Week 1 - First Week of Classes.

Monday August 25th

So today's the day. The first day of classes! So unbelievably excited and so nervous at the same time. I haven't had to go into lectures and not know anybody in a long time. My timetable is so nice, I don't have classes everyday until 12 pm. Today though, I woke up early so I could get a chance to FaceTime home for a while since I was too busy with the last few days to get the chance to do it and the time difference makes it so awkward. I needed to go to the library and print stuff off for some of my classes so I decided I would go in nice and early so that I didn't have to be rushing around looking for my classes. The University run shuttle buses for those living off campus called the U Dash. These buses pick anyone living in Lewis and Clark up right outside and carries us over to the college. They also run a separate late night U Dash bus from Thursday - Saturday, this bus finishes at 2 am. Basically making it a lot easier on students to go out in Missoula. One particularly brilliant invention if you ask me, saves a lot of time, and also when it gets colder here people wouldn't be as tempted to skip class due to the bad weather. This service is again free to all students and faculty members. 

 I got all my notes printed off in the library so I strolled around the campus for a bit before sitting down on a bench outdoors and eating my lunch. By this time, Fiona had already had two of her classes and she had gone home for her three hour break. I went to my first class, Wildlife Physiological Ecology - WILD 346 - which sounds amazing. I'm technically not signed up for this class properly yet as I was waitlisted and they've since made a second section which I am able to get into once I can get a registration override. Registration overrides are required when a student doesn't meet the prerequisites which are put in place by the University. These normally include having to have done certain modules during your earlier years in the University. 

This is what a registration override form looks like. Once it's signed by the lecturer it enables the student to register for the class straight away.

 
After this I went and found the classroom for our Vertebrate Design and Evolution class, which Fiona is also taking, and it turns out it only has 11 people in it. We met our lecturer, Bret, and the lab assistant, Kris, who are both so lovely and took the time to get to know everyone's names, where they were from and their majors. Apparently, Ireland is an exotic place -_- . We had our lecture and from here we were straight into our first lab where we played with the bones of cats and it was up to us to be able to figure out which bone was which and also what are the different parts of the bones by using a lab manual which we were kindly provided with for today. It is recommended that we buy the manual because we will be using it a lot during our labs but seeing as the class only runs up until Christmas and the book costs $170 both Fiona and I are not sure what we are going to do as of right now. Hopefully find one online somewhere for cheaper! We were able to finish up our lab early so we headed home to have dinner as we were both starving!

The Zoology lab where we have our Vertebrate Design and Evolution labs on Mondays and Fridays.

Our notes out in front of us to help identify the different bones on the different specimens.

I felt like going on a walk this evening so Fiona said she would join me and take me on a nice path. Little did I know this was going to turn into a hike more than a walk! We walked along a trail way up a mountain which was really nice and so tough! The worst part for me was the breathing, because we are so high up here in Missoula, 978 m above sea level, and Carrauntoohill is 1041 m above sea level, which is crazy! We took frequent stops along the way to catch our breath while seeing some white tailed deer. But once we reached the top, the view was amazing! We saw a hawk fly over our heads which we could soon here in the distance as it got closer to the forest hunting for food. We heard a coyote howling in the distance which was freakingggg cool! We waited at the top for it to get dark where we started to watch the stars above our heads (how very romantic, I know!). It was so dark we had to use the flashlights on our phones to guide us down the dirt path home, I was so paranoid that something was going to jump out of nowhere and frighten / attack me. Hahaha. All in all - a fab evening!

The view from Mt. Sentinel.

Tuesday August 26th

Seeing as I have probably one of the nicest timetables in the world, I didn't have an early rise this morning again, thank God. I went into college for 11 am so I could print off some lecture material in the library for tomorrows lectures. Today we had our first Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management lecture. Again our lecturer is lovely! She also took the time to get to know everyone's names by making each of us deliver a 3 minute elevator speech. This is a speech basically for us to boast any experience we may have in the Wildlife industry and to try and convince her to 'hire' us. In the Wildlife Biology course here in the University of Montana having at least two years of valid work experience is vital or you're not able to get your degree. Everyone spoke a little bit about themselves, saying what they're future goal careers were and what kind of experience they've had in the past. Yet again, when everyone heard there was two International Students in the class they all got very excited. Especially being from such an 'exotic' place as Ireland! This lecture gave us the basis for what the module would contain. Our final exam in December is only worth 13%!! We're used to all our final exams being worth between 60-80% so this is very different for both Fiona and I. There is a lot of continuous assessment involved in the modules here which I think is a great idea as it keeps you working all through the year and not just for a mid term test after a couple weeks and then possibly a few lab reports. This way I hopefully won't get bored with a continuous workload right up until Christmas. The weather here is particularly gorgeous again today. A bit colder in the morning but my God did it get hotter as the day went on!

Today I also had a bit of a disaster with my six year old laptop. I think it is officially on it's last legs. I was able to turn it on and off but I wasn't able to do anything else with it - not good. After turning it on and off a few times, as well as restarting it, and turning it off and taking the battery out, and turning it off and just leaving it off for a while, I decided to give up on it. However, I used to see an option to turn it on in safe mode with networking so I said I would give this a try. I had some important documents on it that I hadn't got around to transferring onto my external hard drive. And thank the Lord it worked! It has a very weird set up but at least I'm able to use my laptop to get my college assignments. Yes, assignments and it's only the second day of college! Fiona's camera also got delivered today so of course she was going around taking pictures of random things (me) testing it out. 

Wednesday August 27th

Today's Fiona's 21st birthday! 
I left about 10.15 am to go into college because I was bringing my laptop into the tech center to see if someone in there would be able to help me out with my crisis. I met Aoife, Kate and James along my way so of course stopped and had a chat with how the first week of classes were going for everybody. Turns out a lot of us have got a flu of some sort - Freshers Flu - which it's known as. Always in the first two weeks of college everybody goes crazy leading the majority of people very run down and therefore contracting Freshers flu. We basically had our own freshers week during Orientation Week which was crazy fun! But I am glad to hear that I'm not the only one that's sick! Haha. I then headed over to the tech support in the University Center. Two very nice, but very new, girls were behind the counter and they did everything they could to try and help me out before I had to leave for classes. My first class of the day - Wildlife Physiological Ecology - where I got my registration override form signed so I'm officially registered for my class! :D Then went to Vertebrate Design and Evolution class afterwards where we started to learn a bit about Phylogeny - LOVE this class.

When I finished classes at 2.30 pm I went back over to collect my laptop, and to see if there was any progress made. There was a different guy behind the counter this time and he also had a look at what was going on. His first conclusion was a virus - keep in mind I got new anti virus software not too long ago. He basically said it doesn't matter and that if the virus is good enough it's going to make it's way into your laptop and basically destroy it. Also, seeing as it's so old and running on Windows Vista - he said I would be better off with an upgrade to a new computer with Windows 8. It was only a matter of time before I would have to upgrade but I really, really didn't want to get rid of my old laptop. It was essentially my baby. 

This evening, Fiona, Elliot, Dave, Siobhan, George and I all went out to dinner to celebrate Fiona's birthday in the Iron Horse Brew Pub. The food in this place is amazing! I got the chicken fajitas which were amazing and Fiona ordered her first legal drink which was of course - cider. There's a brand of cider over here called Angry Orchard Crisp Cider and it really is (almost) nicer than Bulmers! We hung out here for a while and had a laugh and chats on how the first week of classes were going for everybody. It's so nice that everyone is clearly very happy here!

The Chicken fajitas from the Iron Horse Brew Pub.

Thursday August 28th

No classes today until 12pm as usual. Left my apartment at 9 am to catch the bus outside Lewis and Clark to head out to North Reserve Street where I could find some decorations for the party we were throwing for Fiona tonight. I went into the party shop and bought some decorations, there wasn't a very huge selection which I was quite disappointed with, but nevertheless, I got stuff. I then walked over the Best Buy to price some laptops. I literally only had an hour in this place before I had to rush back for my class so I couldn't spend too much time laptop hunting. I had done some research online and found a laptop that I liked the look of - it had everything in it and it was a good price too. There was good reviews on it so I went and had a look. One of the guys in Best Buy said it was a good laptop so he talked me through the features which I was pretty happy with. I then headed off for the bus back to campus. 

Met up with Fiona and had lunch before heading off to our Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management class. Here our lecturer gave us a run down of what the syllabus includes and the various field trips we would be partaking in. 

