Week 11 - Bambi, is that you?!

 WARNING: This weekend I volunteered at the Hunter Check Stations in Darby, MT, as part of one of my classes. The animals posted in the pictures have been killed, but there isn't any blood in the pictures. If you don't want to see these please don't read my posts for Saturday and Sunday.


Monday November 3rd


Today we had to discuss our assignments that we did over the weekend. I was in the first half of the alphabet so I had to do the assignment on the relative brain size on dinosaurs, while the others in the class got to do the assignment on the Irish Elk and it's antler size. We had our Vertebrate class where we discovered our next exam is this Wednesday week. It seems to be never ending with exams and assignments here. In our vertebrate lab we were looking at the respiration and digestive systems of our cats today. Kris also told us that we could cut up whatever organs we wanted to, which got me excited! We looked at the kidney, liver, spleen, stomach and small intestine! As well as finding everything else we needed to of course!

The insides of a Kidney, pretty damn cool yeah?!

This evening a group of us went bowling in Five Valley Bowling Centre, we had decided last week we were going to go. On Mondays they do $1 bowling and they charge $2 for shoe rentals. So we played 3 games of bowling and got it all for only $5! How class is that?! It was a great night! I won the first round, lost the second round by 2 or 3 points and in the 3rd round I taught Fiona how to bowl properly (she was complaining that I was too good - I'm not! :P ) And then she ended up beating me by 1 point! Teaching me to never teach anyone, anything ever again! :P

Five Valleys Bowling in Missoula

Tuesday November 4th


Today is election day so we have no class. Kris told us she'd leave the cat lab open for us to study our cats if we wanted to, so Fi and I got the bus in at 9.10 am and got to campus only to discover that all the doors to the building we wanted to get into were locked. Every single one! So we just decided to head home on the next bus back, a little bit pissed off but what can you do.
I got back home and FaceTimed my Mom, Dad and sister and my brother popped his face in for a few minutes too. After getting off the phone to them I FINALLY got to catch up with one of my best friends, Karen, from home. We were on the phone for ages before finally hanging up to both go and try do some assignments.
This afternoon, after both doing some work, Fi and I headed out to North Reserve street to book our tickets for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. It's on in two weeks time and incase we don't have enough time to head out and grab them we said we'd get it out of the way now.
We got back and I went straight into trying to sort out my Grant Proposal Application assignment that has turned out to be the biggest pain in my ass ever. I literally have no idea how to go about doing this, and the internet in my damn bedroom doesn't work properly either. Leaving me going slightly insane! Jurassic Park was also on tonight so I watched the second half of that while doing some research on my Proposal where the internet actually works. I called over to Dave and Elliot's for half an hour to grab Elliot's hard drive so we could watch a documentary Fiona had on domestication of dogs. Interesting enough documentary but they didn't actually use wolves....they used huskys.. Nevertheless, it was a really interesting documentary :P


Wednesday November 5th


Today was basically spent trying to do my Project Proposal that's due for tomorrow at 12pm. Everytime I saved the document it changed the formatting of it and would move text around if not delete it. It wasn't fun. Spent hours researching it and finally got it done while watching the second Jurassic Park movie, yeah productive I know. Printed out my three copies and started preparing the stuff I need for my weekend in Darby. This weekend is our Hunter Check Stations class, the one class I took this semester that apparently doesn't translate back to anything at home.. Something I reeeeally didn't appreciate finding out until I got here and got registered for classes but hey, that's life I guess.


Thursday November 6th


We handed in our proposals. We had to print out 3 copies, one for Vicky or Charlie, and two for our classmates to correct. We each got handed two proposals belonging to other people which we have to go through and correct and also give them a marking scheme back with spelling/grammar mistakes and/or other mistakes they made in it. Kinda cool, I like reading through and correcting other people's work :P
I booked our Motel in Darby this afternoon and got all my washing done before making a start on yet again another writing assignment that's due in next week. This assignment is an annotated bibliography on 5 papers we will be using in our habitat conservation issue review paper. I am not looking forward to this whatsoever. I'm telling ya, once I go back to UCC next year, I'm going to be able to spit out a whole assignment in one night. Over here, you're given a whole review paper and only have a very little number of weeks to write it, no extensions, no excuses, nothing! And this isn't the only assignment you will have at this time as well, as an example I also have another review paper due the same week except we can't even start that yet because we haven't got our results back or even the general format of the paper. So we'll basically only have about two weeks to right up a full review paper as well as make a 15-20 minute presentation on the same subject as well. Not cool America, not cool.



Friday November 7th

Happy 21st Birthday Nicole <3

This morning I started packing for my weekend away in Darby at the Hunter Check Stations. I packed up my bags and headed to class at 11am, I posted a postcard home and returned a library book for Fiona too seeing as she had forgotten, and she had work. Had my Physiological Ecology class and we got our results back from last week, I got 88% which I'm really happy with! Except for the point that I was one point off getting an A, again!! I maaay appeal it but I haven't decided yet. This is the second exam in a row that I'm 1point off getting an A...

We went straight out to the Field Research Station to do the analysis on our Bird research paper with the Diamond Doves.  Fiona and I finished up our part really quickly, we had a system and we stuck to it. While the technology wasn't exactly co-operating with Sadie and Nathan, they only got three of their landings done while Fiona and I got all 15 of ours done!


