18 april 2011 - the good, the bad, the ugly

seriously can someone explain to me why my life seems to be traveling at warp speed? the EIGHTEENTH? crazy. by some miracle, i'm done with all of my essays and just have one 12 page immersion project to write. thanks for that, holy cross. really appreciated. but i think it will be a breeze compared to the analysis i wrote last night about an ornate 8th century zoomorphic pennanular brooch. look that up. i dare you.

anywho, a friend of mine in italy is also keeping a blog (aptly titled "a gelato a day... keep the scale away!") and she wrote a post about some absurd trip through southern france about the good and bad of the weekend. since i haven't been traveling much lately, i'm stealing her idea but applying it to the whole year.  
THE GOOD
1. the beauty of ireland: worcester is going to be just a little bit different. i take advantage of how gorgeous it is here. my commute to class (highway aside) involves walking past a bunch of fields, a river complete with our 2 swan friends and the ruins of an old stone house. casual. not to mention shop street in town which is absolutely adorable. im going to miss the quaintness of the city.

2. the accent, the people, the food, the cider, the pubs. EVERYTHING about everyday life here.  i could go on for another 10000 words about how much i'll miss galway.

3. i'm not going to lie, the break in extreme academic stress at hc has been pretty nice. granted, that will probably make for a very difficult senior year, but i think it was worth it.

4. and of course the traveling to ridiculous places to meet up with fellow hc study abroaders. sometimes we stop ourselves after saying something along the lines of "remember that time we went to see usher in strasbourg" or "remember how much fun it was popping champagne on the champs elysees for new years?" i can't believe all of the memories i've made!

THE BAD (aka things i'm not going to miss)
1. no paper towels in public restrooms: i don't know how i've made it the whole year without complaining about this... but ireland is under the impression that hand towels are wasteful or something. sure, that might be true but do i care about he environment when i have to walk around with wet hands for like ten minutes? absolutely not. looking forward to good old, wasteful america!

2. traveling as a college student: i am most definitely my mother's daughter in the luxury department and did not enjoy this year of sleeping in unsanitary hostel beds (or at least what looks pretty unsanitary compared to a normal hotel). we ran into quite a few shady hostel characters (if you're over the age of 45, a) why are you sleeping in a hostel? and b) why are you alone...? creepin') this year and i hope that i will be frequenting legitimate hotels from now on.

3. being away from friends and fam has been rough and to add insult to injury, no phone! can't wait to call and text everyone just because i can!!! :)

THE UGLY
my room right now... i've started attempting to pack before the fam's arrival. my bed is lost.

love you all! t-minus 11 days until i'm stateside!!! xoxo