Write It Down

When I write my papers, I ALWAYS manage to eff up the footnotes. So, in all my wisdom, I have devised a system (which all of you geniuses probably figured out when you were seven) of what I'll call "citation notation"

It goes a little somethin' like this:

I type all of my paper notes out in different colors, each color corresponding with a different source. When I write my paper and need to insert a footnote, I just put the page number in the color of the source that needs citing. For example, if "Are You My Mother?" is blue, and I need to cite page five of AYMM, I'll just write out my sentence and put 5 at the end. When I've finished writing and editing my paper, I go through and turn all the little colored numbers into proper footnotes. Tada!

Now, if I could have it my way, Word would have a tool that would make this ten hundred times faster. Like, I could tell Word, "Word, recognize that Terrence O'Neill's autobiography is green. Every time you see a green number, insert a citation for his autobiography!"

But of course that'd be far too easy.

Where does the time go? I realize that I've been a terrible blogger lately (January!?!??! Sorry!)

I don't want to do the whole "well this is what I've been doing for the past three months" thing because... well, anyone reading this has a pretty good idea anyway!!

Teaching is officially finished for the semester, meaning I've got about a month to write my final essays and take one exam... well, by now I have about 2 weeks before the first exam, three before the first papers are due.
I've been having a really hard time being productive lately. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm simultaneously realizing that my time here is quickly coming to and end, that I don't want it to, and that I have no idea what I'll be doing this summer.
I'm waiting to hear back about the internship I applied for... but honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to afford to take it. Augh.

Anyway, more fun topics:

I went to Paris this weekend (not really a weekend, but we'll just pretend for the sake of it) to visit Kelsey and have her show me around her lovely city... oh my goodness, I completely underestimated how wonderful it would be!!!!! First of all, Kelsey and her roommates live in this amazingly beautiful apartment... probably the nicest student apartment in existence and it's in Paris! We spent the weekend walking all over the city, seeing all the sites and popping into a couple of museums. It was tricky to get it all in because I didn't have much time, but I saw enough to know that I will definitely be back at some point in my life!

My birthday is coming up and I have really good feelings about this one :) Mackenzie and Kelsey are both going to be here in Galway and I think we might do a bit of touring around, check out the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, etc.. fun stuff :) And of course have a yummy birthday dinner and visit a few of my favorite public houses!

I know I say it all the time, but hopefully I can follow through with posting more frequently again... not that anything terribly interesting will be happening over the next couple weeks (work work and more work!)

Unrelated to any of this, but I think when I go home this summer I'm going to try to start this.

Time is flying by way too quickly for my liking. How is it already October?? I try not to think about how much time is left, focusing instead on each day.

The last week or so has been kind of mleh, taking care of a few business items and getting into the swing of classes. I finally registered with the Garda. It only took, oh, 3 hours of my life. The plus was I got some reading done for my first paper for my film class (we have to compare a book version and movie version of a story... she gave us a list to choose from and nearly all of them looked terribly depressing. Hooray for Irish literature.)
I'm still kind of confused on how to refer to my teachers. I guess professor is higher than doctor here, though that seems strange. I guess "lecturer" is the safest bet, but that seems so weird and kind of like I'm glossing over their true status. Whatever. The same thing goes for the way they talk about the bathroom. They (they being Irish people) say 'toilet' and make fun of us if we say 'restroom'... toilet seems almost vulgar to me, but when in Rome...

Cork is really awesome, there is always something going on. Last weekend (i think...?) was Culture Night with tons of free tours and activities. We went on a walking food history tour of Cork (chosen because we thought there'd be free food in it for us. There wasn't.) I think I was the only one of our group that really enjoyed the tour, though. After the food tour, we went in a "culture cab" similar to the TV show Cash Cab...what a BLAST. Everyone who knows me knows that I would do almost anything to go on that show (I plan to take a long weekend trip to NYC next year and spend the whole time hunting for Ben Bailey and his Cash Cab), so this was by far my favorite part of the night. They put five of us at a time into a vancab and it was every man for himself in terms of points, so the guide lady would ask a question and we'd have to yell out our names as a buzzer, whoever yelled first got to answer, etc. Most of the questions were easy enough, though there were some that were quite tricky for Americans and other non-Irish (i.e. what year did Samuel Beckett die, who won the Booker prize twice, etc).

