Summer Days

Summer came and went one glorious week a while ago, and now it's back to chilly spring weather without the blooming flowers.

I only wish I'd known then that it was all the sun I was going to get!

Two months

That's how long it's been since my last post, and it's nearly 4 months since I arrived here.

It doesn't seem like much has happened since then at all. The last post coincided more or less with the start of my job – a crappy, low paying one which I'd decided to take up while looking out for something better. It's quite life-draining, but at least it covers my expenses here, which is useful given the glacial pace that the job hunt is going.

It has its experiences I think. People who somehow think they can get things without paying on the spot. Foreigners who don't know the English name of the place where they work. Non-native English speakers who get annoyed that I don't understand their English even though it's they who have poor pronounciation. I've never been in this sort of environment before, and while I wish I could take away more from this experience, I guess there are still incremental pluses as a result of this.

At the end of April, it got warm and sunny enough for flowers to bloom:

I managed to do a bit of sightseeing too, to Belfast Castle (more a mansion than a castle):

We also went to Carrickfergus Castle, which is actually a fortress and a short drive away from Belfast. It was a gorgeous but extremely windy day out:

I've also been learning how to drive, which has been fun yet stressful. I've had 5 lessons so far, but need to work a lot harder on the steering and general control of the car.

I'm disappointed by the lack of ballet classes for the major grades though. I've been going for classes whenever I can with at Crescent Arts Centre (CAC) and with another teacher, but although the CAC is an open class while the other teacher's is for RAD Intermediate students, I feel that the CAC's classes are more challenging and more enjoyable. I can't believe that the Inter class is still doing stuff from the exam syllabus even though the exams were last Saturday, and I'm astounded that the girls are doing their exam material – albeit to different music – for a showcase at the Lyric Theatre in two weeks. I'm even more shocked by the low standard of dancing – it's bitchy but I truly think that they have a long way to go before they should appear on stage. Everything contrasts starkly to how my teacher back home conducts her lessons, trains us for the exams and demands perfection for our school's performance. The girls can't even do their exam routine without mistakes, much less execute it with good technique or dance quality! We wouldn't have been allowed to take the exam or go on stage if we were only at that level. More importantly, I'm bored of doing Intermediate exam stuff which I wasn't even taught properly, and yearn for us to do something different and more challenging.

Well, enough about ballet and more about the weather. It was only recently that the weather started warming up properly, and this week has been just lovely. This was us the day before, out at the back with a drink in hand; i was in shorts and a sleeveless top and it felt so good to be warm again:

I'm not sure how long the nice, sunny, rain-free weather will last – the sky's all clear till next Monday according to the forecast, so here's to continued fine weather!