Bag o' Chicken

So, today was definitely a rollercoaster sort of day, but I'll only mention the highlights. Except for one lowlight: I seem to have damaged my foot in some sort of obscure way, and my right heel puts up quite a fuss when I put any weight on it... there is also a mystery bruise involved. I've been walking sort of on my toes, but only on one foot, giving me a rather rollicking gait. Yeah, fun times.

I wanted to make chicken and rice today, so I had to go rootle around for some ingredients. The mini-market in the village was very obliging with the soups and rice I needed, but for chicken I would have to walk way far away along the neverending bridge of doom and navigate my way through the roundabout of peril. So, I went a different way, hoping to find some sort of store, and I was in luck! A little butcher's shop was conveniently placed much closer to me than Dunnes. I bought my chicken, but - the weird part - he put the chicken in a little bag, and that bag into another little bag (and mailed it to myself...), and then just handed it to me. Holding a good handful-sized bag of chicken is a weird sensation, let me tell you. If you haven't tried it, well... you'll be ok.

A little while later, the courier calls me with the news that he has one of my bags, but has no idea where Corrib Village is. Neither do I. Well, I can get there, but to give driving directions from some unknown location, certainly not. The API kids were all headed over to campus for a meeting with Finn (Fionnghuala, our on-site advisor), so I told the courier I'd meet him there. I have a suitcase! Opening it later was like Christmas... "my raincoat!"... "warm sweaters!"... "pants!" A thrilling experience, truly. The still-missing bag contains my sneakers and rainboots, sweatshirts, and all of my electronic accessories, like the cord I need to put pictures up, so hopefully it'll turn up soon.

I had my first actual class today after our API meeting. I was very excited (in my own little geeky way) because it was Celtic Culture and Society, and I really like learning about that sort of thing, so I go to my class (still lugging my suitcase along - not the best part of the day) all brimming with anticipation. It was full of... Americans, of course. While waiting for the professor, a girl stands up and asks if anyone's here for Celtic Culture, because they switched the day for it. Groans from nearly all of the room, including me, who, it seems, will never actually have a class and therefore never meet real Irish people. I asked the woman in front of me what class she was here for, and she said it was Poets and Courts... which is convenient! I was going to take that class anyway! There's hope yet! It turns out the two just switched times, so that works for me. Plus, that woman is Irish, and an Irish friend of hers (a cute guy, by the way) turned up a minute later and, to talk to her, sat next to me. We didn't get to chat, but as class started, she pulled out a roll of throat lozenge things to have one, then passed the roll to him to take one, and he passed it to me! Clearly we're on our way to becoming best friends. It was a tasty lozenge, too.