General Updates

I finally have internet access at the apartment! (And now I have no excuse to not update the blog like I promised everyone I would...) Because I couldn't blog regularly over the past week and a half, and because I really don't feel like going back and recounting everything that's gone on, I'll just try to give a few general updates here to catch people up and then (hopefully) the following posts can be a little more focused and little better written.

Alright, so, where to begin? Since I'm sitting in my pajamas at my desk in the apartment, I guess I'll start there. I'm in Menlo, Apartment #24, which is a two-story apartment in one corner of the complex. The kitchen and living room are comfortably spacious, with a pretty large balcony attached (it should be really nice when it starts to get warmer). The couches are perfectly suited for lounging and face a nifty flat-screen TV with around 20 channels, most of which appear to air American shows (including such gems as Jersey Shore -they are obsessed here-, Family Guy, CSI, Friends, and even Spongebob Squarepants dubbed in Irish). Well anyway, moving on: we have three bedrooms for 5 people, and each one has its own bathroom fully equipped with a sink and shower that offer no hot water after 7pm (I'll discuss the water and electricity experiences in some other post).

But enough of that, and on to the people. I was pretty worried about randomly-assigned housing, but I lucked out like I did in my freshman year. My housemates are pretty awesome (for later referencing purposes, I'll name them: my roommate is Katie, and the others are Jessie, Alissa, and Nandita.) The 4 other girls all came through the IFSA-Butler program, so they're American, not Irish, but I'm happy with the arrangement. Our other friends have Irish roommates, so the plan is to meet the locals through them. We've spent most of the past week staying in at night and doing some housemate-bonding via television, card games, Bananagrams, and group readings of David Sedaris (and in turn, we've apparently disappointed the Galweigans. I swear, even the university administration people expect us all to go pub-hopping every night). We did end up going out last night since most people don't have class on Fridays... but it wasn't anything super wild (surprise, surprise). Definitely fun, though.

Alright, so I apologize if this isn't the best of updates, but I'll certainly try to be more diligent and more entertaining in the future.
Ciao!