We got home from our lab which seemed to just take forever, Fiona ran around packing while I went and grabbed us dinner. We shoved our food down and packed up the car and left for Darby! An hour and 20 mins of driving later, we arrived in Darby and checked into the Inn we will be staying at for the next two nights, The Mountain Spirit Inn. The owners of the Inn are so incredibly nice! We were chatting to them for a solid 20 minutes about the amount of Mountain Lions and Wolves that pass through the area and even just outside the Inn itself! The owner carries a small little self defense gun around in his pocket just incase.
We got settled and started working on assignments and blogging for the evening.

Incredibly comfy King Bed.

Our cute little kitchenette!

Our bathroom.

Saturday November 8th

Our day began at 8.45am, we had to be at the Check Station for 10am. We slowly got ready this morning and before we knew it, it was 9.45am and we had to leave. We loaded the car with our schoolbags, food and blankets.
We met Dylan, who later turned out to be our neighbor in Lewis and Clark, and also met Mark and Becky the two people we would be working with today. Essentially our biologists for the day. Becky and her family have been hunting in the area for years and are pros at aging deer and elk. On our first day we had a range of different animals come through, we had Elk, Mule Deer, White Tails, a Bison and even a Black Bear all come through our Check Station. There were two lanes to the station, the 'loser' lane and the successful lane. Anyone with game (that had successfully harvested an animal) came into the lane closest the trailer we were in, we aged Elk by their 'ivories' (their canines) and we aged White Tails and Mule Deer by cutting their cheek back and checking the sharpness of their teeth and whether certain teeth had two or three points to them. I didn't cut the cheek today I was recording the animals we got through and also manning the loser lane at the same time to keep the flow of traffic going.

Our shelter for Saturday and Sunday.

We wrapped up tonight about 7.30, Fiona and I were starving and decided to head to a place called The Blue Joint in Darby for dinner as recommended to us by Mark and Becky. I got a bacon cheeseburger (like father, like daughter) while Fiona got the swiss cheese and mushroom burger, a little more adventurous. We literally ate up every last bit and headed back to the motel we were staying in, both as full as butchers dogs! We browsed the internet for a small while and I was so shattered I was ready for bed at 10pm. Exhausted from our day! We chatted about god knows what and then fell asleep after 11pm sometime, the earliest I've been able to go to bed here in the longest time.

Our first animal of the day, a Bull Elk with a club antler.

Lovely Male White Tail packed up nicely into the boot of a Jeep.

Two lovely White Tails that were both harvested by children.

A huge Bull Elk that came through from Nevada.

Sunday November 9th


We got up at 8am this morning to pack up all our belongings from the motel room, make our food for the day and check out before heading to the check station. We left and arrived at the check station at bout 9.30am, early but they were already opened so we were off to work straight away. An incredibly slow morning.
We had a good few for the loser lane that had absolutely nothing. Becky's husband Jerry rang her and told her traffic was backed up by about 30 cars in the canyon because a fisherman was after being hit by a telephone pole and had died. We had a bad storm hit us today which knocked down a number of trees in the area which broke telephone poles and had live wires around. So naturally, we had no body come through the check station so we were preparing for a rush. We got wrapped up in coats, hats and scarves while the wind and rain battered us. I manned the loser lane noting down where everyone had hunted and how many hunters were in the car. I had the traffic moving at a nice fast pace in the loser lane, while the others aged the animals that came through and checked to see if all the tags were legit. We soon got quiet again. Becky's husband and daughter had come down to give us a hand and to speed things up a bit. Hunters tend to get a little cranky if they haven't got anything. Some could be out for two weeks and come extremely prepared and get nothing. Others though are very nice and welcome you with a smile and say 'hello there young lady, how are you doing today?', oh the simple pleasures.
 Seeing as today was incredibly slow and also incredibly nasty we were allowed leave the check station early. We filled out our sheets and left about 6.30 and we decided to stop in McDonalds in Hamilton on the way home. We grabbed our bite to eat and I drove home ever so slowly and carefully while again, the wind and rain battered the car and I was also on the look out for deer, that was something I did not want to hit with my Dad's car.
We got home and headed straight out to Walmart to get some meat before the cold comes and hits us. Very wet, very cold and very tired we got home. Elliot came over to see how our weekend went and once he left we went to bed.

A stunning Mule Deer that came through our Check Station.

I know a lot of you may not be okay with the fact these animals have been hunted and killed, as I did too before I got here. But here in Montana, there is great conservation efforts going into maintaining the numbers of these animals by issuing 'tags'. Hunters have to pay money for these tags, and this money goes to Conservation Efforts which helps to maintain a future for all of these animals. These tags also only allow hunters to hunt a certain species and age of an animal in a given area and are essentially a permit. This allows Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks to maintain steady numbers of Wildlife in these areas. The Check Stations are put in place to monitor these and make sure the hunters are using their tags in the right areas and to also put a stop to poaching. Poaching is the illegal hunting of animals whether it be wolves, deer, elk or bears. I didn't include the picture of the Black Bear that came through because he was pretty bloody and I didn't want to freak anyone out but if you wouuuuld like to see him, you can ask me and I'll happily send you the picture :P



Thank you so much again guys for reading my blog! I really do appreciate all of you who take the couple minutes out of your day to read it. Just goes to show my efforts going into this aren't going unnoticed, cause it does take a lot of time and energy into it. I know some days are boring but I don't want to exclude anything so everyone can say up-to-date as it's hard to keep in contact with everyone! I only have 5-6 weeks of blogging left before I leave Montana and go home for the Christmas Holidays so I'll be taking a break from blogging for then until I come back here for my second semester!