Fiona went to work in the Food Zoo while I headed off home and started the party prep. Sarah drove me out to a liquor store (off license) where I got the vodka for the Jelly Shots I was going making. We also bought the mandatory red cups for the party too. Everyone was due to arrive by about 9 pm so we were hoping and praying the Jelly Shots would be set in time. Sarah blew up all 20 balloons while I hung up a Happy Birthday banner, put up some streamers and hung up some of the balloons around the place. While I was making my dinner, I was also making Jelly Shots for the party - multitasking at it's finest! Jak from downstairs gave us the use of his speakers for the night so I helped him bring them up the stairs and he set them up for me. Eventually, I got the Jelly Shots made and Fiona got home so I was able to shower and have my dinner while she took over some of the preparations for me. Siobhan, Dave and Elliot went cake hunting for me today and the cake they picked up was called - 50 shades of chocolate - PERFECT! 

Happy Birthday banner and streamers

Some of the 20 balloons.

50 Shades of Chocolate Cake.

Everyone started arriving, and we played some drinking games (of course), sang songs, danced to music and had an all round good time! To be honest I could not even tell you what time the party finished up at but it was a brilliant night! Fiona enjoyed herself which was of course the main thing. 

What a mad bunch of people from all over the world.

Friday August 29th

Woke up pretty early this morning and I started the clean up - if anyone knows me, they know I don't like mess in the kitchen! I filled up three bin bags full of bottles, cans, cups and rubbish. With the help of Sarah, we began scrubbing the counter tops which were covered in Jelly Shots, scrubbed the floor, also covered in Jelly Shots, the walls which ALSO had both jelly shots and champagne on them and alcohol of all sorts. With the two of us it didn't take us too long to get the place cleaned up before I left for my class which was at 12 pm.

 

The three full rubbish bags!

I arrived to class early so I sat in the lecture hall and I got to have a lovely chat with my lecturer Dr. Creagh Breuner, all about me being on an exchange and my thoughts of the place so far. There was a welcome feast going on right outside the window of where our class was being held so before people began coming in I sat and watched what was happening, cheerleaders dancing (just like in the movies!), the national anthem was played followed by a minute silence for a student who very sadly died in a car accident while on his way to Missoula to return to college. I watched the team mascot - Monte Bear - dance around on the grass for a while. Class began and Dr. Breuner could not compete with the noise levels that were going on outside and everybody wasn't really able to pay too much attention with the music outside so she called an end to class (2mins in) and let us all go for some free food. Yes. FREE food! Everyone on campus could line up as many times as they wished and get free hots dogs, taytos, apples, cookies of all sorts and free drinks too! I've said it before, but this place is awesome! I met up with George and Elliot and we got some food before heading off for classes at 1 pm. 

Free unlimited hotdogs! You could literally queue three times or more!

Some of the crowd at the welcome feast on the oval.

My lab at 1 pm included looking at skeletal structures of various animals and comparing the bones and naming the different parts of the bones as well. These labs are very relaxed. It's perfect. It's up to you to do the learning and to ask questions if you're stuck, you use the lab manuals and also the internet to help answer all your questions. I find when you have to do the work this way yourself it makes it a lot easier to learn. 

Alligator skeleton.

Fish skeleton.

Gliding lemur.

This was the day my car was being delivered from New York! I was way too excited - I was literally like a child on Christmas morning! We met the truck driver out at Missoula International Airport as he needed a big space to be able to unload the car off the truck. I signed for the car and both Fiona and I headed off to Walmart to stock up on some food for tomorrow's road trip! :D

The truck my car was delivered on :D

Saturday August 30th

First Road Trip.

I got up quite early to make some lunch and dinner for myself for the day but to also take the Envoy for a wash because it was absolutely covered in dust! There was no way I was going to drive it looking like that! Luckily I didn't have to go too far to find a car wash. Afterwards, I collected Fiona and George and while they went to Walmart, I went to Best Buy to buy my new laptop. It's an Asus X551C and it's perfect. I'm in love with it. We came back home and gathered up our belongings as well as Elliot. And head off.

This was the first long distance journey I have gone on while in America and also my first and only time on a highway which wasn't at all as bad as I had imagined! The speed limits here are crazy, in most parts the speed limit is 70mph. Our destination today was Flathead Lake. Flathead is the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. With a surface area of between 496 and 510 sq km, making it slightly larger than Lake Tahoe. The lake is a remnant of the massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula, of the era of the last interglacial. There is no words to describe how absolutely stunning this place is. We stopped in Finley State Park first and had a look around here.The water is crystal clear and even at this time of the year it's not all that cold! As demonstrated by George, Elliot and Fiona who went swimming in it. I did go in a little bit but my main thing was not wanting to stand on the rocks barefoot with all these disgustingly massive spiders that kind of hop along the rocks - gross. 

Panorama of Flathead Lake.

 From here we headed up to another one of the State Parks on the shore of the lake called Wayfarers Park. This park was on the North Eastern side of the lake and again, the views were magnificent. We did some exploring about the place before sitting down for some dinner at a picnic table and then we headed for home. One of the other girls out from Ireland was having her birthday party tonight with a Thrift Shop theme but I was way too exhausted and still dying with the flu to even find the energy to go. I think I drove close enough to 200 miles overall today. Crazy.

Another one of my classic looking out into the horizon kind of photos.

Sunday August 31st

Happy 21st Birthday Kisha!

Today had to be one of the laziest days I've had so far. I slept until 1 pm and got out of bed about 1.30 pm. Dave and Elliot called over for a while. We all have homework to do - yes we get homework in college. All this homework counts towards our grades too so it's important to spend time on them getting them right. As well as doing homework, I just worked on my blog a little bit and tried to sort out my schedule with dates that assignments are due and what field trips we have coming up etc., etc.








I am way too excited about all the classes I have picked for this semester! However, something I have noticed is how far behind everyone else in our classes we are. A lot of them are seniors, masters or post graduate students. A lot of them are also on their second degrees. They all have more of an educational background and also a lot more work experience than we do. It's a little daunting, but who doesn't like a challenge?!

 
Next week will be about my second week of classes, my first assignment, my first class quiz and wait for it - TWO road trips!
 

Thanks for reading!
 
- Shannen

Orientation Week.

Monday August 18th

Today is the first day of our International Student Orientation. Since we are living off campus, we got collected by a shuttle from Lewis and Clark at 6:40 am. A bit of a ridiculous hour of the morning if you ask me, but we were being served "coffee and cakes" at 7 am before orientation officially started at 8 am. When we walked into the UC ( University Center ) we had to queue up and everyone received itinerary of what the day would consist of. Everyone was given different colored folders (red, blue, green and yellow) and depending what color folder you had would depend on which sessions you attended and at what time. We were all also given name tags with your name (obviously!), where you're from and a group number which would be important for specific talks we were all getting on Wednesday. At the start of orientation all 200 of the International students had to introduce themselves one by one. Turns out there's 11 Irish out here also - 7 of which are in my course - but we're all from University College Cork.

Some of the folders and information we received during orientation.

We had talks from several different departments in the University, all of whom were so welcoming. We were also able to get our student cards - known as Griz Cards. These cards are considered close to sacred to everyone on campus, you pay for your printing with them by putting money on them and you can also buy food on campus or buy some of the University Merchandise with them also. Something I have noticed here is how big the American Universities are into their merchandise. And not only the students/staff members attending the University but even the locals in Missoula - everyone wears the merchandise which I think is really nice! The Griz Cards are also used for library to check books out and are used to get onto all the city buses for free otherwise it's $1 which still isn't all that bad, but when you've got to get 2 buses to go someplace and two back again then - it all adds up.. Places in Missoula also give students discounts if their Griz Card is presented and in some places you can also pay for your stuff by using your Griz Card. 

My Griz Card!

We met so many lovely people from all over the world it is amazing and everyone is so friendly. All the staff in the University are so friendly and they just want to get to know you and when they realize you're not from this country they get so excited and intrigued as to why we would pick Missoula. After a seriously long day in college the Missoula International Friendship Program held us a welcome dinner in the International House where we got to meet even more International students. For anyone living in Lewis and Clark the Foreign Students and Scholar Services (FSSS) office had arranged shuttles home after dinner. When Fiona and I got home we got to meet our neighbors downstairs from us and it turns out I had already met one of these during our orientation. That night, there was a house party at their house which a lot of the International students all went to. All I have to say is that the University of Montana are very lucky to have such a lovely but incredibly crazy bunch of students this year.

Stine, Kate, Dervla, Eoghan, David and I at the first house party of the year!

