Patience is a virtue only if you have it.

I'm staring at the top of my screen, the tab that says "Inbox (5)", and I keep willing it to change to "Inbox (6)". It does. I open the tab and disappointment - it was just a Meteor survey. Oh how I hate surveys right now (and always really)!

I'm waiting for an answer from the University College Dublin. To go and study Science and more specifically Zoology. The application process has already taken over 6 months, if I count from the very beginning. Actually, the real beginning is even further in the past, but let's just go to the beginning of this application.

I started to look through the different course choices in September - October time last year. Trying to decide what I want to be when I "grow up" is probably the hardest question I've ever asked myself, as I never really want to grow up... I wonder sometimes will I feel like a real adult when I graduate. Probably not. Anyway, sidetracked again!

I'm going through the agricultural courses like Animal Science and Food Science, and I wander over to the Arts section, "Maybe languages?" I think to myself... "..nah..". I had just finished a novel (can't remember the author OR the name of the novel) about a linguistics professor finding Atlantis and it's long forgotten library. I had this dreamy image of linguistics in my head. But then I clicked on the Science section, found Biological, biomedical and  biomolecular sciences. There it was: ZOOLOGY. Even the very name of the degree is so appealing. Who wouldn't want to be a ZOOLOGIST!? Pure awesome.

So I started to look for different schools that provide this course. I found that Trinity College Dublin also has a zoology course. Check that for a second choice.. Now, I needed one more, just in case I didn't get into the first two choices. I found a Biology course in Maynooth University. I ticked that for my third choice. Now, the application process...

Being 25 this year, I classify as a "mature student" (I wonder on what grounds someone decided over 23 yo's are mature....). This means, my Matriculation Diploma doesn't count anymore for getting into school unless I want it to. Great! It all depends on my written application and life experience.

(Oh! "Inbox (6)"!! ......Mullingar equestrian centre...hmph...)

Where was I... Ah yes. I won't take you through all the little details of the application process because quite frankly it was FULL of the little details... Simply said I only had to apply through CAO, then apply through all the school's own websites as mature student. Sounds easy yeah, but writing 3 different applications on why you want to get into that school and into that particular course is strenuous. And on top of the written applications, UCD had a Mature Student Application Path Test and I had to complete an English competency test for Trinity, and both of these tests of course have a fee of their own. The application process itself was by no means cheap! But I took the tests because I wanted to get into school.

Both tests went well, the MSAPT a little less so than the English test but I was fairly satisfied with it still, even though the boyfriend might have a different opinion on my reaction to the results... First I got a letter from Maynooth; a call for an interview. That was the most embarrassing interview of my life I think, so in a way I'm happy they were the ones that called me in first. I drove to Maynooth totally unprepared for their questions about career plans and what classes I want to take. I thought I was doing pretty well in even convincing them that I know about biology until it came to the question "What do you want to work in?". I said I'd love to do conservation. They gave me an example:
Interviewer: -So, you know the grey squirrels are taking over the habitat of the red squirrels in Ireland, and it can be seen especially in Phoenix Park. What would do about it? 
...me thinking hard...
Interviewing professor continues: -Would you trap the grey ones and kill them?
Me, shocked eyes wide: "God no!! I could not kill them, no no, killing the animals, that's not my style!" (and yes, that last part is word by word what I said...)
Interviewers look at each other and I can see the "This one is not in the real world" - look on their faces. And I know I said the wrong thing. I felt like a little 5 year old girl with plaits in her hair stroking her snow white pet rabbit in the same room with two hungry wolves and telling them, it's not ok to eat Bunny, Bunny is a friend, and actually expecting them to turn around and say OK (yes, in this image there are speaking wolves).

So the first interview, not a success. Well, I didn't want to go to that uni anyway.

Then I got emails from both Trinity and UCD to tell me that they are reviewing the applications and Trinity will call for interviews from mid-april to end of May and UCD will let applicants know the outcome of their applications in May. May came, and I had no word from either of the schools. I was starting to loose hope (even though I had also applied as normal to Trinity with my Diploma to ensure a place, as my points were high enough). Then Trinity contacted me and wanted to interview me. I was excited, but was hoping to get an answer from UCD before the interview as UCD was the first choice... No word came in time, however, so I went for the interview and it went much better than the first one. After all, this time I was trying to get into a course I really wanted to do. It was easier to talk about it. I even managed to make them laugh a little. I walked out of that interview room with a good feeling. Not much to say about it, but a good feeling. And they had told me to expect an answer within the next 10 days. After 3 months of waiting for something, 10 days for a final answer sounded like a holiday!

But there was still 2 weeks of May left, and I wanted to hear from UCD so badly. I emailed them on the second last week of May and they replied I should receive and answer "early next week". In my books early week is Mon-Wed. So I'm expecting an email on Wednesday the 29th of May. I think this is reasonable.

