Chika's Christmas in Ireland

It’s almost 3 months since my second year here started.

As new covid, omicron is found… Sadly, I couldn’t go back to Japan this Christmas so my friend called Emilykate (EK) invited me to her house. She’s my friend from last year and lives in Wexford. This is the fifth time I’ve been here because last Christmas, Easter and midterms were the same situations as today. In this house, there is her brother, two dogs and a cat and it has a beautiful beach near her house. EK and I go for a walk with her dog on a sunny day and it’s my happiest time of the holidays so far.
On the 25th of December 2021, EK and I went for a walk with her dog but it was raining so hard. We came home soaking wet, warmed ourselves by the fireplace, and opened our presents altogether. As a side note, we don’t have a fireplace in Japan so it’s interesting for me. After that, we ate Christmas dinner. Hams, goose and Christmas pudding made by her grandmother.

Speaking of Christmas, our year group at school went to the Christmas market in Belfast in Northern Ireland. This was my first experience going to a Christmas market and Northern Ireland. I was super excited the day before the trip. We met very early in the morning in the school and got on a big bus. It took about 2 hours to get there but it felt so fast. At the Christmas market, there were lots of shops selling accessories, food and wooden figures. The market wasn’t big, an hour was enough for me to enjoy it. However, my friend and my tutor bought pretty ornaments at the shop doing charity work. I should have looked more carefully next time…

My friend called Emma bought some wooden figures for her old friends and brothers. It was shaped like a cat, owl and horse. I thought it’s really cute because they weren’t the same colour and shapes!! After that, we both had Chinese at a stall for lunch while the other girls were eating sweets.

The reason why I was super excited about the trip was that we had a Christmas exam for 2 weeks right before it. I do only 6 subjects in the school which is the minimum number (my seventh subject is Japanese). I’m stumped on six subjects, so I respect bilingual people who are doing more than that.

In my country, we have exams for only a week with no essays, like lots of short questions. Writing is the hardest skill in English for me, so this exam was quite challenging for me. Now I got results and I kind of disappointed myself but it’s okay. I’m glad I figured out what was missing.

This photo is a view from my room. I ate sushi by myself with this view as a reward for the exam.

As I said in my last blog, I live in Alex’s residence and have my own room. In the residence, we have 36 fifth-year students and they are always nice to me. They are not only international students but also Irish. One day, two new Irish people and I ordered sushi in our free time. One of them was her first time eating sushi! She liked it a lot and we had conversations about old schools, new friends and public speaking which is an after school thing.

I love eating food so much but I love to go to museums as well. As I’m quite behind on all subjects, I couldn’t go to museums but during the midterm break, I finally went to the national gallery of Ireland”. I stayed there for literally three hours and after that, I ate a sandwich. It was super delicious!

Back at school, I told one of my friends about the museum. The next day, she recommended to me another museum that I didn’t know called Hugh Lane gallery. If I could have some free time, I would definitely go.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
See you in my next blog!