Food Food Food!

On Thursday we wanted some change for our usual lunch we eat at work. Which is normally sandwiches that we make ready at home before we go to work. So we ended up eating in a local burger place called Build a burger.

In Build a burger you can do as the name tells you, build your own burger. One of the weirdest options to put in your burger was gummy bears.. apparently someone likes it, but we didn't have the courage to try.

Hamburgers we're big and tasty! Only for 5 pounds you get to build the burger the way you like and eat it with delicious chips. Though the burgers were so big we didn't manage to finish them all the way. 

Today's lunch was also a bit different than usual. We went to visit some nice little lunch place where Salla tried out the traditional Irish stew. Kinda reminded us from casual Finnish food called lihaperunasoselaatikko. The taste wasn't anything special but not bad at all either.   

Talking about food, we've had the pleasure to enjoy our Italian friends cooking skills many times. Here's a picture of our own pasta made a bit Italian way. It wasn't as good as the pasta the Italians made but we tried our best and once even invited one of the Italians to try our cookings out. 

Also sometimes our lunch breaks ends up going to pound land and grabbing something good on our way back to work. Here's an example of Emmas lunch last week, energy drink and some buns with chocolate drops. Not so healthy, but we believe that sometimes you can treat yourself.

Small town, big guns

First week at work has been lots of fun. Today we had a meeting with the owners of the shop and their interior designer. We were there to listen what they had in mind for the cafe they we're planning to build. Our boss wanted us to think of logo suggestions that would fit the cafes design.

Also we spent most of the day in the studio taking photographs for Pinterest. Here's a link to Kulars Pinterest, where you can see the pictures we have taken.

http://pinterest.com/kulard/womens-fashion/

The studio was a mess! We always get so exited of trying out new outfits and shoes even though cleaning up after is quite a challenge.

When we were walking home from work we saw lots of police cars that looked like bunkers and policemen standing with big guns. First we got a bit concerned, but after asking a policeman about the situation he explained that there's going to be an event with VIP guest arriving tomorrow. We heard rumors that the guest would be the prime minister of England. The police was there only to make sure the security of Derry.

Working in Kular

 We are working the next month in a local clothing store named, Kular. Our first day at work started nicely by getting to know people who work there with us. Mostly our job is to take care of social media and graphics. So we begun by setting up Instagram and Pinterest for the shop.

Our work space is a small corner where we have computers and some space to design and create new ideas. Pictures are quite dark, because the lighting in our corner was poor.

Today was our second day at work and we had an idea to model for each other to take pictures of clothes in Pinterest.

You can imagine what kind of heaven it was for two girls who love clothes. We ran around the shop and chose cutest clothes that we saw.

 Store was also full of beautiful shoes and bags! Oh all the hard decisions. We were so exited about taking pictures that we worked overtime. Though we didn't really mind.

Birthday party

On thursday, we celebrated Angelas birthday at our neighbors house. In the picture above you can witness the happy birthday girl with Emma and Raffaele.

Even though the weather wasn't that great, we finally had a reason to wear our pretty new summer dresses.

Angela got lots of hugs and also a couple of gifts too.

The evening was lots of fun. We listened to old disco and house music from Antonios laptop and couple of the guys and girls even had the courage to dance a bit.

Antonio proposed to Emma after calling her "his finnish wife" for the last two weeks. Emma wasn't that impressed by the ring, as it was a onion crisp. He promised to get her a better ring when she moves to Italy with him. :D

Later on, when we came back home we had a funny surprise. Our room mates had piled all our shoes and written a note with the famous quote from the movie Saw.

Chocolate banana cake!

Today we had our last day at Foyle language school. Our teacher Paula bought ingredients for an Irish bread for her "favorite students" meaning us. Our class included this week only us and a really sweet German boy, Tim. We invited Tim to our place to bake a banana chocolate cake with us.

The cake turned out lovely! We also took some of the cake to our lovely Italian neighbors and they were really touched by our gesture.

