Growing through changes...

Well its one thing to look young and another thing to feel young and then to actually be young. Yesterday my little brother the youngest in the family returned from his holiday in Spain with his girlfriend, Although he is the youngest in the family, he is no longer the little brother he used to be. he is all grown up. 19 years old at 190cm tall, and me 24 at a measly 160cm. 

Me and My brother back in 2007 in France

My brother in 2007 in France

Me, Mom, Brother, His Girlfriend, My sister September 2012

Me (looking scary) and My brother on my birthday April 2013

In he came with his suitcase full of all the stories of his holiday, the mistakes he made the trips they took  and so on, It made me nostalgic for my first trip i took without my family to China, I can remember the ups and downs and everything, the argument i had with my mom the night before i flew, the wonderful sights and i saw there, the excitement. 

Me in China, The year of the OX

But there is one thing i feel guilty about, it only dawned on me just now while typing this. Yesterday when my brother got back the first thing my sister said is "Iain where are our gifts?????" that was the most important thing for her, when i went to china i never bought a specific gift for her. II received a lot of jewelry when i was over there and i told her to pick what she liked. I  don't know why, and I think in her own way she still resents me for that in her own way. Its never ever came up. 

My brother produced 4 purses our of his suitcase, and handed me the white and pink one, and then took out 3 similar looking dark rustic coloured purses and handed them to my sister and told her, You. Mom, and Grandma can fight over these. 

I know myself i am probably the easiest person to shop for because if its pink i will love it lol! Anyway I have learned that the most important thing for people is gifts you can give to them and doing it right, putting a bit of thought into the gifts you give even if its just a trinket is important. 

Bonjour!

Yesterday I had a French Dinner party, with my 2 French friends from work, they are both doing an internship like me, Neither of them are the rude coworker I was talking about in the last post, The last thing I would want to do on a Saturday night is to spend time with her, things have improved at work with her but not dramatically she still gets on my nerves every now and again. This week I had a realization about why she ticks me off. Its because she reminds me of my Mom, The way she talks to me is like how my Mom talks to me when she's giving out to me,

Anyway back to the dinner party, We all agreed to make one dish each and bring it, I was in charge of the starter, Laura was in charge of the Main course and Chloe was in charge of the dessert.

For the Starter I made Fish Cakes, with a little (a lot of) assistance from my boyfriend, I think if I was makeing it by myself it would of been store bought garlic bread heated up in the oven lol.

not as cute as these lol

Laura made Burritos for the main course, I had never tried Burritos before, but it turns out they're pretty much the same as fajitas without the cheese and sour cream sauce,

Then for dessert Chloe bought Terramisu, She didn't have time to cook it.. But nevermind.

We were planning to have Tequila puffs at the dinner party, but quickly changed our mind when we found out tequila costs 24.99 Euro :O:O Crazy price, so instead we had wine and Smirnoff Ice and Rum. Lets say I woke up with a bit of a headache this morning lol.

We spent the whole night listening to French Rap, The only French Rapper I had ever heard was La Fouine!!!!!  They introduced me to a lot more,


I got home at about 2 and my boyfriend woke me up at 8 this morning ouch, He had to go to work. But all in all it was a good night. :)

Did you all have a good weekend? How much does Tequila normally cost anyway?

What do you have Toulouse?

Normally Friday is my favorite day for classes despite the fact I have to get up extra early, usually 8.45 in order to catch the bus at 9.15 however today I had to get up even earlier than usual, 8.15 to catch the bus at 8.45 because I wanted to go to a talk on a Dual Masters Degree program in Toulouse, France. 

So I rushed out of the apartment determined not to be late for the 10.00 talk and arrived at almost 9.15. So there was absolutely no chance that I would be late, when I got to the classroom there was no one there...

I sat down and then 2 Chinese girls came in and looked at me curiously and asked "Do you have a class now?" No I'm here for a talk... "oh we are as well!!" 5 minutes nobody else had turned up not even the speaker, I thought we must be in the wrong room.... Then a Chinese guy came in and asked "Is there a talk? then he sat down then another guy came in a french guy from Toulouse! He wanted to go on an exchange program back to Toulouse?? Ireland obviously wasn't meeting his expectations...

Then at 10.15 my program coordinator came in and said "The speaker is delayed and will be here in 3 minutes... so we waited and waited and still no speaker and no other students... Then the program coordinator came back and said we have to move to another classroom... The talk started at 10.30 just as my favorite class Global Competitive strategies was supposed to start :(

This is ireland nothing ever runs on time... but I think it was time well spent. The Dual Degree sounds very attractive but is also rather pricey. 8000 euro tuition fees, 350-500 euro per month for rent and maybe 300 more for food and going out...

The lady giving the speech explained to us, that in France a masters degree usually takes 2 years... so If we go over to France we are entering the second year of a masters program. which consists of 6 months of classes and a compulsory 6 month paid internship then you graduate 1 and a half years later, with a french Masters...

In order to get a chance to do this Dual Masters you have to fill out an application form online and then attend an interview and fingers crossed you get it. I haven't talked to my parents yet... so I have to wait and see.... Because I have never lived overseas alone before and I have never done an Erasmus this sounds really interesting to me.

Too be continued.....