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.

Only in Ireland would you find Vikings and Leprechauns on the same street as Molly Malone: 18 - 24 Feb

I feel like my life is starting to sound boring and repetitive... I mean, it is kind of repetitive because I go to the same classes every week, usually go out on the same nights, haven't done anything in a couple weekends. I'm trying to make it sound more interesting by only feeding you the fun bits. And embarrassing, and unusual. So here's a fun bit. I'm going to tour Europe in June. Yep, seven countries in ten days. Let's see, we're starting in London, going through Amsterdam, couple stops in Germany, one in Austria, one night in Venice, two in Switzerland, and two in France to end in Paris. It'll be good fun since I'll be with a tour group for 18-35 year-olds only. Second interesting bit. Spring apparently starts the first of February in Ireland. I didn't really believe it until this week. you know there are always weird weather patterns this time of year, fluctuating between warm and freezing. Usually some snow in there. So February was back and forth between warm and cool; I'm not going to say cold cause I don't think it got below freezing more than once or twice. But I am now convinced it is spring because Tuesday and Wednesday were so absolutely beautiful. I almost skipped to class on Tuesday, but refrained. On Wednesday, being the second gorgeous day in a row, I had to wear something springy. So I pulled out the frilliest skirt I own, and got away with wearing it all day, mostly because I was just bouncing around the apartment. I only have one class on Wednesday to which I think I did actually skip. And being in such a good mood I skipped to the Chaplaincy and signed up for a retreat over the weekend in Ardmore, which is right on the seacoast.

Thursday wasn't quite as beautiful as the two days before, but there was more to that than the weather. The retreat that I had gotten so excited about, was cancelled. Again because of lack of interest. I'm starting to see a trend... I took this cancellation a bit harder than the last one because 1. I had signed up early and 2. I was really looking forward to it. And of course I got the call about the retreat just a few hours after Jemma and Jocelyn had offered to book me into their hostel in Dublin over the weekend. I thought for sure I would have to spend another weekend in the apartment, which I had resolved not to do for another weekend in a row. That night was a lot of fun though. We decided to go out but never actually made it. We played too many card games beforehand. I'm sort of glad we didn't go out because I had early morning dance class. I was a bit queasy at first, but I made it through just fine. Partly due to the fact that I already had learned the steps we were covering that day because so many people had missed the week before. Basically it was a review.

At some point during the day I resolved to go to Dublin. I wouldn't get to spend much time with Jemma and Jocelyn because they had a climbing competition, but I was going to go. Somehow I managed to get into the same hostel, different room, of course, since they booked with the mountaineering club. And it turned out that they weren't doing the competition on Saturday, so I had some friends with which to explore the city. Jemma already knew her way around and so we got to do some things that other tourists didn't know about. ... Like the Disney store. It was so hard to resist buying everything in the store, but I managed. Jemma walked out with a Simba pillow. After three trips in, she just had to buy something.
We saw a street band, quite good actually, and went for a walk in the park, where we found giant eggs. The person who finds all the eggs hidden across the city wins a diamond necklace. At least, I think that's what they would win. I was distracted by the snowflakes that were falling on us. After our day in town, we went back to the hostel to shower and relax before the rest of the climbers checked-in. After an eventful day, the best dinner is, of course, pizza! We ordered two giant pizzas, like 20 cm across or something like that. The box almost didn't fit through the doorway. They were huge!
And gone within minutes of returning to the hostel. The next morning I was on my own. Everyone was going to Awesome Walls to climb and train for the next weekend. Another competition. Since I'm not terribly athletic, I decided to do a walking tour of Dublin instead. So I wandered to the meeting point and realized I was almost an hour early. That was because I couldn't get Internet in the hostel and wasn't sure how long it would actually take to walk over. So I sat in Starbucks and enjoyed a hot chocolate. I also had the foresight to get a cinnamon roll for the bus ride home. The tour was interesting, saw a lot of things, heard a traditional Irish tale about the Land of Eternal Youth, which is essentially Heaven. Somehow I safely made it to the bus station. I missed it by one block, but that was because the street I was looking for wasn't labelled. The bus ride back was four hours, really long time to sit in one place. A bit boring too. But I had the chance to look over the brochures I had picked up at the hostel. Just different places that I thought maybe would be fun to see in April or May. You know, to get some ideas. At some point during the weekend, I decided to go to with the other girls on vacation over Easter. To start the study month off right, you know. So I booked Easter Day in Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam for the rest of the week. I didn't book a flight back to Ireland from Amsterdam because I wasn't sure yet what I was doing with the rest of my month. I though maybe I would see some other things before going back to Cork. So as it stands, I'm in Amsterdam on the 5th of April but have no plans after that.

