Week 21 - Exams, Mule Deer Foundation & 1,500 views?!

 Hey look at me being organized and getting my blog up early :D

Monday February 23rd

8 am genetics lecture as per usual today. This class is quite difficult and I'm not sure how the rest of the semester is going to pan out with it :/ Had an hour off where I did some work on my genetics homework nothing too major. Ornithology at 10am then til 11am. We've started learning about the different plumage and the reasoning behind why the plumage changes and such. It's really interesting and this class is still making me more fascinated by birds every day!
I went straight home after class today and started doing some notes to help me study for this weeks exams. I started to do some Parks and Rec notes because I have 7 papers to read through to get the information needed for my exam </3 Then I started on some Ornithology but right now I'm just not in the right mindset for studying for exams. I still feel like I'm on holiday mode (weird I know).
Fiona and I watched one episode of David Attenborough's Life of Birds documentary to help us with how birds fly a little bit more. It's easy stuff but complicated at the same time.

*image from google images*

Tuesday February 24th

No class until 11am this morning - yay! Still woke up early though (of course). We first had rangeland ecology with Brady. This week we're learning all about photosynthesis so it's kinda interesting. This class is pretty relatable back to ag. science that I took for leaving cert and Brady also likes to drop hints every now and again on questions that will be on our exam.  I really like his style of teaching for this class, it's extremely laid back and doesn't pile on loads of information onto you in one class. But saying that, I learn a pile in this class!

The blue skies and sun are deceiving. It's FREEZING here. Well, for Montana winter it would be considered warm.

Had an hour and a half off so had lunch with Kate while also trying to do some Ornithology study for tomorrow's exam. I'm lucky I spent the weekend reading all my scientific papers because I would have no time for them this week. Also, the fact I did my rangeland ecology proposal last week helped out a bunch too. During this hour and a bit off, I submitted both those assignments so hopefully everything will go well. My proposal topic is: To improve the structure, ecology and habitat quality for breeding waterfowl in the Prairie Pothole Region. - Basically, make the living conditions in that area better for the ducks that breed there. It's a pretty cool looking place actually :P
Recreation and behaviour we went over last weeks paper which was about attitudes. Then we got split up into our discussion groups. I'm not on until the week of spring break, March 24th. This project makes us work as a team to essentially 'teach' the class about the paper we're assigned. We can be as creative as we want with it so that's kind of fun. It's 100% open to us :P Definitely something we wouldn't do back home!Libby also did a review for our test by basically summarizing the papers and picking out things we should know but also not giving us too much information.
Once I got home this evening, I went straight into studying for my Ornithology exam (or should I say trying). I have so much on my mind with the recreation exam and also the genetics exam I can't seem to get my mind to settle down.


Wednesday February 25th

Genetics today was 100% pointless, I didn't sleep last night and the stuff covered in today's lecture isn't on our exam friday so I could have got an extra while in bed for myself.. Ah well.. The ornithology exam was weird. I'm not sure if it was a complete trainwreck or I did well.. There was a couple of things that I specifically learned but I blanked on when I read the questions which really pissed me off. I think just because this week is so busy my brain is suddenly got into overdrive or a complete meltdown :P
After this, I had my genetics lab where Ryan our TA ran through linkage again. The question I was having difficulty with for homework he explained it. And I kinda understand it but it's weird. I don't know. It makes more sense now than it did when I first did it anyways, so I guess that's something?
Tried to do a bit of study for my Recreation behaviour exam but that was also not going in my favour.. This week just is not my day :P Can't wait for it to already be over with to be honest!
I got home and did a massive clean up. Washed my clothes and also every single towel or cloth in the apartment, I scrubbed the kitchen and cleaned the bathroom. I didn't do the hoovering cause Dave has our hoover and I also didn't take the bin out seeing as it's not my turn.. But the whole place smells so nice and clean now it's great!
This evening was then spent learning the birds for my quiz tomorrow in ornithology, Jamie and I had our usual facebook study session :P Believe me or not, but these actually work really well :P As well as trying to learn some of the Recreation Behaviour stuff.. Fun times!