'Til next week,

- Shannen.

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.

Week 9 - Internationals on Tour.

Monday October 20th


We started some climate change lectures in Wildlife Physiological Ecology today as a change from normal lectures, and I loved this! So very interesting! We also got our lab results back today and even with all my study, it didn't pay off! Slightly pissed off/disappointed because of all the study I had put in. Dave cooked Fiona and I an unreal stir-fry for dinner today. He'd make a fantastic chef so he would! Spent all the rest of this evening studying for our exam that we've got tomorrow.And holy Christ it's cold today. You can definitely tell winter is on it's way!!



Tuesday October 21st


Another fabulously cold day today. We had our dreaded Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management exam today. It was a seriously long exam for only 50minutes - NINE PAGES LONG. My watch fell off the table half way through, so I lost track of time, Dr. Dreitz announced when we had 15 minutes left to go and I still had two long questions left to do, so I hurried through and got them all done (just about). I'm not sure what way it went, kind of hit or miss really, I feel I did okay, but then again I thought that about my lab exam from last week so I'm not sure now, we'll have to wait and see. How to Train Your Dragon also happened to be on the TV tonight so we decided to sit down and watch this as a study break :P



Wednesday October 22nd


 Had more of our Climate Change lectures today, they're so interesting! This time though, we talked about how climate change affects different animals in various ways. I absolutely love this class so much! She's a very engaging lecturer too and always tries to come up with new ways to make us enjoy the classroom experience more. It's brilliant. In our Vertebrate Design and Evolution class we've moved onto nerve functions and the mechanics behind them. Thank the Lord we've moved away from the Physics stuff because I really hated it.. Fiona suggested we watch a movie tonight after both of us started and finished our Lab Reports that are due in tomorrow. We watched 'Warm Bodies' which I really wasn't all that gone on to be honest.. Fiona enjoyed it, and there was bits I did find to be funny but I really didn't enjoy it :P



Thursday October 23rd


Called up the RV company today and set up our time to collect it tomorrow morning. So excited! Watched the videos on how to work the RV and such as well today, just giving myself some background information on it and whatnot. We moved onto talking about communities today in Conservation and Management today which I enjoyed, Dr. Dreitz is trying to get us to be more engaging in class so two of us got called up to the board today (I was one) and we just had to interpret a diagram, wasn't all that bad. I don't mind speaking in front of crowds so much when I know what I'm talking about, haha. We also got handed a nice big assignment which I think is worth 30% of our grade. We have to write a review paper on a habitat issue of our choice, but the issue had to have an affect on a certain community which we also have to talk about. As well as this paper, we have to do a 15 minute presentation on it on December 2nd in front of our classmates - which to be honest I'm quite excited about, I've never done a proper presentation before so it could be kind of cool.
I already know the kind of issue I want to talk about, so I spent most of this afternoon, while on Facetime to Mom, researching and finding different Peer Reviewed Literature Papers on my chosen topic, which I will tell ye about, but more so when I've made a definite decision on what it is I'm going to be doing.


Friday October 24th


So today, my Wildlife Physiological Class was optional because it was just a review class, and seeing as we were leaving for Yellowstone today I didn't go because there was a lot to organize and pack up. James and I left at 9.30am and picked up the RV and brought it back to Lewis and Clark. I started to load up some stuff into it with the help of my roommate Sarah. We began our journey from Lewis and Clark about 4pm and headed for Yellowstone National Park. We swapped drivers half way with James taking over and driving the second half and we arrived at Yellowstone RV Park roughly about 9pm. We got our electrical hook-up and wifi going and we settled down and made dinner. We had a gourmet dinner of hotdogs this evening with some mash potatoes also :P I also saw one incredible shooting star and we could just about see the milky way also, truly stunning!!

This was the big ass RV that I really enjoyed driving!

The inside of the RV :D

Another view of the RV, Dave and I claimed the bed above the drivers cabin, so comfortable and incredibly warm!

Saturday October 25th


We woke up at 8am this morning and left the RV park for 9am and headed for Yellowstone. We paid our fee to get into the park, $25 gets you access for a full week which is class! We spotted a small herd of pronghorn first, we were heading for the Lamar Valley and accidentally missed the turn so we ended up carrying on straight and heading for Norris, stopping at a few places along the way. I'm just going to put up pictures of basically everywhere we went besides talking through step by step where we went. We ate lunch in a picnic area near a waterfall and set off to see more of the Park again, such as Artists Paint Pots (big disappointment, nothing artistic about them), we then went and saw the Fountain Paint Pots, Grand Prismatic, Excelsior, Old Faithful, Roaring Mountain and loads of other random little stops inbetween.

A nice group selfie :)

Roaring Mountain.

Some geysers on the Fountain Paint Pot Nature Trail.

Grand Prismatic - It's got a variety of colors going through it based on the different bacteria. They each have their own optimum Temperature at which they work best at. These bacteria are colored differently, giving the Spring it's different colors. It's truly amazing.

Old Faithful. This geyser erupts often, being given the name Old Faithful. Depending on the amount of water, and the duration of each eruption, the scientists in the park can determine when the next eruption is going to happen, normally plus or minus 10 minutes.

We got back to our RV Park between 8/9 pm, we were gone for a full 12 hours, we did and saw so much it was incredible! Fiona cooked up a nice dinner with the help of Kate, of burgers, mash potatoes and potato salad. We lay on the ground relaxing with a few drinks just looking at the stars and having a laugh. No better bunch could have gone to Yellowstone, we all get on so well it's fantastic.

