Sina F. Back to School

The new year started for me with a short visit to the sea at midnight. Seeing the ocean at night and enjoying a little bit of a breeze was a lovely beginning for 2022. When I came home, I continued to celebrate with my host parents and we started to watch a really old show that I had never seen before. I talked to my parents for a short while, too, and as always – dad cracked a few jokes that made mom and myself laugh.

Because we miss each other a lot, my parents and I decided to meet up for a few days. So, on the 2^nd of January, they came to Dublin by plane and I took the train to meet them there. We agreed to meet in front of our hotel but I have to admit, I couldn’t wait to see them which is why I walked to the road they came from and ran into their arms as soon as I saw them.

It was already in the evening and at that time, the restaurants had to be closed quite early due to Covid, which is why we ordered a pizza at a takeout restaurant and enjoyed some chips with it. Even though we called countless times, we talked for hours before we went to sleep and that wouldn’t change during the few days that we had together.

The first day we had together, we walked through the streets of the capital. The rest of the week, we continued to walk around, go into shops, restaurants and even took a bus to Howth to enjoy the view.

Due to meeting my parents, I couldn’t attend the first two days of school. However, when I came back on Monday, it was like I never left. I finally saw my friends again and the teachers immediately started with new topics.

On other news, two of the exchange students, who had stayed here, left and two new students came in their place. Luckily, we immediately hit it off and now hang out quite a lot. One of them is in my class (5^th year, E1) and, therefore, we share a lot of classes.

The new principal at my school introduced quite a few new rules. She also got all of us, pupils, to wear the same kind of jacket and seems to want us students to be open about our mental health: She had us put up posters saying that “It’s okay to not be okay” and allowed us to wear whatever we wanted on Blue Monday. (Blue Monday refers to the Monday on the third week of the year and it is usually the day on which the mental health is at its worst as most people have to go back to work.) Instead of wearing pyjamas like everybody else, the person that I live with and is in the same class as I wore outfits that showed off our different aesthetics. It was lovely to see people in other outfits than the school uniform, too.

It is definitely nice to see my friends again in school and the weather has been quite sunny which is VERY unusual for Ireland. Either way, going outside is always fantastic, whether it’s raining or not.

See you in my next blog!