Week 19 - Love is in the Air!

Monday February 9th

8am start again this morning with genetics and evolution. I got my homework done and turned in last night to get it out of the way. We're currently learning about independent assortment and sex-linkage so it's pretty interesting. Every week we have homework that has to be submitted online, it's just a couple of questions so nothing major. This was followed by an hour break and then Ornithology as per usual. Kris talked about the grant proposal we need to do. We have to come up with an original research idea and try to pitch it people who would possibly fund it. Right now, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do it on.. I'm thinking of something that can relate back to Ireland, but I think it'd probably be easier to stick to something in the states so that it's easier to get help on.

I hopped on the bus home and started reading a 34 page page due for tomorrow for my recreation behaviour class.. Not fun! BUT the class is interesting so it makes it worthwhile :P

Even with muddy grass, this place is still beautiful.

Tuesday February 10th

Class starts at 11am on a Tuesday which makes a nice change to my usual 8am starts every other day of the week. Had Rangeland Ecology followed by an hour and a half off and then my Recreation Behaviour class. I really like both of these classes and the professor for Recreation Behaviour is so lovely, she refers to Fiona and I as her 'Irish girls'. We had our Wildlife Society meeting this evening and we had a guest speaker talking about some of the work he does with Raptors, mainly Golden Eagles. The rest of the evening I spent it doing some readings for my Thursday classes and also got some of the genetics homework done for next week, although I'm not 100% sure what to do with it. Nothing too exciting :)

This is Bertha, the Moose head that is in the Forestry Building on campus :P

Wednesday February 11th

8am start with Genetics and Evolution and at the moment we're studying meiosis and mitosis and the workings of each. An hour break then Ornithology with Kris. Every day I love this class (and birds duh) a little more than the previous day. At the moment we're discussing the different methods of flight that various birds use. We then had our Genetics lab. In order to get our participation points every week we have to submit a question online regarding some aspect of genetics, in order for our TA to make sure we're still thinking about stuff.. Or else we could just have a genuine question that we want answering about the lectures. I got home and started working straight away on another assignment due in for tomorrow and also another reading for Rec and Behaviour but this time it was only a 12 page paper (not bad in comparison to 30). Lewis and Clark were also having a Valentine's Day / Singleness Awareness Day dessert evening at the community center. We got our fair share of cheesecake and some muffins with unreal icing on them. I made Fiona a Valentines Day card (cause I'm sound..and we also married at the Foresters Ball :P). Sarah and I made our own little name plates and we also made one for Fiona since she was working for this event. We put these above our coat hangers inside the front door of our apartment and I think they look so cute! :P

Valentine's Day Card making & dessert :D

Our name plates we made <3

I studied for my bird quiz tomorrow with Jamie via Facebook. She would send me pictures of birds, I would guess them and then vice versa and I'm telling ya, it really helped :P

How to tell the Sharp-Shinned Hawk from the Cooper's Hawk.

 Thursday February 12th

Happy Birthday to my uncle John :)

At 6am this morning the rubbish truck woke me up emptying out all the bins. I wasn't impressed... 8am Ornithology lab this morning. We had our quiz based on all the raptors we did in last weeks lab and then moved on to shorebirds. Jamie, Fiona and I had to research into the Common Tern and Foresters Tern comparing and contrasting them. We used our good friend google for this and also our field bird guide which I got on Amazon for nice and cheap :D We did our bit and got it over and done with quick and easy. We also moved onto the bones of the birds which I was thankfully able to remember from my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class from last semester. This enabled both Fiona and I to leave early and get some extra time between classes. I used this time to make summaries of all the birds discussed in the lab today (probably near 30). Also met up with Kate for a while during this time off.

This is just some of the birds we have to know by next week...

And this is me studying with my Apple Juice :D

Headed to Rangeland Ecology which every Thursday there is presentations of the papers that required reading during the week. An hour and a half off so we just chilled in the UC and listened to some unreal piano playing and also got free buns in honour of University of Montana's 122nd birthday (nice!).

Happy 122nd Birthday UMT!

Then met Kate again for the last bit of our break at 1pm until Recreation Behaviour at 2pm. We even got to use our phones in class today. Libby has a verrrry strict no phones policy and it's really nice cause everyone actually pays attention and the class is very interactive. We were all assigned groups (I was group 10) and we were given a topic which we had to take a picture describing that topic. These all came from the paper we had to read for today to do with information processing and how different people convey that information. Our picture had to do with the assumption of incompetence. Essentially, how you might just look at someone and automatically assume they haven't a clue what is going on. So I came up with the genius but also cruel notion that we could take a picture of another group from our class. I was originally joking but everyone seemed to agree it was a good idea so why not?! I think Libby also enjoyed it :P

Seeing as my schoolbag is on it's last legs I decided to head out to ROSS on reserve to try and find a new and decent/colourful one. Nobody here has colourful schoolbags and I lovee them :P But I did get a really nice new one and it also fits my laptop into it nicely, compared to my old schoolbag. On my way back I met Alissa and Joe and I was taught how to play the card game rummy :P Which was fun, except you can get negative points?!

Playing Rummy :D

Friday February 13th

So, yesterday was busy :P Today, not so much! Genetics and Evolution and then Ornithology again this morning and I was home by 11.10am. In genetics we also did a colourblindness test.. And I couldn't see what needed to be seen leading us to think I am colourblind. Soooo, Jeff (the lecturer) kept talking and said girls can be carriers of the gene and still exhibit some colourblindness. GREAT! Hahaha.
I stopped by Shannon's house after college, she had left me my favourite oatmeal cookies with cranberry and white chocolate chips in them outside her house for me. YUMMY! I then took my car over to the car wash and washed it myself cause the amount of dust on it was just disgusting.. I hate driving around a dirty car :P So now my car is lovely and clean :D

Shannon's incredible oatmeal cranberry and white chocolate chip cookies!!

