First day of school

Yesterday was my first day of school. It was exciting, but nerve destroying. I had a few nice surprises though. One of the first people I see when I get there is my friend Helena from Estonia. She studied here with me as an exchange student and she came back too. There is another boy in the same situation and perhaps a Swedish girl.

The professor worries me a bit though. Sometimes he is hard to understand and I don't understand his organizational methods at all. So far I have a list of books, no idea when I need them by, what they look like, or anything. I'm having problems finding one of them even online because the published year is different. He says we need the second edition, but I'm not sure if the published year is wrong on his paper, or I just can't find the new edition anywhere. I also don't know much of anything that's going on in the class. We spent like 2 hours yesterday (without a break!) going around in a circle. I feel like everyone in there has more experience in this type of fiend than I do. There are students who have worked long periods of time then came back to study more, those who have traveled a lot, and those who are very serious about their studies. I feel like a butterfly that has flirted around with many topics and hasn't decided on one to be serious about yet. Our professor started lecturing us on how we should start narrowing down what we want to write about now. I have no idea how to do that! Eek!

Last weekend David and I went to a party. Sunday I basically slept the whole day, and whined a lot. David had a bad headache and didn't do much either. The party was Russian theme. We drank vodka, listened to Russian music, and ate Russian snacks (pickles dipped in honey, dipped in sour cream, then eaten after a shot of vodka).

David is leaving for China at the end of this month and will be gone until the 2nd week in November. What am I going to do by myself in this new land for 5 weeks! Jenny will be gone as well. Woe is me! Woe is me! Alone! I think I need to start leaving the apartment more often and making some friends. I think I'll be doing a lot of studying too. I REALLY want to write some very impressive papers and get as perfect of grades as I can. It will be hard since so many of those in my class are very serious students. Good grades might help me get a better job (or a job at all) once I leave university. At this point I'd be even happy to get a PhD spot if I could manage that. I don't like researching, but it would be a job that paid money. Those spots are nearly impossible to get though from what I understand.

David and I also went to Stockholm last Thursday and turned my paperwork in at the Irish Embassy. They say it should only take 2 weeks to get a new passport mailed to me. Finding the Irish Embassy was somewhat difficult. It's quite a ways from the center of town to begin with. It's on a residential street. In a residential building. On the fourth floor. Inside an apartment. No flag, nothing. You really only know it's there if you have the address already. The only sign that it was located in the embassy was the small name sign, like the other apartments, but said 'Irish Embassy.' But in two weeks David and I can travel to the immigration office and try and get me a personal number so that I can exist again.

Tonight David and I are going to try to make his mom's spaghetti sauce. We got the recipe from her last night. We'll see if it turns out better than when I've tried to make it in the past. Wish us luck!