Last three month

In this post I'm writing about the time span between the start of school (after the Christmas break) and now.
As I got to hear from a lot of people in Switzerland, it was actually snowing. But obviously not in the rainy, grey, cloudy, always wet Ireland. And to male me boil with jealousy, some lovely pictures were sent to me...Thanks to everyone for that by the way.

 

But to be fair it was actually snowing once...for about two minutes while I was at the gym. 

This is when we went to Dublin with Gergely, Wiktor, Zoé, Anna and Sofie. We went to Dundrum what is said to be the biggest shopping centre in Ireland. It was very interesting and then we went ice skating. It was so much fun. I helped Zoé because she wasn't used to it so I gave her some "lessons". After that we went to wagamama but sadly my expectations were very high and the food wasn't grand at all. But I had a mango smoothie and that was delicious. Sofie and I had some Ramen noodles and I don't think we will have them ever again...

This was when Bernie was at a conference and Sofie and I went to Anna's place. This is Conor and Daragh, Anna's host brothers. Conor (on the right) is 9 and Daragh (left) is 7, he had his birthday recently. They are really cute and we played games with them and had so much fun.

DOMINOS! It is the best food you will ever have. Sofie and I are addicted to it. So when we were home alone (the day after we went to Anna's) we ordered it, we always have the "big deal" with two garlic breads and we just have the best time. And because they were busy and it took a long time to get the food they called me and now Sofie and I have a free pizza. Unbelievable but so amazing! I can't wait to order again.

That's actually what I did after Bernie took Sofie and me to a gaelic football match. It was seriously so cold I couldn't feel my toes anymore. It was Roscommon against Donegal and because we know one of Roscommon's players it was even more fun. Sofie and I tried to fin dout which one he was and we thought he was number nine so we cheered him on and then about fifteen minutes before the game was finished, Bernie told us that he is coming on the pitch now. So we had cheered someone completely different on for the whole time...Upsala

 

This is in County Sligo. Anna, Sofie and I went there for the Cross Country and it was so muddy I almost lost a shoe while I was running. The weather was really nice, not as cold as the last time but the ground was just horrible. This was our last race though because we didn't qualify for the all Ireland final but it was a nice experience.

Doesn't this just look so amazing? I took this picture when Anna, Zoé, Sofie and I went to Eddie Rocket's for breakfast on a Saturday morning. It was as good as it looks here and I was so full afterwards. I would love to go there again and eat this.

Anna made a real Italian pizza. I don't think anything can compare to this I mean she is Italian so she knows how to do make a pizza. We went shoppin gfor the ingredients together and it was so difficult to get it. Did you know that you need two different flours to get the perfect dough? I did not. But in the end it was delicious and she said she'd make one again. I can't wait.

Well... Bernie picked us up from town and Roisin was finished with work as well so there were five people in the car so Sofie had to sit on my lap. It was very comfortable...

Aoife's birthday was on the 22nd of february but because that was a Wednesday we celebrated it earlier. This cake was so so so sweet but amazing. Bernie went to Dublin on Wednseday to surprise her once she finished work and they went to a restaurant it was really nice I think.

 Bernie made a typical Irish breakfast for us: egg, toast with butter, ham, white pudding (it's actually salty) and of course tea. It was so delicious I would love to have it again. Tea is a must for Irish people I don't think they could live without their kettle. After dinner Bernie always asks the first person that stands up to turn on the kettle. We will get a new kitchen soon and we have to clean everythin gup but I think we could never put the kettle away. Tea is the blood of the Irish.

And to make you all even more jealous: PANCAKE DAY! Bernie made amazing pancakes and we had strawberries and Nutella and sugar with it and it was so incredible.

Anna, Sofie and I went to kin khao, a famous thai restaurant in Athlone. The food was so delicious I can't describe it. First I had satay with homemade peanut sauce, then I had a yellow curry, the best one in this world and for dessert I had strwaberry, coconut and mango ice cream. I was so full so I couldn't order the fried bananas but Anna had them and she gave me one because she was so full as well. WOW. So incredible.

After a filling dinner, we went to the Shannon river to take some pictures. It was really nice. The river looks so beautiful at night, all the street lights reflecting in the water.

This was on the World book day. Bernie's school celebrated it and she dressed up as Cruella de Ville. Doesn't she just look so amazing.