I then came back and watched two episodes of Bones to catch up (I'm still only on season 9 :/ ). Then got to Facetime Aisling and Mom for a while. Then I started on some genetics homework as well as finishing it, nothing too fascinating :P
Kate came over at 5.30 and we ordered some Domino's for dinner :D Seeing as it's Friday, I feel like it's allowed :P And we have a long weekend! We have Monday off cause it's President's Day whooo! We also watched Cloud Atlas, which I really didn't like.. Not that it was a bad movie I just don't like that time hoppy crap haha. Then Music & Lyrics was on afterwards which made my day :D

Yummy!

 Saturday February 14th

Happy Valentines / Singleness Awareness Day!

So cause my body clock is so used to waking up at 6.30am 4/5 mornings of the week, I woke up at that time this morning.. Not impressed! But I did manage to go back to sleep until 8.30am so I just gave in an stayed awake then. Facetimed Dad seeing as he's heading off back home tomorrow and then got ready for our Valentines Day hike today with Kate, Fiona, Caitriona and Aoife. We were going climbing up behind Mt. Sentinel and go exploring for a while :P

So today, Dairy Queen reopened and both Fiona and I couldn't contain our excitement. If you remember way back in October I think, Dairy Queen went into 'hibernation' for the winter time and we were gutted. So, we headed out to Walmart (Fiona, Kate, Caitriona and I) and we got some food for the week and I also bought a basketball. There is a basketball hoop here in L&C and we decided we're going to go out and play it some evenings. On our way home, we stopped by Dairy Queen and got our blizzards. I got my usual Oreo Cheesecake, while Fiona and Caitriona got ones with brownie and Kate got a smoothie (we have peer pressured her into getting a blizzard next time :P ). They also gave us loyalty cards, buy 8 get 1 free. I can see that happening hehehe.

Myself, Caitriona, Fiona and Kate at Dairy Queen.

Fiona and I watched one of my very favourite movies ever tonight, Scooby Doo 2. The deal was I watched Cloud Atlas, so she has to watch Scooby Doo :P It's been ages since I've seen it but what's worrying is that I can still quote the vast majority of the movie hahaha. I also got caught up some more on Bones - yay!


Sunday February 15th


Thank you body clock for waking me up at 9am this morning..... Stayed in bed til 12 pm though hahaha. Got up and started working on one of my assignments that is due in this week. It's a two page paper on a major issue facing parks, tourism and recreation management. Not too bad really, I'm focusing on the impact of invasive species. Hopefully nice and simple, I can use some of the information I gathered from my paper and presentation from last semester and there is an abundance of papers on invasive species so yay. I listened to Kerry Radio while I also read my paper that is due for Tuesday, handed in my genetics homework and watched more episodes of Bones. Stayed up until near 3 am just so I could get the first two episodes of season 10 started :P




So it was really just a typical week this week.. Also I kinda wanna get some feedback from you, so if you've read this far (thank you!) I have a question for you. I want to do a different style post for my 25th post on this blog, I'm already on my 20/21st so I've got some time to go. I'd like it to be something different but I honestly have no clue of what to do it on. If ye could leave me some suggestions in the comments section that'd be great to give me some sort of an idea. I could do one where I give a mini tour of Lewis and Clark (where I'm living) or one around campus maybe? I could venture around Missoula town itself (I actually think it's a city but to me it's more of a town :P) and just put up some pictures of Missoula? I don't know, I need help! Haha.

But, thank you for reading yet another one of my blog posts. It means a lot :)


- Shannen.

Week 18 - Rattlesnake and Swing Dancing!

Monday February 2nd

So today is the first day of week two! I didn't sleep very well last night, I woke up at 2am, 4am and 5am before my alarm went off at 6.30am to get up for my 8am lecture. These 8ams are slowly starting to kill me! Had genetics and evolution and then at 10am I had my ornithology lecture. Luckily for me I finish college at 11am Mondays, so I went straight home and decided to take a nap for an hour simply because I was so tired.. 3 hours later I woke up! And even though I felt so refreshed, I had too much work to be doing and instead I slept :/ Oh well! Tonight, Fiona and I were meeting up with Joe, Sofia her boyfriend, Mike, and Bridget at the Badlander for a quiz night. There were 5 rounds, one of which was a picture round, each with 10 questions. In the start we were coming either 2nd or 3rd.. Then we had the picture round, which was Scottish themed, and we did shite. So this brought us down to 5th place and even after getting 9/10 in the next round it didn't move our placing up. The last round music, also Scottish themed, we got 1 right in this round.. Nevertheless, we had a good night! :P


Tuesday February 3rd

So today, we had no rangeland ecology class as our lecturer was away at a rangeland convention of some sort meeting all these authors of papers and what not. So our first class didn't start until 2pm today (YAY)! This evening didn't have anything all that exciting involved, I watched another Game of Thrones episode and also watched Supernatural and Pretty Little Liars :P Have to keep up to date with my TV shows cause social media just ruins them if I miss out on an episode!


Wednesday February 4th

 Another 8am start this morning, I was stuck to my bed but I somehow managed to drag myself out of it to get ready.. The usual Wednesday timetable again today, genetics and evolution followed by an hour break and then ornithology. Today I also had my first genetics and evolution 'lab'. Technically not a lab, we basically just discuss the homework we did/are doing and just ask some questions on things in the lectures that we didn't understand. After this Fiona went to work and I headed home, I did my washing while also working on an assignment due in for tomorrow - Why aren't there more trees on rangelands? - I got it done, while also reading a 24 page paper for another class tomorrow and studying for my ornithology lab quiz on birds..Thursdays appear to be my biggest workload of the semester so far so Wednesdays will be chockerblocked trying to get all the work done! Fun times :P


Thursday February 5th

8am start again this morning.. A little easier to get out of bed, but at the same time, not really.. The sky is black so therefore I should be asleep in my eyes... Hahahah.. Had our ornithology quiz, which I think I got 9/10 in. We had to be able to identify a variety of birds, while also knowing their order name in latin, their common tribe name, and some characteristics of those birds. We also had to learn the bird feet, and the different marking on their bodies. A lot of stuff to learn just to be asked 10 questions.. We also had a computer lab for ornithology which we looked up the DNA sequencing for some birds and then we used software in order to complete a phylogenetic tree, which was pretty cool! I worked with one of the girls from the Wildlife Society to do this and we got it done in no time. We had an hour off and we met with Kate and chatted away before the three of us headed off to class. In our rangeland class we discussed our assignment and went through the various reasons why there aren't trees in rangelands.. After an 1.5 hour lunch where we met up with Kate, Eoghan and Dave briefly for chats and whatnot.. Recreation behaviour was next and I do like this class! The people in it are incredibly friendly and the lecturer is lovely, she always refers back to Ireland or Europe somehow. It's a class I didn't think I would like so much but I do!

