WOOF!

So there is the cutest puppy in my kitchen right now. This is a moment when I'm dying to have a digital camera to show you the most precious 5-week old animal I've ever seen. He's a little black sheepdog with brown and white paws. My roommate Seana's dog is his dad, who just had like 14 puppies with a girl, and shes giving him to my other roommate Laura's family. But the sad thing is the family that owns the bitch drowned all the female puppies- like 9 of them- because I guess they're hard to sell. Looking at this little guy, that is the most horrifying thing I've heard.

Anyway, in other news- Nothing much has really happened since the last time I wrote. This weekend was very relaxing, I mostly hung out at Colin's friend Kevin's house, and we went out to a pub on Friday night. Colin left last night to stay with his sister in Dublin, and then flew back to school today, so now I'm starting to fully settle in.

So with the way my schedule worked out, I don't have class on Monday or Friday- Soooo nice for traveling! But now I have to think of something to do all day. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Speaking of traveling, my weekends are pretty much booked up from now until spring break- here's a little calendar for all of those who are interested:

This Friday- Sunday: Homestay on a farm in Tuam
Jan. 26-28: BERLIN (get ready Carrie!) with Colin
February 2-4: Probably visit Colin in Aberdeen for a Superbowl party
Feb. 9: Big birthday party for my friend Emer
February 23-25: Stockholm for Colin's sister's wedding
February 26- Katie and Judy Hamilton are in Galway
March 9-11: Go to Edinburgh for the Scotland-Ireland Rugby game
March 16-19: County Down for Uncle Matt's wedding
March 23: Off to Madrid and start my spring break!

So I'm going to be pretty busy these next few months, and I definitely can't wait. Last night I pulled out my guidebooks and started reading up on backpacking through Europe, which will be so amazing. In the meantime, I need to start budgeting myself. It's unbelievable how expensive it is to live here. The fact that Fosters is the cheapest beer at 3 Euros a pint is pretty much insane. And a meal of fast food basically is about 6 euros or $8. Incredible! The good thing is that groceries are actually really cheap when you buy the generic brand (it's usually half the price of the brand-name stuff), and I live right across from a huge walmart-like store.

Last night after I walked Colin the the bus station I decided to walk home a different route than I usually do from city center, but ended up going the wrong direction at a roundabout and getting totally lost. I finally had to go to a gas station and call a cab. The way the city is set up is so confusing to me- I'm used to a grid pattern on streets, street names and knowing if I'm going North, East, etc.- nooone of that is possible here. So now I know to look at a map before I go wandering around haha.

Well I think that's all for now. If anyone has suggestions of things to do in Berlin let me know, since I'm starting to look at where we'll go when we're there. Cheers!
Eileen