Don't sit that way too long, you may get stuck like that.

The house has come alive. From my room I can hear the television downstairs, no doubt being watched by Collum while Kasha cooks dinner. The spices float up the stairs and smell suspiciously like home (she's making meatballs, but the onion is so nice!). In the room next door, Noel and Ryan are talking about something (I can't tell you what, because I can't understand their accents for the life of me). I'm writing and reading alternatively, which isn't really a big change from what I'd be doing in recent or distant memory. I do like this moment.

I slept in late today, began to work, and then changed locations for the next 30 minutes. This transition to student life again is proving to be more difficult than imagined, but I welcome the challenge. Deadlines! Yikes! Finally, I gave up and went out for a walk after chatting with Bertie for a couple of minutes (He came out to get the garden ready for winter, yes, it's only early September). I needed to buy groceries, find a reasonably priced printer, and maybe a couple of basic t-shirts. I found a tiny mall with a Penneys. Now, everyone here keeps telling me how great and cheap Penneys is for clothing, but while it's inexpensive, I didn't see too many fantastic deals. To set a visual, think Goody's before it closed down. racks of clothing put on haphazardly, stacks of once folded shirts just lying in heaps on the shelves. I couldn't handle it, so I left. All the printers I found were ridiculously priced, and the grocery store just wasn't conducive to bargain shopping. So I left the mall and went to Dunnes, the giant store just a 5 minute walk from my house. I didn't find any shirts (apparently the 5 pack white Hanes t-shirt doesn't exist here), but I did get my groceries. I met a lady in the condiment aisle as I was picking out salt. The containers weren't single person sized, so it took me awhile. Then I hear a voice saying, "I've found that one raised my blood pressure, but this one didn't at all. Of course it's more dear, so if you don't have blood pressure problems you could save with the other one."

From there started the awkward conversation between me and the Irish. I guess they don't realize I'm American until I speak, and I'm not sure they understand me half the time. But she was really sweet. So I bought the massive salt container that's sure to raise my blood pressure because it was a good .75 cents/euros cheaper. I'll probably never finish the whole thing. Then I haggled for a printer, a PRINTER. I could use the university services and pay for my copies, but the amount of printing I'm going to have to do just doesn't seem feasible to print out while I sit in a chair at the student library. I carried my new printer and my bag of groceries home, slightly dejected and focused on the new muscles I'm using. Then I compared prices at Wal-Mart and Target. They weren't any better. In fact, I did the best I could and came out fairly well. So with the help of plain potato chips and Coca Cola, I perked up considerably.

So, after meeting Noel and his mother and aunt (in my zebra pj pants, OH YEAH!), and cuddling in the giant armchair under a blanket and scaring both Collum and Kasha (who said I looked like a small kid, curled up like that), I'm writing this post to you from my cosy little room in Tirellan Heights. I know the posts aren't nearly as exciting as expected , but I promise there will be adventures if you're patient enough.