Yesterday, Monday 27th of May, I received an email from Trinity to go and check the status of my application on the online tool. I opened the tool, and I saw a message with "offer" in the title. I had a studying place!! For sure!! I got an offer of a place on the Natural Sciences in Trinity College Dublin! Now that's pretty ****** cool!! Just one condition on the offer though: English test. But I passed it 109/120 and the limit to get into Trinity is 88! YEY!

There is just one thing (I love the "one thing though" comment). Trinity was not my first choice. I still haven't heard from UCD. I am hoping they will also give me a yes, but maybe that is a little too much to ask. Then again... It would be legendary to get to pick between the two best known universities in Ireland!

This waiting game is not quite over yet. But it should be tomorrow! ;)

-S-

The rest of my life = NOW

You know the feeling you get when you sit in a swing and get it going and you go higher and higher until you feel like the whole thing is going to fall apart? Very liberating but also restricting. You can't go as high as you could when you were a kid. You'll think you might break the swing, or worse, your own bones! As a kid if the structure moved a little you didn't care, it was fun! (Ok I admit, it still is, but now you'd have to pay for it yourself if you break it). You realize you're an adult.

Society says we are adults at the age of 18 (In most of Europe anyway, I think the US is closer to the truth with the age 21..) We can buy alcohol and cigarettes, and we can drive a car legally once we obtain a license. When we turn 18, we become responsible for ourselves. We have to pay our own bills, we usually move out of the family home to live on our own in a little rental apartment (Freedom woohoo!) and we might even buy that old Corolla -88. All this is well and good, but do you really feel like an adult? 

I was walking my dog this morning and got to wondering how all those adult people get married and have kids and buy houses and get lease cars etc... Then I realized, a lot of my old friends who are my age, are doing exactly that. Some of their children are already 3 years old! That means that while I was busy partying and travelling around Europe, they were pregnant and getting ready for "the rest of their lives". I don't know how I want the rest of my life to look like. Do they know? Do you? 

I believe the phrase "settle down" used to mean that you find a partner, get married, buy a house, have children and maybe get a golden retriever or a shitzu. But nowadays it's not like that. Even if you get married it doesn't mean that you will spend the rest of your life in the same town, doing exactly the same things over and over and over again. It doesn't even mean that you will spend the rest of your life in the same country! Why couldn't you still have the exciting, travelling, full of adventures kind of life you always wanted, but just do it with someone? Why couldn't you open up your own business or take up a new career, even if you are all "settled down"?

And why do we even differentiate between now and the rest of our lives? I like to think I'm already living the rest of my life. This is it: an ever changing, moving, exhilarating, happy, variable constant. I hope that the feeling of being young never leaves me. True, the body will change and it wont be able to do all the things I might want to do, but I will keep trying for as long as I can bat my eyes.  

Think it will break? -Naaah...

At some point in my life I will probably want to "settle down", but I'd like to think I'll be the silly old fool who'll still be riding horses at the age of 80 (if I'm still alive, that is) while onlookers fear for my old prostate hips. I want to be the crazy granny who goes to the kiddy park just to sit on the swing to go higher and higher and higher.... hopefully with that someone special right beside me going just as high on his swing.

-S-

One day in the sun...

The sun is shining, the water is warm (after you actually get into it heheh) and the temperature is near +30 degrees Celcius. No one is rushing to get around, people are sitting in the shade sipping their drinks and chatting. We take a bus to the old town of Las Palmas. On the way we pass a park, with lots of trees and some grass patches, and there are multiple tables full of mainly OAP's. And they are playing chess and cards and other games, just passing time under the parasols and the trees. The bus passes in front of the Teatro Perez Galdos, a theater named after the famous Canarian author. 

Cathedral Santa Ana

Meditation break on
Plaza de Santa Ana

The old town area has two smaller areas, Triana and Vegueta. First we go to Vegueta, and we sit down at a small cafe/restaurant to have lunch. Our local friend and guide orders us some tapas: we get the Canarian potatoes, beef with garlic, croquettes Canarian style, Canarian cheese... It's all lovely and in the end all three of us are full, but not too full to keep walking and sightseeing! We take off to see the big old cathedral of Santa Ana along with Plaza de Santa Ana that is right in front of it. We pass the Columbus museum and spot two parrots from the doorway, climbing on the vegetation of the pillars of the patio. We walk along in the sun (well, we stay in the sun, our friend in the shadow) and cross over to Triana. We go to a little park to see the statue of Columbus and then we set off to find some ice cream for dessert and to take the bus back to our side of Las Palmas. On the way we come across another park with the army assembled in it, playing music and letting kids and adults alike to sit in their vehicles and take pictures. We don't take pictures though, we just sit down, again in the shade, to finish our ice creams (mango sorbet NOM NOM!). There is no rush to the bus, no timetables to follow.. It's all so easy going, and we just love it! 

La Seafood Paella ;)

In the evening we get a craving for seafood paella. I know, if you'd asked me two years ago to eat a seafood paella I probably would've laughed and said "No way Jose! I don't eat squirmy things with eyes still attached!". Now however, I'm craving one (even as I'm writing this, I want it again...). We ask for recommendation for a restaurant from the hotel receptionist, a very nice girl called Marta and she directs us to La Marinera, at the seaside and only about 100m from the hotel. It's a fancy looking seafood restaurant where you can choose your fish from the cold, or have the waiter bring the cold fish to your table so you can look at it and disapprovingly shake your head, just to make the waitress run back and forth a couple of times. This didn't happen to us, as we got the paella with EVERYTHING in it! It was really tasty, but I have to admit I left one octopus tentacle untouched, it was just too... tentacle like. We get another taste of the restaurants grade as when he tries to take seconds, a waiter rushes over saying "No, no no!" and grabs the fork and spoon and his old plate, just to fill a clean plate with the rest of the paella from the pan. 

Our table is located next to the window, from which the sea is only about 3 meter away. With out tummies full and the sounds of the sea making us sleepy, we pay the bill and walk the short distance back to the hotel to have a good nights rest before hitting the sun again the next day ;) 

-S-

Cupcake, anyone?

I read an article on the papers about a family that has lost two dogs to rat poison traps that are not meant for rats. Raw meatballs spiced with some poison have been maliciously positioned near popular dog walking routes in Finland. And if you, like me, like to have your dog off the lead to give it some freedom to roam around and do "doggy things", it is more than likely that when your dog comes across a raw meatball it will disappear down its throat in less time than it takes to actually say "meatball".

What goes on in the head of a person who plans to kill animals. As this is not a plan executed in a whim. The person would have to go through the trouble of buying mince meat, mixing it with some poison (yummy!) and make it into meatballs. And on top of that he/she would have to know where dog people go with their beloved pets. And then manage to drop RAW MEATBALLS WITHOUT ANYONE NOTICING?? Sick, I tell you. Just, sick.

The symptoms in a dog affected by rat poison are horrendously painful and usually result in a slow, excruciating death. Firstly, the dog will probably have some trouble breathing, due to internal bleeding to its chest. If the dog has even the smallest cut, it might not stop bleeding at all, as rat poison stops the blood from thickening. Then the dog gets bruises, and you can see these bruises in light skinned short haired dogs. Usually the dog will then develop some limping symptoms, fever and also central nervous system dysfunction. And then without appropriate and immediate care from the very beginning of the poisoning, the dog will die.

The people that want to see this happening to an animal... In my opinion these people should be killed in the same way they prefer to use on other living things. Why not bake the poison into a cupcake and serve with a nice cuppa, too. No sane human being would deliberately take pleasure in torturing animals (I am also against bullfighting..). What are these people missing from their brains?

I hope I never come across a person who would do this kinds of things. Why? Because I don't want my dog to grow old without me, as I would probably go to jail for murder.

I remember when I was young...

I am only 24 but this does not stop me from being horrified about what is going on in Finland's educational system.

Imagine this:
A 15 year old student refuses to take off his hood and starts mocking the teacher in the school canteen. After a couple of minutes of "arguing" the teacher swiftly removes the student from the canteen by pushing him.
Result: Teacher get fired.

Granted, the teacher should have maybe escorted the student by the arm out of the canteen, rather than push. But fired?? It's a great win for the bullies of schools. There was even a post on Facebook in the aftermaths of this showing the bully student celebrating his win and joking and laughing about the matter. Freely translated his post was something like this: "Yeyyyy there goes our teacher hahahhahah". Very mature don't you think, and also shows how badly hurt mentally and physically he seems to be about the whole scene.

It's not that many years ago that I went to school. Our teachers were not allowed to use violence against us, even if we were behaving badly, and they were also not allowed to publicly humiliate us in front of the whole class (although singing tests could be gruelling...). But if someone didn't obey the rules or was not quiet during classes when required, they were removed from the class room. And if you didn't go voluntarily, the teacher would escort you out by the arm. And the class would continue without interruption while the student outside the class room would have to sit there all alone and think about things... Very hard when you hear laughter coming from the class room. "Are they laughing at me?? What can be so funny about an English lesson?" And nobody was sued or got injured or needed psychiatric help.

It seems the parents are putting a lot of the up bringing responsibility on the school system, starting from the kindergarten. The difference is that teachers don't have the freedom to put boundaries on the children and youngsters. And kids are not dumb. They know how far they can go. And unfortunately now they know they can go so far that the teacher get fired.

What can be done to change this? Licenses to become a parent? Grab the arm - vouchers? Or just simply more clearly outlined rules to what teachers can and cannot do in different scenarios.

Also a question to think about: What would happen if teachers used smartphones to record their students during school hours?

Sincerely yours,
Nearly old enough to say "back in the old days..."