Tomorrow will be the moment of truth but still, I'm looking foward to taking my exam. (strange isn't it?! lol)
Hope everyone of u guys is ok and I can't wait to see u all next week. I will be on a very tight schedule, nevertheless we'll arrange sth, I was thinking about a beer garden session, where we can all meet.

As soon as I arrive in Sbg (maybe a bit later so), I will contact u and then we'll see what we're going to do.

Please cross ur fingers for me tomorrow so I'll pass the exam.

Cu in 48 hours,
Love Joanne.

I hope you didn't foget to send me my birthday presents, because yesterday was the last day you had the possibility to do so so they would arrive on time!
I'm looking foward to getting a lot of nice birthday cards and presents for it is a bit dull here and that would be a nice change.

My first exam is this upcoming Saturday and I'm already quite nervous. It is a speaking exam and only lasts fifteen minutes so it is doable but nevertheless one can't be too sure about passing.

I will tell you how it went next week and for now, thanks for your support.

Hearing from you soon,
Yours Joanne.

Kouhei, Nirah and Markus aligned with me today and we went to George to complain about mainly the structure of the course and some other issues as well.
He spoke to us individually and made notes of our requests and grievances which included changing the second class teacher (who is Orla, the sensitive bundle of nerves) to someone else like 'Master Thomas', my hero!! lol
No, I'm exaggerating but Tom really should be the best cos he was a Cambridge Exam examiner in the past and therefore has an idea what's going on.

So George, who is in responsible for organisation matters in this school, told us that he'll have to make up his mind and will let us know tomorrow. He as well stated that it is very unlikely we could change teachers because, which I understand completely, there are not a lot of possibilities for swapping and Thomas is as well a very acknowledged Business English teacher which is what he's teaching at the moment in the 2nd class.
Well, tomorrow the final decision will be revealed to us and currently we can't do anything else than waiting and hoping.

That is all for today cos I want to go on with the fascinating book I just recently began, which is absolutely addicting and is named 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It was and still is the most popular and most selled adventure of Sherlock Holmes. The language is very very old-fashioned but one definately gets used to it and there are a lot of useful expressions to be learned by reading it.

Good day to you my dearest friends and family members for I have to end this conference.
May we hear from each other soon!

Yours,
Joanne the bookworm.

Ps: I'll update my photopage soon with pictures from my 'hosthome', Pat, the two lovely dogs and Kinsale of course.

No news today, sy lads, but apart from that Spanish girl being utterly stupid ('Dow Jones, what is it; what means it?? Down Jones? ahh, Don't Jones!, no? Doesn't Jones but makes none sense. Dow Jones? it is a abreviation? but what does it mean? not Down Jones??' and so on) nothing exciting or even funny happened ....

-> update on:
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/anfscd

Tirah!
Joanne.

My week-end was grand!! Although I had a searing pain in my knees, I managed to enjoy myself by watching the telly, drinking black tea with milk, smoking cigattes, just relaxing and most importantly: sewing!!
On Saturday I would have been invited to come to a dog race but I wasn't i the mood to go so I stayed in.

But I have to tell you all sth. It turned out Cork wasn't such a nice city after all ....
It is divided by the river into the north and the south part which differ a lot from eachother.
The north part is said to be the home of the working class and 'minor irish' people, whereas the south (where I happen to live) is the more wealthy and rich area.
I was really taken aback when Orla (my new teacher of the second class who rarely laughtes) told us today that if a young man with an nordish accent would approach her and ask her if she would like to dance, she would turn him down whether he's nice, handsome, congenial or a total brat just because she knows his origin. The north side of Cork. ....

Well, not nice, ey?!
But apart from that I'm quite ok.

I only fear that me hostmum Pat could possibly wash my clothes wronly. My beloved aubergine sweater came back lighter than it was before and she doesn't even wash clothes with 30 degrees. Only 40 and 60 degrees and she always uses a drier (because we haven't enough space in the house to hang up the laundry).
I'm quite scared my colourful lace knickers come out of the washing machine colourless and shrinked ....

Whatever. Maybe I just wash them by hand ....

Yesterday I was so bored that the only thing that could have hightened my boredom would have been a good, exciting book.
As I went shopping with Pat in the afternoon (we needed a new duvet for my superb double sized bed!! -> btw: I moved to the other room now .... it's grand!!) I looked for some book but didn't find anything of interest apart from Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' which I wanted to read for one year now.
Coincidental Pat had it at home so I didn't have to buy it and I already read half of it.
I was really desperate for reading sth decent (not only school work i mean) and exciting and I as well asked my parents to do me the favour of sending me the two latest HP books.

Well, as I'm already halfway through my book I can't wait to go on reading now, so sorry guys .... the detective story is waiting ....

Have a nice week and be good (*smirk*)!!
Good luck with everything and bye.
Yours,
Joanne.

Ps: I'm sorry if I can't respond to all of your nice mails that came dropping in over the week-end, cos as I already told you I have only half an hour time on the computer in school, so it's not even enough to write a descent blog entry ....
So, sorry for those who didn't get an answer. I'll just try to answer the questions in the blog like a FAQ or so .... k?!

I would like to to start this entry with a quotation from Oscar Wilde:
'I can resist everything except temptation' and further: 'The only way to get rid of a temptation is yield to it'.
'Why this two?', you may ask.
Because I really like Oscar Wilde's works (especially 'The picture of Dorian Grey') AND I just read an article about the Vatican recognising him (as a gay) and more importantly his works (which were anything but friendly with religion and especially with Catholicism as he was a born Protestant).

Todays course was really terrific. We had a test in the first course (which lasts from 9 am till 11 am) and did a lot of talking about this and that in the second course (from 11:15 am till 1:15 pm). I really enjoyed it, mostly because this was the first day in this week I'm really feeling well rested.
Further I did quite well on my weekly test and the talking and exchanging different cultures was extraordinary (I'm in class with one Japanese boy, one Chinese girl and two South Korean girls).
Maybe I should note that today is the first day since my arrival that from time to time the sun is shining, which of course heightens my mood too.

So to sum up: beautiful weather, improvement of my English skills, interesting cultural exchanges, enough sleep, no sign of any illness (my hostmum is quite ill and I hope not to pick up her cough and cold).

Anyway, I'm quite crestfallen that there's no sign of life from any of you. No mails, no texts, no calls ....
Whatever, I won't die cos of this but everyone promised to get in touch with me as soon as I'm abroad.
So my invocation: contact me!! (I'm loney ....)

Well, now my mood is aground the deep, wide Irish Sea.
I'll better stop writing bollocks. We'll read eachother next week!
Good bye my dearest friends (who can't even get back to me!).
Yours diappointed,
Joanne.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's going to be a bright, bright sunshiny day

I think I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day

Look all around there's nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead nothing but blue skies

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's going to be a bright, bright sunshiny day