This weekend the Beamish Folk Festival is on, so there's lots of live music in all the pubs and a Ceili Mor down on one of the main streets downtown tomorrow. I'm not sure what to expect from that, but the music has been good so far. We saw an old man bluesy number the other night at this place called The Corner House. They were awesome, the guitarist soloed for like, a full five minutes and dude was definitely pushing 60. They played some original stuff and some covers... all in all, a pretty good night.

Next weekend the kids from BC have to go up to Dublin to visit Fr. Leahy, who is coming to visit for some reason or another. I think I'll head up Thursday night or Friday morning (I don't have classes on Fridays) and do a bit of exploring, see some of the things I didn't get to when I was there last (i.e. The Book of Kells). I hadn't really planned on visiting Dublin again, just because I've already been there and ... well, why pay to go somewhere I've been and miss out on some place I haven't seen? Seeing as it is a BC sponsored trip, though, I don't have a problem going up.

My two papers for Folklore are due soon and I really need to get cracking on them, so my goal for the day is to finish the one I've started before I go out to enjoy the music, or, as they say here, the craic.

On the very tip top of my heap of complaints sits this dreadful, evil cold. I knew it was coming, I should have tried harder to avoid it, but I figured it was inevitable as nearly everyone else had already or was currently going through the same thing. Now, laying here in bed with a heavy head and sandpaper-like throat, I'm regretting my lack of proactivity a few days ago. I slept through class today, not seeing a way I could make the hike to school without drowning in a stream of my own snot and hacking up at least one of my lungs.
I woke up to a knock on my bedroom door, which I was somewhat expecting, seeing as my landlady had told me that my direct roommate would be moving in today. Turns out it was the janitor type lady come to make up the roommate's bed. When she saw me in bed she was confused, so I explained that I had a cold and I think the poor woman is now convinced that I have the swine flu.
The roommate has yet to arrive, so I've been sleeping fitfully all morning, afraid she'll come in and see me and be weirded out, or something. Or feel like she can't be in here to unpack for fear of disturbing me. Oh well.

After attending an advisory meeting yesterday, I've decided that I'm going to change my whole plan for courses. The lady from the international students office told us that we probably wouldn't be accepted to courses that we hadn't taken before, throwing my plans for psych and/or natural sciences right out the window. But that's okay! I figured out that even if I take only my 4 history courses while I'm here, I'll be able to graduate on time, I'll just have an odd senior year. So, the new plan is to knock out the histories, take a beginner's french class (no assessment, just language!) and perhaps an intro to jazz, to see if that can count for my fine arts class. If not, I might take an art history, or something that I can only take here, like a Celtic civilization class. Who knows. Anyway, I'm feeling a lot less stressed about the whole course thing.

In other news, there really isn't any other news. Hooray.

ETA: WTF grrrr I am so mad why do all of my posts still say April 17?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Trying to figure out which courses will be available this semester is nearly impossible, especially because the school hasn't yet published them. We've been advised to check out last year's courses with the warning that not all of them will be offered again. How helpful.

I've been comparing the old module book with the timetables, so I think I have some idea of what will be offered. My goals for this semester, coursewise, should be fairly easy to fulfill, though. I need to take two histories, either a natural science or a social science, and then whatever sounds most interesting as a fourth class.

For the histories, I'm tempted to take either Myth & History or Politics of Church & State. I don't want to take both, because they are both higher level courses with a 4000 word end of semester essay. I really don't want to do that to myself. If I can get into it, I think I'd prefer the Myth & History, and then a mid-level course called Information Revolutions & History. I can handle 4000 words and an exam, I think.

There don't seem to be too many lower level natural science courses available, at least... not ones that I want to take. I just can't really find nat sci interesting in the classroom, which is strange because I like Nat Geo and documentaries and that kind of stuff... blech. There's a couple of psych classes that I could do for my social science requirement, though. One is just an intro to Social Psychology and the other is one called Perception & Memory. I'm not sure if I could take Perception & Memory as it is a midlevel course and I have no Psych background.

I'm tempted to take this course designed for English speakers with no background in French. It's basically all conversation, no busy work or silliness, with the goal of giving us the basic vocabulary we'd need to survive a few days amidst the French. I don't know that such a vocabulary exists, but it sounds like fun, and it would be nice to be able to get by a little bit this Christmas.