The Open Road - Yellowstone National Park.

Sunday October 26th


We rose early at 6am this morning to leave for 7.15am in order to try and get to The Lamar Valley for sunrise. This is the best time to try and see wildlife, the main reason we were coming to Yellowstone really. We drove to basically the  of the Lamar Valley. We drove passed what I was almost 100% positive was a bear, but we didn't stop the car, which upset me quite a lot because I REALLY wanted to see a bear :P After we turned around we did pull over and I hopped out with binoculars and low and behold there was a fine fat grizzly bear munching on what appeared to be a carcass of some sort. I thought I saw a cub there also but we watched the bear for about 15/20 minutes and I didn't see a little bear anyways so I'm not incredibly sure. But I don't care, I FOUND A GRIZZLY BEAR!! We then left and continued driving and I don't think 5 minutes had even passed and we saw A WOLF PACK running across the mountains in the distance. This had already been the best day of my life and it wasn't even 10am. Unfortunately, both the Griz and the wolves were too far away from me for my camera to make them out when I zoomed, so I'm slightly disappointed but what can ya do!

We took a right turn onto Slough Creek, a notorious place to spot wolves as there is (or used to be, a wolf pack called the Slough Creek Pack). We didn't see any wolves but we did see a massive herd of Bison! We parked up here at the end of this road and had our breakfast. We then turned back and started to have an RV Sing Song with our road trip song - Mi Mi Mi. Our incredibly amazing singing startled a small herd of bison which caused them to all run away from the RV (technically a stampede). They stopped on the road ahead of us and stared at the RV - slightly intimidating, these animals are huuuuuge!! We slowly crept passed this herd of bison only to be greeted further on by an exceptionally large herd of maybe 150 bison all alongside or on the roads. We crawled along the roadway, being careful not to disturb the bison too much, this is critical because these guys could throw their body one way and completely write off a car - not something we wanted to happen!

Just a small few of the bison taking up the entire roadway..

We then went to Mammoth Terraces, since I had seen these with the other Yellowstone trip I went on, I dropped the other 6 off at the top of the terraces and then I drove down the hill and met them at the bottom instead of them walking up and back down the terraces again, it just made more sense. We parked up and had some lunch, we noticed some very light snow started to fall at this stage so we were starting to rethink our afternoon. From Mammoth, it would have taken over an hr to get to Yellowstone Lake due to road closures and bad weather. We decided it wasn't worth the trip down there because we would have got back to Missoula far too late and everyone had something they had to be doing for college. We had our last family meal of the trip and headed home!

Our last family meal, the fantastic 5 + 2.

We made the decision to head back to Missoula and we eventually made it back home for after 6pm sometime. James drove the first part of the journey while I took a power nap or two using Dave as a pillow. I drove the second part then back into Missoula. We spent about an hour or so cleaning out the RV and unpacking all our belongings. We filled back up the gas tank, and the propane and emptied out the dump tank and returned the RV to Lolo.

Had the best weekend ever with the Bison Bunch / Fantastic 5 + 2.





The weekdays aren't really all that exciting anymore, it's all college work, assignments and exams and I really don't want to bore you lot with the details so I'm just shortening them down a little bit. This weekend was a bit of an exception, seeing as we spent it all in Yellowstone. We've already started planning our next trip away together as a group for Thanksgiving. I know this weeks post was a long one but I didn't want to shorten it down because I know a lot of you would like to hear about the Yellowstone trip! I hope ye enjoyed this weeks post!


Thanks for reading!

- Shannen.

Week 8 - Exams, exams and more exams..

Monday October 13th

We had our ever dreaded lab exam today, I studied every waking minute of the weekend bar Saturday night when we had our horror movie marathon. It didn't go terribly but it could have honestly gone either way and cause I studied so much I'm kinda hoping to come out on the better side! This evening I watched 101 Dalmatians on Netflix, a blast from my past! It amazed me how I am still able to quote the movie and still remember every part of it! Again an unexciting day! Hahaha.


Tuesday October 14th

So today we had our third and final field trip for our Conservation and Management class to the MPG Ranch. Technically, it used to be a ranch and as far as I'm aware, they don't keep animals on it anymore. So to me, it shouldn't still be called a ranch. But what do I know?! Nevertheless, the land is still beautiful! We learned about the different methods of conservation on the area and how they also manage the area. The scientist that gave us the tour around the property was so lovely and very informative.

A gorgeous little garden that is on MPG Ranch, creating a better habitat for insects and in turn birds.

 This evening, Fiona, Siobhan and I went to Walmart to do our food shopping. We got back, unloaded the car and sat down to watch Supernatural Episode 2 of Season 10. This episode was a lot better than the first one and I'm way too excited for the next one!





Wednesday October 15th

Got our Vertebrate Design exams back and I did hadn't done too well like I thought. Just as well I studied well enough (hopefully) for the lab exam. I finished off my lab report from last weeks field trip as it's due in tomorrow in class. This evening I made unreal Enchiladas for dinner. About 9ish Dave and Elliot called over and we watched a 'thriller' called The Calling. Honestly, Dave was shitting his pants.. Fiona enjoyed it but I just didn't.. It wasn't scary enough for a horror, and I wasn't all that thrilled afterwards to label it as a thriller. It took too much concentration to get the storyline (which was kinda cool all the time hop stuff). But still, not impressed :P - says the world famous movie critic herself like -__- hahaha


Thursday October 16th


Today we had a review lecture for our Conservation and Management class exam that is on next Tuesday. Our TA Charlie taught the class. I learned a lot from him today, he should definitely have a future in teaching! He told us to write down everything he wrote down and if we followed and studied that, we should be fine. Safe to say I will be using those notes as a bible. I love the way they do things here, they make our lives that little bit easier! Came home this evening and completely relaxed, I have no assignments to be doing. Realistically I should be studying for my exam next Tuesday but I needed a break. I worked on my blog, caught up on my Youtube videos and made some homemade chocolate cookies with Fiona. We also watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.