This evening, Kate and Desiree called over and we finally booked our hostels for Spring Break!! Soooo, I suppose I'll tell ye where we're going to :P Our first stop is San Fransisco!! We're here for four nights/five days before heading off to LAS VEGAS!! My excitement is literally something else for this trip. It's going to be brilliant. We're staying in hostels while we're away, simply because they're so much cheaper and we don't plan on spending too much time in them, just really for sleeping / washing and eating sometimes.

Friday February 6th

8am start again this morning with genetics and evolution and then finished up with Ornithology at 11am. I got home and worked some on my genetics homework that's due on Monday. Then I accidentally fell asleep and didn't wake up until 3.45 pm.. Just as well though because I've got the foresters ball tonight and seeing as I'm up at 6.30am most days of the week now I'm pretty tired :P I got up and had a quick pizza for dinner and got ready to go over to Kate's. The Foresters Ball is a non-alcoholic event but we were all having a few drinks beforehand. So we had very basic swing dancing lessons on Tuesday with the Wildlife Society so we at least had some idea of what to do. Before long we were out dancing our hearts out having an absolute blast! There was unlimited coke/diet coke/water.. All free and the only payment required was kissing the bartender on the cheek (brilliant!) haha. Evan, from our Vertebrate class last semester got Fiona and I arrested, so we were put into the jail for a couple of minutes! I was dancing with guys from one of my classes last semester and two guys from the wildlife society also brought me out dancing. There was also a chapel there so Fiona and I took the opportunity and we got 'hitched'. The marriage lasts for 24hours, we even get rings too haha. There is also can-can girls wearing colourful corsets and tutus. We got home about 1 am ish and Kate, Fiona, Bridget and I were all hungry. The odd thing about Missoula is there isn't a McDonalds open passed 11pm so instead, we went to Denny's, a 24hr restaurant and got some food. Legitimately one of the best nights I have ever had here in Montana.

From left to right (back row) Bridget, Joe and Dave. Front row: Me, Fiona, Marc, Kate, Rodger and Desiree.

Our late night feast at Denny's.

Saturday February 7th

So this morning, we had great plans to go hiking up at the Rattlesnake Trailhead. But the one day we decide to go for a hike, it was pissing rain here in Missoula. It NEVER rains in Missoula. Hahaha. So we called off the hike and I decided to take this opportunity to go and do my food shopping. Kate and Eoghan also tagged along to the usual Walmart and Dollar Store. When I got home, I had a bite to eat and then sat down and watched some more Game of Thrones. I then went to my Missoula families house this evening just after 6pm as I was having some dinner there and I also had some little bits and bobs to give them from Ireland. We had a raclette dinner, a typical Swiss thing. I also got to meet their first Swiss student, Chris, who is back here for a two week holiday. The grill can then flip upside down and you can make crepes on it, I was only able for one because I was so full after the dinner :P They loved all their Christmas presents which consisted of fridge magnets, an Ireland mug, an Ireland flag, some Irish chocolates and just some stuff like that.. I got home just after 10pm and then I finished off Season 3 of Game of Thrones and I can tell you I am NOT a happy camper. I won't say what happened just incase anyone reading this hasn't got that far in the TV show yet :P

The table setting at Shannon and Craig's house :)

The raclette cooking up our food :D

The underside of the raclette, making our crepes :D

Sunday February 8th

So today, we went to the Rattlesnake Trailhead! The roads up were completely clear but once we got to the parking lot the whole place was covered in a thick layer of ice and it was treacherous to walk on! (Fiona actually fell on it too). We pottered along by the river instead for a while and took some nice photos. We decided we'll come back when the snow properly clears up and the weather gets warmer cause I doooon't plan on breaking any bones while I'm here.
We came home and decided we would go and try out the famous IHOP. I've never had it before and I will most definitely go back again! I got Belgian waffle with chicken and bacon. It was delicious! Got home and then FaceTimed Mom before finishing off my genetics homework.
The evening consisted of nothing else too fascinating, just working on readings/homework and also working on my blog a little more too.

The wooded area at the Rattlesnake <3

The Clark Fork River. Just gorgeous.

So this week has been hectic! The highlight was most definitely the Foresters Ball. I learned how to swing dance and basically had such a fantastic night! Probably the most Montanan experience I will ever have while I'm here :P My blog has since hit 1,400 views which is INCREDIBLE! I didn't think in a million years it would come along this far.
Thanks again for reading,

 - Shannen.

Week 17 - It's Good To Be Back!

Hello again! And welcome to my first week of classes for semester 2 :D


Monday January 26th - First day of classes.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KAREN!


So, I literally didn't sleep at all last night because of being sick and when my alarm went off at 6.30 am I was like no way can I go into class like this.. I looked like crap, I sounded like crap and I felt like crap.. Nah ah! So I emailed my lecturers, they were cool about it - so yay! On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have Genetics and Evolution, it's a 200 level class, so I'm hoping I'll find it easy enough and the lecturer for it is young (and possibly good looking....) so that's a plus! I also have Ornithology (study of birds) which Kris was kindly able to override me into the class as she promised me before Christmas break :) I didn't miss too much anyways so that's good and I also got to watch 8 episodes of Season 2 Game of Thrones today, I'm making some good progress! Fiona told me the 9th episode is usually the season finale and I was too tired to watch another one so we're leaving it until tomorrow night :D


Tuesday January 27th

So I had my official first day of classes today.. I had my Rangeland Ecology class and then afterwards met Kate for lunch and then I had my Recreation Behaviour class. Both I love already! And the lecturers are really nice. The only thing is, for every Tuesday and Thursday I have an awful amount of reading to do for both classes! Rangeland usually requires 2/3 papers to be read and a short summary of each paper written for each class as well as a book chapter to read too (usually 20 pages). For Recreation Behaviour I have one paper for each class, Tues and Thurs, to read also, and basically go through it with a fine tooth comb! I did say I wanted to read more but this is not what I had in mind - haha. Nevertheless, I do like my classes though! Siobhan called over for chats this evening and afterwards, I finished Season 2 of Game of Thrones - YAY! Flu update : still dying.