Next semester, I'll basically be doing the same. Two histories, whichever science I don't do this semester and then a whatever. Maybe I'll take art history, because I still have to fulfill that. Assuming I'm successful in getting those three cores out of the way, and the 4 history courses tucked away, that'll leave me with ~3 history and cultural diversity senior year, meaning I would have room for four or so electives, unless I'm forgetting something huge... which I'm pretty sure I'm not.


Other than all of this planning, the past couple of days have been nice. The weekend was pretty chill, we mostly stayed in and played cards and planned our trips. I learned how to play Euchre seeing as most of my friends here are some variety of Midwestern. It's pretty fun, and kind of similar to Spades, so it wasn't too tricky to learn. We bought our tickets to Berlin. We ended up planning the trip for a week because when we looked at prices on Aer Lingus, there were 0 euro flights out of Cork to Berlin, with something like 20 euro taxes tacked on. All in all, a pretty good deal.
Last night we went to a pub called Clancy's where we heard there was going to be either swing or Irish dancing. Turns out both were going on, but the swing was upstairs and the Irish downstairs. One of the musicians would call out the dance steps, so a bunch of us would go up everytime and try our best to learn them. Our best didn't turn out so well, but it was still loads of fun.

In other news, I have become a chain tea-drinker and I'm dying for some good, or even not-so-good (i.e. Safeway) chinese food.

The past couple of weeks have been an absolute blur.

I go to class in the morning, from 9:30 - "12:30" but we're usually let out early, so I do my grocery shopping for the day. It would be nice to not have to shop every day, but the mini fridge makes that difficult. Also, I'm running out of ideas for meals that can be easily and quickly prepared with little space and few tools. Ideas, anyone?
I'm really happy with the group of friends I've made here. Most of us are in the same early start subject and live in Leeside, so we've been doing something of some sort most nights, whether it be chatting and getting to know each other or going out to some overpriced, overcrowded pub.

Our apartment building is located pretty centrally, so that's nice. It's a bit of a hike to school in the mornings, especially when it is pouring, but that's what wellies and brellies and anoraks are for! I prefer our proximity to the grocery stores, at least we don't have to walk a billion miles whilst carting our bags of food.

The past two weekends we've gone on a mini trip of some sort. Last weekend I went to Fethard to visit my grandpa one last time before he left for home. It was great fun, the town still has some of its old medieval walls and buildings and things and we went out for a nice meal and music afterward. I came back to Cork to go to the Cork City FC match against Cliftonville, where we were roped into being a sort of US fan club for the Rebels. We joined the crowd of about 50 hooligans in all the chants, including "Barack Obama loves Cork City!" and "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
The next day, a bunch of us went on a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry, which is a road that encircles Co. Kerry. Unfortunately it was terribly foggy and rainy so we didn't get to see all the beautiful views and landscapes, but it was still a good trip. We stopped in a few small towns, ate some delicious stew and brown bread, bought postcards and acted like tourists.


Thursday, our class went on a field trip to Bunratty folk park and castle, where we visited old farmhouses and cottages furnished with their traditional furnishings, which we had been learning about in class. After touring the folk park, we went to a banquet inside the castle. It was fun although a bit hokey. The food was amazingly delicious. We had this creamy vegetable soup, ribs, chicken, vegetables and a berry mousse tart thing for dessert. We came back to Cork yesterday via Adare, Kerry, and Mucros house in Kilarney.

We only have a couple weeks left of the early start program, and then we register for the regular semester. They still haven't published the list of updated modules, so I don't know what I will be able to register for. It is quite frustrating. At orientation, they talked about this crash course in French that I kind of want to take. It's mostly focused on speaking instead of grammatical rules and the like, so it sounds like it would be both fun and useful (social AND functional, as Dr. Humphreys would say!)

We've been trying to figure out where everyone wants to go in terms of European travel. My number one goal is to get to Berlin for the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the wall. There is going to be this ceremony involving 8 ft dominos set up to collapse and I think it would just be an amazing experience. A bit of searching around on ryanair and hostelworld last night tells me that it is highly affordable, so I really want to act now before it gets too expensive. I imagine there will be quite a crowd.
I really want to go to Scotland and England, too. I'm waiting to visit Liverpool until Sarah is there, but I'll probably go over to Bath at some point to visit Laura and Lizzy. I'd like to go to London as well, so maybe I can combine that into one of those trips, or just make it a trip of its own.
Barcelona is high on my list too, actually, I'd like to go all over Spain.
I'm not incredibly interested in Italy. It'd be cool, yeah, but... it's not at the top of my list.
The coolest part about all the friends I've made here so far is that all of them are just as interested in traveling as I am, so we should be able to put together a good little group of people to visit all the places we'd like to go.

