Catch up

Recap on weekend:

Sunday Hike to Mweelrea, the highest mountains in the Connaught region. A perfectly legit excuse for procrastination, this fourth hike was terribly enjoyable. Like the Mamturks, Mweelrea was in a bit of a marshy area, a lot of muddy bog to maneuver through, watching out for sinkholes, which I think I did a pretty darn good job of this time! Short walk again with the lovely Mandy, this time led by the very fun Tommy and joined by Mandy's roommate Carolyn. The other people in the group were equally enjoyable, a fun bunch of 11 people total made for good conversation between the huffing and puffing at the more strenuous parts. I truly enjoy actually getting some interaction with Irish students/adults and other internationals on these hikes (not that I don't enjoy being an American magnet). The day was surprisingly sunny to begin with, giving us a sprinkling while at the bottom and then again at the very top. The ominous clouds greeted us at the top, but not before I managed to get a good look around at the surrounding area.

I absolutely love the hikes; the views are phenomenal. The exertion is totally worth it! We didn't even have to reach the full top before enjoying a spectacular view. Before us lay a lake and up in the distance we saw Croagh Patrick, just making out the white speck on top, the chapel I'd reached just a few weeks earlier on the last hike!

At the top, believe it or not, we caught some snow! The wind picked up quite a bit and the cloud had joined us. As I sat to enjoy my pb and j, I thought Tommy had thrown a snowball at me, cheap shot I thought! Wound up being a sudden flurry of snow. Big, huge, snowflakes, almost ball like. It was the weirdest thing. Our view was somewhat hidden, making me grateful I'd taken a bit of it in before fully resting. The snow stopped towards the end of our lunch break, giving us a dry walk down.

Now usually the walks down are killer on my knees, this time not so much. Maybe on account of the ground being so squishy. All I had to do was be really cautious of the sink holes. It was so funny coming down because as far away as it seemed that we had come from the top, we never quite seemed all that much closer to the bottom. Enjoying fun conversation and an occasional "whoop!" as I slid down and caught my balance, we finished out the hike quite lovely like.

I think I enjoyed myself more at the pub this time than any other. Sitting around a table, eating a Lion candy bar as suggested by Tommy (can't quite explain it, a sort of cookie wafer with caramel, surrounded by chocolate with crisps in it?) whilst they enjoyed their Guinness and ham and cheese sandwiches (I'm so healthy opting for the chocolate!). Then discussing peanut butter, beer, drinking games and who knows what. The ride home consisted of random stuff and ended with Disney movies.

The Disney convo left me wanting a Disney movie marathon. Coming back home, exhausted and not quite ready for more Ivory research, I joined Irene for a sit down while she ate dinner. Basically, after some Disney movie talk of our own, we've decided to do a Disney night on thursday, complete with ice cream. I'm stoked!

I somehow managed to do ivory research and then called it quits around 1. I woke this morning around 6 and got back to work. Managed to piece it all together enough that I emailed the power point presentation to my professor before I left for college. I practiced the presentation on my walk to school and a little bit in between the hour break I had between Globalization & Democracy and Economics. Come economics I was the second to present, I guess I did just fine and was terribly happy to have it over with!

After the second round of Globalization I went to the store (Lidl) and picked up a few groceries. Realizing I didn't get bread (didn't like their selection) or apples I stopped into Dunnes on the way back. HOly crap is Dunnes expensive in comparison to the others! I'll wait until tomorrow to stop by on my way home from school!

Once home I did laundry, watching MILK during the loads and after dinner. After the movie, which was awesome by the way (I learned loads about the gay rights movement of which I previously knew hardly anything), I pretty much just skyped all evening/night. I caught Kayla and Jess. Kayla gave me another ASL lesson, she's awesome and has a web cam on her laptop so I get to see her pretty face. Then a call from dad interrupted and I hung up with her and chatted with Dad for a bit. Shortly after hanging up with Dad, Kevin called me and I caught Wendy as well. All in All I felt pretty darn special tonight. Needless to say I didn't do any homework but I have everything for tomorrow done already so I don't care. I'm updating on this so all is well.

(In the photos, the one that looks at the snake river going towards the two lakes... well, we started by the lake on the left I believe and worked our way up past where that photo was taken... yeah man, I think it was like 720 meters, wohoo!).