February 4, 2019
I went grocery shopping and worked u the courage to take out money from a bank here. It was either be hit with a $8 ATM fee or keep paying for the 3% fees on every purchase I made with my card. Plus, not every place will take cards like little independent bakeries or markets. The only other option was paying 10.50 pounds for a train ticket to Coleraine where the nearest Barclay’s ATM was (Barclay’s being the only bank here that I can use without some sort of fee from Bank of America). And I had to think, was it worth the trip?
Apparently not.
I’ve also somewhat conquered my fear of the ovens here. Now let me explain. The ovens are not the same here as they are in the U.S. Firstly, in order to operate them at all you must first flip the switch on the wall to turn it on.
Switch to turn the oven on
Now, the first time I tried to use the stove I didn’t know this major tidbit. Cue me waiting for far too long for my sweet potato to bake before realizing that the oven wasn’t getting hot and nothing was happening. That was not my proudest moment and neither was me removing my sweet potato from the oven and promptly putting it back on my shelf like nothing ever happened.
However, I think I have finally figured it out ( with the help of Alaina who I video called and forced to help me). After putting my groceries away, I tried again-and voila! It was cooking!! The only problem was that I forgot how long a potato of that size takes to bake and promptly got impatient which ended up with my nuking the potato in the microwave after approximately 30 minutes. But, I did! I use the oven!
February 5, 2019
I had my Introduction into Speaking Irish class today, although the professor still was not there and Dr. O Ciardha ended up teaching us again. It was a pretty fun class in my humble opinion. Some random stuff I thought was interesting from class:
- Dr. O Ciardha had apparently never tried or even heard of a fried oreo
- The Romans never physically conquered Ireland, but the arrival of Christianity via St. Patrick in 432 AD greatly altered the Irish language
- There are less letters in the Irish alphabet and they do not have the letters: J, K, V, W, X, Y, and Z
Today was also the first day of the boxing class that signed up for last week. I’ve always wanted to try boxing and for 10 pounds I decided why not. We did a lot more than just throwing some punches let me tell you. We started with a warm up moved to a series of core exercises, 2 rounds of jump roping, throwing punches while walking forward and backwards, and then ended with a 11 part circuit. It was still fun, even though I felt like dying (a slight exaggeration). It was good, well until the soreness kicked in the next morning.
February 7, 2019
I honestly thought I had the oven situation all figured out, I really did. Guess who ended up burning her dinner to a crisp in the oven. I just don’t think this should not be that hard to figure out (apparently it is for me considering the amount of food I burned in this oven). The funny thing is that like an idiot I somehow decided to sign for bakeoff here. Oh well, I have until March to get my life together and figure this out.
February 9, 2019
Ever since watching the Vagabond Brothers video, Alaina and I knew we had to visit the Mussenden Temple. It did not disappoint.
I meet up with Alaina in Castlerock, a beautiful town situated along the Causeway coast. Before venturing in search of the actual temple after receiving directions from the sweet older lady in the Visitor Center, we dropped into Crusoe’s Coffee Shop for a warm drink and a snack.
The place was super cute and Apple Toffee scone was definitely a 10 out of 10. The walk to Mussenden Temple was not bad at all and to our luck, it didn’t really rain at all. Although there was enough wind for me to take flight. It goes without saying that the views were amazing and surreal just on the walk alone.
It wouldn’t be a tale of Alaina and Sylvia trying to go somewhere if we didn’t get a little lost along the way trying to go the backway. Luckily, a kind man with his dog saved us going the wrong way and escorted us all the way to the entrance of Mussenden Temple. Shout out to that man whose name I cannot remember.
I’m pretty much gonna let the photos speak for me rather than trying to explain every little thing. Although you could not physically go into the temple, it was still pretty cool to see up close and personal. But I wanted to mention that fact that there were sheep!! A whole field of them near the Downhill Demesne House. Can you tell that was the highlight of this trip? We even got to see a mother sheep and her lamb up close. It was not on purpose though. We kind of turned a corner around the wall of the Downhill house and there they were. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture because of the whole defensive mother protecting her child thing which I could completely understand. I was not about to get into with an upset mama sheep for a picture.
After that adventure and a trek on the beach, we ventured to a little hole-in-the-wall shop called Ruth’s Bakery. Ruth was a lovely woman who knew what she was doing in the kitchen. And then it was parting our separate ways home.
I meet up with Ric, another international student at Magee, in the city center. We ended up looking at different shops around town and going to dinner at Bentley’s a restaurant and bar with like three floors that we got lost in.
Until next time.