As you can see from the picture where Tim and Emma are enjoying our cake, it was delicious. Also our roommates tasted the cake and they liked it as well. We also watched a Norwegian movie, Headhunters. Later on we walked with Tim to city center so he could get home. We're gonna miss school, but a new chapter in our visit here starts next week when we start work on Tuesday. More about our work place next week!

Cheers!

Culture shock!

 

 We had to start studying for the autumns finals already... We both have exams on subjects that require some serious reading. We made a schedule for studying so we will have some peace and quiet while reading. We bought some bright colored notebooks and markers to make taking notes a bit more interesting and fun.

 In the photo above you will witness some of Emma's amazingly cute notes about planets.

We haven't really experienced a real culture shock until this week. We have to drink our water from bottles, and there aren't pawn returns for the millions of bottles we have to purchase. There is a recycle place where we plan to take the bottles, but the recycling is a bit harder here than back home in Finland. A layperson needs to think about his/her decicions towards perserving nature more than in Finland (in our opinion of course).

Castlerock

We woke up at 9AM and got ready for a day at Castlerock. It only cost 7pounds for a whole days train ticket and you could have travelled anywhere in Northern Ireland with it.

 

 The scenery was like you were in a fantasy movie! We walked to the old castles up on the cliff and it was magnificent. Everything was breathtakenly green and the sun was shining the whole time.

Our clothing was not suitable for the weather, we had way too much clothes on. Irish weather, what the heck? Who expected that we would get sunburns in Northern Ireland just spending one day outside.

From the cliff you could see the Atlantic ocean, it was so hot we wish we had brought our swimming suits. The beach was full of people throwing fresbee and sunbathing.

Walking made us tired and hungry so we stopped to eat and rest for a while. In the hill even though the sun was shinig really brightly the wind cooled us down. We forgot to bring our own lunch, but happily our lovely Italian friends had enough to share.

The trip was worth taking, even if our feet hurt and our skin was burning afterwards. Hopefully we will explore more Northern Ireland later on.

Festivals and Rubber Chickens

 

  On Thursday we went to listen to some authentic Irish live music with our lovely classmates from Italy. Some even had the courage to dance. One of our friends went to ask for a particular song; Galway Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lcnvd8BNFE

 

Emma had some problems with calling back home. We realized that there was no camera on our computer so skyping wasn't an option either.. Thankfully there is always facebook.

Yesterday our new local friend asked us to go see the city festival with him. There was little viking boats sailing and some dramatic smoke. Also a small parade walking through streets. They were carrying a yellow crate torwards the church. They didn't tell what was inside the box, I guess we have to go and see today if they're going to open it.

 

 

When the crate was lifted infront of the church, the men dressed as monks were standing in front of it. One of them was holding a rubber chicken with a really serious face. Maybe that's part of the culture?

In the evening we went to buy some food and the friend of ours suggested a great pizza place. And he was right, the pizza was amazing! The evening ended with a bit of Dr. Who (surprise..) and we went to sleep relatively early.

Lovely Derry

 First day in Derry was so exiting and full of stuff to do. This first picture is from yesterday on our way to Derry from Belfast. The landscapes were so green and beautiful. Weather was also surprisingly good, just some clouds in the sky but no rain.

 After our first class in Foyle, we went to eat with our classmates who were from Italy. Then we travelled with city tour bus around Derry and saw more the historical monuments and got to know the city more. Here are some pictures around Derry that I took with my phone. And because we didn't realize to take the camera with us to school, you'll have to settle with these not so great images from our short adventure through our new home.

 Also we already know how to walk home and back to the city center without a map! In the evening we walked back to the center and visited pub called Paedar O'Donne's that some local people recommended for us. The Guinnes was as good as they said it would be and the people were really friendly. (Though it takes some time to get used to their accent when they speak so fast.)

In the end, the day was beautiful and lovely in every way. Sadly we didn't have time to go and find a great place to taste some fish and chips, but glad we have time to see around!
Now it's time to go to sleep so we are lively in the morning when we go to school.
Cheers!