Will My Suitcases Close?

I was so good when I packed to come here: I fit everything in one big suitcase and one smaller one, and neither were packed full. I've only been here for two weeks, but I think I've already filled any empty space that was left.

Take today, for instance. I didn't get to do laundry, and I don't have time to tomorrow, so I had to buy some more clothes. Of course, that meant I also had to buy a book (to match the other four I've bought so far). The groceries don't count, of course. But the souvenirs from Saturday do. And random notebooks and flyers from school that keep accumulating. By the time May rolls around, I think packing will be a completely different story from last time. If it comes down to it, I did find a cheap luggage store...but let's hope for the best before I have to resort to that!

Even so, my room is Spartan. All of my shelves, drawers, and closet space are half empty, and there are two drawers under my bed that have nothing in them at all. For everyone who's seen either my bedroom or my past dorm rooms, I know this comes as a shock. But it's true! The only thing plugged in is my computer, too. It's so crazy--but somehow pleasant.

Anyway, today was otherwise pretty good. I waited for my suitemate to get home to do laundry, but by the time she woke up from her nap, it was too late to get to the place before it closed (and tomorrow I have classes until almost closing). Our washer might get fixed this week, but I'd almost rather not chance it and just pay for the laundromat.

My classes were good too. One was freezing cold all last week because the heat in that building broke, so today was pleasantly less Arctic. The other class is apparently ridiculously popular with international students. The auditorium, which is small, was designed to fit 150 students. So 250 kids later, there were people sitting side by side in both stairwells and even on the floor by the professor. It's so intense trying to get a seat. We cut the line and managed to find four consecutive places, but that was luck. I gotta bring my running shoes from now on. I asked the two older Irish women next to me if they had ever had this problem before, and one said that only once, and the class ended up getting split into two sections. Apparently that can't happen for us and there are no bigger rooms for us to go to, so we're all just going to have to suck it up and hope that there are no fires, cause we'd all be stuck.

It's still pretty early here, but I ate supper a while ago so I could get some stuff done tonight. I'm hoping to start applying to internships, especially since I don't know how long it takes for mail to get there (if I have to send anything in through the Post). Besides that, I'm just relaxing and looking at some texts for class. Alice, Courtney, maybe Jackie, and I are going to go on a tour of Connemara this Sunday (after an API tour of East Co. Clare on Saturday), so I'm looking up information about that too.

Oh--Mom and Dad, could you email me pictures of our house? People are apparently very interested in its appearance...

Hope everyone's having a good day back in that time zone! Good night.