cold oatmeal: this is the first week of school blog post

School started a week ago.
It was my "last first day of school" and it was a s t r e s s f u l one. I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. Here, the first week of school is a hectic one. You go to classes, figure out what you want to take, then make your schedule-- completely backwards than at Edgewood. By the end of the day, after talking with my advisor, the Religious Studies department, the Music department, and my international coordinator, I was still SOO confused and frustrated.

On this stressful day last Monday, I was reminded of a very important lesson:
talking to your mom, drinking a hot cup of tea, and taking a nap can fix anything.

Thankfully, each day got easier and easier. During the rest of the week, I met a few Irish students that invited me to breakfast, started running again, saw (another) beautiful rainbow on my walk home from school, joined a folk choir, celebrated Arthur's Day, and I even sang the psalm (soloed it) for the first mass of the school year! There's some corny saying about needing to go through the rain before you can see the rainbow... or something like that? Nevertheless, things are better.

(fake) rock climbing

"Family Tree"

Getting to know all the other international students is so fun! We get together almost everyday to play games, cook, teach funny phrases from home, and even make music!! Quite a few of the international students are very musical and some brought their instruments like me with my ukulele! At our get-togethers there's always a bit of live music coming from some room in the house. It's so great! (I started teaching one of my housemates how to sing while I accompany him on my uke. Maybe I'll have to include a video of us singing??)

On Saturday, I got the opportunity to go on a hike to see a beautiful panoramic view over Belfast. Ahhh! It was just amazing. Similar to the Cliffs of Moher, words just can't describe the feeling of being just a speck in something so beautiful.