Tuesday August 19th

We had an 8 am start for Orientation this morning and again the FSSS were so kind as to arrange shuttles to the University for us again today. There was also a few sick heads about the place this morning as I think a few too many us partied maybe a little too hard the night before. This morning started off with meeting some more people from different departments in the University. We all got split up into our different groups again, according to the color of your folder and we got a tour and also a talk about the services available in the Curry Health Center. Which if I may add are phenomenal. This afternoon included a lot of visa documentation and for those who needed it, immunization and TB tests. As I am lucky enough to have been born in the United States, I didn't need to attend any of the visa documentation which from what I was told by my friends, took quite some time. I was able to finish up nice and early and I headed home for a relaxing evening as I was completely shattered. I took this time to FaceTime home for a while and it also gave me some time to work on my blog. There was a Meet and Greet organized at the International House from 7 pm - 9 pm this evening for all the International Students but Fiona and I couldn't find the energy to go and attend. So instead we just chilled out at home and relaxed for ourselves.

Wednesday August 20th

This morning there was more visa documentation, giving me a chance to sleep in a little bit. I went into the college at about 11 am where I met up with Fiona and Elliot after their busy morning in the social security office. We met up in the UC and sat here for a while before both Fiona and I sent postcards home in the post office in the University Center. We went upstairs to the first floor where we had lunch and then headed off to a meeting about being in college here and we also received our itinerary for Thursday and Friday orientation. All during this week one of the dining areas in college called Food Zoo were holding a buffet style - all you can eat - for $5.50 dollars. All during the year it's all you can eat but the prices vary for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food here was amazing! The view wasn't all that bad either. The Grizzlies were in for their dinner (this is the name of the University football team). They are so muscular it is unbelievable and it made me feel so tiny. Each of them easily ate two full plates of food and most of them returned for a third plate which they also cleared. It blew my mind.

At 7 pm there was a meeting for anyone who wanted to join the Missoula International Friendship Program (MIFP). This organization was set up by the local people in Missoula who wanted to get to know the International students better and learn about their different cultures. I am really excited about this program because you can request to get matched with a family that has dogs and I really miss my little dog back home in Ireland. One of the girls that works in the International House also told me that her host family are great that they take her on day trips and invite her over to dinner or for special occasions. It isn't required by the host family to take us on trips but a lot of them like to be able to get the opportunity to do so, which I think is lovely. 

This evening was the last day of our International Student Orientation and for anyone living in Lewis and Clark we got a lift back from college and we were so lucky. In Missoula, the buses stop running at 7 pm and there's also no buses on Sundays. Today though, there was a massive downpour of seriously heavy rain which we had to run through to get to the car. The thunder was loud and the lightening was terrifying - as it always is in this country. However we got home grand and we just stayed at home again this evening because we were still shattered.

Thursday August 21st

The Foreign Student and Scholar Services organize several trips for the International Students throughout the college year. One of which is a trip to Glacier National Park. Some place I've always wanted to visit! Today was the only day we were able to sign up for it and Fiona, Elliot and I were determined we were not going to miss out on the opportunity to go, seeing as the park closes for a lot of the year due to the bad weather that's experienced in this part of the country. We were up at 6:30 am and we got the city bus from outside Lewis and Clark at 7:12 am. We were at the FSSS office for 7:30am - the first in line. Fiona, Elliot and I got signed up and paid nice and early so we were delighted. There wasn't anything of importance on the Orientation Schedule for today. It's mainly orientation for freshman but we had most of the events already done.

Instead we decided we would go do some shopping as we had some stuff  to get. We got two buses to go out to Target and Walmart where we got a few bits and bobs for ourselves and we were starving at this time so we ate in the Subway that's in Walmart. We then got the bus from Target to Southgate Mall. We all had some clothes to get and hiking boots were my priority as of the moment I only have winter boots and I would need hiking boots for hikes / field trips and also for trekking around the place during the snow we are destined to have out here. We all did very well for ourselves picking up some good bargains in shops like JCPennys, Aeropostale, American Eagle and Hollister. To finish our day off we got some frozen yoghurt from Roxiberry which was amazing and all organic - except for our toppings of course! Thursday night being one of the main students nights out here, of course we had to do something for our first Thursday here, so we went downstairs to our neighbors for another party with a lot of the International students attended. Another fun night was had!

Group photo from Thursday night. The organic frozen yoghurt from Roxiberry.

Friday August 22nd

Today was a very relaxed day. Both Fiona and I slept in until after 11 am. We did a minor cleaning up of the apartment as we are hoping our roommate is going to move in today and we haven't really been at home much all week with orientation to clean. We got the city bus - which is known as Mountain Line by the way - to the college because the university were offering up library tours today for any of the International Students, which were not mandatory but I'd feel a lot more comfortable going in there after being given a tour of the place and the facilities available to us there. The Mansfield library is absolutely unbelievable. There is five floors - you walk in to level 3. Levels 2 and 1 are both below you and levels 4 and 5 are above you. We first toured level 3 and then went downstairs to level 2 and level 1. Fiona and I were desperately searching around for the science section to see what variety of books were available to us. Our last destination was level 5. The tour finished for Fiona, Elliot and I here. We found exhibits of a variety of animal skulls in cases and we also found the section of the library containing the Geology books and also the section containing all the Wildlife Biology books. We were in our absolute element. I have never seen so many books on such a wide variety of animals in one section of the library it's fantastic! Elliot counted at least seven rows of Geology books and both Fiona and I were absolutely blown away by the selection of Wildlife Biology books here. We immediately picked up a few and started browsing through them and we even ended up checking out three books each to bring home to read also. After this we just headed home and cooked our dinners. Fiona ordered her camera and we just chilled out and both worked on our blogs for a bit. We went over to Dave and Elliot's apartment and watched them cook their dinner- while giving some clearly unwanted advice - before coming back home.

Some of the books I got out of the library to hopefully read during my spare time

Below are examples of a mountain lion skull and a grizzly bear skull which are on exhibit in the Mansfield Library.

Saturday August 23rd

Today I got the bus out to Target to do some food shopping, Fiona and Elliot were supposed to meet me on the bus, but they got caught up in a meeting, so off I went by myself. I got some folders and notebooks and stuff like that too because classes start on Monday. I got back home about 4 pm maybe and I went and made dinner because I was starving. Garlic flavored chicken with roasted garlic potato cubes and peas, carrots and sweet corn. Masterchef or what like! We also got invited to our first ever toga party hosted by our lovely neighbors downstairs - and togas were mandatory. So naturally, having never made a toga out of a bed sheet it took me the best part of an hour to finally get it right. Since I had no safety pins I improvised and used hair clips to pin it all together until Fiona got home and brought safety pins. Everyone had togas on - it was brilliant fun and what a great way to kick off the official start of college on Monday. 

My toga made from a black bedsheet held together with hair clips!

Sunday August 24th

Today is GO DAY! on campus, this is where all the different dorms compete against each other in various different events. Seeing as we live in Lewis and Clark, we're not on campus but if we want to we are able to participate. Fiona got nominated to do the ALS ice bucket challenge today by her sister so naturally she nominated me -_- . We both did our challenges which I may add was freezing! And of course we donated to such a fantastic cause which to be honest I had never really heard too much about it before these ice bucket challenges went viral and a ridiculous amount of money has been raised which is so good! There was a festival on in Missoula both yesterday and today, called the River City Roots Festival, and we had good intentions of going in to see what the craic was today but a massive black cloud came over our heads so we decided against leaving as we've about a 40 minute walk to town and there are no buses on Sundays so this would have been a major risk to take! Our roommate moved in today also! Her name is Sarah and she's from Montana. Fiona and I helped her to move all her bags and stuff up from her car and we cooked up our dinners. Fiona had her first day at work in the Food Zoo, one of the dining areas in college where you can get a buffet all-you-can-eat and it's not expensive. I went to Walmart this evening with Sarah so she could buy stuff for her bedroom and I had to get some meat for the week. Came home and did the clothes washing, turns out even though the washing machines and dryers are huge here, you technically can't fill them up cause nothing will wash or dry properly. Seeing as I nominated Elliot to do the ice bucket challenge, we dumped water over him tonight! Afterwards, we went home and just got organized for classes starting tomorrow! Nervous and excited at the same time but getting to hand pick which classes I wanted to do this year was probably the most exciting part for me!

Elliot getting great satisfaction throwing water over me for the ALS ice bucket challenge.

Check back in next week for my first week of classes in the University of Montana!

-Shannen

And so the adventure begins!

Be prepared - this is a really, really long post.

Even though I had to say all my goodbyes in the start of June, it didn't really feel like my trip was beginning as I was spending the summer in New York City working and still getting to see my family. I'm also very lucky that I didn't come on this exchange on my own, I had six others in my course all coming to the same college and all of us living in the same place. For me my journey didn't begin until two of these people came over to New York on August 11th ....

