I have survived our first riot party/crazy madness of drunken teens whatever you want to call it session. I pray it does not repeat again this weekend or I will be seriously considering buying some supplies to make a mini electric zapper around that blasted fire alarm. Besides that things have been going quite smoothly though last night there was another party but not to the same degree of craziness. However, it was still quite loud and annoying but I slept through most of it. I did find the morning after to be very serene and calm and clean which was a bit freaky. I would almost call it Twilight Zone level of freaky how there was no evidence anywhere that any such parties had occurred or that any of those people existed or any people for that matter.
On to other things-I realized I did not ever tell you all about my Medieval Banquet and for that I am very sorry because it was a great experience. But before I go into the details of that I thought I'd share a bit of some things I've noticed while being here:
For starters if you're looking for a bathroom/washroom/restroom you don't ask for any of those you ask for a toilet. Saying anything else merits you a really strange look or complete confusion. That or they ask if you're an American and then you have to stand around for 4 minutes trying to explain why we call things bathrooms/washrooms/restrooms and their historical significance. To save yourself the time just ask for a toilet.
Another interesting thing forest preserves are called forest parks. People assume that by making it a park you're saving it from destruction. Ireland has more open and beautiful countryside untouched by hideous manmade structures and shopping malls so they don't need to call it a preserve because they were smart enough to 'preserve' it's countryside while they still could. Paths are also called walks which seems a bit strange but at least by calling it a walk you know you can actually walk on it and not be confused with a street that you may not be able to walk on. However, anywhere in the city/town you can walk on a sidewalk all over the place.
Parking lots are called car parks because they just are. Though you can park your motorcycles in them as well as bikes. If you ask what side of the parking lot someone is they ask why we silly Americans call it a parking lot. I don't mind being told I'm silly or be asked 50 million times that I'm American and where I come from and how cool Chicago or the Chicago area is but lately I've tried to avoid saying things that bring such questions only so I don't sound like a broken record. If nothing else my accent will definitely give it away. I have not bothered trying to have an Irish accent here though in my mind my brain is starting to think in an Irish accent. It proves to be a bit of an issue when I'm trying to do my Russian Beloit homework. And you may all know that in the states when you parallel park you must do so facing the same way as the traffic on that street? In Ireland they don't care which way your car is facing only that you're able to get out of the spot. So you can walk down the street and see two cars fronts facing each other or facing against the flow of traffic and you can park on the sidewalks so long as there isn't a double yellow line on the road next to it. Pretty neat if I do say so myself but it proves to be a issue of running into parked cars when walking.
Well that's about it for the moment I need to get back to working :)
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