Blue skies, and some snow that's been on the ground for weeks. I love this campus.

Wednesday January 28th

Today's schedule is the same for Monday, Genetics and Evolution and Ornithology. My lectures start at 8am but on the bright side I finish at 11am, for this week anyways. From next Weds onwards I have a Genetics 'lab' from 11am to 12pm so that's not all too bad either! I FaceTimed Mom and then Aisling today and had a catch up with them. Also got to catch up on Supernatural and then I squeezed in all my readings due for tomorrow's classes. Just barely! Nothing too exciting.. Oh and I'm also still dying with the flu..


Thursday January 29th

Still dying with the flu.. Feel even more crappy today (if that's even possible). 8am start again this morning with my first Ornithology lab. We had 24 (roughly) birds that we must be able to identify by next Tuesdays lab. So we went around the room with our list of names and ticked them off one by one. For me, I took pictures of each of them and wrote down something that would hopefully help me to remember them.

Just an example of one of the birds we have to be able to identify.

 I got home at around 4 pm and I just lay down in bed and watched some YouTube vids for a while before finally catching up on Pretty Little Liars from earlier in the week.. After dinner I started working on a presentation which is basically just my own personal revision guide for my Ornithology lab. I put all my pictures into slides and descriptions about each bird. Kate and Desiree also called over this evening for a while and Kate gave me a present of some Irish chocolate, Frozen CD and also an Olaf USB stick!! This was a thank you present from her for me collecting her from the airport and also bringing her shopping during the week for apartment stuff. Oh yeah, KATE'S MOVING TO LEWIS AND CLARK! YAY! We chatted about having a 21st birthday party for Dave this Saturday night also and we made a couple plans :D


Friday January 30th

8am start again this morning with Genetics and Evolution first. It's amazing how fast I'm getting accustomed to getting up early :P An hour break then between this class and Ornithology with Kris. After these classes were finished with, Fiona and I headed back to the Ornithology lab to catch up on some birds that I had possibly missed out on yesterday. Found two birds that I had missed out on lab yesterday so I ran through them and also some of the birds outside the lab in a glass case. We have to be able to identify each bird and for Montanan birds, we have to be able to recognize their calls (fun I know ...). I'll admit, I'm not a bird person, although I do have a love for Raptors, but this class is making me like them more and more!
TODAY IS MOVING DAY! Kate is moving to Lewis and Clark today so both Dave and I are helping her move her stuff into my car and then from my car to her NEW apartment in L&C, YAY!! It's all very exciting! Fiona, Kate and I went to Walmart to do a food shop, even though I went during the week I was only going for a small few basics and a nice bit of medicine to try and cure this flu (still hanging in there!).


Saturday January 31st

Am, so it's the last day of January?! Feels like yesterday I rang in the new year at home in Ireland having a onesie party with my younger cousins.. Whoah!
So this morning Fiona and I went over to Jason from the Wildlife Society's house. The society were given a wolf skeleton that had been hit by a car just a little north of Missoula and had unfortunately died. He is an incredibly huge sized wolf and he was aged to only be 1 year old! If you want to see a video on the wolf you can search " brain scoop getting the wolf " on YouTube and you will be able to see an introductory video on him. There are other videos on there but they are not for the faint hearted so I wouldn't recommend watching further than the first one! :P Anyways, we gathered at Jason's house out in his garage where he had a nice set up of four hot plates. Each hot plate had a saucepan on it with boiling water and Borax in it. This worked to soften the softer tissue on the bones. At one point there was 7 of us, sat around the table, working on various bone bits scraping to get the cartilage off but being careful to not damage the actual bones. By I think 12.30 pm we had all four feet bones done and made a start on the toe bones. But unfortunately, the cold started to slowly get at all of us and we called it a day. BUT we still managed to get a lot of the project done! After we clean the bones, we will have to bleach them to whiten them up and then once this is done, we will be putting the skeleton back together and he will hopefully be placed somewhere on campus. I'm hoping it will be done before we go home cause I would love to see it finished!

Our bone cleaning set up this morning at Jason's house.

The box of wolf bones we have to get through and clean.

 Went to Albertsons and picked up some alcoholic beverages for the partaay tonight. Then once we got home I made a start on the jelly shots, I've become famous for them since I got here :P I made strawberry flavoured ones with vodka and triple sec and then I also made lime flavoured ones with Captain Morgan and they were by far my favourite! Fiona and I also did a massive spring cleaning of the apartment. Like, big time! We cleaned out every nook and cranny, emptied out some of the cupboards, scrubbed the counters/floors and hoovered. The place is looking well now, just hope it lasts for a while at least!

Lime & Captain Morgan and Strawberry & Vodka/Triple Sec flavoured vodka jelly shots :D

This evening then at 7.30 pm Bridget called up and we headed over to Dave's apartment where we finally got to meet his new roommate, Dale. The apartment got a badly needed make over! There are antlers mounted on the wall that Dale himself hunted, and he also brought a tv for the apartment too. Bridget brought over her speakers so we could get some music going and before we knew it the party had started! Antonio brought over his beer pong table so there was some beer pong games going all night. It was brilliant to catch up with everyone that came over and then we eventually went downtown. Where there was some amount of laughs had! Couldn't have asked for a better gang :P Eventually made it home at roughly 3 am I think? Chatted to Fiona for a while before feeding ourselves with toast then headed to bed :P

Myself and the birthday boy.