Friday October 17th

Today was a quiet enough day, had only one class today seeing as I didn't have my Vertebrate Design and Evolution lab today. Fiona worked on her coyote paper while I went to a shop called The World Market near Southgate Mall with Shannon and Grace (from my Missoula family) and a few Internationals also. A SHOP THAT HAS BARRY'S TEA BAGS. Made my day. I got myself a pack of Chocolate Digestives today also. This evening we headed out to Walmart to gather some bits for our Yellowstone trip next weekend and we met up with Kate and James at Big Dipper for chats afterwards, it was well needed.

The sacred Barry's Tea.

Saturday October 18th


Today was the Griz Pink Game, I slept in though and had to do an assignment today too so it just didn't happen that I could go. Fiona made vodka gummy bears and a birthday cake for Elliot cause we were celebrating it and I made the vodka jelly shots. We bought him two dinosaur blow up toys for his birthday too which we blew up only to find out the T-Rex was flat :( We headed over to their apartment about 5pm ish to help them set the place up but by the time we got there Dave had the whole place cleaned and ready to go already. So we had the chats with Siobhan and the lads and then Kate and James arrived just before a few more arrived too. We played drinking games and sang Happy Birthday when the other Internationals arrived. In the end, Elliot had a fantastic night so that's all that mattered.

The cakes!

The birthday boy and I.

Sunday October 19th

Happy 21st Birthday Elliot!

So today's Elliot's actual birthday, I rang him to see if himself and Dave wanted to go out for brunch with Fiona, Sarah and I. They weren't really in the mood for food so it was a roomies breakfast this morning at Paul's Pancake Parlor. I can confirm,  thee best Chocolate Chip Pancakes I have ever had! Fiona got the Potato Pancakes and Sarah got the 'Griz'. We came home and I had every intention to study today but I couldn't, I wasn't hungover sick but genuinely sick and tired so today was spent in a ball on the couch with Fiona and we watched the movie Side Effects with Jude Law and Channing Tatum in it. Very very good movie! It was incredible and I liked the twist in it also. Last night Dave, Eoghan, Siobhan and I went to Walmart AGAIN, beginning to think I should just move in here, turned out (as usual) I forgot to get something when I went during the week so I went and got some more of our bits and bobs for Yellowstone like the burger buns and hot dogs buns we need for our dinner.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes and a side of bacon :D

Another sort of uneventful week, been up the walls between assignments and studying for exams it's been a bit of madness the last few weeks. Next weekend we've got our trip to Yellowstone so hopefully it's going to be a good one! I've extended my program I'm going to definitely be coming back here again after Christmas for another semester, I'm really looking forward to it now! Get to register and choose my classes, hopefully, next week also.

Thanks for reading,

- Shannen

Week 7 - Where's this warm weather coming from?!

Monday October 6th

So we had class as usual today, had to redo an assignment for the Physiological class cause I didn't quote things properly but it thankfully didn't take long so I got it done in like 5 minutes. Had our Vertebrate Design and Evolution class where we just had a recap on what we've done so far for our exam Wednesday.
Our lab for today just consisted of a revise lab - again for our exam we have coming up next Monday. This evening was just full of study again - or trying to study, my brain was so unbelievably fried at this point I couldn't seem to get anything to stay in my head.. Pointless evening!!

This is the most beautiful campus in the world, seriously.

Tuesday October 7th

So we had our field trip to the Blackfoot today, we met at the Facilities yard where we were to collect the minivans we would be driving today. Tori drove our minivan and we piled into it, with me getting shotgun. We spent the drive going up laughing and talking and basically complaining about exams/lecturers .. The usual really. We got there and we were talking to a Rancher (on his land) and two men from the Fish and Wildlife Service about the work they are doing with the Blackfoot Challenge. We spent the day talking about the conservation and management on the lands owned by Jim.

The Wild Wild West <3

Two other car loads stayed on in the bar tonight while our car headed home because nearly all the people in our car had en exam tomorrow or work that evening.

This evening I studied for a while - tried! I was so exhausted nothing was going in. Fiona and I also got dominos this evening cause we didn't get home until close to 7 and we were so hungry we couldn't wait to cook! Kate and James came over this evening for the Supernatural Season Premiere which I was way too excited for and it wasn't as good as I was hoping.. Then again, I had such high hopes and I was way too excited this would probably be why.


Wednesday October 8th

Had our usual mini class test in Wildlife Phys. After this I had my Vertebrate exam, it didn't go all that great. It really annoyed me cause I actually knew the answers to some of the questions but when I was sitting the exam, my mind completely blanked and I couldn't remember a thing! What a pain in the ass..
This evening, I took a few hours off, Fiona, Kate and I went and did some of our Halloween costume shopping, I also returned the anti-virus software I bought because I didn't end up having to use it after the people in the tech center fixed my laptop.
Came home and just watched another of the frozen planets. Elliot called over and Dave did a while afterwards too. It's crazy how little we actually see each other while we're here! College workload here is crazyyyyyy (if I haven't already said it like a million times).


