Going Home: 11 - 12 June

Sadly, my time overseas has come to an end. But not without one last adventure. And a return to Cork for a single night. When our tour ended, we divided into three groups, those staying in Paris, those returning to London by coach, and those flying out of Paris. I was part of the last group. We got to Charles de Gaulle airport around nine and had to wait until 11 to checkin. Then another couple hours, plus a bit more due to delay, until the flight left for Dublin. I then had a short bus ride to city center where I once again hopped on another bus back to Cork. I took the sentimental walk back o Victoria Lodge to pick up my bags. From there I called a taxi and headed for yet another airport. I sent the night there since checkin for my next flight was at 5 am.

So, from Cork I flew to London, passed through security for the second time that day. The Brits are really sticklers for security. The liquids that had made it through Cork, twice, and through Paris as well were an issue for them. Oy, what a hassle. So made it through London surprisingly well. Then off to Chicago, where I had to reclaim my bag, check it again, go through security once again, and get directions to my gate. What a crazy place. Coming into the States is much harder than leaving, even harder than getting into the UK. Finally I could text home and let my family know I was safely back in America and getting ready to board my final flight to Omaha. This was just a little puddle jumper, cramped after the Boeing 777 (which has 8 seats across versus 3). Everything went smoothly on that flight, and I even got a complimentary drink. We landed safely. On the outside of the secure area I was met by a few familiar faces: ie, Mom, Dad, my little sister, and my nephew.

For those of you who are going to ask, yes, Ireland was amazing, and yes, I would definitely do the whole thing again in a heartbeat. It was sure great to be home again, though. It took a few days to adjust to the family routine again, and a few more to get into working regularly. Things are going smoothly now, and I'm looking forward to my return to school. I'm starting a whole new chapter, with a new outlook, but this time with people I know already, and love.

Contiki: 1 - 10 June

Because I bought my plane ticket early i wasn't sure when I had to leave my apartment. Turned out my ticket was for the day after the apartments closed. So I needed to fill my time somehow. What better than a rapid tour of Europe. Jemma introduced us to an Australian company called Contiki which does coach tours around the world. The tour I joined was the European Horizon, seven countries in ten days.

Big Ben

I naturally started my journey by waking up late. The night before had been long so I'm using that as my excuse. My early taxi got me to the airport on time, but unfortunately it was the start of summer holidays so everything was crazy!!! I stood in line for checkin for close to an hour, then an hour in the security line. I couldn't believe it. Little tiny Cork had every position open but they were still backed up. They flight to London was fairly short, only a couple hours. Then a bus to the city, about an hour. My directions to the hotel weren't very clear so I wandered for a while, always headed in the right direction but constantly worried about not finding the right street. But everything turned out alright. Google just had too many steps. Turn here, turn there, etc etc. Really it could have said follow the street farther down and make it a straight journey. Whatever, I made it safely. Before checkin I stopped to have lunch. Then the boring checkin, finding my room, getting settled. Afterwards, my plan was to hop on a bus tour of the city, just to see what I could. Unfortunately it was wicked expensive. So instead I marked out a walking route. I headed out on my own, map in hand. Only a short time later I almost ran over another Contiki tourist. He recognized me from checkin and we decided to walk together. After four hours of walking London, we saw only about half of what we had planned and were completely exhausted. But I couldn't stop. I needed to attend a meeting about the next mornings take off. After a quick intro to the road team. Then we were all invited to drinks so we can meet the other people on our tour. Since I had traveled all morning then walked all afternoon, I was quite dehydrated by the time I got to dinner at the pub. Which means I got drunk much faster than I normally would. A good way to kick off the tour, especially since we hadn't officially started yet.

The next morning we took off really early. Like 6:00 am early after drinking all night for many people. After some confusion, since there were three tours leaving at the same time, we finally hit the road. As we left the city we got the talk about basic rules and some guidelines for enjoying the tour. The we ferried across the English Channel, seeing the White Cliffs of Dover along the way. Then we sat on the bus for the long drive up to Amsterdam. After checkin at the hotel we did a canal cruise. It was fun, but really meant to get everyone drunk before the Red Light District. It was an interesting place, but more than one visit isn't really necessary.

Tulip Market

We made our way back to the hotel by ourselves that night. In the morning, the coach took us back into city centre so we could explore the city in daylight. JUst a couple hours in the city was enough to see a lot, but not really experience it. A good enticement for coming back. Then onto the coach gain for the drive to the German Rhine Valley. There we stayed in a small village, precisely because of the wine that is made there. A special German Eiswein. The place was beautiful and quaint. We also took the time to sign up and pay for the extra activities throughout the tour, such as the canal cruise and wine tasting. There were a lot that I couldn't do because of expense. Plus they didn't sound particularly interesting, some of them.

Dachau Concentration Camp

During the previous few days, much of the valley had flooded, so when we set out the next morning toward Munich, a lot of service stops were not open. It may have gotten us closer to our goal faster, but it sure made the drive seem longer. We gained some extra time while driving so we had time to stop and see Dachau Concentration Camp on the outskirts of the city. That was quite the experience. Unfortunately we only had an hour to explore. Definitely not enough time at all. But it wasn't in the plan originally. Then straight into the city. We had a couple hours to explore before the coach headed back to the hotel. There was a bar downstairs, but because the drinking age is 16 in Germany, it was full of young teens all night, and not particularly interesting.

Glacial River in the Austrian Alps

Once again, off early in the morning, this time to Austria. The first optional activity for the day was white water rafting. Unfortunately, for the people who didn't pay for it had to waste the day waiting for the rafters. Then when we got to the stopover site, a large portion of the group took off for paragliding. This time those who didn't pay got to do what they wanted around the village. A friend and I went for a bike ride. It had been a few years since I had seriously ridden a bike, so naturally I met the sidewalk once or twice. Actually, it was a wooden fence that I met, but close enough. Our first party was that night, themed Tight, White and Bright. Not as exciting a party as I expected, but still fun. I was hoping for a more interesting theme, really. And to stay out late and party is silly since every morning we start early.

The next morning was the same. Each day the drive seems to become longer. This time we were headed to Venice, Italy. The first thing we did on arrival was gear up for a walking tour of the city. There are no cars allowed, so we had to take a boat to get from the campsite to the city. Some of us didn't take the walking tour, so we got to actually explore the city by ourselves. We saw St. Mark's Basilica. Then we meandered down some random streets...and went off the edge of the map. Oops. Luckily we found our way back just fine. And in time to make it to our gondola ride. Again, not as spectacular as I expected, but still fantastic. The sudden warmth took a bit of adjusting. Same with the mosquitoes.

Looking through the Waterfall

Come morning, we headed off to Switzerland. We took a break to explore Lucerne, a beautiful little city. Quite scenic. The single hour was more than enough to see the sights and try some chocolate. We stayed two nights in Switzerland. The second day many people ascended to the highest railway station in Europe. That was the most expensive excursion and way out o m budget range. Instead I decided to climb a waterfall. A friend and I discovered it while we were going for a mid-morning walk. Since we couldn't climb a mountain, why not a waterfall? That night was another party. This time the theme was Swiss-co Disco. I think the themes are designed to force us to buy souvenirs from the campsite and drinks at exorbitant prices from Contiki campsites.

Our last drive day was Sunday. This must have been a record-breaking length. A full twelve hours. With only two short breaks. Because we were sort of late coming into the city and it is fairly large, we did a bus tour first so people had an idea of what they wanted to see. We started Monday morning by taking a group photo in front of the Eiffel Tower. Then we hopped on the coach to get to the other side of the city to visit a perfumery. We got four hours to explore the city after that. Then back to the hotel to get ready for our final dinner. Once we returned to the city that evening we headed up to the Sacre Couer, then to a five-course dinner. Following dinner was an optional cabaret show. Again, too expensive for little ole me. After the show we all headed to an Irish pub right next to the Moulin Rouge for a last night out with everyone before we all went our own ways in the morning.

Last Week: 25 - 31 May

While Scotland was amazing and gorgeous, I had to return to Cork. There was still an exam left to take, and an entire five months of life to pack and ship home. My plan for Saturday was to finish reading the material for Democracy so I could break from studying on Sunday, and simply review on Monday. That would also eliminate the need to cram before the exam on Tuesday. During breakfast I learned I needed a costume for the National Stereotype Party we were hosting that night. Therefore, instead of studying, I spent my day designing an American cowboy costume, including a brown paper bag hat, a belt, a holster, and a ribbon lasso. It was going fairly well, until I put it on and decided it looked ugly and ridiculous. So I thought maybe an American cheerleader, but that didn't work either. In the end I settled for Scottish Highlander. Unfortunately, the impression was incredibly poor and only the other Americans had any idea what was my ultimate goal. However, for doing this in one afternoon, I think I did quite well. 

Sunday was my last Mass at the Honan Chapel. That was a bit depressing because it signaled the beginning of my goodbyes. I didn't really get much of anything done that day...

Since I had been lazy the previous two days, Monday was the only day I had for studying. What a boring day. But on the bright side, the ankle I injured felt much better than any day up to this point.

Tuesday was the big day: final exam. And the hardest of the semester. I had no idea what I was going to face when I headed out for the test site. Fortunately I left early because it took me longer to get there than I thought it would. It would have been better if the building had been marked on the side I was on. All-in-all the exam went fairly well. I made up a few answers, but it sort of made sense by the end of the essay. To celebrate the end of the exam month, and the end of the semester, a group of us went to Blarney for our last trad music session. It was a lot of fun, but bittersweet as well. Several of the girls danced but my ankle kept me from it. One last dance would have been fantastic, but it was not meant to be. Of course, I'll have to go back some day to have that dance. 

For some reason I woke up quite early on Wednesday. It was nice, despite being 5 in the morning, because I watched the sunrise. And after sleeping a bit longer, I was quite awake when I needed to get out of bed. I decided to spend most of the day at college. I met with a friend for coffee for the last time, then printed my tickets and directions for the rest of my time here. I also posted the pictures that had been piling up. I returned my textbooks for cash, bought pounds sterling, and closed my bank account. When that was all done, I went home and did some cleaning and packing. I didn't get everything cleaned up because one of my friends, whom I hadn't seen in six years, happened to be in the city for two weeks doing a class. So we made a date to meet up. Unfortunately she was sick and we couldn't go out. However, we did still catch up at her place. Maybe a better decision than the pub anyways. And to make the day even longer, it was also the decided date to call my family back in the States. Essentially I was awake for close to 24 hours by the time the conversation ended. But that's ok because so much was accomplished and I felt good about it.

I woke up early Thursday morning to do my laundry before anyone else got up. I had actually planned to do it the night before but was too tired. After my laundry finished, I did some packing. We also went into city at one point to do some "last time"s. These included O'Connaill's hot chocolate and Auntie Em's Sweet Shoppe. I also bought boxes to ship some of my things home. Then home to do more packing.

Friday was the day everything had to be done. I sent my boxes home, my suitcases were filled, my room was clean. Jocelyn's bus was leaving really early in the morning, so we hosted an all-night movie-night. I couldn't stay for the whole night because I, too, was leaving in the morning, but I was going to a strange city, not home and wanted to be alert. Turns out my cousin was also in the city this week. So we made arrangements to meet up at a pub. I planned on staying for just under an hour, but it was closer to two when I actually left. Then I stood around chatting with everyone in the apartment for longer too. Which means I didn't go to bed nearly as early as I was hoping. Despite that, I was satisfied with how well the day went. Especially since the fire alarm went off for most of the day because of a malfunction. Yeah, I forgot to mention, we had to evacuate twice, once on Thursday night, really late, and once really early on Friday morning. Then we had to listen to it the rest of the day. Obnoxious. But there was nothing to be done about it.

Scotland: 18 - 24 May

Things are wrapping up quickly. After the trip to Scotland I have just a week in Cork and ten days in Europe then I'm home. The trip to Scotland was kind of a weird time, but it was the only chance I had for the tour I wanted. And it broke up the studying, which was really nice since the only exam I have left is the political theory one. It was supposed to be citizenship and human rights but was really just about the concept of democracy. So I went to Scotland instead of trying to understand what the course was about. I left on Saturday morning at about 11, walked to the Cork bus station and got a roundtrip ticket. I took a bit of a risk with that because my flight home was a bit late and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the bus at that time. But in case I could, it was cheaper that way. The driver was friendly...and helpful. I actually got off at the wrong stop because everyone else got off. He stopped again and told me I wasn't at the airport yet and let me back on. That was embarrassing, but at least he was good about it. While I was waiting for the flight, a man approached me and asked me to do a survey. Since there was no harm in it, I obliged. I had to chuckle at him trying to find other people willing to participate. He was really struggling. The flight went quite smoothly, although I really don't fly well at all. After checking in at the hostel, I decided to walk a bit and see what I could see. I got as far as Edinburgh Castle when it started to rain hard. I was forced into a souvenir shop until it stopped. By that point I was quite hungry, so I made my way down the Royal Mile to a pub recommended by the hostel. There I tried haggis (it was stuffed inside my chicken) and Magners. First off, Magners is not nearly as good as Bulmers. Secondly, the haggis neither looked nor felt edible when I stabbed it. It was quite good though. I don't particularly want to know what's in it. It really bothers some people, so I'm avoiding the answer. Anyway, I went back to the hostel for a warm shower after all the rain and did some studying. Yeah, I studied on my holiday, but not a lot. Just in my free time. At about 3 in the morning, a couple came in. The guy was trying to comfort the girl, whose bed was right next to mine. He was comforting her because she was terribly sick...all night...I had to put my iPod on and turn the volume way up. She didn't look too bad the next day, so I don't know if she was actually sick or just really drunk. Whatever it was, I wasn't particularly happy I had to listen to it all night; she kept waking me.

At breakfast the next morning, the guy serving it had an accent. My first thought was Australian, but it turns out he was actually British. I apologized, so we got a chuckle out of it later. His name was Paul, by the way. He pops up again. I set off early because I booked a tour of Loch Lomond. It was just a day tour. Most of the day was foggy, so some of the views weren't very good. Like, can't see past my nose foggy. But on the Loch, it was beautiful. The fog just added to it. When I got back to the hostel, I again studied. Dinner was amazing. Paul, the Brit, was serving cheeseburgers. Oh my goodness, I have not had a cheeseburger that good in a LONG time. After dinner I couldn't bring myself to study anymore, so instead I started a book. ... Not the best book in the world, but it was a free download. And since I started it, I'll finish it...eventually.

Next morning, once again I headed out early to check into a tour. This time, though, it was an overnight (5-days) across the country. Our bus driver was Alan, who also happens to be a professional musician. Other tour members (I don't actually know everyone's names, just how we called them all week) were Team Canada (Gina and Andie), Jean Claude (Ivan, also Jean-Luc, TinTin, and Pascal), Sweden (Frida, also Ikea), Wing Nut (Wei-Min), Team America (Edward and Susan, also Susan and James), and Team Germany (Anton and his mom and sister). I don't think my name was used more than once or twice. Instead I went by Nebraska or Penny. Canada, Sweden, Jean-Claude and myself sort of formed into a group. Alan called us the Crazy Mob. It was fitting. The rest of the week is better told through pictures. There were so many places we saw, castles and lochs, and cities. You name it, we probably saw it. I will put out that we got to ride the Jacobite Steam Train (the one used as the Hogwarts Express). And we saw Skye, which was absolutely beautiful! I think I may have gotten a bit of a sunburn...it was sunny just about every day I was there. My flight back to Cork was delayed, but I still managed to catch a bus and use my return ticket. While I was away, it occurred to me that Katherine was going home...and I wasn't going to see her before then. She made it back safely. One of Jemma's friends was coming during the week, and since I wasn't going to be there, I said she could use my room. I forgot to tell them when I was coming home, so I had to knock on my own door to make sure no one was sleeping in my bed.

I'll link the pictures once again. A lot of them are similar, and some seem to be missing. Not sure what happened there. Others have reflections and are a bit blurry. That's because I was taking them through the coach window. Yay!

Study/Exam Month: 11 Apr - 17 May

Ok. This will be a really weird format. The month and three days between returning from Northern Ireland and going to Scotland weren't particularly interesting. So what I did here was sort of list what I did. The lines with numbers after them happened on that specific day. The other lines were sort of happening the entire time beginning at that point. I apologize, but it was boring enough to live through. Writing about it doesn't make it any more interesting.

The first few days weren't productive - finished a timetable for studying on Sunday (14)

Found a radio station and listened to the news for the first time all semester...on the day of the Boston bombing; stuck to timetable for the first day but sort of gave up by the end of the week

Took Wednesday to do nothing: wore a skirt and danced around the house (17)

The explosion in Texas; dinner with Jocelyn's family for her brother's birthday then evening at the Franciscan Well (19)

Tried to study in the library: "Can't do socially unacceptable things like put your head on the table and cry" -Me (21)

Struggle with the research paper

"one of the few perks to being home alone is the freedom to look and act stupid" -Me (23)

Hot chocolate with a friend in the city, returned papers with good marks (24)

went to movies, spent all day in the city, Jemma came home from Turkey (27)

Bouts with homesickness

Finished the paper, Muccy made dinner, played Monopoly and watched Walking Dead (29)

Began studying for two exams and reading Jane Austen

School at home finishes, graduation, etc (3)

read all day: 2.5 books (4)

found a tree branch in the house: I mentioned in passing that I liked the blossoms on the tree and someone was nice enough to break off a branch and bring it back (5)

forgot the day and thought I missed the exams (6)

First two exams; it was sort of like taking the ACT but essays and not bubbles and my pen died in the middle of a word so I switched from black to blue ink; rain! a lot of it; traditional music in Blarney - I sang Danny Boy (7)

got a cold, went looking for tailor to do measurements for the wedding = fail; begin studying for democracy - awful because I actually have to worry...about a 30 (8)

made a snickers cake for fun (homemade caramel too!) (10)

Jocelyn came home; watched Once Upon a Time; celebrated two birthdays in Blarney (12)

Planning on seeing Blarney Castle but the buses were on strike (13)

Found a friend willing to drive so spent the entire day in Blarney with trad music afterward (14)

Saw Iron Man 3, made another Snickers cake for Martin (the man who taxis us to Blarney and back) and the big Thank You we did for him at the pub (15)

Celebrated another birthday with dinner and drinks then to the pub (17)

The British Are Coming!: 4 -10 Apr

The second part of my vacation I traveled by myself. Actually, part of it was on a tour, but I didn't know anyone on the tour before it started, so I was sort of by myself. Since I was so close, I had determined early in the term that I must see England. And since Northern Ireland is on the same island that I've been living on for the last four months, that too had to be visited. The two fit together quite well because they are both a part of the United Kingdom. (The pictures can be accessed by clicking the hyperlinked headings)

England:

Newcastle:

Thursday: I posthumously gave this day "It's a Jolly Holiday With Mary" from Mary Poppins as the SOD. I was actually by myself the majority of the day. It was the beginning of my "British Isles" journey. I had an early afternoon flight from Amsterdam to Newcastle. The girls stayed for another night in Amsterdam. So while I was off to England, they saw more of Amsterdam through bike rides, frozen winds, food poisoning, etc. In comparison my day wasn't nearly as interesting. Basically I wandered the city, following the street signs. The party of the city I was in was called Grainger Town. It was fairly close to the river, which was really beautiful. I found an art gallery so to waste some time until dinner, I thought it might be a good stop. However, as soon as I went in an alarm went off (not because of me!) which told us to evacuate the building (in a British accent of course). So apparently I was not supposed to see the artwork. After exploring all day, I decided to try one of the pubs I found because I really wanted bar food, you know, burger and fries type thing. But the seats in the pub were all full so I sat in the actual restaurant adjoining it. Um...it was really nice. Like, I felt like I should have worn a dress. Instead I was in a t-shirt and jean capris. And to make the situation more awkward, there was no one else in the restaurant. Just me and two waiters. ... Uncomfortable.

Alnwick:

Friday: The SOD, which totally gives away the entire day, was "Hedwig's Theme", also commonly known as the theme from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". So what I did was catch a bus (which took three hours although by car it would have been just a half hour) which took me to Alnwick (pronounced Ann-ick) Castle, also known as the location used by Warner Brothers for the shooting of the first three Harry Potter films. That's right, I saw the Harry Potter Castle. It was an absolutely beautiful day. First I wandered the grounds, looking at all the museums, and admiring the state rooms and the family that owns the castle, etc etc. But then I happened upon the Harry Potter tour which showed us some of the filming tricks and specific set locations. At the end we ran across some wizards getting ready for broomstick training. They were a fun lot, and the kids were too cute. The gardens weren't in bloom yet, so my day was shortened a bit. So I caught another bus, I think this one took four hours (oh, and by the way, both were double-decker). Because I was feeling a bit lazy, and didn't want a repeat of the night before (being the only one in the restaurant), I settled for McDonald's. Original, I know. I didn't stay out too late because my train across the country was leaving early in the morning. 

Bath:

Saturday:

Unfortunately, my night turned into a really long one. Someone came back at about 2:30 am, singing and laughing. I couldn't tell if it was a giant group of slightly drunk people, or just a couple of really drunk Brits. Whatever it was there was one guy who laughed like a flying monkey from the "Wizard of Oz". I don't know if I can ever watch the movie again now. Since it wasn't too much longer until I was getting up anyways, I sort of just lied in bed listening and drifting in and out of sleep for a couple hours. They were still up when I left at 5:00. Crazies. In case you were wondering, train stations are very cold in England at 5:30 in the morning. Being the idiot I am, I got to the station like an hour early. ... And the train ride was approximately six hours. I feel like a lot of sitting on transportation was done. I was really excited for this day because I was going to Bath. I found lunch, first off, in the "Smallest Pub in Bath" and ate a Lovett pie. I just kept singing "Try a Little Preacher" from Sweeney Todd. Then I set off to find Jane Austen. The exhibit was a bit expensive, but I got a map out of it, and a couple pictures with a man in correct dress. After exploring for a while, I meandered to the river. Amazingly the sun came out so I sat by the river for quite a bit. It was almost warm at that point, which was absolutely wonderful. Then I got bored, bought a Cornish Pasty and sat in front of the Abbey to people watching. There was a wedding and tourists and people taking the waters. AND the sun was still out. The train to Bristol, where I was staying that night, was only about a half hour. Finding the hostel was a pain. The directions weren't very clear, but after finding the place, I realized they were as clear as they were going to get. It was still a bit early when I headed for bed, but I didn't have anyone to go out with.

Bristol: 

Sunday: After traveling by myself for a few days, and searching out the sights alone, I was starting to get bored. The map of Bristol provided by the hostel wasn't the greatest. So I walked for a bit, realized I needed to do something different because I was on the verge of being lost, safely made it to the train station and bought a ticket for an open top bus tour. The tour wasn't very long, but it did have good information. By the end I was ready to go back to Ireland, so I got a bus to the airport and waited like four hours to check-in. I should have booked the earlier flight, but I had no idea how long I would need in the city. Apparently not very long. Don't get me wrong, I liked Bristol, just not by myself. It was a relief to land in Dublin. There were a couple guys talking behind me as we made our way to customs after the flight, and I wanted to turn and say how glad I was to hear the Irish accent again. But it was late and I thought it might be a bit creepy so I just kept walking and secretly enjoying their conversation. While I was waiting for the bus to get to the city, a scene arose. Some guy had been loitering and causing problems at the airport for a fair bit of the day. He decided to come bother us because he got kicked out of the building. Eventually the Gardaí showed up and threatened him, saying "the bus or a cell". He got on the bus. I had to chuckle and think "Good to be back in Dublin". The hostel was easy enough to find. However the showers were a different story. My bed too. It was late and so the room was dark and everyone was sleeping. Usually the beds have numbers on them, but I could't figure out which one was mine since there weren't numbers on these beds. I chose an empty one and prayed that it was going to be vacant all night. The showers were hiding in the room, not with the sink and toilet. Of course, I found them in the morning, but I didn't have time to shower if I was going to make it to the tour office on time. Only me...

Northern Ireland Tour:

Dublin to Belfast:

Monday: To make my life easier, I decided to just book a tour of Northern Ireland. That way I didn't have to do any hostel searching, my luggage was taken care of, and there were other people. I'm going to say now, the tour was quite good. The schedule was a bit jumbled, but considering they had to put four different tours on a single bus (there were a lot of accidents that week that took out a lot of the bus drivers) it was understandable. And we saw most of the same things but in a different order. So there was a one-day of Belfast, a two-day and three-day of Northern Ireland and a six-day All-Ireland. I was on the three-day since I had been to much of the Republic of Ireland already. So Day One, we drove from Dublin to Belfast. It didn't take very long, like four or five hours is all. We stopped once to see an abandoned monastery. As soon as we got to Belfast we did the "Black Taxi Tour". The taxi drivers don't like the name since it has a lot of political connotations and associations with the IRA. But it was sort of fitting because the tour was political. We saw both sides of the peace wall, the various murals created by each side, and learned the history of the Troubles. Afterwards a group split off and went to the Titanic Museum. Since that seems sort of a random thing to have in Belfast, the Titanic was actually built there. Makes more sense now, doesn't it? Anyway, I wasn't in the mood to see a museum, so instead I got lunch. Priorities, doncha know? So, picked up everyone who went to the museum and headed for the hostel. After the fiasco in Dublin when I couldn't find the shower, I prioritized and immediately sought them out. Boy, those showers were amazing. I mean, it did try to  electrocute me once or twice, but if I avoided certain pieces of metal, I was totally fine. Then we all went out to dinner as a group and a pub afterwards. All-in-all it was good time.

Belfast to Derry:

Tuesday: It seems I sort of gave up on the SOD. ... They come easier when no one is around. But I'm not complaining. I would rather have the people. We saw a couple of sights today before getting to Derry. There was the Carrick-a-rede bridge (which is £10 to see/cross) and the Giant's Causeway. That was pretty cool. There's a story to go with it since a similar natural phenomenon exists in Scotland. When we got to Derry we did a walking tour. Technically it's Londonderry, but the two sides of the river call it by two different names depending on loyalty to the crown. Politically we were still in the United Kingdom. Everyone went out again that night. Dinner first then a couple pubs. There were some pretty good drunk stories in the morning, but I won't put the details on the Internet to spare those involved any embarrassment.

Derry to Galway:

Wednesday: This was an incredibly boring day. More hours spent on transportation. The entire day was traveling to Galway. The three-day tour was supposed to see Donegal instead of Galway, but that's ok. Maybe next time I'm here I'll get the chance. We stopped for one sight, a castle that is essentially falling off a cliff, and then for lunch. No wait, the castle was the day before. We saw that between the bridge and the causeway. So the only other stop before getting to Galway was a bathroom break. Probably a good thing it was just driving because so many people were hungover. They were planning to do it again that night on the pub crawl that we did when we were in Galway in January. We had a bit of time in Galway, like an hour maybe, then the three-day-ers were put on a bus and sent back to Dublin. Which was a two to three hour drive. Since I didn't book a hostel for that evening, I had to get back to Cork right away. Unfortunately, the earliest bus I could catch wasn't until 10:30. Which means I had another three hour bus ride (I was the only one on the bus) and didn't get back to the apartment until after 1:30.

And end Easter break.

WWW.HittingUpTheMainland: 29 Mar - 3 Apr

So begins the adventures; this week's destination: Europe. Our journey begins in the fair city of Dublin, flies to the romantic city of Paris, busses to Brussells for chocolate and waffles, then on to Amsterdam which could probably be called the bike capital of the world. 

Dublin:

Friday: This really is a beautiful city, but there are only so many "tourist-y" things to do. When we arrived at our hostel, we were planning to book a tour of the Wicklow Mountains for Saturday. Unfortunately, the tour deal was only for Monday-Thursday. Bit of a letdown. So we asked about the free airport shuttle for Sunday morning. The deskman told us he didn't think we would make it on time, even if we took the earliest bus. So there went two of the "free" things out the window. In disappointment we decided to just walk the city. Dinner was in Temple Bar, just a burger joint, but quite good actually. Fun fact, alcohol is not sold on Good Friday in Ireland. The people were going a bit crazy. Midnight was big moment for the bars, therefore, because it wasn't Friday anymore, but Saturday. Since none of the pubs were open until midnight, we decided to head back to the hostel, where we made the decision to institute Song of the Day. We'll call it SOD from now on. Throughout the day a great nmber of songs had been stuck in our head. This made for confusing, jumbled songs by the end. So to fix the problem, anytime we had a song other than SOD, we sang the SOD. Makes sense, I know. We decided Friday's had to be Wagonwheel since it seemed to be following us.

Saturday: Because we couldn't book our tour, we got to sleep in on Saturday. I think that may have been one of the only times while we were away. The first thing we did was choose a SOD. This was done by putting an iPod on shuffle and waiting for an appropriate song. Since we didn't have any plans, the first song Grease Lightning worked well enough. And it did. There were moments throughout the day that fit in perfectly with the song. So we explored the city a bit more. Of course, we made a stop in the Disney store. I'm always tempted to buy something from there, but not many things say Ireland so they're not very good souvenirs. Our lunch was a picnic of Subway sandwiches on St. Stephen's Green. It was so beautiful out! We sat and watched the kids playing in the fountains, admired the flowers, etc. Jemma engaged in a barking contest with a dog...and won, naturally. That gained us some funny looks, but we didn't care. We were totally in tourist mode at that point. We happened upon an amazing street performance. The guy freed himself from a straight jacket while on an 8-foot unicycle. He also did some acrobatics and juggling. The fire tricks were pretty cool too. As we wandered in the general direction of the hostel, we found a Gino's and of course stopped for amazing gelato. The flavors were ridiculous, like Guiness, Hello Kitty... Not sure what that one would taste like. Strawberry shortcake maybe. Dinner was amazing, at a 50's/60's style Irish pub. It felt sort of like we were in an arcade, with the lifted walkway and the way the lights were set up. I really enjoyed it. We went to bed early that night because our taxi to the airport was at 4:15 in the morning. Plus, Daylight Savings Time was beginning and we weren't sure if our phones would change automatically or not.

Paris:

Sunday: Our SOD was Parlez-vous Francais. I can't remember the artist off the top of my head. However, since we were going to Paris, it seemed appropriate. Maybe it would have been more so if it was Parlez-vous Angles... Breakfast, at the airport, was some bread and jelly we talked out of the hostel and chocolate MaltEasters for Easter Sunday. We flew into France mid-morning, had to get a bus to Paris, and a metro to the hostel. Lunch was pizza for the girls, and I had a chicken and mozzarella sandwich. Since we were staying in the area, we thought we would see Mountmartre and the Sacre Coeur. Not far from there was a carousel...which we really wanted to ride but talked ourselves out of. And since we weren't too far from it, we took a walk to the Moulin Rouge. After dinner and sunset we went back to the Moulin Rouge, took some really ridiculous pictures, and enjoyed the lights. And because we enjoyed the lights, we decided to go back to the Sacre Coeur to see it at night. Also beautiful. From the hilltop we could easily see the city and the Eiffel Tower. There was big news at home too. My brother got engaged and announced it to the family at Easter dinner. It would have been amazing to be there, but I knew in advance. It was really hard to keep my mouth shut and not tell anyone else. Usually I don't have an issue keeping secrets, but this was one that I wanted to celebrate.

Monday: Our SOD was Hot and Cold by Katy Perry. Not particularly relevant that I remember, but a good song nonetheless. Breakfast was fantastic, with baguettes and croissants from the hostel. We, of course, swiped a couple extra for a Parisian picnic with cheese, baguettes, fruit and wine on the Champs de Mars near the Eiffel Tower. We caught the Metro to the Saint Michel fountain in order to hop on a free English Walking Tour. However, we forgot the map and where the tour actually started. So back to the hostel, grab the map, return to the fountain, do souvenir hunting, then join the 1:00 tour. It took about three hours to complete, but it was amazing. So much information, mostly random facts about torture and the Nazi occupation. "Lunch", at 4:00 pm was the baguettes we took from breakfast and crepes we bought along the Champs Elysees. That was a really crazy street. People everywhere. At the end was another tourist trap, the Arc de Triumphe. The Parisians wisely put a nine-lane, unmarked roundabout around the Arc. Fortunately, they also built an underground pedstrian crossing to the monument so there aren't hundreds of people dying in traffic accidents each day. Naturally, we had some trouble finding the crossing, went right by it actually and did a loop back to the top of the Champs Elysees to come at it again. We thought about climbing to the top, but the queue was long and it cost a fair bit of money. So instead we went back to the Notre Dame Cathedral (near the start of the walking tour). Unfortunately, the tour that takes people to the top to see the Bells and was closed already. But I'm not going to complain about the chance to go inside the cathedral. After seeing Notre Dame, we realized we didn't get any pictures at Saint Michel fountain, so we made that happen, followed by dinner in the Latin Quarter, and souvenir shopping, again. Chocolate fondue with seasonal fruits was the highlight of dinner, as was the finding of a tiny crab in Michaela's mussel which immediately became her friend. And since we were in Paris, and it was still fairly early, just getting dark, we took the metro across the city to the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars. Lots of pictures there. As it was getting late, nearly 10:00, we realized we hadn't had any wine yet, a mission while in Paris. Unfortunately, it's not sold after 10, so we just missed it. The only serious misfortune up to this point had been the hole I discovered in my skinny jeans. My only pair of skinny jeans. But, what's a pair of pants when one is in Paree?

Brussels:

Tuesday: Our SOD this day was wildly relevant...I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. We woke up a bit late, so we rushed to the metro, going along just fine, then suddenly we realize the line that will take us directly to our bus had closed the station nearest us. So we had to jump back on the train and go around to the next station on the line, running like madwomen with all our luggage. We're praying and looking at our bus tickets, and realize we have no chance of making it since check-in is a half hour before departure, meaning we missed it by about twenty-five minutes. But by golly, we were going to try for that bus, we had tickets booked. After getting off the train, we're searching frantically for the buses (I'm just huffing and puffing from the sprinting while carrying a rollerboard), stop for directions, sprint off in a new direction, find the station (which was underground and really weird), run to the bus docks, and are told the bus left right on time. But when we looked at the clock, it actually left a few minutes early. ... Disappointment. So we go to the ticket desk, and we're trying to talk the woman there into moving our tickets to the bus that afternoon. She's having none of it, so we start discussing using another line. The ticket lady overheard and was immediately like "There are only four seats left on this afternoon's bus, so you should book them now." ... Well, since we had no idea what other services were running, or if we could get seats on them for that day, we were pressured into paying extra for another bus, when we missed the first one because we didn't know about the closed metro stations. Seeing as we had a couple hours to spare, we walked up to the street, found a shopping center, and chilled in McDonald's, mooching off the free wifi for customers. Did you know...a lot of places in Europe make you pay to use the restrooms??? I didn't, so I was unprepared for the 20c charge. Apparently, it is really common and I somehow managed to remain oblivious to it. Finally we were able to board our bus, which left late, and was four hours in length. The driver was a stickler about no food or drink on board. Everyone just waited until we were driving before pulling it out since he couldn't do anything from the front. The bus station in Brussels was a bit confusing. We actually started going in completely the wrong direction at first, but thought we should maybe check for a map inside the station. So we're going down, sort of following the signs since none of the streets are familiar but the hostel is near the tourist attraction on the sign...sort of just winging it, trusting to luck. Turns out we were on the street parallel to what our directions wanted us to be on, and the two converged right near the hostel. After check-in we went hunting for a grocery store, where we got breakfast items, Dutch waffle cookies, and chocolate. That was soon followed by a really late dinner, a wander around the city in search of Mannikin Pis and waffles. We also did some souvenir shopping and bought Belgian beer. In a single night we found the most famous parts of Brussels: Mannikin Pis, beer, chocolate and waffles. Success. So back to the SOD, despite a rough start, the day ended magnificently. And to top it all off, I was asked to be a part of the bridal party for my brother's wedding, which is so terribly exciting!

Amsterdam:

Wednesday: Ok, so most of the day was spent in Brussels, but we did get to Amsterdam in the evening, so I'm putting the information here. Basically what we did for the day was use the map of "sights" provided by the hostel, and walk from one to the next. We really had no idea what was in Brussels. It was a good stopover point between Paris and Amsterdam. Filled with chocolate and waffles. Thankfully the sights were all close together and easily within walking distance. We didn't get the history of everything, like we would on a walking tour, but we could sort of guess on some things. We got lunch right before we left on another bus. This one was like three hours or so. We checked into the hostel, which was really easy to find from Centraal Station, then headed out for dinner, and a small bit of sightseeing in the dark. But after dinner, we realized we were tired and didn't want to wander very far from the hostel since they didn't give us a map. So just looking at the lights in the river, marvelling at the massive number of bikes on the street, and noting all of the coffee shops (where the cannabis is sold) along the street. Back in the hostel we played cards for a bit, but everyone was ready for bed. Sadly, I didn't get to spend another day in the city. I had a late morning flight to Newcastle, United Kindgom the next day so missed out on the bike ride, the food poisoning, and etc.

"Wine, Waffles and Weed" we decided to call it. Or "www.thethingstodoinEurope". Sure, it wasn't quite a full week, but close enough. Really, three cities, three countries (four if you count Dublin, Ireland) in four (or six, depending on how you look at it) days isn't bad for a smalltown Nebraska girl.

Instead of putting pictures in, which requires that I actually choose my favorites, I'm just going to link to the Facebook albums.

Dublin
Paris
Brussels
Amsterdam
 

A Hurricane of a Week: Mar 25 - 28

This isn't a whole week's worth because it was leading up to study month and holiday. We, Jocelyn, Jemma, Michaela and I, began our holiday on Friday, so the weekend will be tacked onto the beginning of the next entry. This week was kind of like a hurricane: ridiculously crazy leading into a calm "eye" and picking up again into crazier than before. Let me recount so you can see my point.

Knowing that this was the last week of classes, of college really, until exams in May, I really wanted to anticipate the upcoming vacation. But at the same time I had to freak out about all the things that needed doing before then. I had no classes on Monday, since usually it is just Irish. So I spent the day studying frantically for the Irish exams scheduled for the next two days. To break the monotony a bit, I worked on my essay for Religions, mostly just technical things such as citations.

Tuesday started with the Irish oral exam, followed by work at the computer lab, such as printing the Management group essay and checking into the flights and printing important documents for the entire April vacation. Of course, there were classes too, so that took up a fair chunk of my day. When I attempted to hand in the Management essay, I discovered at about 5 pm they did not accept student work after 1 pm. Frustrating, to say the least, not to mention it put a kink in my plans for the next day because I would now have to get up early to turn it in on time. But to make the day better, I attempted a recipe I had found online, citrus pork and egg noodles, and it was quite delicious. I'm getting better at the cooking. Granted, it always takes me at least twice as long as the recipe says, but at least the food tastes good.

As you already know, I got up early on Wednesday in order to turn in the group essay. That was a bit awkward because the office door was closed and the secretaries gave me a weird look when I peeked inside. Then when I was filling in the cover form, I realized I needed my group members' student numbers...which I actually had no reason to collect until this moment. Luckily we worked it out (meaning they printed out a class roster with all of our numbers on it), the essay was in and I made it to class just fine. At the end of the time, the instructor gave us our marks on the group presentations. My group was commended for having the most technically detailed report. I thought 13 out of 15 marks was quite remarkable for three international students having little to no prior knowledge on the topic, and two non-native English speakers. During the course of the day I managed to wrap up the Religions essay. That evening was the Irish written exam, which was even more intimidating than the oral because a lot of the spellings seem nonsensical. Most of my free-time during the day was committed to figuring out and memorizing the way the letters are usually arranged, such as the fact there are generally two vowels next to each and the second is the one which is pronounced. Then the very peak of the storm hit that night with a message saying Grandma was in the hospital with seizures. Turned out they were "side effects" (not exactly, but similar) of the stroke she had had last year. Everything seems to be ok now, but at the time, I was really worried.

The eye of the storm was definitely Thursday. I had finished everything except turning in my Religions essay, which I did in the morning, so I slept in and relaxed the entire day. I spent a lot of it watching Jemma bake things, particularly caramel slice. Definitely on my recipe wish-list. It was amazingly good, and I can't believe no one in America has ever made it before. At least none of the Americans I know here have ever had it. We had a movie party at a friend's house that evening. He picked us up from our apartment, we being heavily laden with goodies, i.e. caramel slice and cookies. Halfway to picking up another friend, Jocelyn realized we had forgotten the movie we promised to bring, so we had to go back and get it. While we were waiting for her to return, our host, henceforth Muccy, got a call from a friend saying he was already at the house and from the pizza guy saying he couldn't find the house. By the time we had the movie and picked up our friend, Muccy was late to his own movie party. He dropped us off and had to go find the lost pizza guy. There were so many desserts there, I'm surprised we didn't all explode. At some point during the night both fudge and chocolate covered strawberries appeared, in addition to our two kinds of cookies and caramel slice, and chocolate coated cereal crunch things. The movies were good. One, "In the Name of the Father" was based on true events during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. The second, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert" was one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. Like...crazier than "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". I may have lost a few brain cells during the course of the movie. This one was set in Australia and followed three transvestites on their journey. I won't complain about seeing it, because I can now pronounce judgement if someone were to ask my opinion of it. Not likely. It's not particularly well-known. So we got back kind of late, since we started the party late and watched two movies. It must have been close to one. I didn't feel much like sleeping, so instead I decided to pack for the vacation. Which brings us to the resurgence of the storm that began the next day with the excitement that comes with spending two weeks as tourists in other countries.

The Finish Line: Mar 19 - 24

We're going to start with Tuesday this week since Monday basically did not exist. Between the plethora of classes on Tuesday (four this week) I worked on the essay that goes along with the Management group project. So my partners were emailing me their segments all day. It was a massive task to tackle, putting everyone's pieces together and making them sound coherent with each other. Plus cutting about 1000 words or more to make the maximum. But, the paper got finished and we were only about 400 words over the limit instead of 1500. So Wednesday was back to the same old plan of homework all day. I did take a break and talk to Mom. No video, but voice news is better than no news. Just a few years ago voice would have been the best it got, and it would have been expensive too. The other break I took was for dress rehearsal for choir. It was a beautiful day so I was all pumped up and ready to sing. And then there was no one around...anywhere we had practiced... I was very sad, actually. I know I got some funny looks from the people watching me walk in circles around campus looking for people who didn't exist. The next day, Thursday, it poured buckets. After my first class I decided I was not going out again, at all. But then I got the email confirming choir practice for that evening...mandatory. So I had to go back out that evening. That was no fun because it was too windy for an umbrella and I don't really have a real raincoat. During my self-imposed exile during the day I did make some real progress on the Religions essay I had been ignoring for close to a month. About a third of it got finished before I got a Skype call, after which I had to go out in the rain.

The weather was about the same on Friday, with maybe just a bit less rain. Not much, just a bit. When I left in the morning it was just cloudy. So, in my silly way, I left without an umbrella wearing a not-so-waterproof coat. Apparently I don't know how to dress for Ireland. Friday was a very long day. I had to be to dance early for the exam. Of the three hours spent in the dance hall, I danced for less than an hour. The rest of the time I was standing, waiting for other people to finish their exams. It would have been fine, normally, but I needed to get to the main campus for the choir concert. As soon as I finished my exam, I booked it to campus. I have never walked that fast, and probably never will walk that fast again, in my life. I made it though, just on time. So we stood on the stone floor of the chapel for 30-40 minutes, had a few minutes to rest and sit, then back to the chapel for an hour long concert, again standing on the incredibly hard stone floor of the chapel. In the span of about six hours, I was off my feet for maybe 10-20 minutes. My body was tired.

But I wasn't done yet. After the concert, some tea and biscuits and socializing, I headed back to the apartment, did some work on my essay, laundry, packed, and headed off for what I thought was going to be a very long walk to a weekend retreat. Google told me it would take about 50 minutes. I made it in 20-ish. And was very early because of it. I am very grateful to whoever put the sign on the side of the road saying "The retreat is here!" otherwise I would have walked right past it and been lost, completely and utterly lost. So I spent a very spiritual and reinvigorating weekend with other young people from the Munster area. It was fantastic and just what I needed after a hectic week. Small world story: I might a Franciscan brother originally from Nebraska. He's actually been through my hometown a bunch of times. AND we had the same band teacher. AND we have a mutual friend. How crazy. I'm pretty sure he thought it was pretty awesome too.

I am proud to announce that after coming home from the amazing retreat, I finished my essay. In about an hour and a half I wrote two-thirds of a paper that had been haunting me for a month. God is truly amazing because I'm fairly certain if I had stayed home, not nearly as much would have been written. Then to make the day even better yet, I got to talk to my brother and his girlfriend. They always call me right as I'm getting ready to turn the lights out and so I go to sleep happy afterwards.

In summary, I had a ridiculously crazy week. I about lost my mind a couple times, and would have surely forgotten my head if it hadn't been attached to my body. But it was an absolutely amazing week with no regrets.

The Maddest Holiday Week Ever: Mar 11 - 18

So, I will try to leave out all the boring bits about homework. ... It was a great week guys, see you later.

Just kidding. I did do more than just homework. Monday's choir practice was chaotic in a sort of awesome way. We practiced with John Spillane, a thoroughly Irish revolutionary musical artist. He's going to solo for a lot of our concert pieces next week. I'm excited, but he's kind of hard to sing with. Distracting, you could say.

In my endeavor to actually make progress my Religions of East Asia essay, which is massive in case you were wondering, I went to the library. And I actually found the books this time. Last time I was in the library, it was just in the foyer area where all the study tables and such are. It's kind of weird because when you look in from the outside, you cannot see any books. Crazy, I know. Anyhow, I found the books hiding on the second floor. It was sort of nostalgic. I really wanted to be back in the public library at home browsing the shelves for some new fiction. Instead I was browsing for scholarly books on Christianity in Japan and Korea. Yes, it is an interesting topic, but I can think of more interesting ways to spend my day in the library. So I'm plugging away on this essay and I realize I have to go to Democracy. ... And I don't want to... But for some reason I talk myself into it, and sort of sleep through the first half of the class (remember, I don't understand what we're talking about). Then, in the second half of the class, like every other sentence has fantastic ideas for my Religions essay. Boy, was I glad I actually went to class. If I hadn't, I'm not sure I would have been able to answer the essay prompt. Funny how it works out like that. The one thing I really, absolutely did not want to do, made such a huge difference in something completely unrelated. We, of course, went out on Tuesday. We had a guest so there was no way we could stay in. It wasn't a terribly late night, for which I am grateful since in the morning we were presenting in class on our Management project, which I still despise.

The presentation went fairly well. All the groups presented the same topic, and we were last. And of course I was the last speaker in our group so I felt incredibly repetitive. I talked really fast too, which was not the best idea, but we were out of time when I started talking. At least, it felt like we were out of time. And after being so productive on Tuesday, I did not do anything, except make a plan for Thursday. Yep, I procrastinated on my homework by planning to do it the next day.

The plan didn't last very long though. Right after class I headed to the city centre to get things for the weekend. Big holiday, you know. That took a giant chunk out of my day, but I felt like it was totally worth it. Thursday night we had two guests, so, of course, we went out. However, a lot of the places we tried to get into were 21 and over for some reason. Ridiculous. Our last stop, a late night bar, was charging €5 to get in. But, I think since we all looked so downcast, they let us in for free.

It was a bit later when we got home, which wouldn't have been a problem except the next day was our last dance class before the exam. I was determined to go because I thought we were learning another step. Thank goodness we didn't though. There was so much to do in the next week that learning a new step would have been disastrous. Highlight for the day which helped me to procrastinate more on my homework, I had a good chat with my sister on Facebook. Rarely, if ever, are we on at the same time and can have a quick message-and-response conversation. It was good. Would have been better if we had Skyped, but since she was only on because the kids she nannies were napping, I say fair play for the time we did have.

Ok, this is incredibly funny to me. After procrastinating so long on my homework, and having in my head the goal of finishing everything before St. Paddy's Day, I sat down on Saturday to earnestly work on my Religions essay. It has not satisfactorily progressed since Tuesday when I was in the library. But since it was Saturday, I wasn't particularly enthused about homework. To make myself feel productive, I spread all the books out in a semicircle, with the notebook and pen ready, and sang my heart out to the radio. Needless to say, homework was not finished that night.

Saturday night was a quiet night in. We needed to mentally prepare ourselves for the insanity that was St. Patrick's Day. I will openly admit we began drinking between 9 and 10 am, and I was very drunk by about noon. I know there was a parade and a house party. I bought a cookie and a pizza. Other than that, the day is a bit fuzzy. I made it an early night because I sobered up while still awake. Terrible feeling. And now that I have had an absolutely ridiculous day/night out, I know that this extreme will never be reached on purpose ever again. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the moral of the story. Go to Ireland for St. Paddy's Day, get really drunk, then don't ever do it again. It will kill you...Seriously, I was a mess the next day. And of course, no homework was done. That will have to change soon because the due date is coming up really fast.

Journal Article Mania: Mar 4 - 10

WARNING! The next few weeks will be a bit boring. My days consist almost entirely of reading journal articles and writing essays. Apologies if my life is not exciting enough for you.

