A quiet start of 2014

The first weekend in the new year is a remarkably quiet one. Too quiet I must say, after an overall very relaxing Christmas break. I feel energised and eager to work, travel, and take on new challenges, be inspired by new ideas and perform! With many people still on their Christmas break the two days in the office after New Year’s day were remarkably productive, undisturbed by emails and phone calls I was rushing through work as never before. The weekend started off great with an evening out with the gf; after a lovely Korean dinner in Dublin 1 we had a large hot chocolate for dessert at Accents and topped off the evening with some decent stand-up comedians at The International Bar. Saturday morning I spent a few hours studying in the National Library, where I was told that the ‘reading room’ wasn’t for the general public but for research but that they’d let me in this time. Although it was bitterly cold, the giant room was more than inspiring for studies; surrounded by century-old books, beautifully worked wooden panels and stonework, while a giant dome towered above me. The wooden desks were plain but had an aura of history around them, as did the antique reading lights that each unit featured. I may try to sneak in another time before my exams this month… In the afternoon I met up with Anna Luisa, an Italian girl with whom I’ll be doing a weekly language exchange. It’s already been half a year ago that Sara left (can’t believe how quick time passes!) and of course I haven’t been paying the slightest attention to my Italian in the meantime. Time to start working on it again! Of course only half the motivation is keeping up the language skills, equally important for me is to find new cool people in Dublin to hang out with. And as Anna Luisa shares an AEGEE past with me it seems we are like-minded enough to make that one work! More studies and a brief run completed the remainder of the weekend, which has me eager to go to work tomorrow and be productive! The next weekends have plenty going on fortunately, as Bo and I just planned our next Ireland-trip. Busy and challenging January, bring it on!