Thursday October 9th

Left Lewis and Clark this morning and collected James, we went out to Lolo to have a look at RV rentals because we're planning a trip to Yellowstone this month. So we got it all booked and ready to go, too excited for it now!
Went to class where we had a guest speaker on what our field trip is going to be about next Tuesday to MPG Ranch in the Bitterroot Valley. Came back home, had lunch, did some more of my assignments and then went back to campus for our Hunter Check Station class where we were told the rules and regulations of the Check Stations and how to age animals by their teeth - pretty cool.
Spent this evening doing my assignment that's due for tomorrow. Got most of it done thankfully!


Friday October 10th

Got my Wildlife Physiological Ecology exam back from last week - 86% sweet! 4% off an A so I'm slightly disappointed on that front but I did better than my last exam at least. We started our Research Project on Perch Compliance this evening also. Working closely with Bret and Kris, Sadie worked the slow motion camera, Fiona worked on monitoring the different forces on her screen, I took all the notes seeing as my writing is most legible and Nathan was the bird handler. We got all our work done very fast and we were out of there after 3 hours!

Diamond Dove 17

Fiona, Elliot and I went and tried out Five Guys this evening for dinner. I stopped by my MIFP's house this evening because Shannon said she had something to give me, she baked some Zuccini Chocolate Bread which is just delicious! And she gave me Halloween socks also - how thoughtful! I really am so lucky. Fiona and I got home and left after 5 minutes to meet James and Kate on campus to go and see 22 Jump Street on campus. Such a brilliant movie! It's hilarious!
Came back and finished off my assignment that's due for tonight as well as watching the first Hunger Games movie on ABC Family!

My burger from Five Guys <3

Saturday October 11th

 Spent all day Saturday studying for my exam Monday. Not fun!

We had a horror movie marathon tonight and watched, The Cabin in the Woods, The Others and Grabbers. We got to bed sometime after 2 I think. Elliot, Kate, James, Briget, Brittany and their friend, came to our apartment. Such a fun night!

Mandatory popcorn picture.

Sunday October 12th

Again, up early this morning and spent all day studying. Studied outside with Joe and Fiona for a bit too at a bench where I got to try pumpkin bread for the first time, it was actually quite nice. Also, while we were doing this there was an explosion in the University Villages because somebody was apparently cooking hash oil of some sort? ..... Only in Missoula ....

Went to Dairy Queen tonight with Eoghan and Dave to get ice cream to de-stress from all my studying.. They're a good distraction from my studies, a good laugh and catch up was needed!



So basically the week consisted of studying, so I'm now left with a terrible headache and lack of sleep. Oh to be a student! It's thankfully starting to calm down these next few weeks with not so many assignments due in. This blog post is again delayed this week because of all my college work that needed to be done so apologies. Hopefully I can get next weeks post up on Tuesday!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen. 

Week 6 - First Friday & Pancakes.

Monday September 29th

Left for college this morning and my good god was there a noticeable temperature difference today. A lot different from last weeks hot weather. Everyone on campus was wearing a hoodie of some sort or long pants instead of shorts. A shock to the system to say the least! 
Again today we had another comparative dissection class, this time one group dissected a bird and the other dissected a rabbit. When we got off the UDash Fiona and I went to check to see if by any chance we got any post. We noticed we had the key for parcels in our box so we opened it and there was a fine sized box with my name on it...I wasn't expecting anything. So naturally I got way too excited! I walked home at a considerably faster pace and ripped the box open straight away to notice my Dad had sent me a box full of goodies from home. Nothing beats Barrys tea from home!
Spent the evening working on two different assignments I have due for this week and attempted to do one of these while watching Princess and the Frog - such a good Disney movie!

The chocolate chip cookies we made!

Tuesday September 30th

Another nice and cold day today. Also quite rainy, just like home! Woke up nice and early this morning to fit in a bit of study, I also have begun the process of extending my stay here at the University of Montana, I'm currently just waiting on UCC to support my extension as I already have full support of the University of Montana. Way too excited! Hoping for best! I also finally got around to catching up on my washing today - about time.

Had my only class of the day and then came home with Fiona, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed back into the library to work on some more assignments I have due this week - mental! Only stayed here for 2 hours and surprisingly I made great progress so I was able to come home earlier than I expected. I also took out a book on white-tailed deer that I need for my field report.
Tuesday evening was spent working on my assignment on Metabolism that I got yesterday that's due for tomorrow. And I also got to start on the field report that's due for Thursday today and I was able to get most of it done! We also had 'Breakfast for Dinner' today where it's literally just as it says!

Wednesday October 1st

Yet again more work on assignments today and tonight.. It's crazy! I've also been given some more to do for next week, they really are keeping us on our toes here! We decided to take a break this evening and go for a food run to Walmart, we being Fiona, Elliot Siobhan and I. Dave and Elliot called over to us for a while tonight which was nice cause they've also been crazy busy with labs it was nice to take a break. I had to also start studying for my 20% exam that I have on Friday today. The exam is going to be on Oxygen and Metabolism and I actually really enjoyed learning about these topics in class so it made it easier to learn :)


Thursday October 2nd

So today I only had one class which was at 12-1. I spent my morning studying for tomorrows exam again. We handed in our lab reports and carried on with our lectures while also being reminded we have a field trip to the Blackfoot next Tuesday! After this class, I brought my laptop to the tech center in the UC because I was having serious problems with popups. The girl working there today sorted me out with a new anti-virus software and showed my how to work it. So when I brought it home I was able to run the scan and quarantine anything it found while also getting rid of it. But my problem still wasn't solved 100% so I'll just have to bring it back in tomorrow. Came home and did some more study while also helping Sarah make a Cheesecake for her boyfriend who's coming over for the weekend (how cute). Made tacos for dinner - which I've never had before and they tasted unreal! Studied some more today before 'taking a break' i.e giving up for a while. Siobhan called over and we watched another of The Frozen Planets this evening.



