little frustrating but it's manageable since I am never alone with my tasks (the ladies in charge of administration started referring to us as the "dream team" :)

We did a little tour of Dublin which was a lot of fun despite some of the adults in our classes behaving like the kids we supervised the weeks prior - it's very annoying. After the tour we returned to the school for lunch and took in a bit of the scenery. The school is in a gorgeous and quiet little suburb of Dublin right next to the water. It would be a good place to retire if it weren't so damn expensive. After lunch we once again prepared the coffee breaks for the classes and then went home.

I had a little bit of a hassle with my meds (I ran out) but managed to get ahold of new ones with the help of the dean (she's a real darling) and a very nice pharmacist. So, hopefully I will be fine until I'm back home in Germany. I just hope my damn cold finally leaves soon.

When I got back to my accommodation I also got to chat with a bunch of my friends, which was a blessing. I had some phone calls with my roommates over the past weeks but talking to the others was also fantastic and a lot of fun. We played some games, exchanged stories about things that happened recently and overall just had a good time :)

My song of the day is Clocks by Coldplay. I still remember my two colleagues performing it at the talent show (it's been 9 days already since that happened). But its lyrics are also kind of nonsensical like anything that comes out of my mouth at the moment. So yeah, it's mainly the vibe that I think sort of describes how I feel at the moment (: