Week 10 - Pumpkins and Hallowe'en.

Monday October 27th

So today I was exhausted from Yellowstone but I had an exam to study for and two homework assignments to finish off before heading into class. Had my usual classes today and my Vertebrate Lab where we were looking at sheep hearts, I enjoyed this so much! Monday evening consisted of studying for my exam that I have for Wednesday - so much to learn for it too.


Tuesday October 28th


Today I only had my meeting with my academic advisor here and she was able to override me into the classes I want to do next semester. Thankfully, I was able to register for the classes I want to do and I'm way way way too excited about them already! I went to the library and did some study for my exam again because this evening I went to my Missoula families house to do some pumpkin carving :) Shannon had made us STEW for dinner. I was literally saying yesterday in my lab how much I missed having stew for dinner so this made my week! She had also made brown soda bread and it was amaaaazing!! We had apple dumplings for dessert which were unreal too! I had never had these before, I'm gone mad for trying out new foods since I got here! :P We got home around 9pm I think and I just stayed up doing some study for my exam tomorrow.

This was my finished Minion Pumpkin :) What a first attempt :D

The incredible brown soda bread and stew Shannon made us for dinner :D

Wednesday October 29th


So I had my Wildlife Physiological Ecology exam today and it was incredibly strange. A rather large portion of the content we learned didn't show up on the exam which I found incredibly weird. It seemed to be a lot shorter than the others and it was just weird in general. I'm not sure how it went! We had our Vertebrate Design and Evolution class afterwards as usual and I finished up my day around 2.30pm. I FaceTimed my Mom today for a while and then I had to get ready for a presentation by the President of the Univeristy, Royce Engstrom, thanking the community friends (MIFP) for taking on International Students and also thanking us, the International Students, for taking part. We had a nice buffet dinner meal and cookies were served for dessert. We had starters of a variety of foods and nachos with a load of different toppings as 'dinner'. Saying that, I was pretty stuffed after it too! We stayed on after the talks and chatted with Shannon and also with some other Internationals. Dan, Shannon and I took a picture with our flags, which turned out pretty nice!
Fiona and I watched the first of the Planet Earth documentaries tonight while trying to finish off our Habitat Issue that we want to write a review paper on that is due in for tomorrow.

My nachos with a variety of different stuff thrown on them :P

Me with my Irish flag, Shannon and Dan and his Swiss flag at the MIFP meeting!

Thursday October 30th


Dr. Dreitz loved my habitat issue that I want to research into more, and seeing as it's official I'll tell ye now cause I can just tell that the suspense is killing you ......... ha. Aaaanyways, the topic I'm choosing is: The effect of the invasive plant species, Rhododendron ponticum, on the community of native plants and animals in Killarney National Park, and how, over time these plants and animals have adapted and learned to cope with this invasion. Hopefully I won't get asked any questions that are too complicated.
My Dad was flying back to Ireland tonight and I had a missed call from him during class so once I got out I rang him back. Unfortunately, it came with bad news, BUT it's okay! My sister and her best friend got knocked down by a car in Cork City, they were both brought to hospital and checked out, they got xrays and thankfully everything came back clear. My sister was let out but her friend had to stay in overnight just as a precaution. Obviously, they're both in a lot of pain. Of course I got upset and thankfully Siobhan just happened to walk by me on campus and she came over to me and brought me back to Dave and Elliot's apartment. I hadn't told them what was going on at this point but Dave welcomed me with a hug and they made me tea and settled me down a bit while I rang one of my aunties back home to see if she knew anymore of the story than I did.
She reassured me everything was going to be okay that my uncle was driving my Mom and brother to the hospital. My sister text me then later on telling me herself she was okay and her friend would be as well. I had been contemplating going out tonight but I didn't bother, I wasn't in the mood for socialization. Elliot and Siobhan called over for the evening to see me and Fiona didn't go out either. Dave was working but we went for ice cream this evening as a pick me up. I also hadn't eaten all day since breakfast so I went and got Wendy's cause I didn't have the energy to cook.



Friday October 31st


So apparently it's a thing that you wear your Hallowe'en costume to classes over here?! Funniest thing ever. And if I may say so, there was some pretty good costumes around also! I had my Phys. class and then afterwards we had our Vertebrate lab  where we were looking at the circulatory system / blood pathways in our cats. It was pretty awesome! They had dyed the veins blue and the arteries red to make them easier for us to see. And they were awesome! We did some comparative with Bruce the Shark also and we got out of the lab about 4.30pm. We headed home, had some dinner and started our Hallowe'en preparations. Nobody had any definite plans for going out and all the Hallowe'en parties were a rip off in town and had queues to get into them. We went to Aoife's apartment first to the other Internationals and then left and went over to Dave and Elliot's to wait for Kate and James to come over. More girls came over and we ended up spending the night here just arsing around and drinking/listening to music for a while. Turned out to be a really fun and relaxed night. I didn't want to go to town, but I didn't want to stop anyone else but they didn't end up going in the end.

Fiona and I all decked out for Hallowe'en.

Saturday November 1st

It's November already?! Wow.


So today was kind of a write off with regards to college work. I started one of my assignments but Fiona and I ended up cleaning the apartment from top to bottom! Absolutely every inch of it was cleaned cause it was manky dirty. That took us approx. two hours to do the whole lot.
Eoghan called over to us around 4 and we chatted and then went to the dollar store to pick up a few bits and pieces around 5.30 ish. We made dinner and watched a documentary on Snow Monkeys before Kate, James and Bridget called over for a horror movie night. We watched the Uninvited first which is a brilliant movie! and Then we watched Zombieland which is a horror/comedy - hilarious and it was a nice one to finish the night off with.



Sunday November 2nd


I spent this morning working on two assignments I had due for tomorrow and trying to study for our weekly quiz also. We had a lot to learn considering we had the whole circulatory system in the cat to learn :/ Eoghan was cooking a roast dinner for Fiona and I this afternoon and I could not contain my excitement! I haven't had a roast dinner in so long it's going to be fantastic!
We called over to his about 2pm after FaceTiming Sarah for a while for a catch up. The dinner was amazeballs. It was long overdue! We did the clean up and stayed and chatted for while before heading home again to do my assignments.

Eoghan and his masterpiece!

The incredible, and much anticipated, roast dinner!

I fought with the internet in my apartment for the evening, as it's gone pretty shitty I don't know what's up with it at the moment but it's driving me insane! I also called over to Dave for '15 mins' which turned into 2 hours just for chats, and to distract him from studying for his exam tomorrow.



So thank you guys again for reading this weeks post. It's been a bit of a weird week really. Not too sure what to make of it! Just some of the hardships that are all part of doing an exchange for a year. Next month and I'll be home for Christmas though! Where does the time go to?!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen.