Cracking Down on the Midterm

Today was the start of my eighth week here--it's crazy to think that I've already been here for a third of my time. Some people, like one of my suitemates, are going home in April, so they've practically been here for half of their stay. The days go by slowly, yet somehow the weeks are flying by.

When I realized how much time was left tonight, I really started to get nervous about my final essays and exams. I have a midterm due next Monday, which I started today and should be able to finish tomorrow, but I know the prompt for two of my final essays. I would really like to push myself to finish them before classes are done in six weeks so I don't have to worry about them over spring break, when I hopefully will be traveling. Both require research, but one is much more open-ended and should be easier to find articles online. For my archaeology paper, however, I will need to spend lots of time in the library and in the archaeology department library. I'll probably crash in there for a couple days since it's not a short trip to get to school for a couple minutes of studying.

Tomorrow I'm lugging along my computer to school so I can work on my midterm in between classes. Since I'm there from 10 to 5 anyway, I figured I might as well go in early and maybe stay late if there's an Archaeology Society lecture. My bag will be crazy heavy, but I want to get this done!

Meanwhile, I'm falling to pieces. I have a blister on the bottom of my heel from my new boots, so I have to walk with a gimp so I don't step on it; my hand is cut up from rock climbing (I got rope burn); and I've got some sort of sinus infection. I went to Health Services today for that, and the nurse was the same one who looked at me the last time I went there about lice. She was just going to suggest over-the-counter medicine, but she said I looked a lot more pale than the last time (pretty impossible, since I'm always so pasty) and had me see the doctor. I was prescribed penicillin, but I don't know how well that will work since this is the same kind of cold I had last year and it didn't go away until I started taking decongestant. Oh well. Finn, the API director, told us we were all bound to get a head or chest cold at some point, and I've been lucky so far. Now it's my turn.

I'd really love to go to bed, but I'm waiting for the booster cycle on the hot water heater to run so I can have hot water for my shower. I normally would just dart in and out of the cold water, but it's so cold in my room and I figured I can take a little pampering since I don't feel great. That's also why I ate so many cookies and milk today...and chicken noodle soup for supper. Yum.

Classes were good today. My castles instructor was having crazy problems with the projector, but at one point we could see the pictures. We were supposed to move on to Crusader castles today, which were built of stone, but he had some pictures up from earthen motte castles (which he's talked about non-stop for three weeks). He looked up at the audience and said, "I can see you all freaking out, thinking, 'Oh my god, he's going to talk about mottes again.'" He ended up only mentioning them, but the whole class laughed because we really did think he was going to go off about mottes again. Oy vey.

Alice actually saw a motte out of the window of the plane when we were flying home yesterday. I tried to see it, but since I wasn't next to the window I couldn't lean over far enough to see it. We saw some other circular earthworks too which might have been that type of medieval castle. I wish I knew how to recognize them better!

Since I had to go to Dunnes today to fill my prescription, I bought some groceries and stocked up on bathroom stuff, like a new toothbrush and contact solution. It stinks paying for them cause they're so expensive, but they do last a while. I'm going to try not to spend any more money this week since I'm almost 350 euros over budget already this semester (that's almost $475). Ughhh. I've really tried to be good, but apparently it's not working. I'm getting nervous about having enough money to go on big trips at the end of the semester, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see how everything works out.

I'm going to try writing to my cousins in the U.K. this week to see if I can meet them sometime this semester. I googled Jack and I think I found a picture of him at some flower show in his town. I just remember Aunt Karen saying he has muttonchop sideburns, and the guy in the picture definitely fits that description. Is this him, Aunt Karen? I'd love to meet them and visit the area where they live.

I was working really hard on my essay earlier, then my roommate called me downstairs to watch Glee with her...after that, I only typed a few more sentences, even though I brought my computer down with me and I'd already seen the episode. I love Glee--it's so addicting! Then the other Irish girl, Emer, came in and we sat there making fun of some show that shows how celebrities would look at age 75.

And that's basically today! Tomorrow, assuming I finish my essay, I'll definitely put up the blog for Saturday. That's the longest one of the weekend, obviously, since that was the full day in Paris. I can't remember the names of many of the monuments and buildings in the pictures, so it might end up just being some stories with random pictures at the bottom!

I guess I'll go check on the hot water...good night!