coming to a close

Life has indeed gotten better, but it's also brought change with it. It's nearly November and, given the way life has worked out, it's also nearly the end of my residence here in Ireland.

Since August the hours at work have become increasingly light, making life nearly financially impossible. In combination with the end of my Master's program, this means that there are now more things pushing me away from here and pulling me home to California than keeping me here.

So off I will go mid-November, a mere three weeks from now.

October was still pretty good, though. Arad came for a two week visit, and besides hanging around Cork we made our way around Dublin, Howth, and Kinsale. Badminton has started back up with university, and so I've been seeing more of my lovelies.

The highlight, of course, is the Irish ISBT in Limerick. It was this past weekend, and we had an extra day of insanity thanks to the bank holiday. The theme for this year was '3'. As follows, you can see the group photo of UCCers' costumes:

I was the Holy Ghost. See if you can spot my Trinity counterparts!

Badminton trips always, ALWAYS constitute the highlight of my life here. It's a high that's hard to come down from--playing badminton, partying, and sleeping just enough to begin the cycle again the next day. The craic is unbeatable, as is the company.

So for this very second, I'm stuck in that stage of wanting to stay longer, reminded of all the reasons why I do love this country and why I moved here in the first place. But I also know, even if I don't currently want to remember, that this is the best time for me to make my exit.

My thesis is DONE! All 130 pages of it is done, printed, and handed in.

I am FREEEEEE! See?



That's really all I did for September, and unfortunately I'm barely exaggerating. Work has given me very few hours and badminton didn't start up 'til last week. But as of today, life gets better.

at summer's end

It's been a while. Here's a summary of my summer:

I came back from Switzerland and essentially waited to go home.

I went home for two weeks! I visited two of my wonderful Scrippsies and got to walk around campus. I went camping in Yosemite with the siblings and their significant others. I hung around JMZ camps/campstaff. I saw my home friends. I chilled with Becky, Hailey, and Arad. And then I broke my own heart flying back. Two weeks is not enough time.

I moved! I live in a pleasant new abode just across from the gym. Only one other housemate has moved in, but I get on quite well with her! Here are some photos. Mind you, it's actually more spacious than the pictures make it out to be. It's not fancy, but it's comfortable (which is more than I could say for my summer housing).

I went to Norway! We were there for four-ish days. But don't ask me what Norway looks like, or if I know any Norwegian, or anything silly like that. We lived in the badminton hall. Literally. I love ISBTs (international student badminton tournaments). They are always, ALWAYS legendary.

This is what Norway looked like for me.

I'm writing my thesis. Two chapters down, two to go! I'm going to have to cut so much out... I'm at 9,000 words already!

summer sun.... sometimes

The month of June is gone, and I can't say I miss it.

I spent the first half of the month working, writing a chapter for my thesis, and training for badminton as much as possible. This period of time was largely unremarkable, apart from the fact that I moved to different (cheaper!) housing for the summer. Now I am much closer to the gym and city center, and even slightly closer to work as well.

Then I went to Geneva, Switzerland to play in the European University Championships. We (six of us from UCC) were representing Ireland--yes, that means I represented Ireland internationally, and yes, I do find this hilarious.

Go Ireland! Go America!

We didn't win by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't because we are intrinsically worse players--it was more about training standards and experience. And we played our best, so no complaints really. I lost both of the two singles matches I played in three sets, won a mixed match, and lost another mixed in three. All things considered, it was a fantastic experience. The courts were perfect, we had umpires and line judges and electric scoreboards, and there were even free sports massage therapists.

The upside of not winning a whole lot? More time to do fun things. Like swimming at a beachfront resort. And catching a boat across Lake Geneva to a French village, Yvoire. We also made friends with the team from Bath (England), with the Germans, and with Cyprus (not the whole team from Cyprus, just the one girl who spoke English who we nicknamed Cyprus). Most importantly, I was with my teammates all the while--and UCC was definitely one of the closest teams, if not the closest.

Now I'm home for just over a week, and then I fly home to Cali for a two week visit. I cannot wait.

the fruits of May

May has been a quiet month. There's been very little badminton, as the gym hall has been carpeted over for exams. My classes finished a few weeks ago, after we did our thesis presentations. I rather apathetically wrote and handed in my final essay. My program had our annual conference, this year's theme being 'Irish Feminisms and the Future.' It was alternatively inspiring and incredibly frustrating (long story short: I don't think that title was representative of the content of the conference). Other than that, I've just been working.

As for how my thesis presentation went, I presented first--I was really nervous, and late (I thought we were in a building across campus). Nevertheless, it turned out okay. Everyone seemed really impressed, including my thesis supervisor. Apparently my fear of public speaking doesn't show at all, thank goodness. For anyone who's interested, here was my presentation (if you go to the 'open in a new window' option, you can expand to see my talking points/notes as well via the small icon in the lower right-hand corner, so things may make a bit more sense):



(Mind you, the presentation was really informal--more to serve as an update on what we've been doing so far. It was just my classmates, my supervisor, and a few other professors associated with the program. So I didn't have to worry too much about proper citations, exact formatting, etc.)

Perhaps most exciting for those of you in California, I bought tickets for a visit home in July. Yay!

in the midst of things

I can't believe it's practically May. I actually can't. Since the drudgery of February, the time has just flown by.

Following on the heels of the Intervarsities, Becky, Heather, and Hailey came to visit me. It was a bit crowded in the house (2 extra people plus a one year old in a house with three other guys is not something I would recommend), but wonderful to see them. Hailey has gotten so big, it's unreal! She's a whole little person!

People love me enough to visit me halfway across the world, lucky me!
Left: Hailey, Heather, Becky, and me in Kinsale
Below: Arad and me at Blarney Castle

A week and a half (and a paper) after they left, Arad flew in. He was here for the past two weeks and just left this morning. This visit was notably different from the last in several salient respects: (1) I had to go to work, and thus had less time with him, (2) we weren't both disgustingly ill, and (3) it wasn't freezing cold outside. Still, we managed to fly through another tv series (last time it was me showing him four seasons of West Wing, this time it was him showing me two and a half seasons of Grey's Anatomy).

I've still had a fair amount of badminton. While Becky & Co. were here I had a competition for Co. Cork up in Galway (we placed 2nd), then after they left we had the Intercolleges competition up in Dublin (we won) and I played in a leisure tournament deep in rural Kerry in the town of Listowel. While Arad was here, we had the Hanes Handicap cup in Killarney (we won, even though I was having a monumentally off day) and the Munster Club Division 1A finals in Limerick (we won). So he got to see more of Ireland--or its badminton halls at least.

Tonight, I was elected Secretary for UCC badminton for next year. We'll see how this works out.

Mission Accomplished

Anybody who has heard me talk about Cork has probably heard me talk about UCC badminton, and anybody who has heard me talk about UCC badminton has probably heard me talk about the Intervarsities.

It's the yearly competition for all the college badminton teams in Ireland.

Two years ago, UCC came off a 15ish year losing streak to win:

2007 Waterford Intervarsities Champs

Last year, I flew back from California (in the midst of thesis hell) to compete. We lost in the semi-finals due to some petty mind games on the part of opponents. Still awesome:

2008 Dublin Intervarsities Semi-Finalists

This past weekend, WE WON!!!!!!!!!!

2009 Maynooth Intervarsities CHAMPIONS

Oh, and we won the Munster Premiere League in Killarney on St. Paddy's Day. UCC is unstoppable. I am just overflowing with pride in each and every single one of my teammates--how well they played, how well we worked together, what fantastic people they are.

Jessica is happy. That is all.