The Snowy Owl on this weeks birds to know list *image from google images*

 We have also paid for our apartment in Seattle so it is now 100% official, March 12th - 15th WE ARE GOING TO SEATTLE! I REPEAT, WE ARE GOING TO SEATTLE! When I say we I mean: Fiona, Kate, Aoife, Bridget and I. It's going to be so much fun! We have a really pretty apartment booked and it's right in the centre of everything! We also get secured parking for my car which is a piece of mind for all of us! So excited now! :D We'll get some time out of Missoula :P

I FINALLY GET TO GO HERE! *image from google images*

Thursday February 26th

 Ornithology lab went good today! The quiz was grand and then we moved onto learning woodpeckers and flycatchers. For the second half of the lab we were in the native american studies lab listening to bird calls on screen and examining the different pitches and whatnot. We then got to record our own voices and compare them with the people beside us. This was hilarious, Fiona, Jamie and I started talking away into it and then speeding up the sounds of our voices to sound like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. So much fun :P

This is when I said "Hi my name is Shannen Foley".. The 'Sh' from Shannen made the big blue part in the middle.

Our rangeland class today was half full. There was loads of people missing but the presentations still carried on. We tried to fight for 10 pts extra credit for those that showed up but it didn't work :P
During my breaks between classes I was cramming for the recreation behavior exam. Which in the end was not a disaster, I think! It was my first time taking an exam like this (when I say like this I mean psychological and that).  My hand was also fit to fall off me at the end of the exam. I wrote 6 A4 pages in 1.5 hours. Ow.
Got home and took a 30 min break just lying on my bed trying to clear my headache. But nothing seemed to want to work. So I just got back up and started cramming for my genetics exam tomorrow morning at 8am. Now, I know I've complained enough about the genetics class at 8am. But an exam at 8am?! That's cruel. My brain doesn't properly turn on until closer to 11am :P
Lewis and Clark was having 'Breakfast for Dinner' today. So we got free food :D Bacon, croissants, muffins, ham, cheese, fruit and yoghurt. It was so yummy! Myself, Fiona, Dave, Barry, Siobhan, Dervla and Savannah all had a fine feed for ourselves with some people grabbing seconds :P This was an hour break from study so I went back home and got straight back into studying. This exam tomorrow I fell isn't going to have a lot of definitions in it just because crosses are more important in genetics. I have also decided that I'm not going into Ornithology tomorrow, I am coming home after my genetics exam and sleeping for a few hours to catch up on all the sleep I've missed so far this week :P

The signs put up around Lewis and Clark :P

Croissant, cheese, bacon, a glazed donut and a muffin of some sort, there was also a glass of milk :P

Friday February 27th

So the genetics exam was weird.. I'm really not sure what to make of it to be honest.. I hope I did well but I know the multiple choice questions caught me out on a few.. Oh well! I didn't go to my Ornithology class today cause I'm so tired I wanted to try and sleep.. Which didn't work out too well :P I couldn't sleep so I got up and started my genetics take home exam, but then I got really sleepy so I went back to bed and still couldn't sleep :P I eventually got back up at 12pm and had lunch and then sat down and actually got my take home exam done (I think). For the take home exam, we were assigned a recessive trait by the last digit of our student number here, I got Galactosemia which is the inability to digest galactose properly. So I've got two pages single spaced written up on it. I think what I've done is okay. I wrote the report as a letter style as if I was a genetic counselor, kinda cool :P We have to submit it online Monday by 5pm. Since it's a take home exam we got a whole week to do it which is great except I didn't get around to starting it until today :P This evening I went to see the UM drama people put on Translations by Brian Friel with my Missoula family. The Irish accents were not anything to boast but the play was brilliant! I really enjoyed it and the Irish music made it feel nice and homey :D


Saturday February 28th

So this morning my alarm went off at 6.30am and I wasn't happy. We left the apartment at 7.40 at got to the Hilton at 8am bang on time. We met up with some of the members of the Mule Deer Foundation and we were put to work straight away. Loading different boxes out of cars and all sorts really. My first job was folding American flags into triangles that fit into these tiny flag frame things.

You're looking at the new professional flag folder over here :P

 So I got that done in no time and then we were asked to assemble a wine cabinet. We took a look at the instructions and well that was pointless cause they didn't really contain any useful information. We (Fiona, Evan and I) did what we could with them and then we winged the top part of it by ourselves. It looks pretty good :P Then Fiona and I helped Chad finish off the bookshelf he was assembling. He didn't use the instructions and got his done a lot faster than us :P

Mid-Construction

The final product :)

 Fiona and I helped Ryan assemble the raffle prizes, we got to decide what we thought looked best together so this was kinda fun! I saw Joe sitting over at a table by himself so I said I would go and see what he was at. He was matching ticket numbers to coins and taping them together.. 'Mind numbing work' described by Joe himself. So I sat down to help him out with it and then Fiona followed over and helped out too we had them all done in no time whatsoever. We did upwards of 200 coins -_- .

The hall all ready and done up :) On the table you can see all the coins we worked on :P

The chairman of the foundation, Tracey, asked which of us had the best handwriting and it was me so they asked me to go around with Ryan to the items for the live auction and write up the cards describing the items. They had five bottles of alcohol all whiskey and one person who entered the raffle for each bottle got a key. So five keys total and only one of these keys unlocked a gun box with some sort of a gun in it and apparently this gun is a big deal :P As Ryan said to me 'Incase you haven't noticed, we like guns here' hahaha nooooo I didn't notice that at all :/

The really cool MULEY coins :)

The REALLY cool lampshade in the Hilton Garden Inn, Missoula.

I got home then and slept for an hour before having dinner and finally sitting down to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones Season 4. YAY. Didn't like the flashback though, it brought back horrible memories of the season 3 finale :P
Tonight, the UC theatre on campus is playing the Theory of Everything, the movie based on Stephen Hawking's life. Myself, Fiona, Kate, Aoife, Bridget and Brittany went to see it. This movie was INCREDIBLE! I can definitely see why Eddie Redmayne won all the awards he did for the role. It was amazing! A definite worthwhile watch. Once I got home I fell asleep straight away, I was so exhausted from all the early starts so far this week :P Next weekend will require no early starts but a lot of work in order to get it all done ahead of our weekend in SEATTLE!!


Sunday MARCH 1st

Soooooooo, it's March already?! What the hell.. It was just Christmas! This year is already flying by. This means I have two and a half months left here in Missoula and this makes me very upset. I love this place way too much. 
So just before 1pm today, Fiona, Kate and I went and did a bit of shopping. We all had bits and pieces to get. And this is a nice break from doing college work.
We got back close to 4pm, and I sat down to start on my assignments as well as work some more on my blog :) I have an annotated bibliography and paper readings and summaries to do for Thursday and another annotated bibliography due for the following Monday which I want to start as soon as I can. How fabulous :P




THANKS A BUNCH to YOU!! I hit 1,500 VIEWS this week! (special thanks to Shauna who viewed twice just to get me to 1,500 :P ) As I post this I'm on 1,520 so this is mad! I honestly never thought I would ever get this many views on this blog. I started it for my friends and family to keep up with me and since going home at Christmas I realised a lot more than just family and some of my friends read this. Some people I may not have spoken to in a good while told me over Christmas how they loved reading my blog (INSANE). So again, for the bazillionth time, thank you. I really do appreciate it and knowing my efforts aren't going unnoticed is such a nice feeling.

Okay! Enough of that crap :P Muchos gracias my friends :) See you next week!

Thanks for reading!

- Shannen.

Week 20 - More Dissections?! RoadTrip Plans and Movies!

I kinda forgot to take photos this week... Saying that I didn't do anything really exciting :P


Monday February 16th

So today is President's Day and we have no classes. YAY! But thanks to the very kind individual that lives in the apartment upstairs, I was woken up at 8.30 am by banging drawers and their extremely loud stomping around their apartment. So I got up and showered and whatnot and then basically sat at my laptop for the majority of the day doing my assignments for this week. I have to read 4 papers this week and summarize three of them. As well as decide on my Ornithology proposal and submit my first part of that assignment this Friday. And for Thursday I also have a 2 page paper for my recreation behaviour class that gets us started on the paper we will be writing throughout the whole semester.
And I actually was really pleased with myself, I got them all done today as well as watching some more Bones so yay!


Tuesday February 17th

It's pancake Tuesday!! Fiona and I had pancakes for breakfast this morning before heading off to our first class at 11am. During the hour and a bit I had off before recreation behaviour, I typed up my Ornithology assignment so that is also out of the way with plenty of time so happy days! This is the most organized I think I have ever actually been :P This evening we had some more pancakes and also the Wildlife Society meeting where we had an Alaskan Biologist talk to us all about his work which features primarily bats.. But still, pretty cool stuff! I really regret not joining the society last semester, everyone is so nice and welcoming.
Then this evening we got to meet Austin, (Sarah's boyfriend) Dad and he wanted to formally invite us up to his house some weekend so we could go shooting and play with their St Bernard's :O How cool!

Pancakes with Cadbury's melted chocolate <3

Supernatural and Pretty Little Liars ended this evening then. And in only FOUR EPISODES we finally get to find out who A is! And I really do hope I'm not disappointed seeing as I've been watching from the start.. No spoilers here don't worry!!


Wednesday February 18th

I'm really getting sick of these 8 am starts.. So we had genetics and evolution. We met up with Siobhan then for our hour off so that was nice to catch up! She had been away all weekend on a field trip at the Rocky Mountain front so that's kinda cool hearing about that! In ornithology today we learned about bird respiration, thankfully I had learned everything in last semesters Vertebrate Design and Evolution class with Bret and Kris. This stuff is a little lighter and doesn't involve too much thank god!
We then had our genetics recitation (lab) from 11-12. We basically just went over last weeks homework and then he answered some of the questions we wanted answering. Got home then after this and had some lunch before FaceTiming Mom for a while.

Gorgeous blue skies here in Missoula <3

Fiona proof read my assignments today during the hour off that we had so I then corrected them and then started to try and research into my rangeland ecology proposal that's due for next Thursday. I'm trying to get it done early because next week I have three exams, weds, thurs and fri. And as well as them, I have genetics homework, my range proposal, rangeland summaries and a recreation behaviour paper to read too. I could spend all weekend at them  but I'd rather spend it studying (how sad). Genetics and recreation behaviour are going to be tough exams..
Friday night Fi and I are going to Big Hero 6 and Mockingjay in the UC theatre and then Saturday night I'm FINALLY going to a Griz basketball game. And it's the very last one too. So even if I have to go by myself, I'm going :P
Had another Facebook study session with Jamie tonight on this weeks birds. They're shorebirds, and I actually feel more confident doing this weeks ones as opposed to the falcons, hawks and eagles for last week. They all looked pretty similar to me :/


Thursday February 19th

8 am ornithology lab today and we had our usual 10 point quiz. The birds for today were owls, swifts and grouse. A lot birds that look very similar. After we did this, we moved onto our bird dissections. Fiona, Jamie, Jesse and I worked on our pigeon. We had to pluck him and expose his muscle. Then once we did this, we essentially ripped our bird apart and looked at the organs and then ripped those out. The conversation went as follows: "Aw look at his heart it's so cute!" *Jamie rips his heart out* "Aw that's his intestines" *Jamie cuts out intestines* ... "What's that jelly stuff?" "Oh that's the crop don't burst that it'll smell really bad!" And no, this time we did not rip the crop out hahaha.