The red velvet birthday cake Desiree and Kate made for Dave's birthday, decorated with dinosaurs :P

Sunday February 1st

Happy 21st Birthday Daaave & Happy Superbowl Sunday!

 So a very hungover and dehydrated Shannen woke up this morning.. I hadn't planned on going downtown last night because I'm still sick with the flu (yes, still sick). But I was convinced otherwise and had a blast! Still have genetics homework to get done but Kate, Desiree and Dave called over this morning and Fiona made some pancakes for breakfast while we watched She's The Man :P
Once everyone left I made a start at the homework but I couldn't concentrate.. I also fell asleep on the floor for a short while.. I then procrastinated further and rearranged my room a little bit.. I eventually sat back down and made a start at the questions, and no I didn't watch the Superbowl. I have no interest whatsoever in American football -_- But I did watch the half-time show cause Katy Perry is amazing and she thankfully, didn't disappoint.
Nothing too interesting happened for the rest of the evening here in Missoula. We also had a mad snow shower here today which lasted for a few hours and it put a fresh blanket of snow on the ground (basically everywhere).




Okay so that's my first week back in Missoula so far! Already have assignments, homework and required readings to do.. Gahh.. No rest for the wicked! But nevertheless, it's reeeeeally good to be back! And I'm super happy to be back blogging again, I did miss it even though I was incredibly busy over the winter break. And after I wrote this up I realized I didn't take many pictures this week (sorry!). I hope to stick to my Tuesday schedule for posting my blog, although, as per usual I may be a little busier some weeks more than others so it could be up early or late but everytime I post it I'll try have it at a convenient enough time for those of you in Ireland that read my blog so it will hopefully show up on yer Facebook pages.

Thank you again ever so much for reading! This week my blog post hit 1,300 views and I literally did not ever imagine I could get that many! So thank you again!

- Shannen

A Brief Catch Up!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! 

Semester 2 has begun here in Missoula and I am loving being back here!! I apologize for not uploading my last two weeks in Missoula from before Christmas break. Once I got to New York I thought I would have had time to post it, and I didn't. And then once I got back home to Ireland it was non stop going! This post is just going to be a catch up of everything so it's going to be a little bit of everything that happened between my last two weeks in Missoula, to my time in New York, to my 4.5 weeks at home, and my travels back to the states again. It's going to be a long one, but the pictures are worth it



Missoula
Basically to sum it all up, my last two weeks in Missoula was spent studying for my final exams, preparing presentations and writing papers. In two nights, I wrote two separate 14 page papers, pretty impressive I know! About two weeks or so after getting home I got my exam results, A, A- and B. I also passed my Hunter Check Station class, would be hard not to when my paper turned out to be at 14 pages right?! I got a B in my Vertebrate Design and Evolution class which was pretty incredible considering how I was doing in that class at the start of the semester.. Got an A in my Wildlife Physiological Ecology class so YAY, and the A- was in my Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management class. So overall, I'm a pretty happy camper! We had our farewell dinner for Elliot and James during this week also. The last supper of the Bison Bunch...for now....


New York
Christmas break was just brilliant. First I was in New York for a couple of days, my Dad brought me to see the Radio City Christmas Show - brilliant! And then we wandered around Manhattan so I could get to see 'Christmas in New York'. VERY different to the New York I'm used to seeing every summer when it's blazing hot and you can't walk a few steps without wanting to pass out from heat stroke.. I got to see the famous Rockefeller tree which was gorgeous! And we also took a walk into St. Patrick's Cathedral. That night I got a message from one of the guys in my college course saying he had a 13hr (I think) layover in JFK airport between his flights home and he wanted to meet up and see New York. So at about 9.30 am I met Tadhg in Times Square and we walked to Central Park, Times Square (of course), Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central and also the Rockefeller tree too.

Radio City Christmas Show :D

The famous Rockefeller Tree.

I forgot to mention meeting Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, the actor who plays Nidge from Love/Hate while we were strolling around Times Square. Also, if you're Irish and don't know this man, shame on you!

Brooklyn Bridge :)

Grand Central Station -  a lot quieter now than in the summer time.

Ireland
My flight home was the next evening.. Mom and Aisling collected Dad and I from the airport.. Everyday / night while I was at home, I was doing something different with family / friends / cousins. The reunion between me and my dog though was probably the cutest thing ever. He couldn't stop smiling and also following me around everywhere that I went for the first week. I think he was afraid I was going to leave him again :P Every night we were calling to somebody else's house and having food/drinks or card games. Between my Mom's side of the family and my Dad's side, it really was brilliant! Especially having the American cousins home for the Christmas too :D

Got to spend a week in Cork with all my college friends while I was hopping from one house to the other, thank you to my hosts, Nicole, Av and my sister, Aisling, for putting up with me! I got to speak to some of my lecturers when I got home and they were delighted to hear from me and get some feedback in person. Seeing everyone was SO good especially when it had been like 7 months since I had seen most of my college friends (madness!). Nic, Av and I went to see Into The Woods one night in Cork and Meryl Streep did such a fantastic job in that movie! Another night, we went out in Cork after predrinks at Dave's house for his birthday/going away party.

 I forgot how expensive it is to go out in Cork after being here in Missoula and also going out in Killorglin a good few times over the holidays. On the night's out in Killorglin, I was with my cousins, sister and her friends and literally so much fun and such an absolute laugh was had! It cannot be put into words how much I thoroughly enjoyed my Christmas break at home. But I'm on a serious liver detox for a while! It was so nice to get to see everyone again and those who made the effort to see me or do something over the break, it was greatly appreciated (even if it was only like 5 mins)!!

If this picture doesn't sum up how happy this dog was to see me, I don't know what does. Oh, he also REALLY like this new jumper I got him here in America haha.

Christmas Eve in the Foley Household - note the matching Olaf jumpers.

Foley family Christmas selfie of 2014.

Onesie night on New Years Eve with the Foley girls.

REUNION! Girls night out in Cork for cocktails (+meghan).

