This is the first wedding I’ve seen since I moved in, there usually are only funerals…

My Canadian friend Maeve and I went for a nice dinner tonight, and I’m sure that both our boys were happy that they could stay at home. I always get confused when I see her because I used to hang out with her about a decade ago in Vancouver. Different city, different life. When I see her here I forget where I am and why I’m here. It’s a very strange feeling.

I’ve been meaning to buy a plant for my tiny room, today was as good a day as any to finally get one.

For days now I couldn’t figure out why sleeping has been especially easy. But now I know, the church bells are out of order! If I didn’t know better I would think that Evan filed a noise complaint…

This week I worked on the introduction of my thesis, Oli helped me with the editing and then tomorrow I will review it with my supervisor Ann Marie. We meet once a week and having her is a huge support. Another tremendous support is our tutor Cathy. She meets the four of us every other week to make sure we’re ok. Basically she is our guide for the semester (or for writing our thesis) and she has already gone above and beyond helping us in any way she can. After our meeting with Cathy today, we had lunch with the new IMEC students and then attended one of their seminars. And after that we went to ‘the place where it doesn’t rain’ to have a pint.

PS The first month is already over, I’ve already had to pay rent!

This is what my pals in Oslo have been up to… They have been enjoying the snow 🙂 They went ice skating and went sledging. 

Ola and I attended a symposium in Sligo (Ireland’s Westcoast). And since we were already out there, we arrived a day early to explore the town. Sligo is pretty small and exploring took us two hours, so we had enough time for cafes and pubs. We even had a nice walk at a lake just outside Sligo, it was beautiful and reminded us of our time in Oslo with its beautiful lakes.

The hostel was fine, but we should have taken a double room and not the mixed dorm. We had to share with a smelly old man. We could’t stop laughing because we felt so sorry for ourselves. This wouldn’t have happened if we had all our IMEC friends with us in Sligo… We got so used to travelling in packs. Now it was just the two of us…

The symposium was very good, we got lots of ideas about play. Ola loved it, because it is the topic for her thesis, so that was perfect and inspiring for her 🙂 Overall, it was just nice to meet new people and hear their stories. We made some new friends, two of them also go to our university in Dublin. All in all a good trip!

Today my IMEC family in Malta celebrated Niumaath’s birthday at Busy Bee, our favorite cafe. Happy Birthday 🙂

This is the park near my home. It’s quite lovely and I image that Spring will be very pretty there. A day of sunshine was all I needed yesterday on my homework free day 🙂

Waking up is so much easier when it’s been sunny. Last weekend the same happened,  I went out to see my friend Maeve (she is my Canadian friend here), and before we knew it it was pouring. So, I really shouldn’t waste my time at the laptop if I want to enjoy the precious sun for a little while.

By the way this photo was taken in Malta when Oli and I brought Evan and Igor to Gozo. Was that ever a nice day. So beautiful.

I’m wearing the fingerless mittens that my favorite sister gave me for Christmas. My little box room is not as bloody cold as my last room in Dublin, but my hands and feet still get cold after some time typing away at the desk.

I’ve set up weekly meetings with my supervisor Ann Marie. She is very supportive and keeps me on track. Oh, how I enjoy having someone to work with. The process somewhat reminds me of taking piano lessons. You meet, you show what you did over the last week, and you go from there. Every week a little task until it all starts to make sense. I’m far away from writing whole chapters, but I genuinely enjoy my time as a researcher. Reading, writing, sharing. This week I am working on the ethics approval, it’s a little tricky because I want to include children’s perspectives in my study.

It’s hard to get out of bed in the mornings. In sunny Malta I got up before everyone else, because I needed a few minutes to myself before socializing. But here in Dublin, I’m sort of on my own, even if I live with other people. Everyone has their own schedule and I don’t need to get up early to have the house to myself. On top of that the sky is always grey and it’s cold in the house. The church bells start at 8:00, every hour on the hour. That used wake me up, but it’s pretty easy to go back to sleep! I usually convince myself to get up and go downstairs to do some Yoga. One of my roommates has an exercise bike so I might start using that as well.

Kristel only lives 3 minutes down the road and we often see each other at the cafe or at the pub, depending on the time of day. Ola and Audrey have been busy with life, but now everything is settled and we should see them more often as well. I often skype or chat with my IMEC friends in the other countries and miss them every day.

We’ve met the new IMEC cohort a few times now. It’s really nice to have them here in Dublin. This weekend we were invited to Kim’s house, her parents were away for the weekend… So strange to hear their stories about Oslo, it feels like just yesterday that I was there. We exchanged stories about student housing, the teachers, and how expensive life is in Norway. They got to see the Northern Lights when they travelled to Tromsø, we just saw them on the bus drivers iphone in the middle of nowhere 🙂