Rainy Days and Soup

It's technically Monday morning, but this is about Sunday. It rained and rained all day, and much of my day was filled with puttering around on my computer, arranging my schedule of classes. We go to whatever classes we want this week to see if we like them, then actually register for them the following week. The registration process for things like English seminars and History colloquia (the more specialized classes rather than the large lectures) is not as simple as handing in a paper though... you have to queue up for 9 o'clock, which means people turn up at 3 am, clawing and scratching Black Friday style, to get the class you want. Guess who's taking all lectures?

The bar has been raised on dinner: Saturday night we made baked potatoes, which were tasty, but tonight Mike made a Portuguese-style soup from scratch, with sausage, spinach, potatoes, and onions, and it was sooooo good! Ethan has promised a dinner of pancakes, and Kristen has dibs on tacos, so I need to think of something delicious to make... We're becoming such a little family. Also, our fifth flatmate arrived tonight! Her name is Stefania (it might be a ph...) and she's from northern Italy. She has a really thick accent and she's super cute, but she went to bed soon after she got here, so more details to come. She seems really nice, so hopefully she'll fit in with the rest of us. She was here last semester, and it's probably really hard to have lived for 4 months with a group of people, leave for Christmas, and come back to a bunch of new people who have already made themselves at home... at least we're not obnoxious. In fact, I'm rather fond of us =)

I went to mass tonight at the chapel on campus, St. Columbanus, and it's a cute little place. Instead of pews, they have individual cubes of wood with cushions on them set up in rows, so that was a little different. Also, the choir wasn't there this week, so I didn't have a chance to sample the music stylings of NUIG yet. I really like the priest, Fr. Diarmuid, so now I'm torn between going back there next week or trying mass at the Cathedral... decisions, decisions...