The run up to Christmas

Hey and welcome back to my blog!

The last 2 months went by pretty quickly and I was very busy with school work and meeting friends.

With the end of October and with the start of our midterm-break, we started to go back to a Lockdown which means that we were not allowed to go further away than 5km form the place we are living.

The positive thing about living in Dalkey is that you can reach everything without any difficulties so that I could go and have some coffee in a takeaway-restaurant and went for a walk with friends.

I also had the advantage that the beach is very close so that we could have a picnic at the beach!

Looking back at the quarantine camp, I think that it was very nice that we all had the opportunity to meet other international students too because it feels very refreshing when you can share opinions on school in Ireland and on making friends.

The school weeks after our break went by quickly to, especially because we had many tests every week. What I think was nice is that everybody had a meeting with one of the teachers to talk about how everything is going on at school and about our goals and hopes for the next months.

Although we had so much work to do in school, I really enjoyed the last months because I feel like I got to know my friends in school and my host family much better and settled in pretty well.

Because of the lockdown, I still have neither played table tennis nor done karate. That is why I joined the basketball team which is really nice to get to know more people and to get exercises. All in all, I must say that the November went by way quicker than the September and October.

The December started very cold and with the arrival of my advent calendar which my mum sent me and the countdown to Christmas began.

I really enjoyed seeing all the decorations on the houses in Dalkey because of what I got into the Christmas spirit. December in Germany is always very miserable and cold which is not like that in Ireland.

There were definitely some freezing days where it was really uncomfortable in the classrooms because we always have to have the windows open, but the temperatures changed a lot between that, rain and mildness. We also had a covid inspection where inspectors came into the school and were checking in on the rules.

With December and with the end of the lockdown we were finally allowed to go to the city centre again which was really nice because I really wanted to buy a few presents for my family. The main shopping street in Dublin “Grafton Street” was decorated very lavishly and I enjoyed spending time with my friends who I have not seen in a while because of the lockdown.

A lot has happened since then and some of my international friends only had a couple of weeks left until their flight back home so we went to a few shops and ate in a Japanese restaurant. I also went out to Bray with my Irish friends which was also really nice.

Furthermore, because of covid, I decided not to go home for Christmas to protect my family and to not have to quarantine at my host family’s house after that.

HSI offered a Christmas Camp for everyone who won’t go back to their home country where I will meet some of my friends from DCU Quarantine Camp which I have not seen in a while and for what I am very excited for.

I wish everyone who is reading my blog a Merry Christmas and a wonderful year 2021!

Henrike