Sunday, September 18, 2011

Good Craic

So, if I've counted correctly, I believe today marks the beginning of my third week here in Belfast, and its high time for a blog update.

The eight of us spent our first week becoming acquainted with each other (and Doug and Elaine, our site coordinators), the City of Belfast, and each other's site placements.  Basically, this means that we spent TONS of time together as a group of 9 or 10, roaming around the city centre on foot (figuring out the bus system and running small errands), traveling by minibus to learn more about each other's jobs, and eating lunch and dinner together every day.  So, we bonded a whole lot, went on long walks in the hills, learned more about the complex history of Northern Ireland, and had a great time overall!  Its also important note that over the past couple of weeks we've been learning a lot of new, wee vocabulary words (everything here is "wee" - a "wee" cup of tea, a "wee" walk, not a short walk...ahahaha).  Some other examples include "CRAIC" and "SKINT."  Craic is easiest to understand in context, so someone might say "What's the craic?"  Like, "what's up?" Or, "What's good?"  Or, I just came for the craic, like the good times.  Craic is pronounced "crack."  Skint means broke.

My roommate and I get along really well, and we have a lot of fun trying to come up with meals with what we have in the house - always an adventure.  Our first night here, we couldn't figure out how to lock our door, so we barricaded ourselves in.  We used a potato masher to hold up the door handle in the locked position, some twine to secure the masher to some coat hooks, pushed a dresser in front of the door, and placed 3 glasses on top of the dresser, because we were sure that we'd wake up if they shattered.  If nothing else, we're creative; however, its a good thing that I woke up early the next morning because the plumber had to get in in order to finish installing the rest of our bathroom appliances.  (Side note: when we first got here, we had a toilet in our bathroom.  Our shower was sealed on the second day, and usable on the third, and then later that week a sink was installed, and we have a mirror, but are having some difficulty figuring out how to apply the double-sided tape...)  In any case, the poor plumber was having a terrible time trying to open our door with his key because it wasn't locked in the conventional way, luckily we were able to move the dresser before he got REALLY frustrated.  hahaha.  And clearly, our bathroom is in wonderful working condition (sans mirror).

Other mishaps might include the time when the blow dryer shot sparks at me - one baby-sized spark, and one GIANT spark while it was in my hands...that was a little scary...  Oh, and the time when the vacuum started smoking randomly when I was in the middle of the upstairs hallway.  The question still remains: Are these appliances on the fritz?  Or should I not be allowed to do housework?  ;-)  No worries, my room is very clean, and we're working on getting into a cleaning and cooking routine.

More later...