My last night out in Killorglin for Gavin's 21st birthday with these beauties. Making Christmas all the better. Love them <3

New York
Flew from Dublin to New York on the 19th of January. Got home from the airport, very hungry and very tired. The next morning, I was meeting Fiona in Flushing after all her travels over the Christmas. We came back home, relaxed for a small while, and then headed into Manhattan. Our first day we wandered all around Central Park discovering some new statues I had never seen before. Our second day, we ate lunch in the restaurant I used to work in - Phebe's, and then we went and did Top of the Rock (it's an observation deck on the top of the Rockefeller Center). And the views were just incredible! I could have happily just stood up there and admired Manhattan for days on end.

Reading with Hans Christian Anderson

Playing Hide 'n' Seek with the Three Bears.

The view of Manhattan from Top of the Rock.

Chillin out with Alice in Wonderland.

Missoula
Our flight to Missoula left on Jauary 22nd from JFK. We had connections in Boston and Minneapolis, neither of the planes had any tv's in them so I got to finish off one of my books I bought at home - Girl Online by Zoe Sugg, a British YouTuber. My Missoula Mom, Shannon, collected me at the airport and she brought me some homemade soup and also homemade oatmeal cookies - YUMMY!! The next morning I unpacked my bags and found my Cadbury's chocolate had melted I'm assuming due to the underfloor heating in my bedroom. I wasn't impressed but at least they'll still taste nice! So I popped them into the freezer for a while and they were (almost) as good as new! I was no longer back when , I was dying with the flu. So in order to be a good patient and rest up - I started watching Game of Thrones. By the Sunday night I had finished Season 1 - hooked is an understatement!


Surprised by the lack of snow we arrived back to here in Missoula. But it's been a pretty mild enough winter apparently. This weekend is just going to be a lot of rest and recuperation after my hectic Christmas at home and also my busy two days around Manhattan.

Sorry this went up so late, I literally had another post typed up and ready to post once I got to New York but I was having too much fun and kind of forgot about it for the longest time (not a bad complaint really?!).

Thank you again to everyone who reads this blog! I was incredibly surprised by the amount of people I haven't spoken to in a good while that told me over Christmas they read it. I like doing it and once this year is over (can it never be over?!) I'll have something to be able to look back on and read what I did during my time in Missoula, Montana.

Thanks for reading,

- Shannen.

Week 14 - Good Food, Black Friday Madness and a Snowstorm.

Monday November 24th

Today I got up early to do some last minute cramming for my Wildlife Phys exam which went well! Today we also got back our Vertebrate exam results for both the lecture and lab! I got 88% in the lecture and 86% in the lab exam! So close to getting an A (1.1), massive improvement so far for that class! We don't have our cat labs anymore but we had our individual group meetings on our bird projects, ours being Perch Compliance. Sadie, Nathan, Fiona and I all gathered in Bret's office with Kris and constructed some graphs for our papers and presentations that we have to give to the class. Pretty cool!
This evening wasn't anything all that exciting, I read through some more papers before I can start my habitat paper. Fiona and I watched All Dogs Go To Heaven and then we played the David Attenborough Galapagos Islands documentaries in the background while we did some work. I ended up giving up on the work and just watching the documentaries because I LOVE David Attenborough. Tonight, I watched Pitch Perfect which finished up about 1.30am, so worth it!


Tuesday November 25th

 Today is the last official day of classes. Any class I have from here on out is just a review class. This evening I spent reading some more scientific papers for my habitat paper I have yet to start to write. Basically had a lazy day today, I'm exhausted I just took the evening off. Myself, Fiona and Eoghan went to Walmart, Dollar Store and Albertsons to get ingredients for the food we would be making for Thanksgiving. Fiona and I also watched a documentary on Snow Leopards this evening as part of her habitat assignment.


Wednesday November 26th
Student Travel Day - Start of Thanksgiving Break.

Got up nice and early and FINALLY started writing my habitat issue paper! I basically got the whole thing done as well today which was pretty impressive. I had read all the papers I needed to in order to get it done and I knew what I wanted from each one. It's only six pages long including references so it's not a lot to complain about but I've done so much CA (continuous assessment) for that class it's just getting really old at this stage.. Kate and James came over roughly 7pm and we all started our preparations for what we were making for dinner. Fiona started chopping her veg and marinating them, I made queen cakes for my Missoula family, Kate made her mixture for the Yorkshire puddings and James made his caramel slices. I was supposed to make the stuffing this evening but I forgot ... We decided to watch a 'horror' movie called Beneath, about a bunch of miners who ran into a bit of bad luck and everyone ended up being killed. Not entirely scary if I'm honest :/

The only picture I took preparations evening - the vegetables for roasting :)

 


Thursday November 27th - (3 weeks until I'm going to be at home!)


Happy Thanksgiving!!

So Fiona and I both got up at 9am and we had the Turkey put on at 10am for a nice slow cook. It was wrapped up in plenty of bacon! I made my Mom's potato stuffing and also another type of stuffing. The kitchen got a thorough cleaning today and Elliot came over and did our hoovering for us - yay! We borrowed stools, plates, forks and knives from Dave and Elliot also. Eoghan made the mashed potatoes for us, he was going to the judges house for dinner so we kept his for him. Fiona and I had the dinner ready for 3pm but we had to try and keep everything warm because Kate was having a problem with the Yorkshire puddings - they wern't turning out as she had hoped!

Elliot doing our hoovering :)

Tessa the beautiful Turkey wrapped up in baconnnn <3

Dave's delicious fruit bowl!

 Dave prepared a fruit bowl for our starter which was lovely! I tried new fruit too which is a pretty big step for me hahaha. We got seated down to dinner at 4pm and holy crap was it nice! I had made the gravy as well and there wasn't anything at all that I could fault in the dinner. Everyone was so completely stuffed that we just couldn't move. Kate and Elliot did the washing up whilst Dave cleaned down the counter tops. We all let our food settle before digging into the delicious caramel slices that James had made! We put Netflix on and decided to watch Hey Arnold! the movie. I had never seen it and had loved the cartoon as a child so we all just sat/lay in silence and watched it while we digested our well deserved food babies.