I tried to upload some photos to this post, but unfortunately my internet connection is so crummy that the loading times out before it can be published. I'll try again later when it isn't being so patchy.

Funny things people have said:
"We'll tweet and blog him (Paul Allen) to death!!!"
"Matt!!! You've made a Hansel and Gretal trail of hamburger!"
"I'm not feeding SALSA to a CAT!"

In other words, the beach has been a good time so far. We've shopped, ate too much, played games, watched movies... and best of all! The house has a magical bookshelf! On it lives many books that I have been meaning to read for a great a time including In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works, On the Road, and a few collections of great Amurrrican short stories, etc.

I got an email today from my academic mentor guy at UCC, he seems nice. But, his name is the EXACT same name as an author of this book that was launched at last year's La Na Gaeilge. It's not the same guy, because the author one is dead, but.. it's kind of weird!

This is an incredibly incoherent post because there are 500 million people talking really loudy loud. The end.

The answer is "yes!!!"
Also, as we all know, list making is beyond fun, so let the games begin!

Why is Proctoring fun?

• Pee man. He got up to pee after 15 minutes of starting his exam, then 45 minutes after that, with an explanation. "I drank too much water." OK. Thanks for the update, pal. 45 minutes after THAT he comes stomping down the aisle, shaking his head at himself (and probably cursing his tiny bladder). Three times in a 3 hour exam is the time to beat, ladies and gents.
• Mental breakdown man. Not even an hour into the exam he's laughing hysterically, his whole body shaking with the open mouthed silent laughter. What's so funny about "Evidence"? Or is it that you are no longer mentally sound after days of excruciating law school exams? Or were you craycray to begin with? I'm going with the last option.
• Birthday boy. The scantron sheet has a little spot for your birthday (who knows why) and one guy filled it out... I'll be sure to send you a card, number 3---.
  
• Pee:thirty? There's a certain point during the exam (happens to be right now, s'mattera fact) when EVERYONE has to pee like crazy, so it becomes a contest to see who can do the awkward 'my bladder is full' speedwalk to the front fastest without wetting themselves. I blame the dixie cup sized free coffees that the dining hall gives out. So easy to overindulge when you're tossing 'em back to get that full caffeine effect. And that leads me to my next item...
  
• Drinking dixie cup sized coffees. It's like a tea party! Pinkies out, ladies!
• Babysitting without the dirty diapers. I get to be the boss of kids who are far older and arguably more intelligent (well, maybe some of 'em...) than I am. What a power trip. I AM IN CHARGE!!!!
• ETA: The exam passwords. Sunny, Flower, London, Chowder. My perfect, soothing PNW blessing-upon-the-ears of an accent saying the word "chowder" to a roomful of temporary Bostonians cracked me up. Chowdurrr.
  

Last night was the Haley House volunteer appreciation shindig and it was a total blast. I was worried that I wouldn't really have fun because I don't really know the other BC volunteers well... but it turned out that I was quite wrong!

While I was walking there, I ran into this group of three kids about my age and they asked me where the Haley House was. They said they met DaHye (the BC senior in charge of all the Haley House volunteers) at a park the day before and she had invited them to come to the dinner. Good thing they didn't turn out to be sketchy. They're doing this year of travel thing before they go to college, going around the country and doing social justice work and what not. They seemed nice enough but left pretty quickly.

I also got to hang out with Axe, my supervisors 2.5 year old, and he kept talking about Bob Marley, John Mayer and the Cookie Monster. I asked him what color the Cookie Monster is and he said "Blue and a half."

We had the dinner on the third level balcony, complete with christmas lights, patio furniture and pasta salad. Delish. I won all three rounds of Egyptian Rat Screw, which we renamed Mongolian Rat Trap. The other pulsers were totally awesome and I'm really disappointed that I didn't get to know them earlier on.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. And I can't wait to go home.

So, in traditional Keavy style, a to-do list.

