Cork & Kinsale

I'm ill. Sinus infection. For all those of you who don't know what that is: it's like a cold, except that the head feels like on the brink of explosion and you can't focus on anything. Antibiotics and painkillers. Lovely.

This is my first post in 2008. You may have noticed that I haven't felt like blogging lately. But that's ok. A Canadian friend of mine once said that life is made up of many phases with different priorities or desires: literature, sports, friends, love ... or blogging. Who knows, I might be entering a blogging phase, after all. Let's see.

In brief, Christmas, New Year's and skiing in Switzerland were most enjoyable. I had a wonderful time at home, which in retrospect seemed much shorter than I had thought it would be. The few days of skiing in Saas-Fee were particularly gorgeous, with plenty of snow, sunshine, only some -5 Celsius and a bunch of fun people.

Now I'm back, but travelling goes on. Last weekend saw me in Cork, further down in the south-east. It's a small (yet Ireland's third biggest) city, cramped with cafés and pubs and clubs and definitely worth a visit. Jojo, a German fellow, and I were staying at his Irish flatmate's house, going out in the evening and exploring the city centre during the day. On Saturday, we took the bus further on to Kinsale, a picturesque seaport town on the coast where we enjoyed delicious food, some beer and a fantastic nighttime view over the bay. Unfortunately, however, little sleep and much rain and wind turned my cold into a severe sinus infection. Well, it should pass in a few days. Here are some more pictures for all those of you who're interested.





College also started again. I have two new courses - "Introduction to Post-Colonial Fiction and Theory" and "America and the US: Literature and the Nation" - but it's too early to judge.

In order to cut this short, here's what else you ought to know:

- I'm single again, somewhat involuntarily, yet I'm over it and happy.

- It's raining a lot these days in Dublin ... which however shouldn't stop you from visiting me in this terrific city!

- I'm going to move out of my room and into another one which is not only more spacious and cheaper but also closer in the city centre.

But here comes the best ...

- I'll be spending some 8 weeks in New York in the summer, in an internship with the Permanent Mission of Germany at the United Nations!

I'll leave you here for now, with the resolution to update this blog a little more frequently in the future.

Take it easy,

Chris