Diskurswelt.de

Last weekend was great! Yoann asked everyone to come to the Metro on Saturday, his birthday. Although one could already hear the bad 90s music from hundreds of metres distance, it was pretty cool. Almost everyone, who was already back in Tallaght, showed up and we really had a great time together. I haven’t had so much fun while going out in months.
The day after, Thomas, Chris and I were invited to come to Anna for dinner (yummi wraps!) and I helped her migrating all her data from her old laptop to her red, new Dell. Did I already mention that I could possibly start working right away as a customer service representative for them right away? I already helped and gave advice to so many people that configured and ordered Dell laptops over here that I would like to ask: „Where is my bonus, Mister Dell?“

Enter Examinations:
Wed, 12:30-14:30 Corporate Social Responsibility
Thu, 15:30-17:30 Management and Organisational Behaviour
Fri, 09:30-11:30 Human Resource Management
Fri, 12:30-14:30 Economics 1
Fri, 15:30-17:30 Software Development 5

„O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee!“
Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3

Fortunately, this is last week’s exam time-table and not this week’s. This means: it’s already part of the past. Yay! Despite the circumstances, the exams went pretty well. Of course, I was not able to learn and prepare everything to the extent that I originally wanted to, but my instincts did not let me down and I correctly identified the most important aspects and learned them.

However, I am not very happy with the exam as well as my performance in Software Development. I do not know if it was just me, but there were way to many small syntax questions, where you could write everything in between two short sentences and a full-fledged thesis. Thus, time became an issue.
In my opinion, some of the questions were a bit stupid. If there are more searches than inserts, why would you keep things sorted by regularly sorting them instead of inserting at the right spot in the first place? And why the hell would you want to use a Bubblesort? Moreover, as often in class, there was a lack of sound object-orientation in the interfaces that had to be implemented as specified.
Of course, fatigue reared its ugly head after all these hours of examination and my performance (as well as my handwriting) went dooown. But I am not too worried: the examination only makes about half of the grade and the CAs and lab work hand-ups that make up the other one were almost perfect. More than 95% I think.

After this examination marathon, there is one more exam next Friday: Innovation and Entrepreneurship. I thought I deserve one or two days off now to recharge my batteries. So yesterday evening, Herr Doktor and I went to meet Tom at his place, where we chilled and played some games on the Xbox 360. Boy, it was good to see him again and I’m looking forward to tonight, because we’ll probably go out with some other guys that I haven’t really seen in a while (Chris!).

Happy new Year! Yesterday Chris and I showed Thomas a bit of Dublin: Trinity College, Grafton Street, National Gallery etc.
We really had to make plans for the evening, because we did not want to end up spending New Year’s Eve on our own.

Luckily we met someone during our explorations and kind of invited ourselves to a party. Moreover, we knew that there was a get-together at Anna and Georg’s place and Klaus invited us for some beers with him and the other Austrians. In the end, after a lot of back and forth and some stupid incidents, we just had a few beers and nachos in our living room and watched Mister Bean on telly before we went into the city centre.

At about eleven o’clock we finally arrived in Temple Bar, which was veeery crowded. Most of the pubs and clubs asked for entry fees (>= €20), but somehow we managed to find some that didn’t. Chris convinced us to get a shot of the „world famous ass juice“ in The Mezz. Well, it was probably not the greatest idea. Then we had a pint of delicious Smithwick’s in Farrington’s. There was barely enough air to breath, because the location bursted at the seams.

Just some seconds before midnight we arrived Half Penny Bridge where we met Anna, Georg, Klaus, Stefan, Immanuel, Julia, Lizzy and many more. The small pedestrian bridge was full of people from every corner of the world. You could hear English, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and whatnot. Stefan had bought lucky charms for everyone (a pig with a top hat for me) and some stranger hugged everyone.

Being used to the extensive (and expensive) run for the best fireworks in Germany it was a bit strange to see no fireworks at all. Therefore it became boring outside very soon and Georg led all of us to a Hogan’s, a cool bar in Georges Street (haha!).
Unbelievable: they closed at quarter past one in the morning. On New Year’s Eve! So we asked some local who told us to head to The Globe, another nice pub just around the corner. That was a straight tip and we had a pretty good time over there until they closed, too.

All in all I had a ball. I have to admit that I missed the fireworks, though. New Year’s Eve in Ireland is indeed very different from German Silvester. It ended for me lying happy in my bed at approximately half past four in the morning where I dozed off while listening to some audio book using my mp3 player.
Some hours later, in the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with „Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“ in my ears. A great song for a great night.

Today I returned to Ireland. I had a great time in Alfeld where I shared some good ol‘ German beer with my „homies“, spend a lot of time with my family and ate way to much of the „good stuff“.
I could write for ages without covering even more than yesterday evening (which was truly brilliant!), but I prefer to dedicate this blog to my adventures in Ireland and I think noone would like to read all of that anyway.

So here I am. Back. Finally. Why „finally“? Well, while my flight to Germany went well, coming back was rather stressful. Diesen Beitrag weiterlesen »

Sundway I finally saw the Cliffs of Moher. Warning: this article contains photos of breathtaking landscapes that may cause itchy feet. Proceed at own risk. However, it is recommended!

Unfortunately I was not able to take a picture of the bikers that were dressed up as Santa Claus.

I’m currently on my way back to Germany where I want to spend Christmas with friends and family. Probably I’ll be back in Ireland on New Year’s Eve. See you!

P.S.: Yeah, I’ll post some photos from the Cliffs of Moher soon. Word!