Monday August 11th

This was a hectic day, I had to sit my New York State Drivers test today at the exact time my two friends, Fiona and Elliot, were landing in JFK. This test lasted all of about EIGHT minutes. Yes, eight. You literally just have to do one parallel parking, one three point turn and two all way stops signs and you're done with your test. Thankfully I passed so I'm now able to drive in the States unaccompanied! While I was doing this test, my Dad went and collected Fiona and Elliot from JFK airport and by the time I got back home they were chilling out waiting for me. We wasted no time whatsoever and within about two hours we set off into Manhattan (Fiona and Elliot had both never been to the States so I was their personal tour guide haha). We got the 7 train from Flushing in Queens all the way in to Grand Central Station. Once we finished looking around here we got the 7 train again into Times Square. We hung out here for a while, took in all the sights and took some pictures before strolling over to see Rockefeller Center and then we moved onto the Empire State Building. No matter how many times I go into Manhattan I'm still always blown away by the beauty of the city.

Below is one of the photos we took while in Times Square.

Tuesday August 12th

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History. We were in the building about 15 minutes after opening (10:15am) and the place was already packed! We bought our student tickets and we also got one exhibition - The Dark Universe narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, very very interesting exhibition that I would encourage anyone who visits the museum to go and see. We spent all day in the museum until 5:30pm and we got to see absolutely everything. At one point, to ensure we all got to see what we were more interested in, Fiona and I went into the The Hall of North American Mammals, we're studying Zoology and love animals if you didn't already know, while Elliot, who studies Geology, went to see the Hall of Minerals and Gems (can't actually properly remember the names of those halls sorry!). This way everyone was happy leaving the Museum! After we finished, we went across to Central Park and found the Balto statue, from the movie Balto - this was a dream come true for Fiona and Elliot! From here we went to see the famous toy shop FAO Schwarz. By this time we were absolutely exhausted and my legs were fit to fall off me with all the walking! We got the N train from there back to Times Square and from there we got the 7 train back out to Flushing where my Dad collected us. Myself and Elliot stayed up and watched the Lego Movie while Fiona went to bed - she was exhausted and jet-lagged. 

One of the Amur tigers on exhibit in the Museum of Natural History (if you know me at all you should know that tigers (all kinds) are my all time favorite animals). Would ya look at this beauty!

Wednesday August 13th - the busiest day.

Fi and Elliot were mad to try pancakes in an American diner, so that's what we did this morning. We went into a diner in Whitestone called The Cozy Diner - the pancakes were AMAZING. We then went and did a bit of food shopping and then left at about 12 o'clock and headed for Manhattan yet again. Our first stop was Wall Street, we walked around here, took in the sites and then we walked from here to the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 Memorial. I always get a chill whenever I visit here and also this eerie feeling, it's so heartbreaking seeing the names of all the people that died in the 9/11 tragedy. From here we went to do the Statue of Liberty Cruise in Battery Park, we were the first to load onto the boat so I picked the best spot for the view of the Manhattan Skyline as I had done this cruise a few weeks previous when another one of my friends from college, Av, came out on a holiday for two weeks. This boat brought us to Liberty Island where we got to see the lady herself - Lady Liberty - which provided the perfect selfie opportunity.

 From here we got picked up and brought to Ellis Island - we spent the best part of an hour just reading exhibitions all about the history of Ellis Island and the immigrants that entered here so many years ago! We went and found the charging bull and then got the subway and got off at Brooklyn Bridge, we took in the sights here and then headed back to Times Square again for some dinner in Sbarro. By this time we were so exhausted but we went into Aeropostale and American Eagle and got some good deals on clothes before heading back out home on the 7 train.

Panoramic shot of one the foundations of the Twin Towers. Along the edges you can see some of the names of the many people who lost their lives in this tragedy.

Thursday August 14th

We took today to completely wind down. We were all exhausted after our extremely busy three days exploring what the 'City of Dreams' has to offer. We also had to spend this day trying to pack up our life into one suitcase - which I may add is not easy when you have to pack for a variety of seasons. This evening my Dad took the three of us out to dinner in a restaurant in Queens called the Copper Kettle. The food here was absolutely fantastic and we were all as full as butchers dogs leaving the place!