• At least 8 pages of history paper
  
• PULSE paper
• Fill out release forms for Galway
• translate the next few paragraphs of Peig
• make notecards for US History
• Spend some time outside enjoying the sunshine
• Upload all of those CDs to itunes
• Create a packing list: What goes home, what gets ditched, what gets sent to Ireland (?), what gets given away
• Laundry

In other news, I saw a guy almost get arrested last night from my perfect perch of a window. Apparently Brookline cabs aren't allowed to pick up passengers in Chestnut Hill? The cop who pulled him over (unmarked cop car, btw) kept saying "you are NOT a BOSTON CAB!" In the end the cabbie tried to push it off on the kids who hailed him ("You're the one who knows the law!") and was fined a hefty $500. I don't understand the law, and I've certainly ridden in Brookline cabs before... strange indeed.

There are 4 days of classes left. Yikes.

So, even though I'm planning to go abroad next year, BC still wanted me to register for classes for next semester, so I did. Funny that the one time it doesn't really matter when I register, as I likely wont be taking the classes, I have a good registration time.

So, without further ado, here is the schedule of courses that I'll be taking if I do happen to stay at BC next fall:

HS 43201 18th Century Ireland t/th 1:30
BI 14201 The Genetic Century mwf 10 (to satisfy the rest of my natural sciences core)
PS 03201 Emotion mwf 3 (to satisfy the rest of my social sciences core)
HS 56501 American Immigration I t/th 12
EN 38901 James Joyce m/th 6:30

So it's kind of a crazy schedule timewise... I should be able to squeeze in some work hours mwf between 11 and 2:30, then t/th 9-11:30. I wanted to sign up for a fiction writing workshop but thought better of it... I don't want to take the space of somebody who really wants (and will be able) to take the class.
I think even if everything does fall through, I'll be happy with these classes...

Speaking of studying abroad, I got an email from Cork's housing system this morning, but it was completely blank. So I think I'll reply with a little "huh?" and see what's going down.

For once I feel particularly helpful here at work... a student just came in, freaking out about the 1098T form for her taxes. When everybody else stared blankly at her and "uhhhhmmmmm"ed, I was able to jump in and help her. Woo, go me. I'm not completely useless as a secretary-type!

In other news, I sort of like the way my paper is progressing. I'm writing about the link between the shift in the American Dream and the growth of the suburbs. It's a short paper, strict 1000 word limit, which I don't really like. I prefer a little room to ramble, get my thoughts out. It's probably better this way, though. More succinct.

This week is shaping up to be pretty action-packed. Essay due tomorrow, Paul Rusesabagina is giving a talk on Wednesday to which I would really like to go, I have a midterm on Friday... then all of the other things that take up time, like class, 10:02, Haley House, work... Oh well, I'd rather be busy than bored.

I'm pretty sure this'll be my last post before I leave for Ireland tomorrow, so I'll be sure to make it a good one.

My midterm went well today, aside from a few tricky fill in the blanks I feel pretty confident about it... so, hooray!!

After history, I got to have lunch with 20 or so delegates from Northern Ireland and the Republic and it was just... SO COOL. They got a grant from BC to get together to discuss the peace process and reconciliation and what not, so they're here in Boston for part of the week and Washington DC for the rest. Anyway, we (the service trip group) got to chat and eat with them and it was quite possibly the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. They were all so awesome and nice and gave us their cards, telling us to email them or stop by their office if we ever wanted to look around or get a hold of documents or just to chat. All three of us from the service group who were there (me, ben, sarah) are history majors with a focus in irish/uk history so all of these politicians were just going crazy offering us names and tips and... AHH. It was amazing. One of them women actually works for Eamon de Valera's grandson.

Also, they convinced Kate (the leader of the trip) that we should go to a hurling match at Croke Park.... WOOHOO!!!!!

All I've really got to do now is pack, clean up my side of the room and get through tomorrow (haley house, class)

My list is slowly shrinking. Very slowly. Here's where I stand:

• US History midterm Thursday
• Haley House Friday morning
• Regular things (classes, work)
• CVS - travel shampoo, etc.
  
• pack (DO THIS THURSDAY. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!)
• sell the rest of my t-shirts ( Sold two more, only two left!)
  

Pam, my friend Mackenzie's mom wrote on my facebook wall* about wanting a T-shirt to help send me to Ireland, so that's pretty cool.

