Ahh the joys of cooking

So at home I feel like I can whip up some really yummy dishes...chicken, potatoes, pasta, steak, whatever. However, I seem to have lost every bit of my command of the kitchen here. I made stir fry veggies and rice with a peanut satay sauce--awful! The rice was fine, but the veggies were smushy and the sauce (from a packet) was super icky. I threw that out and ate some cereal.
The next night was some other atrocity and I ended up eating cereal, but whatever. We had a great meal hosted by Arcadia at a snazzy restaurant last night, though. I started with a blue cheese, poached pear, walnut and olive salad, then had the braised silverside of beef with mashed potatoes and onion ring and finished with a chocolate and hazelnut tart with mango sorbet. My mouth is currently watering, and I'm sure yours is too. I've been on about 3 Dunnes runs, but still can't seem to find food suitable to make. Any suggestions for cheap BUT DELICIOUS eats are MOST welcome. I feel constantly hungry because I don't want to spend my money on normal things like chicken and instead opt for canned beans in tomato sauce on potatoes--Katie, this was not as good as you made it sound. But I can still make grilled cheeses, toast, eggs and porrige. Maybe I'll go crazy and buy some chicken to cook up. Maybe.

Classes started on Monday, but the Irish have a crazy way of scheduling. I didn't know what time some of them started! The students have to actually GO to the buildings and find the "timetables." The timetables have no sense or logic to them. For example, at Penn State I would have a class Mon, Wed, and Fri at 10 and then Tues and Thurs at 9. Not here! I have a class from 5-6 Tuesday night and the same class the next morning at 9am. No sense in it! But I've chosen some really interesting sounding classes...history of the medieval castle in Europe, 20th century Irish lit, history of the English language, a weird combo of American Southern lit and 19th century gothic lit, medieval drama and I hope to get into a literacy class that teaches you how to tutor children with reading and stuff. It's volunteering and getting credit, basically. I'm also going to join the funrun club (a running club, I believe, where you run 5K's and get points based on how much you improve each time). The societies fair is next week, so I'll sign up for choir and some others then.

I've gotten over my sickness mostely (yay!) and I'm excited to explore the city more. Today was really windy and rainy but I braved it anyway and headed to the city center to see the Spanish arch and poke around some shops, stopped into Fibber Magee's for tea and then went back to class. Woooo!