Here we go! (And again, pictures down below)
FRIDAY
1) 5 months =)
2) Ran for a long bit - felt gooood
3) Packed, got ready to leave for N.I.
4) N.I.
5) Trinity Youth Club
6) Chill out
SATURDAY
1) Coleraine to shop for some boots
2) Lunch again with Simon and Amy
3) Walking around Portstewart
4) Dinner at Yoko (a noodle bar)
5) Slumdog Millionaire with James and Gail
6) Chillin' out
SUNDAY
1) Service
2) Lunch and the afternoon with Alan's brother, Stephen, and sister-in-law, Paula
3) Study
4) Just hanging out, making plans, talking for the rest of the night
And today was just studying on the bus heading down to Dublin. Caught the 9 o'clock bus just in time (with one minute to spare!) so I could get into Dublin at around 11:40 a.m.
So this entry will be about two culture shocks so far:
Culture shock #1: Bathrooms
They don't have outlets for, say, a hair dryer or a straightener, and if they do, it's only for an electric razor. The toilets flush differently - better, actually. Instead of swirling around and sometimes doing an absolutely terrible job, it really flushes nice and powerfully. The faucets up north are all separated by hot and cold. WHY. I HATE THIS. If you leave it on long enough to just wash your face, you have to do this weird number of switching between the two faucets to get warm water. Sometimes you get it just right. Other times your hands either ice over or get scalded by hot water.
Culture shock #2: No understanding for runners
I was coming to a small street and a car was coming to a stop. I ran in front of it because it had juuuust come to a stop. I thought that was perfectly fine - they understand that you don't really want to stop if you're running in Boston, after all, with all those runners. But as I passed the car, the driver was definitely not happy and cursed at me. =( I "interrupted" him for 2 seconds and he flips out like that? That was not very nice, not very nice at all.
Next shock comes from what I observed on Friday night at Trinity Youth Club.
Generation shock: KIDS these days!
Cell phones that play the latest pop hits, iPods of all shapes and colors, trendy clothes, caked-on makeup - everything to just impress the opposite sex. I ended up talking the most with a 13-year-old and 15-year-old, Jessica and Rebecca. I felt comfortable with them because they reminded me of kids back then. Jessica rides ponies for competitive shows, and Rebecca makes up silly hip-hop dance moves. Of course, both are obsessed about Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, but I'll forgive them that because it seems like they still have less of the media in their lives. Other than those two, every other teenager in that club was definitely too cool for little ol' me.
Anyway, I am still mustering up the courage to take pictures of the people I meet and befriend. One day I will adopt the tourist-y attitude and just take a group picture with people in some ridiculously common sort of place. Deal?
Substantial enough for an entry, no? Picture time! (As usual, more on my FB)
This is all of Portstewart:
And...a video! (For those of you who want to know what a Northern Irish accent sounds like!)
