Feelings after first week in Cork

The first week here has passed by really quickly.

I have made some friends \o/ Thanks to my lovely next room neightbour, Laura. She's nice italian girl and she has introduced me to some of her friends. There was also a Spanish girl living next to my room, but she moved away to live with her Spanish friends. She is working in same company anyway.

We've been out with her friends a couple of times and it's nice to get some company. We were in a chinese/japanese restaurant on Tuesday and food was as good as company I was in. We went to a pub after that for just one pint. I had Murphy's and it was good.
We were also out on Friday after we made dinner together, Laura's favorite Italian pasta.


I've been working from Monday to Saturday. Work is ok, but we don't have all the equipment that I'm used to. For example we don't have working NMR or IR just only HPLC. We don't either have proper washing equipment like brush or warm water. The boss is really over protective about everything we do. He is always watching what we are doing and most of the time it's just him doing something and I have to look for equipment for him. I don't like that because I won't learn anything new here if this continues.

I'm also working in other company in Little Island for 1-3 days in week. I was there on Friday for 5hrs calibrating and testing probes that can measure 3 to 6 ions from solution at same time. That was quite interesting eventhough it has nothing to do with organic chemistry.
I can only hope that things get better here by the time passes.


Anyway I'm starting to feel like home here. Of course I miss my friends, boyfriend and family, but one of my friends is coming to visit me after 2 weeks. (If you read this, bring me some rye bread and chocolate, please!) We're going to Dublin for that weekend and I found a cheap hostel with free sauna! :)
Speaking/hearing/reading English all the time is really consuming all my energy so I'm happy that I don't have any school stuff with me here.

Arriving to Ireland

My 5 months of waiting has finally ended and I'm here in my new room. Yeah!

I came here yesterday by plane from Tampere via London Stansted and espite of all my fears everything went well on the way. I got a ride to Tampere from my friend Heidi (thanks alot!) and was in time. Security check and boarding check went fine and both my bags fitted to the allowed weight & measure limits. I also had lots of time to change plane in London Stansted airport and I had also time to take some pictures and eat something. I still hate landing, but everything went fine. Thanks Ryanair!


Yesterday I didn't have time to do anything else than just get myself here and make myself comfortable in this new room. My landlordess, Noreen, seems to be really nice person and I got everything what I need in here. I watched some tv before getting to bed and Irish commercials are even funnier than Finnish ones.

Today I've been checking out some shops in the city centrum, which is nearby. I got a map from the bus station and then just walked around. I bought some food and a converter to get electricity from those British type pluggings.

Now I'm trying to get used to the idea of eating only toast as bread and cheddar as cheese. At least they have euros here!
On monday I'll have my first day at work and I think I'll spent rest of the weekend on exploring the city.