Friday October 3rd

It's October 3rd ...


So I did my usual morning cramming before the exam today. The exam didn't go to badly either! I'm hoping I did better in this one than the last. But we'll have to wait and see. So glad this week is over and done with now! It's just been a crazyyyy week with 3 assignments due and an exam to top it all off. College isn't easy here! But the weekends make it worth it! So between 3.30 / 4 pm today we're meeting up with a bunch of people from my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class at Montgomery's Distillery in Missoula this afternoon. And after being here, we headed out to see what this First Friday craic is all about!
So we all met up at the distillery at 4pm and tried out some drinks here, we then went to 'First Friday'. This included walking around town in and out of the various art galleries that are around Missoula. On the first Friday of every month various artists put their work on display and the galleries are open to the public with free wine, cheese and crackers available to the public also. Some of the galleries also had music playing too by local musicians. In one of the places Danny Boy was even being played! In fairness, some of the art was pretty cool! After this all finished up we went for dinner in The Flathead Brewing Company which was delicious!

We met back up with Sofia again after her practice and went to Union Hall to listen to some music. I felt extremely out of my comfort zone here it was weird, swing dancing and everything. It was really enjoyable though and the music was absolutely fantastic! I must have done some weird twisting and turning at some point earlier in the day because my back was in absolute bits and I could only move and turn it in certain ways. We ended up leaving Union Hall about 11.30 and made it home for 12 am thanks to the UDash.

Out for dinner with Fiona, Preethy and Kate.

Saturday October 4th

Had a nice early rise this morning at 8am to get ready to leave for 9am. We were heading to the Bison Range for a day trip. Fiona, Elliot, Preethy and I got ourselves ready, filled the car up and off we went! An hr North and we arrived at the National Bison Range only to find out the main road was closed off because of the Bison Round-Up. So instead, we got to go on the shorter winter trail. We still got to see Bison, Elk, White Tailes, Mule Deer and Pronghorn Antelope. Just no coyotes or Bighorn Sheep this time.

Bison Range with Preethy, Fiona, Elliot and I.

 We got back to Lewis and Clark and relaxed for a bit. Then headed off out again stopping at a few shops out on Reserve Street before coming back, eating dinner and relaxing. I am just so exhausted I want a night where I have nothing to do an all night to do it so that's what's going to happen!
We decided on watching The Avengers tonight which is a brilliant movie and I can't believe I had left it this long before watching it!


Sunday October 5th

Woke up at 10am completely refreshed it was fantastic. I had got the best night sleep I have got in weeks I think. No alarm needed to be set! At 11.30am we were leaving to go to a place called Denny's for brunch. I found a value menu at the back where I got a cheese quesadilla and two pancaks for $2 each!! How unreal is that for value? We got back shortly after 1pm when Dave called over for a while for chats. I also apologize because I never took a picture to show you guys ..

This evening was just spent studying and doing more assignments..
Dave also washed my car for me this evening which was lovely!



I'm sorry this post is going up so late, I've been mega busy between studying for exams and doing assignments I just haven't had the time to spend on my blog. But nevertheless it's going up!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen
 

Week 5 - Homecoming!

Monday September 22nd

Happy 21st Birthday Amy!

Today I had to hand in an assignment for my Wildlife Physiology class first. We also got the results back from our exam last week, I got 80% which I have quickly learned isn't a great grade here. It was my first exam though and I have the chance to drop it as only four out of our five exams in this class count as credit. Yay!

For our Introduction to Perch Compliance assignment we just had to email it in to either Kris or Bret. They are trying to move away from paper so they find with such a small class of only 11 people, emailing it in is quite sufficient. After class we then have our lab, today we were doing comparative dissections. We all did different animals such as, two fish, a stingray, a turtle, a frog, a salamander and a shark. Fiona and I chose the frog, which I really didn't want to do because I love frogs and I was quite happy not knowing what's on the inside. But we did anyways, and he was pretty cool. His skin was awesome the amount of capillaries on the under side of his skin was amazing. We soon discovered he had an amazing assortment of muscles and the ones on his legs were huge for all his jumping. We all then taught the next about the different muscles on the animals we dissected.

We just came home and relaxed for a while because thankfully, we have no assignments due in this week it makes a change! We decided after a while of blogging we'd go up the mountain behind Lewis and Clark to do some deer watching for one of our assignments for our habitat and management class. For this class, we have to do roughly 6 hours of watching a vertebrate animal of our choice, so Fiona and I chose an animal that's common around these parts and easy to watch for 6 hours - White Tailed Deer. Obviously not 6 hours in one day, we're going to do it over a number of days. We then met up with Eoghan and went to Walmart and on our way back we stopped off in Big Dipper and treated ourselves to Ice Cream!

The sunset while we were deer watching. Gorgeous.