Friday August 15th

Our day began at 4am. Our first flight of the day was at 7am from JFK to LAX. My Dad dropped us off to the airport at 5am. I said my goodbyes and we were off, we got checked in so easily and then we went off through security and thankfully had no problems. We were flying with Delta with all three of our connecting flights. The flight wasn't all that bad, I watched the Disney movie Frozen for the 1 billionth time and I watched a Disney documentary on Bears also. We landed in LAX and had a bite to eat, we were starving at this point! While we were in LAX it turned out that one of the gaming channels I watch on YouTube by Stacy Hinojosa (@stacysays on twitter or stacyplays on YouTube) was on the same flight to Salt Lake City as me. I fangirled for a solid 10 minutes and when I was about to go and ask could I get a picture with her, her phone rang so I just left her be. Our flight was slightly delayed because an elderly man thought he could open the exit doors on the roof of the plane to store his baggage, leaving the flight attendants slightly agitated until it got sealed up again. From SLC we had a smaller airplane with only something like thirteen rows in it taking us to Missoula Airport. The views we got to see from the plane were absolutely stunning. The pilot had to take us around a thunder storm in order to try and reduce the turbulance we would be hitting.

We arrived in Missoula bang on time (4.47pm) and there was somebody from the college at the airport to collect the three of us and also another girl, Savannah, from Australia. We collected all our bags and Jeremy dropped us all off to where we would be staying during the college year. We had roughly 20 minutes around the apartment and Jeremy's wife, Casey, came by and collected us to do a shopping run to Walmart to kit out the apartment. While I'm attending college here I'm staying in Lewis and Clark apartments. These apartments are huge, everyone gets their own bedroom and there is a shared bathroom and kitchen here. However, the apartments are empty. Everything including cutlery needs to be bought. So off we went to Walmart were each of us spent in the range of $220 on the basics we needed to get us through for a few days. Because myself and Fiona are sharing an apartment we were able to split everything that was needed for the apartment, helping to reduce the cost a little bit. While on the way and at Walmart we were able to meet a lot of other International Students also.

Saturday August 16th

Today we decided we would go exploring. For some reason, even though I was exhausted, I woke up unreasonably early for a Saturday but it gave me a chance to FaceTime my family back in Ireland cause here in Missoula we are 7 hours behind so it makes it a little awkward to try and keep in contact. Fiona was wrecked so I headed off over to Dave and Elliot's apartment for a while and then we decided we would go and find a grocery store near here. We were roughly 20 minutes walking and then we came across one. We got a few bits and bobs and then walked back home again. Fiona was up and ready so we decided we would head into campus and check the place out ahead of orientation. The University of Montana has an absolutely stunningggggg campus! It's so gorgeous and everyone that we meet is so friendly. 

We met two of the other Irish students, Siobhan and Barry, and we all walked into town together. We went to a restaurant called The Iron Horse for dinner and we all had burgers. The meal was unreal and our waitress was so lovely she even gave all six of us separate checks without us even having to ask which was pretty sound of her! (I know this cause I'm also a waitress and splitting checks is a slight pain in the arse). We all went to another store called Albertsons where we all stocked up on some food (probably a little too much food) because we didn't realize we had such a long walk back to our apartments as this was after 7pm when the city buses stop running. Earlier in the day, myself and Fiona found a lot of kitchen stuff such as plates and glasses outside the office in the apartments which are free for people to take if they want them so we grabbed whatever we could. So naturally, we put all these into the dishwasher to clean them before using them and Fiona decided that seeing as they were outside she thought it would be best to put a little extra washing up liquid into the dishwasher than usual to make sure they were clean. WRONG. I came out of the shower and our kitchen floor was covered in suds. We literally just stood and stared and laughed for about 10 minutes (after turning the dishwasher off of course). This shall be forever known as - The Dishwasher Disaster.

The picture below is after our third attempt to try and remove the suds, I never actually got to take a picture of the major disaster we had.

Sunday August 17th

Seeing as Dave wasn't on the same flights over as us he didn't get the chance to go to Walmart so we decided we would stroll over to the International House and see if they were going to be doing any Walmart runs that day and it so happened there was a bunch of other International Students all gathered there to go on a Walmart run (what timing?!). Since I had already gone, I wasn't sure if I would be able to go again but I was lucky enough to be able to hop in a car without taking up any space for another student who hadn't been there. This took up a big chunk of our day so when we got home it was all just unpacking everything and making dinner before heading over to Barry's house for chats before orientation starts Monday morning bright and early!

So this basically sums up the first hectic week since I've been here. I havn't blogged about my summer in New York because I just didn't feel the journey was beginning until Fiona and Elliot arrived. It still seems very surreal to be here right now. Check back next week for another post on our week of Orientation! Thanks for reading,

- Shannen