Sofie and I went to the Peace Proms. It's a performance where primary schools from all over Ireland come together and sing for a good cause. Bernie's school went there so she asked us if we'd like to accompany them. It was so much fun and the children were singing beautifully. They were singing songs from the musical "Annie" for example "Tomorrow" or "hard knock life". Or they were singing

 Disney songs as well and even dancing a bit. It was so amazing.

The next event was my birthday. It was a bit weird to celebrate it without my family and my friends but because I feel so comfortable with the people here it was alright. These are the presents I got from my friends and family at home and from my family and friends here. It is so cute that people sent me packages and my grandparents sent me flowers. How adorable is that.

So beautiful!

How I celebrated my birthday: On Thursday when I woke up, I went downstairs as always, to eat breakfast but Sofie and Bernie were waiting for me and started singing Happy Birthday for me and Bernie made a protein bar and put candles in it (this protein bar is not what you would expect. It's made out of chocolate and almonds and honey and coconut and it is extremely delicious) and then I went to school and I got some presents from my friends and that was so cute.

In the evening we had Quiche, it's an amazin gdinner I love it, and then I opened my packages.

We didn't really celebrate a lot on Thursday because we wanted to wait for Aoife and Roisin to come home on Friday so on Friday we ordered Chinese and had a little muffin cake and I got presents from them. It was such a nice birthday.

On Sunday I went out for dinner with Anna, Zoé and Sofie. We went to il colosseo an amazin gItalian restaurant and we had pizza and, of course, a dessert. And afterwards, because it was still bright, we had a little photo session. I really loved my birthday even if I couldn't celebrate it with my family but I thought about them a lot.

Then on Thursday the 16th of march we had International day. Two teachers organised it for the exchange students or the ones who are not Irish.
In the morning we could draw our flags on our cheeks (Anna drew mine and I drew Sofie's) and we listened to music. Afterwards we had some speakers talking about their experience of coming to a new country. One of them was the Captain of the Concern debating team at our school. She's from Lituania and when she came here she could not speak a single word in english. But this shows what you can accomplish if you work for it, I mean she is the leader of a debating team.
After our eleven break we went out and a tour guide showed us around in Athlone and talked about the church and the castle and everything and it was quite interesting.
After that we went back, had lunch and then some of the spanish played the guitar and it was a nice day. I just think it would've been nice if we had that at the start of the year to get to know each other better and stuff.

 

Norwegian, Italian, Swiss and French

And then, on Friday 17th march it was St. Patrick's Day. Sofie, Zoé, Anna and I went to Dublin to see the famous parade but it was so crowded we couldn't see anything. But once the parade started people were filming it so we could see the parade through their phones.

To take these pictures I had to stand on my toes and hold my arms up very high but this is what the parade looked like. It had some sculptures and bands and it was a lot of fun.

As you can see on the second picture, people were sitting on everythin gjust to get a glimpse of the parade.
This is how we looked like. Zoé found some tattoos for us and we put them on our cheek. It was very difficult to know which way to put it on because we don't want to have the flag of the Ivory coast on our faces do we? But the thing with these flags was that they almost didn't come off so I had to rub so much and my skin came off with it so i have a red rectangle on my face... Gonna be grand for school on Monday...
And Bernie bought me the hairtie for my birthday and one for Sofie as well so we wore that.

Today, before Aoife and Roisin left we went to McDonald's to get some McFlurry and it was so delicious, I had an Oreo flavoured one.

And now I just have some pictures from my life in Ireland:

Anna was at our place and I made hot chocolate for them so I got a really nice compliment for it.

We are going to town every Saturday and we always go to Costa to drink hot chocolate and maybe go shopping a bit. It's girls day.

Anna and me in the ACC bathroom. That's a way to mitch assembly...

And then there was this day, when I invited some friends over to our house and we watched a horror movie and Anna tried to scare me so much that I had to run away from her. If anyone has ever seen "Rings" I can tell them that she looks like Samara an dis as creepy as her.
But I can say that when we watched "Split" I was not scared at all and Wiktor (the lad in the last picture) was scared as hell. But I just thought that it was too interesting to be scary...

The last picture is one that Sofie found and it is so correct. Every Irish lad wears adidas pants and has that haircut. I haven't seen anyone smoke that thing so I can't say anything about that but everything else is perfect.

This was a long blog and I postet a lot of food pictures, sorry not sorry...