So...Monday I did homework...that's all...sadly. Tuesday was a bit more interesting in that I did not really understand the homework I was doing...Yep. Silly political science terms. Got me all confused. This session of confuzzlement was followed by a session of panicking as I realized the time for housing contracts was quickly approaching. Actually, I had just a couple days until the system would let me sign-up. Panic session quickly followed by fervent prayer session for guidance on the housing while still trying to get all the homework done and understood. Highlight of the day, as if it was already bright enough, enchilada casserole. Simply delicious. And ridiculously easy. The only "hard" work I did was browning the meat. Mentally adding to my list of dinners for later, a.k.a April and next fall. Wednesday, as you may have guessed, I did more homework. Plus, I sort of worked out a class schedule for next fall. But a lot of time was spent looking at online clothing stores. For some reason I get emails and when the images load I just have to take a gander at the website. And *poof* two hours are quickly gone. From now on, I am not looking at the pictures, just immediately deleting the emails. And who can guess what I did on Thursday? That's right! Homework! This time it was all really low-priority. The only reason it got done, actually, was because I got bored of the really important homework. Yep, fighting procrastination by doing homework. Actually works quite well. Friday, I am glad to announce, did not involve homework. Not much anyway. Started off early with step dance, which, of course, was exhausting. Immediately afterward I went to the library to work on a group project. I don't know if anyone knows just how much I despise group projects. It's always more satisfying when I do it myself because in the end, I will probably be the one to do most of it anyway. Anywho, when I got back to the apartment, I did not do squat. I got a really bad headache and hid under a blanket for like two hours.I talked to Molly and pretended to do things, but nothing productive was accomplished. Finally, after a nap and two coffees I motivated myself into doing just a bit on the Management group project. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. The group project that I despise is for a course on management, which makes it all the worse. And Saturday takes us back to the oh so exciting routine of reading more journal articles. There must be a whole library in my brain by now. Sunday brought a taste of home: wind. Like blow-you-off-the-mountain wind, according to Jemma. After church I stayed inside all day so it didn't affect me. I could hear it through the window, though. Actually, I could feel it through the window because it doesn't really seal well. It was good to know that Nebraska was thinking of me though. It broke up the monotony of the journal articles...

Every Day Brings Me Closer to the End: 25 Feb - 3 Mar

So, I got a good look at the brochures I picked up in Dublin over the weekend. Most of them were for things in Dublin, but didn't look very appealing on closer examination. The one that really peeked my interest was the "Highland Tours" brochure. I fiddled with the idea on Sunday night while waiting for everyone else to get home. Then on Monday I decided definitively: I'm going to Scotland for 5 days. The tour cost a bit more than I expected after all the costs and stuff were added, but it's going to be awesome. There's a train, and I'll see Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, and the Isle of Skye. I'm more excited for this than I am the trip over Easter weekend. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble getting it booked on Monday night. When I tried again Tuesday morning, it went quite smoothly. I shouldn't have booked things right before class because I thought for sure I was going to be late, but time was in my favor and I was right on time. So I'm thinking about this trip all day, because I'm really excited, when suddenly I almost keel over. I didn't look to see if I needed any visas for the many places I was traveling. Naturally I spent the next hour looking up visa requirements for all the countries I was going or considering going. Massive sigh of relief, I don't need any. That would have seriously put a dent in my plans, especially since most of the bookings are paid for already. Being Tuesday, it was my night to cook. I knew we had pork chops in the freezer, but I didn't want to just cook them plain and serve baked potatoes with them. That's when I remembered the fantastically awesome chops Mom had made once with a ginger glaze. Mmm, they were delicious. So I had to make an emergency Tesco run, not just to the Express a couple blocks down, but the big one in Wilton that's at least 20 minutes walk. I only had two hours between each of my classes, so it had to be quick. I made it there and back and found everything I was looking for, in less than an hour, and got to class early. Dinner took longer than it should have, and I was a bit more frazzled than I should have been, but it worked out good and was quite yummy. Overall, I'd say Tuesday was a great day.

Wednesday was pretty fantastic too. I decided spur of the moment to take advantage of the scone-baking lessons that Campus Accommodation was hosting. It was going to be just me, but then Jocelyn was home, and some of Katherine's friends showed up. That was a lot of fun, and they weren't very hard to make either. Later that evening, the girls in the dance class decided to have a practice. It was a bit of a walk to our host's house, but it was nice out and the conversation was good. Practice was, of course, exhausting, but in a refreshing kind of way. It had been a while since the last time I had practiced on my own so this was a much needed session. Oh, the other thing I did on Wednesday was delete solitaire and spider solitaire. I was wasting entirely way too much time. Hours simply disappeared when they were open. So now they are gone, and I'm going to actually do my homework now.

Thursday was a big night, one we had been planning for a while. When I came back from class, Jemma and Jocelyn were moving a couch into our room. The dining table was at the end of the hallway, and the tv made it back there eventually too. After counting seats, we realized we needed another couch. So we borrowed from the neighbors. That was two extra couches, one from each neighbor, a dining table and tv at the end of the hallway where they certainly did not belong, and lots of seating for lots of people. In case you haven't guessed yet, we were having a party.

The legs had to come off in order to move it from the neighbors

And not just any party, a Disney movie party. That's right, four college students planning on watching Disney movies for 5+ hours. Actually, it came out that about 15 people made it that night. We definitely needed that last couch. So we bought three big pizzas and everyone brought something with them: chips and dip, hummus, sodas, cake, chocolates, really yummy crunchy chocolate things, and pecan pie. Yeah, not sure why pecan, but it went almost as fast as the pizza did, so apparently it was a good idea. We had a fantastic time. Clean-up on Friday morning wasn't bad either. The floor just needed mopped in a few spots where the soda had exploded, the dishes needed done, and the couches had to go back. We didn't have time to get the kitchen table returned before everyone left for the weekend, so it stayed at the end of the hallway. I wasn't going to try moving it by myself, plus I had no idea how it got back there since it was wider than certain spots of the hallway.


Two couches and six chairs later, I still sat on the floor

Friday was incredibly productive, somehow. And after a whole day of homework, I sat down and started figuring out more travel plans. It wasn't looking good and I was starting to get a headache, so I left them kind of hanging at the end. When I got up the next morning, I had it all figured out in my head, worked it out on the calendar and realized I had to start completely over. That was frustrating. But because it was so frustrating I decided to get some of the trip officially on the calendar and booked the last half of the trip. Yeah, that was a kind of weird way to do it. See, after we go to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, I'm leaving before everyone else for England. So I'm starting in Newcastle, going to Bath and finishing in Bristol. But then I'm going to fly into Dublin and tour Northern Ireland for three days before coming back to Cork. In my head it was logical to book Dublin and Northern Ireland first. So I was in Amsterdam, had a few empty days on the calendar, and had a flight from Bristol to Dublin. ... I still had to work out was happening in the middle of all that. After working on the travel plans and homework, again, all day, I forgot that Katherine was home until she made a noise. I think she was Skypeing and someone made her laugh. She told me later that she had no idea if I was home on Saturday either. We were both just so wrapped up in our worlds.


After church on Sunday morning, I went back to the Chaplaincy for tea and biscuits. One of the college students had invited me, a couple weeks earlier, to a retreat over Palm Sunday weekend. The plans for the retreat were finalised and I got the rest of the information I needed. After talking for a while, there were like eight of us there, we got on the topic of "Things Jesus Never Said". There's a Facebook page with some funny pictures. By this point it's like 2, or 3 and know I need to get other things done. So I go back to the apartment and realize I really don't want to do anything. Luckily I was saved from another torturous day of homework by a call from home. It was much needed. I hadn't talked in a couple days, excepting the call I got from my brother and his girlfriend right as I was going to bed the night before. It was a weekend filled with catching up on things at home. I got to see Mom, my sister, and my niece and nephew, who are a couple nuts. Cute, but nuts all the same. So although I was boring and stayed in the apartment again this weekend, I was motivated to get things done, and also got to hear from home, which it had been a couple weeks at least. And, I got all my trip planning done so I don't have to worry about that anymore.