April? Already?!

I cannot believe that it is already April! I know that I keep saying this but time is going by so fast and I know this month in particular will probably be the fastest! My assessments last week went really well. I'm glad to have them over and done with. This week I have one presentation in Marketing, its tomorrow morning and I am slightly nervous but I think that my group has done a really nice job. More exciting however, is the fact that my sister is coming tomorrow! I am beyond thrilled. I really need to see a familiar face. I have made a lot of good friends here, but there is nothing like family when you need them! She will be staying until next Wednesday, so she definitely will have time to really see Cork. It will be great. Eden Hall allows you to have guests so she will be staying in my room with me rather than at a hostel or B&B which will help her save some money.
Things do seem to be quite a bit more money here. As long as you can budget though, the scholarship is plenty to cover for food, laundry and such.I was actually contacted by someone who is interviewing for the Mitchell scholarship this month. Now THAT is exciting! I remember how nervous I was and then when I was named a recipient I was ecstatic but even more uneasy because I had no idea what to expect. This got me thinking, for any people interested in the scholarship I am going to do a post about what I wish I had known and tips. I know that I would have found that interesting and although no one can prepare you for an experience like this, it helps to hear from another student when there are so many unknowns.

Exams, St Patty's Day, and Blarney Kissing.... Oh my!

It has been far too long since I have updated this! I am just now starting to get over a horribly sore throat plus time has been flying by since I have been so busy with classes and school outings. I had my first midterm assessments last week. I am feeling pretty confident about them. The exams were pretty short. My exam in Accounting and Computer Applications was only worth 15 % and was 17 questions long. The other test I took was in Business Math and Statistics. That exam was work 20% of my final grade and was only three questions long. At CIT they offer continuous basement unlike other schools in Ireland. This means a lot of classes will have either a midterm test or a group presentation and the final examination. This is more of how my classes back home are. Although, I am still not used to having so much emphasizes on the final test. In two weeks I am presenting my group projects in my other classes and then we are going to have spring break.
Also since updating this blog last I have began to make a lot more International friends. I still have been spending time with my Irish roommates and classmates but I have been attending a lot of the ISS (International Student Society) events. I have also booked my Spring Break vacation with 5 other girls. Our plan is to travel to Dublin and stay there for a few days. We are then planning on flying from Dublin to Edenburdg, Scotland, where we will spend 5 days. We are all really excited and in the process of planning the various attractions we want to visit. April is definitely going to be a bus month, since I also have my sister coming to visit and an ISS weekend trip to Galway. As they say here, should be a real good craic like!
Saint Patrick’s day was also last week! It was probably one of the events I was looking most forward to while here. We started off the day with going to the Parade. I think that we all kind of expected the St. Patrick’s Day parade to be slightly more representative of Irish heritage, so some of us were a little disappointed when we found that to be untrue. In all however it was still a pretty good parade. After that we had an amazing dinner together and then went out to some traditional Irish pubs for the night. As would be expected it seemed every place we went was packed but every where was also very festive, full of Irish music and people dressed head to toe in green. It was a really wonderful night.
After St. Patty’s Day I recuperated and had a pretty quiet weekend. Last week we had an Irish night on Wednesday that was partner hosted by various societies at CIT. ISS was one of them along with the music society, singers and songwriter’s society, and the photography society. It was only 2 euros and we had entertainment, complementary dinner and drink (we even had dessert!) That was a really wonderful night. On Thursday I went out with my classmates for a class party to celebrate finishing out two exams this week. Friday was another busy day as well, that afternoon I went with three other international students and visited the Blarney Castle! It was probably one of the most unsanitary things I’ve done in my life (considering stories from local kids) but kissing the Blarney stone is definitely an experience you have to have if you’re in Cork!
In all this past month has been amazing! I was a little homesick at first but now that I have gotten into a routine and meet some incredible friends, I’m terrified at how fast time is flying by!