Days 13 and 14: Sunday evening and Monday

The bus ride back from the homestays was interesting. Most of us were pretty tired, and a lot of us hadn't showered in three days (myself included). At our first stop, there were also these random kids who were throwing snowballs at all of us (including the bus driver) and even attempting to get snow in the bus. We then drove for about 20 minutes back to Charleville, picked up people, and left without much exciting. Then, we rode for about 30-40 minutes to this gas station/convenience store place, where we were meeting the two girls who had been dropped off first. I feel like we were waiting forever-- people got out, got food, etc.-- and still they hadn't shown up. At one point, a few of us called/texted the two girls, who said they were close... Eventually, they made it, and we were off again through the treacherous weather and bad roads on our way to Cork. When we got back, I didn't really do much-- ate dinner, hung out with people, attempted to organize my life for the upcoming week, etc. My room was freezing when I got back, so I turned the heat on full blast, and I was going to shower, but everything was just so cold that I wanted to wait... so I went over to Bridget's, but then I got a text that they were going to shut the water off (to prevent it from freezing, I guess), so I ran back to my apartment and took a super quick (but absolutely necessary) shower. Then, I got an email from my advisor asking me about summer plans, so I had to email her back and get a few things together before going back to Bridget's to watch Hairspray! I hadn't seen the movie before (I saw the play in Richmond), and I really enjoyed it; the music is just really good! But after the movie, I just headed back to my apartment and went to sleep :)
On Monday, I got up a little later than I planned and was (of course) running late to my first class, which was in my favorite far-away building (I'm sure you can guess). I stepped outside into the freezing cold air and onto a super slippery, icy ground. But I was running late, so instead of walking super slowly, I decided to walk at a reasonable pace in an attempt to not be late. I was completely fine, had barely slipped and not fallen at all, when I have to cross the river. The bridge was really slippery but I managed to maneuver it. I almost slipped and slid into the road but I caught myself. I took a step forward and WHAM! I'm on the ground... A patch of ice out of nowhere (well, not really) causes me to fall on my behind and cut my hand. That was annoying. I don't like falling, and I really don't like falling in front of people, who then walk right by you without saying anything. But moving on, in the next 20 minutes on the way to class, I fell again. And again, no one said anything, but at least this time, there was no new bleeding and the cut on my hand had almost stopped. So I finally make it to WGB, and the lights are off; there's no one in my classroom, and I'm like really? I almost killed myself on the way here for nothing... But then people showed up, and we had class... nothing worth detailing. I then headed back to Deanshall for lunch and to chill for a bit. I gathered more stuff for summer programs and then ran out the door (late-ish) for my second class of the day also in the WGB (it's the math building grrrrrr....). I was the last person to Diff Eq but that didn't matter; the lecturer hadn't even thought about starting yet. The other Arcadia girl decided not to take the class, so I was still alone. But the hour went pretty quickly and then I trekked back to Deanshall (very exciting day, don't you think?). I had dinner, did nothing, but lo and behold, another class!! So back to campus I went, but not to the WGB! (Yay!) The class was Culture, Language, and Literature of Ireland, and I think almost every international student at UCC decided to take it. The classroom was completely packed... people sitting on the windowsills, the floor, in the doorways... I'm sure we were a serious fire hazard. But the class was really interesting, and I don't think it'll be very much work ( :-) ).. After class, a whole group of us walked back to Deanshall and hung out in Kat's apartment. See, we also had an Arcadia dinner at 6 (when we had class), so a bunch of people skipped the dinner to go to class, but some lovely friends of ours brought dinner back from the restaurant for us. Thus, the dedicated ones of us who went to class had a delicious dinner once class was over. The plan was to watch "Glee" after dinner, but no one got the right channel, so we ended up watching YouTube videos. We were all going to go to a pub to see live music, but by the time we planned to leave, most people had backed out (including me). I was just ready for an excellent night's sleep (I suppose, I always am), and I had class at 9 the next morning. Yuck. But anyway, the first Monday of classes was not terribly exciting, a little painful (with the ice and the falling), but still fun :)