Our incredible Thanksgiving dinner.

Thankful for this lot making my time here so much better :)

James' gorgeous caramel slices!

 At about 6.30 I dropped Kate and James back to campus and Dave and I went to visit my Missoula family. They were sitting down to dinner later then they had planned so we chilled out at the table with them having the chats and whatnot. We had dessert which was a gorgeous apple pie and the queencakes which I had made. Afterwards we played a game of Catchphrase - which is essentially like pictionary but you can talk and lead them with as many clues without saying the word. Pretty fun game!!


I got home and was chilling out with Fiona when I got this sudden notion that we should go and check out some Black Friday deals. I text Elliot, Kate and James and we first headed out to Walmart and bought a few bits and pieces out there - taking advantage of the deals! Dave said he was at the mall and a lot of the shops would be open all night so we got to the mall at roughly 1 am - did some shopping and eventually got home at about 2.30 am. There was some incredible deals going on and I bought a new aeropostale tracksuit for $12 yayay!

Just a couple of eejits messing about in Walmart.

Wearing camo and hunter orange to try and fit in ... It's not working :/

Friday November 28th


So I had planned to sleep in until 12 pm today but I'm so used to getting up early I just woke at 10 am (yes that is early). Slowly got out of bed, put my clothes for a wash and began tightening the loose ends on my habitat review paper. I worked on my blog because I kind of neglected it a bit this week too. I also started and finished my presentation to go alongside the paper. Preparing all the animations and how each slide was going to look and function wasn't fun I ended up getting a massive headache and retreated to my bedroom in darkness for a while in the hope it would disappear. It didn't and I ended up taking a tablet to try and help - it did eventually but not entirely.
Elliot called over tonight and we watched The Late Late Toy Show. The yearly tv programme that every household in Ireland tunes into a few weeks before Christmas.


Saturday November 29th


So I eventually woke up at 12pm today. Got the best sleep ever in the last few weeks! The weather was so absolutely gorgeous out that we decided to take a spontaneous trip to the National Bison Range (again). Once we got out of Missoula we had some very light snowfall, which soon turned out to be a lot heavier than we thought. We got to the bison range and the snow was falling a lot heavier again! We drove I'd say about 2 minutes into the drive and a car passed us by, I waved them down and asked if they saw any animals, all they saw was a herd of White Tailed Deer (we had already seen one at the entrance). So I made the decision to turn around and try and head for home. I have never ever driven in the snow before, we turned out of the bison range and eventually got back onto the main road home. I slowly turned out onto the road and my car started sliding side to side and wouldn't move - fantastic. Being honest, I was kind of shitting my pants cause I didn't just have myself in the car but Fiona, Kate and James too. They helped me keep my cool and we eventually started making our way very slowly home. I think I probably pissed off a few drivers, who were driving at the normal speed limit (anywhere from 50-70 m/hr) there was no way in hell I was going to be going that fast!

My baby with the National Bison Range signpost and lots of snow :D

So the snow is so bad, we couldn't see anything.

We eventually made it back to Missoula and there wasn't really any snow on the roads here! (compared to what we had just been through). We decided we would go out to Applebee's tonight for dinner and it was amazing. I got the Triple Bacon Burger and then for dessert I got a brownie and vanilla ice cream :). It was really nice! By the time we had finished up, it had snowed pretty heavily here in Missoula. We slowly made our way back home with my car sliding every now and again on a slippery patch of road. But nevertheless, I got everyone home safe and sound and I have decided I already hate driving in the snow -_-

My triple bacon burger and chips :D

Sunday November 30th

Okay, so this is the last day of November, really?!

Got up early today, I wanted to do some practice on my presentation. I should really start my other paper but in my logic, I was able to bash out a whole paper in a day, I can do the same next week for my other one! I FaceTimed Mom and Aisling for a while and then I finally got to have a catch up with Av, although neither of us had any news for each other hahaha. Got practicing my presentation again, we have to aim to speak for 12 minutes and leave time afterwards for questions and also for the next person to prepare their presentation also.
Fiona and I had some food to get, and I also had to get more de-icer and a hairbrush so we started defrosting the car. This took the bones of twenty minutes, scraping off all the snow, cleaning the wipers, the windows, defrosting the door handles, clearing my lights free of frozen snow, taking lumps of snow off the mudguards of the car too. Gah I'm never going to get used to this winter crap. We eventually got to Walmart, a lot of the road had not really been salted or anything so it was a case of slow and steady wins the race or my car will slide and have a domino affect on other cars, hahaha. We got all our bits and pieces and got home. I unpacked and started cooking dinner, I'm not buying any more food, trying to use up what's left here in the house seeing as I've only got two weeks left in the apartment before I leave for New York :D :D Nothing interesting happened today, kept practicing over my presentation and I wrote out a few index cards - which I have to perfect tomorrow. Productive day I think ?!




So guys, thanks for reading this weeks post! We're really starting to get a taste of Montana winter at the moment (although it's really not that cold - yes -12C is not considered cold here). I have an extremely busy two weeks ahead of me so what I think I'm going to do is mush the next two weeks into one blog post and put that up in two weeks from today. These next two weeks are literally just going to be me studying and working on papers and presentations so 1) I'm not going to be doing anything fun at all just working away at stuff and 2) I want all the time in the world for studying, need to bring my grades up in order to try and get some 1.1's going!!
So I don't want to bore you with all the details of me studying and writing papers and presentations, but after the two weeks I'll do one bumper post which will be my last before the Christmas break! I head to New York first and then back home to Ireland for a full month!! (It'll be 6.5 months since I've been at home, can you tell I'm excited?!)

So thank you very much again for taking the time to read my blog, it's appreciated :)
See you back here again in two weeks! :)

- Shannen.

Week 13 - Grizzlies vs Bobcats!