Tuesday September 23rd

Just another usual day on campus, had Conservation and Management with our guest speaker. He spoke to us about populations in Elk and the factors affecting their growth and survival. The biggest factor affecting Elk populations is in fact humans. This is because the Elk have been hunted out of the prairie lands where they do very well and they have plenty of food availability in order for humans to farm. They have instead moved to the mountainous areas where the food would not be as good quality for them to live off and feed young off also. Humans have more of an impact than wolves and also surprisingly, grizzly bears also have more of an impact on Elk than wolves do. Really interesting stuff!

We got home and had a quick lunch before heading off to Southgate Mall to try and get some warmer clothes for the cold weather we are expected to get. We also got Roxiberry frozen yoghurt while we were here, I just love it! Unfortunately, they don't have their more winter stuff out yet as the weather here is still quite warm. Pity because this is a nice quiet week for me with no assignments to do, yet! I'll have to try and sit down and possibly do some study so I won't get too lazy about college work I guess!

Roxiberry Frozen Yoghurt <3

Wednesday September 24th

Just another average day at college today. Had my Wildlife Phys. class and we found out that we have no class this friday, yay! Had vertebrate design and evolution then afterwards, nothing major to report here.
This evening, Fiona and I set off out again deer watching for our Conservation and Management class. We sat and watched a small family of deer for ages with the younger ones getting all inquisitive it was cute watching them slowly approach us. We were sat behind a fence though so they couldn't get too close!

Watching the deer through a camera for close up action.

Happy out after our mini-hike deer watching!

 We watched some more of the Frozen Planet documentaries tonight again, educating ourselves a little better haha.



Thursday September 25th

Today I got to catch up with my sister before heading to college. Went in for another guest lecture in Conservation and Management. I went to the Griz Store on campus after class and got myself my first Grizz football t-shirt, a hoodie and temporary face tattoos also for the Homecoming game I'm going to be attending on Saturday afternoon!
Getting quite excited about it now.

I had a splitting headache this evening but I got to talk to Av and Kisha from home, getting all the news and just having a catch up. Didn't really do anything that exciting today, just messed about the place and took a spin to Walmart with Dave tonight cause I needed to get stuff for breakfast and he had to do food shopping also.



Friday September 26th

Seeing as my 12pm class was cancelled I didn't have anything on until 1.30 pm today which was delightful. I still got up early though cause I was dropping my friend home from the dentist after he got his wisdom teeth out. Only a couple of blocks away too so that was handy! Met Sofia at Lewis and Clark at 1.15 ish and then collected Fiona on our way to the Field Research Station. We made our way out there and ended up being the first to arrive even though we were five minutes late! We broke up into our different research groups and started on the assignment given to us by Bret and Kris, where we got to work with the equipment and learn how to use it and whatnot, which was pretty cool!

Finished up and headed home then, both Fiona and I didn't feel like cooking a dinner today, and see as it's a Friday we said we'd go for something to eat somewhere, so we got Dave and I brought them to Wendy's for the first time. We got dinner here and then very cheekily got Dairy Queen after visiting the Liquor Store/Casino to get spirits for the homecoming game tomorrow.
We were wrecked tired and had to be up early in the morning so it was an early night for us after watching another episode of the Frozen Planet tonight.

Wendys, my favorite fast food restaurant!

Saturday September 27th

HOMECOMING!!
So I got up at like 7am because we had to be in town at 8.30am and we didn't know if we would have to walk all the way in or if there would be a taxi at this hour of the morning that we could get. Luckily, there was taxis so we got one of these to town to meet up with the others that will be on our float for the parade.

Big sleepy head on me, all excited for homecoming!

I was all decked out in my Griz gear and my Irish flag for the Study Abroad float. We hopped on our float a bit after 8.30 am and we then headed into the line up for the parade, everyone was holding flags from various countries. We then began shortly after 10 am. We drove through Missoula town before heading out towards the University. After 5 minutes of sitting on the float I decided to hop off and run/walk next to it handing out stickers/cards and blow up globes to little children who were standing on the side of the street. It was so much fun!

All decked out with my Irish flag.

Afterwards, we went to Shannon and Craig's house for an absolutely amazing BBQ to provide some soakage before we started our drinking for the homecoming football game. We left around 1pm for the game after saying our many thank yous for the lovely spread of food. We found a place to stand and watched some of the game. The Grizzlies were doing really well and it didn't look like there was going to be a change in the game so instead we left early and went to Stacey's dorm room and played some drunken jenga, essentially jenga with Kings rules written on every block. Around 4.30/5 pm we all headed back to Lewis and Clark, Fiona and I went in home for some food first then we all met up at Fabien's house for some predrinking. Went to town about 8.30/9 ish (really early!!). Had such a good night! Really gutted a lot of the International Students that are out here now are only going to be here for one semester. It's not fair!


Sunday September 28th

A lot of Sunday was spent sleeping. Both Dave and I took a shopping trip to Walmart alright in th evening time but I spent it working on blog and starting/finishing an array of assignments I have due this week. Nothing too major happened as per my usual Sundays.



Sorry this weeks post is a bit later than usual. I've been up the walls with college assignments that I haven't got much of a chance to sort my blog out. I'm now going to upload on Tuesdays instead of Mondays as my timetable is a lot better on a Tuesday allowing me to be able to post up at an earlier time. Next week is basically just all assignments/exams. Very busy! We have our first weekend off in ages where we're going to take yet another trip to the National Bison Range hopefully!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen