Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Quirk Alert

Last night, I finally went grocery shopping and hung out at the apartment talking on Skype to my girlfriend and her family back in the U.S.

After doing that, it just goes to show that relationships have really evolved in the past decade. 

In the temporary apartment that I resided in, all three girls were in long-distance relationships and I have met a few others here and back home that are in the same thing as well.

In such a competitive and fast-changing world, it is looking like this occurrence will occur more frequently and, at times, is necessary although we will be faced with the following set of questions:

"Is the pursuit of the advancement of a career more important than the security of the relationship?"

"Can the decision that initially hurts you the most be the decision that actually helps you the most?"

A few years ago, I was always scared to take a leap of faith and try something new because I was satisfied enough with the comfort of my past life. Therefore, there were many challenges that I brushed off because I was worried about the impact it would have on my family, friends, my current life, etc.

Looking at it now, I see that I can honestly take the risks that I need to take to make things work for my career but, at the same time, I also strive to make the best effort to stay connected as best as I can as evident in this blog.

None of us knows what the future holds for any of us but I hope to have as little regrets as I can when the time comes to past.

I say this because this morning, I was embarrassed to ask the following question to my roommate:

"How do you use the shower?" 

I was so determined to figure it out on my own that I didn't even shower yesterday as a result because I was more satisfied with failing than having to admit to asking such a simple question. 

Anyway, this morning, I tried for 20 min to turn on the shower and... it did not work! It was driving me crazy so I decided to wait until my roommate woke up and would ask for him to show me.

Apparently, there was a quirk in order to get it to work. After turning it on, you had to take off the shower head and pull it down to about your waist. After you do that, the shower turns on. 

**For those that have no idea why that happened, it goes back to that physics and, for others, thermodynamics courses. The pressure near the faucet was not initially large enough to overcome the force presented by gravity. In order to correct it, height needed to be decrease in order for the system to work overall.**

Another quirk that is in the restroom is that the toilet only flushes if you do a full pull-down on the handle quickly followed by a half pull-down. It is the most bizarre thing but that is the only way that it will work. 

The first time, I tried to flush it 15 times before getting help from my roommate. Now, I usually do it in two attempts. Woohoo!! Progress!

Today was a really busy and productive day. I made it to my Spanish class and that leads to quirk #3 that I noticed.

For about 1-2 months before I left Purdue, one of my roommates would joke around and practice speaking to me with the Catalan lisp. Unfortunately, I did not get enough practice on getting adjusting to it.

My Spanish teacher didn't tell us where he was from but my guess is that he is from Spain. There were times when he would pronounce c with a 'th' and other letters that I haven't heard before and I was caught in my mind trying to figure when to use the 'th', especially because I got corrected on it a couple of times. 

After awhile, I just went with what was comfortable and did perfectly fine but I am really curious of when to use the 'th' sound because I couldn't establish the proper pattern of it. 

Staying true to my word, I looked it up and found out that it is usually used on the 'c' and 'z'. Yeah, if you can, try to pronounce Barcelona as Barthelona with th being emphasized and soft. I'm confident that it won't be too hard to adjust to but I thought that was an interesting twist to the course.

Also, I finally set up a bank account, which will let me avoid international transaction fees, and a student leap card, which will let me travel around Ireland at discount prices. 

Finally, I almost have all the classes set up for my schedule but I just have to confirm them by next week so it looks like school is finally progressing here. 

Before I depart, I do want to give credit to my temporary apartment family for showing me a simple and delicious breakfast that can be made in 1-2 minutes and eating within 5 minutes.

It is cheese with tomatoes and bread! Trust me... cut up some tomatoes and cheese. Toast the bread and melt the cheese if you want to and try it. Simple, cheap, delicious, and a joy to look at, too.

As promised, I will have photos in another post later tonight but I have to go to class now. Cheers!

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