Routines, Snail Mail, and TRAVEL

New travel journal/sketchbook-decorated the title pages :) (no stencil used) 

It's been a few days, so I thought I would come and give everyone a brief update. I have finally gotten into a routine here! I thought I would never memorize my class schedule, or where everything is, and I felt like a freshman in college (or even high school, for that matter) all over again. Completely overwhelmed for the first few weeks, but then once you get the hang of it, it feels like you have been here forever. I am comfortable here, and I have amazing friends and keep in touch with family and friends from home regularly. I did notice, this week, however, that I am sketching a lot more in the margins of my notebooks, so I decided to buy a cute little sketchbook/travel journal. It is small enough that I can just throw it in my purse without it becoming a major issue, and I am doubling it as a journal, so when I don't have my laptop on trips I can write in it instead. 

I got my first piece of mail last week, and a second letter today! I love that I can keep in touch with people thousands of miles away and feel like they are right next to me with the technology today, but there is just something wonderful about getting "snail mail." The letters I got were from a family friend (thank you Mrs. Ortiz, I know we don't know each other very well, but I loved both the card and the letter you sent me! So sweet of you!), and I got so excited when I saw my name on them! A few people have asked if they could send care packages. The answer is yes, you can, but they might be a little expensive! I appreciate letters just as much, and they are way cheaper to send internationally :) Here's the deal: if you send me a letter, I will send you a postcard back from somewhere cool! I never know what to write on postcards, as most people know what I am up to because of this blog, and there isn't much space to write, but they are still fun to collect and send back home.

A few nights ago we got to book our housing for next year at Creighton! I am living with two great friends, Audrey and Jessica. It is going to be a blast and I cannot wait! That same night I also got to Skype with my godmother/aunt, Tina, and Grandma Maki. She is in the midst of house hunting in Neillsville, the "big city" compared to her tiny little town in northern MN. It was so much fun to just sit and chat (and make funny faces into the camera the entire time...thanks for your sense of humor Tina, makes skyping so much better).

Yesterday, I went into Limerick City with a few friends who had their immigration appointments, as I wanted to go to the sporting goods store. As it turns out, UL has an olympic size pool in the arena (their name for fitness center), so I needed to get a swimsuit to work out in, and a pair of goggles. Mission accomplished! I agreed that if I was going to workout here, it would be swimming, as my joints probably wouldn't be able to handle jogging regularly. Here's to adding the gym to my new routine!

Budapest is just a week away! This past week I also planned my reading week trip (reading week is a week of no classes right before finals start. Here, most of the international students take advantage of the break and travel!). The first weekend we are spending in Berlin, and then we fly to London for our HARRY POTTER adventure! I am beyond excited for this, as we get to tour Warner Brothers Studios in London, and see the actual sets of Harry Potter, as well as costumes, the Hogwarts Castle model used in the movies, and the special effects and green screen sets! We are also going on what they call the "Muggle Walking Tour", and we will be going around London and seeing the "locations" from the movies and books (Platform 9 3/4!). We then come back and are spending a day in Dublin before coming back to UL. I also have tentatively worked out going to Italy during Easter week (after the parents leave; can't wait for them to visit either!). Because it will be Holy Week when we are there, we just have planned a day trip to Rome, and are spending most of the time in Florence and Venice. To finish off the week, I planned and booked two more trips today! One to Barcelona for a weekend (over my birthday, actually! It should be fun!). And the other one is to FINLAND! Finally! I am beyond excited for this one (I can hear it now..."why?"), but this is where I get my blonde hair and blue eyes, and a large portion of my genes (from Dad's side). It was a bit of a hassle, booking just these two, because I am going with a friend and we had issues with the internet and computers and websites. At one point, I wanted to just throw my computer against a wall, but obviously that would have been counter-productive. But we finally got it all worked out, and booked. 

Next week is Rag Week here at UL, also known as Charity Week. The basic idea is that there are a bunch of parties and events, and the money used to purchase the tickets to the events all goes to charity. So basically, people just party literally all week for charity. I am not exactly sure what goes on, but I have deduced that it will just be absolute madness. There are a lot of restrictions in effect in our village (barriers at the entrances to the on-campus housing, ID required entry, no guests, no furniture outside, no consumption of alcohol outside, etc.), and I have heard a lot about how crazy and fun it is. It should be a good time. I realize that my "brief" update has become quite long, so I'll end it there. I'll maybe update everybody about Rag Week, then Budapest! Woohoo!