16. week
On Monday we made food that reminded us of home – Geek Burgers that Noora traditionally makes with rye bread. This time we decided to put in some garlic mayonnaise, pickled cucumber, tomatoes, quarter pounder minced beef steak, pineapple, cheddar slices, bacon and salad, served with home-made potato wedges. After a tasteful lunch Siru skyped with her mom who hadn’t had a working computer for a while so she was waiting to see her. Later on we decided to pay a visit to the charity shops where, as planned, Noora found herself some books to kill time with. In the evening we watched Revenge before going to sleep.
On Tuesday it was sunny, so we wanted to go outside. We went to the center and then just picked a direction randomly. We found a nice looking church and decided to go in, too. We just sat there for a while to admire the beautiful inside of the church. We would probably have stayed longer had not there been a renovation going on. We walked out of the church and saw another one not far away from the first. The outer gate seemed to be closed but Noora noticed that a small door in the wall was open and we could go in and see the church closer. The church itself was closed, but on the courtyard we saw some old gravestones that were split in half and covered in green moss. From there we headed for the Garavogue river and back home, since we had thought of going to see Age of Adaline in a movie theatre and we had to eat first. On Tuesdays there was a student discount we hadn’t yet made use of and realizing it was the last week we actually could go before concentrating fully on cramming for the exams we just had to go. The movie was a heartwarming romance fantasy film and it was easy to watch. After the movie we went home and as we came, Siru’s flat mate and her boyfriend were just about to leave to see a later show in the movie theatre. Siru first went to bed, but decided to get some water before going to sleep. Luckily she did, because in the kitchen she noticed that the stove was still on after her flat mate. She turned it off and by doing so avoided a potential catastrophe.
On Wednesday morning Siru decided to ensure that Noora woke up and tried to call and text her for over an hour. None of the attempts could reach her. Puzzled, Siru skyped with her mom before going to see what’s up with Noora’s phone. Just before Siru came, Noora received all the messages at once – all the bad luck with technology was piling up and the phone was obviously starting to go crazy. We got dressed and went to the outdoor gym via the Curiosity Shop, which had become Siru’s favourite of the Charity Shops. The lady told us there would be a big flea market in Dublin in the end of the month and an idea started to form in our heads. After exercising for a couple of hours we studied a little and started planning our departure via Dublin. The big flea market sounded appealing for us and we made some alternative plans for the departure. The mood was set by the departure planning and we daydreamed of going back to Finland and counted the days we had left.
On Thursday we practically lived in Siru’s living room and studied, watched series and cooked some lunch for us. We were staying there for a reason – Siru’s room is so small that we couldn’t both fit there. Her flat mate was understanding about it – she didn’t have as many exams anymore and the studying she still had to do she could do in her room, which was bigger in comparison. To take a break from the endless studying we went to this new charity shop we saw a poster of in another charity shop’s wall. It was in a small basement, but it proved itself very interesting – just within minutes we went crazy and had piles or garments in our hands. In the end Noora found a bag full of clothes and got it pretty cheap, too.
After the fun we returned back to business and found out about the exams the following week. We knew that some of our exams would be held in Sligo Tennis Club, which was located at a distance. We were told that there would be buses operating from the IT to the Tennis Club but to our surprise on the web pages it said we should have booked a seat couple of days ago. We still could make the booking, but decided to go to the exams office to confirm that we would still get to the bus. The exams office reassured us we would get in even if we hadn’t made a reservation – some of the student’s don’t bother at all. It’s just that those, who have reserved a seat are of priority in comparison to those, who haven’t booked a seat. Once we were at the school, we printed out the plane tickets. Back at home Siru started to make food – she had promised to cook for her flat mate and she had settled a menu of hard rye bread filled with salmon and cream cheese, tomato soup with blue cheese and tuna and as the dessert oven made bananas. In the meanwhile Noora took advantage of Siru’s computer and chatted with her friends in Siru’s room.
Early on Friday morning Siru went to work out in the stairs until she had hard time to breathe but afterwards she felt so good. After Noora had woken up she came to Siru’s place to read for the exams together. First we made a list of the things we thought most important and which would be most likely to be asked in the exams in each subject. Then we started going through all our notes and make compact notes of each important area. To reward ourselves from the hard day’s work we continued watching some Revenge. When Noora got home she was still loaded with extra energy so she packed more things in her suitcase.
On Saturday we were bored because the weather wasn’t very nice and we had been just studying a couple of days so we decided to go to charity shops again. Noora found more books, which were urgently needed – she had been reading every night, book after another, because she didn’t have anything else to do. From the charity shops we continued to Tesco for some groceries for lunch. After lunch we watched some more of the series and tried to study occasionally. On Sunday we were actually studying so we would do well in the Introduction to Event Management & PR exam the following day.