A fantastic package has just arrived in the mail from my mother! Such excitement has hitherto not been seen in the UCD student residences. There were walnuts, and warm layers, and woolly items, and waterproof items, and warm socks, and chocolate baking goods, and tights and everything I wanted and needed! Many thanks.

Attempt number two at walnut chocolate chip cookie bars has been successful. Cookie bars aren’t as satisfying as a “cookie” though. It is somehow even easier to be tempted to eat more in one sitting. My housemate tells me she will give me Irish recipes soon so that my baking will start turning out better.

One of the bigger differences I have so far noted here in Ireland is that it is socially acceptable to wear waterproof pants. Where I come from, these are called swishy pants and they are not okay to wear. I am finding that this is a hard prejudice to get over. I just can’t take tracksuit bottoms seriously.

Tonite was my first Irish language class. It is entirely conversational! I am going to practice with my housemate before I forget everything. Being in a structured class reminded me: the best way for to learn is to have a challenge. This is why I wanted to be in Dublin so much in the first place, so that I could play more music than ever before. The first trad society session is this Thursday evening.

Was extremely animated all day thinking about plausible reasons for the world to collapse. I have a long possible scenario. This has been stimulated by reading Limits to Growth for one of my courses. I accidentally shared it with a couple people and they were extremely confused by my enthusiasm for such a subject. I am considering whether it is worth trying to do anything other than forget about this latest challenge to be part of a more sustainable world.

I shall now leave you with some quotes from a planning professor who I heard speak recently. This may provide some insight into the design world in Dublin. First, he described a case where something is in “a very very tiny space. So they’re very small.” And then, that a certain building was “generally pretty decently designed in terms of the design.” He also told us “these are diabolical looking buildings if you ask me” and it turns out that most buildings are either “bog standard” or look “proper”. Judging from the number of times he explained it, an interesting roofline is all that is needed to make a building look good!