Monday November 17th

Woke up early and went to college at 9.30am to get my football ticket for this weekends football game. It's University of Montana vs Montana State, the biggest football game of the year! The rivalry is something else! Reminds me of UCC and CIT except it's a little more extreme here :/ Got my ticket and then I chilled out studying in the UC before heading to my Physiological Ecology class where we're learning about stress, which is SO interesting. We're learning about all the hormones that are secreted in response to stress and why this is so. Love this class way too much I'm going to be disappointed when it's over. Creagh also told us that on Dec 1st, she'll have our class average computed and if we have an A, we don't have to talk the final exam. If we have a low B, she also said there isn't much point, but if we're sitting between two grades she would recommend taking it as it always boosts peoples grades - which is pretty cool! We had our Vertebrate class which we moved onto feeding and digestion.
After this we had our lab which wasn't too bad, well when I say that, it didn't go as badly as the last one (I think). We'll have to wait and see!! This evening we got some of our Thanksgiving dinner food and watched Frozen to cheer ourselves up after our exam.


Tuesday November 18th

For our habitat class today our TA Charlie gave the lecture on habitat selection because the week before he successfully defended his masters. Today was Siobhan's birthday, so Fiona and I got her an oreo birthday cake and we all went over to her apartment and surprised her at her door singing happy birthday. We chilled out here for a while and then Fiona, Kate, James and I went to McDonalds and hung out here for about an hour just chatting and arsing around looking for something to do. It's nice to have an evening off with no work to do, even though I have tonnes I could be doing.

Siobhan's Oreo Birthday Cake!

Wednesday November 19th

In my Wildlife Phys class today, our TA Devin talked to us about his masters work which is studying the effects of backcountry aviation on White Tailed Deer. Incredibly cool research work and he's looking for Undergrads to help him with his work also, which is something I could possibly be interested in but I'm not entirely sure. Got home about 2.45ish and put my washing on, took an hour of just sitting down on the couch doing nothing which was lovely. This evening went back to reading scientific journals for my paper I have due the 2nd of December, so much research to do for it it's crazy. Rechecked my Grant Proposal Application that's due for tomorrow and I printed that out to hand in as well as gathering up all the drafts and peer reviews to hand them all in tomorrow. Nothing too exciting :)


Thursday November 20th

 So I went in for my only class of the day at 12pm, with all my grant stuff to hand in. Which we did in the first 10minutes of class after some chats about our papers and presentations. We were informed we were supposed to have a guest speaker today but he didn't show up, so we chatted for a small while and then they let us go home. I did some more research into my paper this afternoon. I also went and took a small nap because I wouldn't be getting home until 2am roughly tonight. We left at 9.30pm for Mockingjay Part 1 which was on at 11pm. We got there at roughly 10pm, got our popcorn and drinks and we joined the line which had about 40 people in front of us already and the movie wasn't starting for another hour! So the movie was absolutely incredible! I was on edge the whole night long (I haven't read the books so I NEED to get them.)

Myself, Fiona, Kate and James all excited for Mockingjay Part 1!!

Coke and Popcorn at The Big D (that's the name of the part of the cinema we were in, I shit you not).

Friday November 21st

Only had one class today, didn't have our usual 4 1/2 hour lab cause it's our individual groups working on our data for our birds now. Instead, Fiona, Siobhan, Desiree and I went shopping this evening. We first went to Southgate Mall, I only got two pairs of leggings in JCPennys here, nothing major. We then went out to North Reserve and first went to TJmaxx and a shop called Ross. Ross is a shop where you can get brand names at discounted prices. I didn't need to buy any clothes but I did get a good gearbag which will be handy for travelling and overnight stays for field trips and such besides trying to squeeze everything into my schoolbag (which has probably seen better days). The movie If I Stay was being played in the UC on campus tonight so we got our tickets ($3) and our $1 Fanta. Brilliant movie, it's such a brilliant movie! Loads of people were crying, I was pretty close to it but I fought it back - didn't want to come out of the place with red puffy eyes.




Saturday November 22nd

So today is Cat/Griz day! Or Griz/Cat day. I don't know if there's a right or wrong way. I did a bit of study this afternoon for my exam Monday. We went into the game for half time, only because the football games go on forever and I needed to get some study in and Fiona had an assignment to do. We got to the game and Grizzlies were winning. The Montana State Bobcats didn't score until the last few minutes of the 4th quarter. The final score was 34-7 to the Griz. They eventually let the students onto the pitch after the game. We got pictures with two of the players and when they were taking a group picture, I asked could I hop into the middle of them for a picture and they said yeah, so I got in and hopped back out in a few seconds and got a pretty cool picture with them! We stayed on the pitch for a while before hopping on the bus home. I had some dinner and then got into my study again straight away, going by the complex terms we were given, I can't remember a lot of the stuff so I have a lot of work to be doing.

I got to try on this guys helmet :P From left to right: Desiree, Me, No. 69 for Griz, Fiona and Kate.

So when they were taking a group photo, I asked could I hop in and they said yes, hehehehe.

My International Family and I at the game :)

Sunday November 23rd

 Got up at 9.30 this morning, I was meeting Taylor and Sofia for a group study session in the library this morning. I got there at roughly 11am, Sofia was sick so she didn't join us. We ran through all the complex concepts and went through all the lecture slides getting a good amount of work done. Came back home and did some more study and cleaned my room (procrastination at its finest). Elliot, Eoghan and I headed out to Walmart to get some bits and pieces. Came back and yet again, tried to do some more study. I wasn't getting too much done, my mind isn't with it right now. After this exam tomorrow, I will have 1 1/2 weeks of no exams!! This hasn't happened in a long time. Tonight, we also had a pretty heavy snowfall which was incredible! It wasn't really sticking to the ground but it's apparently very weird that we haven't got any proper snow yet. But also, after Christmas time (January) we're supposed to get a lot more snow!!



So guys, an uneventful week really apart from the football game. Sorry I'm not doing anything incredibly interesting lately, there may be a day trip over Thanksgiving but we can't make any promises. We all have so much work to be doing we can't set anything in stone just yet.
Thanks again for reading!

- Shannen.