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.