Long Time, No.... Write?

Yes, yes. I know it's been over a week. I'm sorry. I was busy with moving all this last week, but that is over now, and I finally have internet again, so here you go.

Alright, well, Monday is when I officially moved in to Mt. Charles. It is great! I can already tell a difference. I'm so grateful I was able to move here! I do have TONS of laundry to do, though. In fact, the past couple days I've had to resort to wearing this pair of flats I have that I can wear barefooted because I ran out of clean socks. How pathetic is that? Yeesh. Haha!

The plans for spring break are coming along nicely. Our itinerary for Paris has changed a bit because a friend here, Julia, will be home in the south of France while we are there, so we're going to spend half of our "Paris time" in Bordeaux with her family. Her parents have a vineyard and Julia said that pretty much anywhere you go there are vineyards. Plus, everyone I've talked to just raves and raves at the beauty of southern France, so I am very excited, indeed!

Yesterday I celebrated St. Patrick's Day. In Ireland. How cool is that? They call it "Paddy's Day" over here. We actually had off of school for it. Can you believe it? There was a parade downtown yesterday, and we all went to that. It was so great! My absent-minded self forgot to take my camera, but I have friends who did. Hopefully I can get copies of their photos and pass them on to you all.

After the parade, I really wanted a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's. Since Ally rented a car for a friend who is here to visit, we were able to drive to a McDonald's. Ally's friend, Elaine, was going to go, too, but she was not feeling well and decided to stay at home. So, the party began with Ally, me, and this Chinese guy Siqi (who lives next door and originally introduced himself to me as "Steve," but I soon discovered the truth - haha!). Ally wanted to stop by College Gardens (another Queen's residential area) to see if her friend Rachel wanted to come. Rachel wasn't at home, but on our way back to the car, I was about to mention that Nicolas (my Belgian friend whose house we are staying at in Brussels) lives somewhere down that street, too, when I turned around and happened to see him walking behind us. Haha! He was going back to his place to grab a sweater and then meet up with some other people, but we kidnapped him instead. Hehehe

The actual McDonald's part turned out to be very disappointing, though. First, I was going to order a Big Mac - as I had been craving one for quite some time, now - but Ally really wanted the toy out of a Happy Meal, so I said I'd get one for her and just have a regular hamburger. Well, apparently the hamburgers in Happy Meals are not the same as regular hamburgers. It was literally a patty smacked in between two dry buns. Aboslutely nothing else. I was not the happiest of campers. Plus, the toy turned out to be pretty crappy, as well, so Ally was disappointed, too. Furthermore, THEY DIDN'T HAVE SHAMROCK SHAKES!!!! What kind of McDonald's - ESPECIALLY in Ireland - is it that doesn't have Shamrock shakes in March, or at least on St. Patrick's day itself! Sniff sniff. My hopes were utterly dashed. It wasn't a total loss, though, but the car ride itself was fun, and Nicolas let me have a bite of his Big Mac. Yumm! That was pretty much my excitement for the day. :)

Today I went to accounting tutorial, met with my group about our project, went grocery shopping, visited the Science Library to research and study a while on my new Mathematical Investigations project, and then came home to finally have internet access. It's very nice to feel connected again with the rest of the world. :)

I have an excursion planned with interstudy (my study abroad program) this weekend. I believe we will be visiting Killarney and Cork and also going kayaking and hiking or something along those lines. It should be a nice break. Hopefully I won't feel too guilty about all the work I could be doing so that I can actually enjoy my time there. It'll be good, though. I'm looking forward to it. :)

That's it for now. I'll write again when I have more or when I can, whichever works. Sorry it's been so long!