RAG Week: 11 - 17 Feb

So Monday followed the same trend as the rest of my weekend: boring. I don't think I even studied on Monday, so it was even less interesting than the days before. That's ok. I could say I was prepping for Raise and Give (RAG) week. RAG week has kind of turned into a giant party that starts on Sunday and goes until the next Sunday. But it had a good origin. This year there were three charities for which all the Societies and Clubs were raising money: Irish Guide Dogs, Penny Dinners, and Barrettstown. So there were like a bajillion events happening on campus all week. Example: The Physics Society did a Zombie Takeover. At registration for the event you were given two armbands, one white, one red. They each had a matching number in order to identify you. If you were tagged by a "zombie", someone with a red tag on, you turned in your white armband and put on your red one. But in order to protect yourself, as a human you could throw socks at the zombie (if it was on campus) and stun him/her for twenty seconds. At the end of the week, all humans had to make it safely back to the starting point to receive a medal. So there was an entry fee to participate and the funds raised went to the Irish Guide Dogs, which was by far the most popular this year, I think. It's the charity I heard most about anyways. But over the years, actually just the last five or so, the good spirit of the week has turned into a mass party for all of the college students, sometimes even adult members of the community.

So that means when we went out on Tuesday, the club was packed. There was hardly any standing room, let alone dancing room. Some of us got stepped on a few times. Katherine and I decided we couldn't stand the crowd any longer and headed home. Because it was RAG week, there was a guard on duty all night when we got back to lodging. We had to tell him our name, apartment and room number. I think he even wanted photo ID. What a madhouse. But before going out that night I had successfully made Stuffed Zucchini Casserole and pulled it out of the oven just as everyone was coming home. Perfect timing. That was my Tuesday accomplishment.

Abseiling: walking down a wall...

...a really tall wall.

At some point on Tuesday night I had promised to make pancakes when we all got home. However, it was entirely too late to be making pancakes so I got up early the next morning instead. Now, remember, I haven't had much practice cooking things. When one of the other girls came in, she looked at my pan and said I was practically deep frying them. Much too much oil. Oops. I didn't know any better. But in case you were wondering, deep fried pancakes aren't the worst thing I've ever had. Normally on Wednesdays I have just one class from two to four. Jemma, Jocelyn and Katherine are all in the mountaineering club and were going to abseil off the tallest building on campus starting at one. I decided to go, at least to see the first few people go down. The mountaineering club was raising money for the Irish Guide Dogs, and so the first person to actually go off the building was a blind guy. That was fantastic planning on their part, if you ask me. The next person took a bit of time to get harnessed and on the side of the wall so I was going to have to miss the girls going down because of class. However, halfway to the building I ran into my lecturer and he said there was a mess up by UCC and our room was occupied. Class had been rescheduled for later in the evening. Unfortunately that was when Mass for Ash Wednesday was, so I didn't go. I did see the girls down the wall though.

To fill in some of my extra time on Wednesday, I had started an essay. When I woke up Thursday morning to work on it some more, I discovered all of it had disappeared. ... It was only a paragraph, but it was a very beautifully crafted paragraph that I had written while half asleep. Plus all my notes for the format of the rest of the paper disappeared too. Sometimes I just want to kick technology in the rear and tell it to straighten up. I was lucky enough to have written some of it on a piece of paper first. There was enough there that I could remember what the paragraph had mostly looked like, and I managed to recreate it with just a few word changes. The RAG week events started coming to a close on Thursday. The Zombie Takeover had a final gathering to see who had survived. Humans had a two hour window to make it safely to the amphitheater to be counted. However, the zombies knew about the gathering and were prepared. Although we didn't participate (we missed the opening ceremony), we did get to sit and watch as people tried to make it to safety. One guy took his bike down the steps to beat the zombies. He had two pairs of socks in his mouth and another three or four stuffed in his pockets. It was quite impressive. We decided to go out that night. As we were sitting after dinner, watching videos of the Harlem Shake, I had gotten up to refill my glass.

The wine crime scene

I returned to my seat, which was on the back of a chair. Of course, with my luck the chair tipped and I took a tumble. Jocelyn says she saw it in slow motion because I was trying to keep from spilling the completely full glass. I failed, epically, and covered the entire room in red wine. It looked like I had been attacked by a zombie, or something, and the kitchen was the crime scene. And of course, the fire alarm went off right as we got the mop out to clean the mess up. And then Jemma locked herself out of her room. ... It was a very eventful ten minutes. The pubs were once again packed. We tried a new one called An Bróg. It wasn't as much fun as we thought it would be. The DJ played mostly rap music. So we decided to go back to Riordan's, which has kind of become a standard. There's always good music there and lots of fun. However, it was a 21 and over only night. That was sad, but we didn't really want to go back to the Brog. Instead we stopped for pizza and went home. It seems that the later it is in the day, the better the pizza tastes. So at three in morning, that pizza was beautiful.

And since we stayed up so late on Thursday, I thought for sure I would never make it to class on Friday. I did it though. I was even up early. Since I was so early, I decided to try a different route, and guess what I found...a post office. I looked at it and was like "really?" But I was in a good mood and it didn't bother me. Since I didn't have anything planned for the weekend, I decided to go to the Chaplaincy and see if I could get in on their weekend trip to the Rock of Cashel. I got there, turned my money in, had a question, you know all the usual. The trip leader came to answer my question, looked at the signup sheet, and decided there were not enough people to make the trip feasible. There had to be a certain number to get the group tour, and a certain number to get the bus...lots of things, and there simply was no way that it was going to happen. so I was a bit disappointed. It meant I would be spending another weekend in the apartment.

Not having plans for the weekend gave me plenty of time to get my homework done. I finished the essay that had disappeared on Wednesday night, and realized, I didn't have much else that needed to be done for the next week. Just some little random readings that would be better right before class. I made it through Saturday ok, but Sunday was a terrible day. Katherine was gone on a tour trip, Jemma and Jocelyn were gone for a hike, and I was home alone all day. Normally that would be fine, but the same thing had happened the weekend before and I didn't have any homework this time. I about went stir crazy. I resolved that day that the next weekend absolutely could not be spent in the apartment, at least not alone.

Adventure Time: 4-10 Feb

Before first bite

When we got back from Kerry on Sunday, we decided we were too tired to do anything much for my birthday. So while grocery shopping on Monday, Jocelyn nonchalantly tries to sneak sprinkles into the cart. I decided not to question because whatever they were for would be more fun if I didn't know. Of course I deduced they were for my birthday in some way, but wasn't sure how. When I returned from choir they were just pulling a cake out of the oven and there was a bowl of frosting waiting. The cake didn't cook as well as it should and we didn't wait quite long enough to frost the cake so we had this awesome Viking ship shaped cake (because the middle caved) filled with really runny frosting (because it melted) and sprinkles. Definitely one of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten. So although we didn't have a giant hurrah for my birthday, it was certainly memorable.

After first bite

Tuesday was my turn to cook since I'm the only one without a late class that night. We've fallen into a schedule of cooking since we tend to only eat together four nights of the week. That way everyone is responsible for a single day of the week. Anywho, I was really craving buttermilk biscuits on Sunday and was determined to make them for my dinner. I wasn't sure what to serve with them since I didn't have a gravy recipe. So I decided on a random food that we would have sometimes at home: creamed eggs. Now, I'm not really a big fan of eggs so I didn't want to try them, meaning they were a bit too salty. However, they weren't bad. I actually ate quite a bit of the eggs. In the process of making the biscuits, I managed to use almost all the dishes and cover everything in flour. That was great craic. After dinner we went to Blarney for the Irish music session. However, being the first Tuesday of the month, it was a huge party! There were so many people, and there was a guy playing the keyboard. Lots of dancing and singing. We did the Hokey Pokey and She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain, learned an Irish line dance, and danced to Galway Girl. Oh, that was class.

Dancing to Galway Girl

So after such a great night out, the next day had to be a bit boring. On Wednesday there was just nothing going on. Thursday wasn't much more interesting. I got a package from home, which was exciting despite the fact that I knew what was in it before opening it. I got a good laugh at the stamps plastered all over the entire package. I think there was like 42 stamps or something like that, and everyone of them had to be stamped over by the post office so they can be used again. I loved it.

Ok, two boring days in a row, something interesting was bound to happen. Friday was a great, very much unplanned, adventure. I had some things to post back home so decided I would find the post office after dance class. Actually, I planned to go to dance early because there's a nice piano in the classroom and I was going to play. What happened was I got to class a bit late, danced my heart out, played for less than a half hour after class, then took off for the city centre. Now, in my head, I knew where to find the post office. And I had a backup plan in case the first fell through, which wasn't going to happen. See, I knew this little sandwich shop we had stopped at one time looked towards the post office. So, I was just going to find the sandwich shop and go from there. That was the plan. Here's what really happened. I took a shortcut that landed me in a different spot than I expected. Still the right street, just not the exact spot. I discovered I was on the wrong side of the street when I went past the intersection I was looking for and inadvertently changed streets. Made it back, found the intersection and was right where I thought I needed to be. However, after going around the city block about three times, I realized that the shop was not where I thought it was supposed to be. ... At this point I am tired and feeling a bit stressed and silly because I kept passing the same people. So, time for plan B. I called Jemma and asked from where she had sent her package the day before. There wasn't anything where she had thought but I was lucky enough to stumble onto something sort of like a UPS. ... However, they were wicked expensive and I didn't realize how expensive until I got home and talked to Jemma. Pretty sure I overpaid by about 50 euro. Just a bit upset by that, as you can imagine. So I was like, ok, whatever, it's done now and I can't do anything about it. That night I saw the Wind Ensemble had a performance so I got the link all cued up, stayed awake until about 1:30 when the concert was supposed to start, refreshed my link...and got nothing...I was once again frustrated. I should have been able to live stream the concert and been there in spirit if not in actuality, but I couldn't even do that! Ugh, what a day.

I decided it was time for a weekend break. I had been gone every weekend since the start of the term and needed a couple days to just chillax and get some things done. And since I had just gotten the last of my textbooks, I managed to catch up on all the readings I had gotten behind on. ... Two solid days of textbooks is not the most interesting weekend I've ever had. But it needed to be done. Plus it felt good to think that I had been productive. So my ridiculous week ended in a somewhat anticlimactic weekend.