An example of a live rock pigeon that we dissected :D

 Finished off the lab and then had a while off before our rangeland class. Thursdays are dedicated to presentations of the papers that required reading during that week. Recreation behavior was in a computer lab. We were thought about how to properly find sources on the web which I thought was just going to be a run through of all the things we already knew how to do. Nope. This was unreal! The computer lab guy thought us how to use different programs and these programs can actually MAKE our reference list! Which is class! This will literally save hours of tedious work, so as you can imagine, I'm very happy! This will make doing all my future assignments soooo easy! I just hope that the program works when I go back home so my fourth year will be a breeze :D

This evening around 8pm, Kate, Bridget and Aoife called over and we discussed a little trip to Seattle that will be happening in a few weeks time. YAY! Seattle is one of those cities on my bucket list so I'm way too excited to be finally going there!
Desiree called over after this and we booked her spring break tickets YAY! It's way too exciting :D


Friday February 20th

We learned about linkage in genetics today. Which was pretty cool. Complicated, but cool! In ornithology we moved onto talking about feathers in birds. Also quite cool!
Finished up classes at 11am and headed home to have lunch (it's weird having lunch at 11am). Then I went to sleep for an hour. Every Friday I'm always so exhausted I always end up sleeping :P I got up and tried to start my genetics homework and then Dave called over for a while, I haven't seen him in ages so twas nice to catch up.
This evening Fiona, Bridget and I went to the UC theatre because Big Hero 6 and Mockingjay Part 1 were on. For a double feature the price is only $4 which is class! So I also got popcorn and a drink. The whole evening cost me $8 and that included two movies! It's so cool :D

One of the best movies!!

I would seriously recommend EVERYONE watch this! It's hilarious (fa la la la la la la).

 Went to bed once I got home cause tomorrow has to be spent reading scientific papers to get them out of the way for the week ahead.
Today was also the very first family wedding back home and I'm literally so gutted I couldn't go. I was seeing loads of snapchats from all my cousins that were at the wedding which was nice but I really wanted to be there..
So welcome to the family Laura and congratulations to both you and Sean! Even though Laura has been a part of the family for years, it's now official :D


Saturday February 21st

Today was spent doing homework I could start any study.. Reading rangelands papers and summarizing them, reading my parks and recreation paper and also doing genetics homework.. I got all my papers read and summarized. Got my genetics kind of done, finished off my rangeland ecology proposal.. Nothing too exciting :) Fiona, Sarah and I watched Mulan tonight and then I watched two more episodes of Bones S10 before going to bed.

Sunday February 22nd

The first day all week I didn't set an alarm!! I woke up about 10am but stayed in bed until after 12pm. I was searching the internet for a while looking for possibilities of summer jobs in new york that revolved around animals instead of waitressing cause I hate it so much. Found a couple of things but because I'm only in New York for 6 weeks this summer it's hard to find something that would only keep me for that amount of time..
Got my Ornithology lab slideshow all set up and ready to go. This week we have to learn owls, pheasants/grouse, hummingbirds, swifts and other random birds. Yay.
Kate, Siobhan, Fiona and I went to Walmart to do some food shopping and then stopped off at Dairy Queen on our way home, of course! :P

Me playing with the teddies in Walmart.

*UPDATE*

I may change my upload day to Wednesdays depending on whether I bring my laptop to college with me on Tuesdays or not.
Also, anyone got any ideas on what I could do for my 25th blog post? I'm going to be on my 25th post before I know it and I was hoping to do something a little different. Not entirely sure what though.. I'll probably not end up doing anything differently though :P


Nothing all that exciting this week, just the usual! Up the walls with work so far this semester :( But soon enough we'll have a proper road trip to SEATTLE! Thank you again for reading my blog :) Sorry the posting schedules keep changing, I'm trying to get into some kind of a routine going but I end up falling asleep in the afternoon which screws things up a little :P

 Thanks for reading!

- Shannen

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.