Food, Glorious Food

This week I have overdone it a little on the junk food front. Okay, that's an understatement. I have actually been overdoing it all my life.

Everyone knows I have a passion for chocolate. An all-consuming passion. You can imagine my delight, then, when I discovered the chocolate brownies served in the DCU canteen. These brownies have been my comfort food for the past few months. I can't resist them. When I see them, I buy them. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, this is at the expense of real food. When my friends are eating their curries and steaks and fruit salads (not all together, obviously) I'm busy tucking into my brownies, with a bottle of Club Lemon on the side. It's terrible.

I've always had what you might call a sweet tooth (more like a head full of sweet teeth) but I'm convinced I've become steadily worse over the months I've been at university. When I'm at home, there is no way I would have a fizzy drink every day of the week. When I'm here, it's another story. Take this week for example. On Monday I walked into the shop with the intention of buying toilet paper and nothing else. I walked out with my intended purchase, plus a bag of Haribo Starmix and a four-pack of Cadbury's Wispa bars. Never mind that I already had a giant Aero bar waiting for me back at the apartment. Disgraceful. As my mother is forever telling me, it's a wonder I'm not diabetic.

Seriously, I think the only reason I'm not diabetic is because I have an extremely fast metabolism. I probably expel calories from my system quicker than many people, because I seem to lose weight rather than gain it. Sure, I play football once a week, but I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

Anyway, when the full realisation of my behaviour hit me, I decided to set myself a challenge. I would not buy a chocolate brownie this week, and I would limit myself to one bottle of Club Lemon. It was bloody hard, I can tell you, because willpower doesn't exist for me where sugar is concerned. But somehow I managed it. This afternoon after my lecture, I bypassed the brownies and fizzy drinks and headed straight for the apple juice. I also bought sausages and chips, which ain't exactly bursting with goodness, but at least it was hot food.

I worked out that buying a chocolate brownie today would have meant sacrificing my bus fare for tomorrow, so as well as the obvious health benefits of cutting down on the sweet treats, I get to save money too. And students, as we all know, are obsessed with saving pennies. How long will it last though? I'm not too sure. This time next week, all my hard work could well come undone. Meanwhile, there will be pancakes to enjoy when I go home tomorrow...

Going Home at Weekends

I love my degree, especially this semester. I love the work and the modules and the whole experience of being here. That said, I also really enjoy going home at the weekends to see my family.

When I started this blog last summer, I talked about our move from Dublin to Wexford when I was twelve and why it was so hard for me. I talked about my lack of any emotional attachment to Wexford. That's still as true as it ever was, especially with my friends all being away at university themselves. But when I go home on a Friday afternoon and the bus pulls into Enniscorthy, I do feel content for one reason - I can see the family. Okay, and sleep in my own cosy bed for a couple of nights.

This whole 'going home at weekends' lark is an alien concept to many non-Irish people. As I've mentioned before, my best friend is studying in Britain, and she tells me that students there just do not go home very often during term. It seems that American students don't really do it either, unless they actually live nearby, in which case they probably live at home with their parents anyway. But we Irish seem determined to make the trek. I know people from Galway who have a good four-hour journey ahead of them, and they do it every week. Mine is not quite so bad; I can do it in two hours by bus depending on traffic.

Some people would argue that if you go home every weekend you're not completely independent. Well that's true, but I think that being semi-independent is good enough for now. I wouldn't say there are many students who are able to fund their own education - you're either on a grant or your parents can afford to pay your fees - so are any of us truly independent at this stage in our lives? Anyway, if your cooking exploits during the week are relatively successful (as mine have become) then it's nice to have a break at the weekend and enjoy Mammy's dinners. After all, you can't beat them.

I don't know what it's like at other universities, but as far as DCU is concerned, the campus is dead at weekends. The shop is closed, the restaurant is closed, so is the library on Sundays. Everyone living on campus is gone home, so there's no one around. There's only so much wandering around the city centre you can do - if there's no one to talk to, you're going to be lonely. I don't see the appeal in spending my weekends like that, so going home is the logical option.

It's funny what you take for granted, even just being away for a few days. My shower in Larkfield is perfectly adequate - it gets the job done, even if the water has an annoying tendency to heat up and cool down every few seconds - but having a shower at home is luxury. I've never been one of those girls who take ages to get ready in the mornings (at any rate I prefer evening showers) but I have realised that recently I've been taking longer showers at home than I would in Dublin. Also, the bed situation. I think I've mentioned before that my bed here is pretty comfortable, but there's nothing quite like my own bed at home. After a week in a single bed, a double bed is pretty damn amazing.

The only irritating thing about being at home is that my parents and sisters have developed a strange habit of forgetting that I've actually been present for certain events. For example, my sister might say, "X fell over on Dancing on Ice last weekend." And I'll say, "I know - I was here watching it with you, remember?" Sometimes it's like the only one who remembers I was there is the dog.

Back to the positives though. I really am very close to my parents and we get on so well. Some of my friends think that's really odd, because you're supposed to fight with your parents! But I can honestly say that the vast majority of the time, we get on fine. We've always been a close family, and I think that's probably the main reason why I love going home at weekends. It's a nice balance to have.

Normal Service Resumes

After a seemingly never-ending Christmas break, I am back at DCU for my second semester. I arrived back last night after an exhausting weekend which involved my cousin's 21st birthday party. I now have a new flatmate (the old one having moved out a few weeks into semester one) and I have to admit, I was nervous about it. You see, without going into too much detail, the old one and I didn't really get on at all. After that bad experience, I was hopeful but apprehensive. Luckily, my new flatmate is lovely. She's American, which means having a very cool accent around the place! We've really hit it off. I think Americans generally are so friendly and gregarious that it would be difficult not to get on. It's nice to have some good luck in Larkfield at last.

Other than that, there's really not much to report yet, as I only had one lecture this morning. This resulted in me spending a very lazy day killing time in my apartment - something I don't really care for, so I can't wait for clubs and socs to start up again next week. To make matters worse, I forgot to bring my portable DVD player with me, and there's nothing on Netflix that I'm dying to see. I'm going to make sure I bring it with me next week, and there's a One Foot in the Grave box set at home that I still have to get through! I've only made it to Series 2, so that'll be coming up with me too.

The most eventful part of my day was getting this snazzy new hoodie, courtesy of our class rep:

Apologies for the poor quality, but my webcam is not the greatest. There's a slogan on the back which reads: "If found, please return to the Mac labs." Cheesy perhaps, but I like it!

My timetable this semester seems shorter than last. I'm in ten hours a week, and I think last semester it was eleven. This is what it looks like now:

Monday 10am-11am: Designing Websites (Lecture)

Tuesday 11am-12pm: Writing for Media (Lecture)

Wednesday 9am-11am: Designing Websites (Practical)

11am-12pm: Psychology, Media & Creativity (Seminar)

Thursday 12pm-2pm: Psychology, Media & Creativity (Lecture)

4pm-6pm: Digital Storytelling (Practical)

Friday 9am-11am: Writing for Media (Seminar)

As you can see, I'm in five days a week this time. I no longer have the luxury of a free Friday! Though I can't complain as it's an early finish, which means I can still get home for the weekend at the same time I did last semester.

My grades for last semester's modules will be published next week, but I'm trying not to think about that too much right now. I worry enough as it is! More than anything, I'm anxious about that sociology essay I did. I just have a bad feeling about it.

I'm close to falling asleep at the keyboard, so I think it's time I headed off to bed. I'm still tired after the weekend!