I picked up my application for Galway yesterday and it looks fairly simple. The actual application itself is only 10 questions, things like last name, first name, parents names... etc. The hardest part will be putting down what classes I want to take. Of course, it won't be binding, but they want to have some idea what you'd like to take. I'll also have to get two academic references and one character reference, all from BC faculty. I think I'm going to ask Lad, my writing professor from last semester, and Prof Troxell, my PULSE professor, to do the academic references. I'll ask Phil for the character reference because he's said he'd be more than glad to do one for me many times. So that's pretty much straightened out. I think we have to write an essay of some sort, as well. A How Will Studying Abroad Tie Into Your Other Studies At BC type thing, which will be a piece o' cake.

I've got to look up the last 200 miles of the Yangtze and Mekong rivers for my history midterm... blech.

* I still stand by it not being OK for parents to have facebook

This week is going to be full of insanity and headless-chickenness, specifically me running around like one.

So, to keep me happy, a list:

• meeting with Glynn today at 3
• US History midterm Thursday
• Haley House tonight and Friday morning
• Regular things (classes, work)
• CVS - travel shampoo, etc. Converter? Disposable camera?
  
• laundry (DO THIS BEFORE THURSDAY. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!)
  
• pack (DO THIS THURSDAY. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!)
• sell the rest of my t-shirts

Another list:

• Crabgrass Frontier
• Clothes
  
• toiletries
• camera (digi & disposable? disposable only? what say you?)
• camera charger
• iPod
• fun book
• towel
• journal & addresses for postcards

------------

I feel better now. Also, good news! My package from my momster came today... well, sometime last week, actually. Turned out they delivered it to my old building, for reasons unknown. Also, I got an email from study abroad and I'm approved for the Galway program... which is AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING. Now I can start the application process.

The study abroad grant application is due Friday and I've asked Phil, my Irish professor, to write a recommendation for me. All I have to do is write a 500 word essay about my goals for studying abroad and how it will tie in to the rest of my time at BC. Pretty e-z-p-z.

While I was in the Connolly House yesterday, I picked up one of the Irish Studies newsletters and lo and behold, there was my Irish history professor right on the cover. Turns out he's got a weekly radio show on RTÉ 1, the Irish radio station. Kinda crazy, pretty awesome. I'm definitely going to give it a listen when I'm not at work.

Tonight is our service trip pasta dinner fundraiser. I'm quite nervous about it because I don't think we're going to make very much money. We were all given 10 tickets to sell at $5 per ... and I don't think anyone has sold the full ten. I've sold 5 and will maybe sell a few more at the door, but it doesn't look like it's going to be the money earner we thought it would be.


Oh, and... check this out. I'm on a boat, and don't you ERRR forget it!

My meeting with Prof. Rob Savage of the Irish Studies dept. went well... he seemed eager to help me out and make this double major thing happen. He said there's only one Irish Studies major at BC right now... kinda crazy! Looks like all (hah.) I have to do is write a proposal, including what I want to do, specific classes, etc for the next couple years and submit it to him and the other director, Marjorie Howes, and then after a bit of revision submit it to my dean. No biggie.

It should be do-able, I think I'll be able to finish up both majors... I have 7 history courses left, 4 of which I can take abroad. Prof. Savage said that the Irish Studies major would be equivalent to the History major in terms of number of courses... so I've finished 4, I'll be able to take 4 abroad, then 4 senior year. Not a lot of wiggle room, but totally possible. I think I have 4 core courses left (nat. science, soc. science, art & cultural diversity)... I'm not sure if courses can double count, but if they can then I'm in business. If not... I might have to overload at some point. Yikes.

Now I'm stressed.

In other news, the Sasquatch lineup should be out soon and word has it The Decemberists are likely to be on it! Woooohoooo! If so, I'm definitely going.

I just sent out a slew of potentially life-changing emails including:

• one to WSHM about getting an internship this summer
• one to the co-director of the Irish Studies department, seeing about switching from History to an interdisciplinary Irish Studies major.
• one to confirm my study abroad choice of Cork in the fall, Galway in the spring.

... now all I have to do is sit back and wait. Which is no big deal. Only the worst part of sending out potentially life-changing emails.

I realized in US History yesterday, as my professor was rambling about all his great achievements, that I want to be an active historian. As in the dig-through-smelly-old-barns-in-hopes-of-finding-groundbreaking-documents type of historian. The kind that writes letters to dead peoples' relatives so that i can get my grubby historian hands on their precious family heirlooms, exposing those dead people as the wily people nobody ever realized they were. Of course, loads of fame and glory will ensue.