Kind of alive! I am working 40 hours a week, and also doing 4 classes at a community college here. (I don't get benefits at my job, and need to be a full-time student to stay on my mum's.) Kind of defeats the purpose of a year off to get rid of my school fatigue, but at least I don't have to cook for myself. :D I'm also in a serious downturn in the whole interpersonal contact sphere this year - you know when you just don't have anything to say (I will proceed to make that statement look silly), and can't even bring yourself to check friends lists & forums? I will eventually bring myself back up to a robust once-monthly posting rate, I'm sure. ;)

Everyone makes assumptions, it is just the way humans are, but at times assumptions without review can be a very negative thing.
That's true, yeah. It doesn't annoy me too much if people are open to being corrected; it's unwarranted certainty that really gets under the skin.

No kidding re: rudeness. It's like once their brain switches to the 'politics' setting, anything goes. (Brain damage sustained while participating in a debate team? Faulty extrapolation about social norms from data collected on the internet?) Luckily, none of my friends have ever said it to me--only their frineds. Also, I'm relieved you agree about school. I've had people laugh at me for that, but we go to classes! We read textbooks! We take tests and write essays!

Did you speak English when you got to Ireland? I've never really had much interest in the UK, although my family's only two generations removed, but it can't be too bad if even the school kids are nice. :D It's kind of hard for me to imagine people not being instantly enamoured of WA, but possibly that's because I'm not exactly the sort racist assholes target, unless it's with a 'Damn immigrants! You agree of course?' tirade. It definitely has its fair share of issues, and then some. I'm surprised Ireland didn't have some of the same problems, though--was it [even] more homogenous, not very many non-whites around?