So, of course, my week started with classes once again. Just the same old, same old. I thought I did a pretty good job on Tuesday of catching up on things. ... Yeah, that didn't last long. I feel like I was kind of lazy after Tuesday's big accomplishments. I didn't do a darn thing on Wednesday night. We'll attribute that to my big adventure in the city centre earlier in the day. What happened was, I had to register with Immigration so they didn't kick me out of the country come April. I did good finding the Garda Station since I had been there once before with Jemma. So, quick, easy registration, that got me another card to keep in my wallet. Then I began feeling adventurous. I decided to buy the dance shoes. We were given the option of tap shoes, or the somewhat more expensive traditional hard shoes. I was really looking to buy the hard shoes. However, after wandering for some time and not finding the shop, then feeling like the lady in the shop was too busy to be polite when she helped me, I didn't feel like trying too hard. Plus, I thought she said the shoes would be 1200 euro. ... Yeah, that's what I thought. But when I asked for the tap shoes, she said they didn't have any in my size. Then she tried to give me directions to the other branch (which I didn't even know existed). You can imagine how I felt about trying to find another shop. I did it though, and discovered that the hard shoes were "about 100". Yay for being confused by the accent. After finally making my long-awaited purchase, I realized it was getting late and it would be a close shave making it to class. So I power-walked the 2.4 km, which usually takes me 40-45 minutes, in under 30 minutes. I was so proud of myself until I realized I had misread the clock and had an extra hour. Not so proud then. Thursday was also an adventure when I suddenly got a message from my brother saying Dad was in surgery. ... What?! Somehow his retina had become detached and it needed to be fixed immediately. So I was crazy worried all night. On Friday we finished our first dance, which was exciting. I can now say that I can dance a reel, albeit a simple one. After class, I rushed to the bus station because I had no idea how long it would take me to get there. It was getting close to time to go and no one else had shown up. I was getting nervous, but we managed to get on just as the driver was about to leave. Oops, I should maybe tell you where we were going.
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| After lunch in Kinsale before braving the rain again |
To Kinsale, a little coastal town with a fort. It would have been cute and nice to walk up to the fort if it hadn't poured buckets on us. I haven't been that wet since the last time I went swimming. We got about halfway to the fort when we decided to stop for lunch and to maybe dry off a bit before heading back out. But when we were leaving, trying to make a decision on whether or not to continue on or go back, we realized the road behind us had started to flood. Definitely a major factor in our decision to go back to town. And right as we were coming into town we could see the bus bound for Cork and decided it was time for home and a hot shower (especially since it was still raining). Turns out we had impeccable timing because not only did we catch two buses just before they were leaving, we also managed to get back to Cork just before the road to Kinsale became unsafe to drive due to "extreme flooding".
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| Two baby giraffes! |
Saturday was a much more beautiful day. True, it did sprinkle on us a bit, but it was nowhere near as extreme as Friday. First thing we did on Saturday was sleep in a bit later than we had planned. We had to call a taxi to take us to the train station...so we could catch a bus. That was a bit weird. I was really looking forward to the train since I had never been on one. Our first stop was Little Island and the Fota Zoo. That was great fun because many of the animals weren't actually penned, such as the birds, and the maras.
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| Really tiny picture of maras |
If you don't know what a mara is, I highly suggest you find a video of one. They have to be one of the funniest animals on land. My favorite part of the zoo was the red panda, of course, but we also really enjoyed the giraffes and the antelope with horns as big as their bodies.
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| Red Panda=cutest animal on the face of this planet |
Oh, and the meerkats. Always a hit with anyone who has seen the Lion King. Then on to Cobh (pronounced Cove) where we stopped for lunch and the Titanic Experience. Apparently Queenstown, which is what Cobh used to be called, was the last place the Titanic stopped before beginning her voyage to New York. The tour was informative and a bit fun, especially since your ticket comes with a name on it and you can see if you survived or not, but it was a bit expensive. Afterwards, we returned to the train station and waited for our bus. But magically our bus became a train and we had to run to catch it. By that point we were exhausted and we all sort of dozed on the way home. Which meant that we didn't go out for Australia Day. And that Sunday was a day for relaxing and catching up on sleep.
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| The fattest meerkat I have ever seen in my life... |
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