Technical Difficulties

Yesterday was my attempt at laundry. EPIC FAIL. What I thought would be a simple wash/dry turned into a five hour battle. I had one class, a philosophy seminar called "Psychology/philosophy" which seemed so intriguing! Well, haha...as it turns out, I'm not quite sure if the professor's research is legitimate or if he's just making it all up. We learned about the idea of a "pilgrim's progress" through finding their essence and being, the core of discovery. It's  a completely fascinating idea but super flowery and of the Harry Potter-fantasy-type. Then he went on for about half the class about this grandiose idea of a "dark space." The point is to go into a dark closest or something, and just open your eyes and see. Something about imaging, and "seeing beyond." I love this stuff! Haha, it just seems kinda of like crap! It's terribly entertaining so we'll see how that goes.

After class we had this orientation meeting about "cross-cultural adaption." The lecturer basically went on about Irish slang words, how to strike up a conversation, just basic ways of interacting. Apparently the Irish love love love to swear a lot. Even in basic conversation, it's like every other word. Also "craic" means fun, not a drug. That's what I got out of that meeting.

When I got back home, the epic laundry adventure began. First, there are no directions, no manual, nothing on how to use the washer/dryer. I had to find a manual online looking up the make, model and type. And of course, that manual is like a 20 page booklet and nothing makes sense. When you put your clothes in, the door locks, for obvious reasons. Well, 2 hours later and they were still washing! Whatttt. And I couldn't stop it because the door was locked. I probably screwed up the wash as well by pushing so many buttons to just try to get the thing to stop. 

Finally, clothes were done washing. When I opened the door, they were soaking wet. Drenched in water. I then attempted to dry then. 2 hours later I take them out, still soaking wet but steaming hot. I almost burned my fingers transferring my wet, hot clothes from the machine to the balcony. I tried again a bit later to let them dry a bit and put them back in the machine...no luck. Wet and steaming hot.

I called the company that runs the apartment complex and sent them an email because we're going to need a tutorial on how to use the machine. Honestly, with all the buttons and no words or directions, its like alien speak. So now I have clothes hanging all around the apartment, soaking wet pants.....

The group went out to the clubs last night but after my battle with the dryer, I was so fed up and done for the night and decided to stay in. One of my friends forgot his ID and stayed in with me and watched Love Actually. Quite an epic day.

Today we leave for our homestay! We're headed to the Southeast of Ireland to the city of Waterford (yup, Waterford crystal). I think it's about 2 hours from Dubin and very close to County Cork. It's right on the water, a port city, Ireland's oldest city founded by the Vikings. I'm excited! I'm staying with another girl, Anni, in the program. We are staying with a couple with two children; a 17 yr old boy and 12 yr old girl. They apparently like rugby and irish step dancing. Should be fun!