Week 10- Halloween Week

Monday 27th October-

I was able to begin registering for my classes for next semester at 8am Monday. I got registered for two of my classes but couldn't sign up for the rest because I needed overrides. That evening when I got home there was a parcel waiting for me from home! My Mom had sent me a parcel of goodies including a porter cake, which I was delighted with :) . Thanks Mom! Shannen and me went shopping for pumpkins this evening.

My parcel

Tuesday 28th October-

Luckily the next day I had a meeting with my academic adviser and she was able to sign me up. Unfortunately the class on Conservation Genetics I wanted to take over January break isn't being offered and neither is the field trip to Yellowstone. Shannen and myself were disappointed because we'd heard it was an amazing trip. Tuesday evening Shannen's Missoula family invited us over to carve pumpkins and to say thanks I made them scones. They made us a lovely Irish stew and brown soda bread with apple dumplings for dessert. We had a great night and had fun making our pumpkins. 

Homemade scones

My wolf pumpkin

My wolf and Shannen's minion

Wednesday 29th October-

There was a thank you dinner on Wednesday night for all those taking part in the Missoula Family Program. The president of UM, Royce Engstrom welcomed everyone and there were a few speeches on the benefits of the program. It was nice seeing a lot of the international students who I hadn't seen in a while. When we got home we watched a documentary about Japanese Macaques which was narrated by Liam Neeson! 

Thursday 30th October-

My Wildlife Habitat term paper topic was due Thursday, it has to be on a community ecosystem facing conservation issues. I chose to base mine on a high Himalayas community  including snow leopards and how climate change is restricting their range. Can't wait to start it but not looking forward to the presentation I will have to give to the class. We were given an assignment due next week to write a grant application based on a project in the Northern Great Plains. When I got home from work Shannen was upset. She'd had bad news but thankfully everything was ok. We went for Dairy Queen ice cream as a pick me up (our last because they are closing for the season). We had planned on going out but Shannen just needed a night in so we watched the first two episodes of Planet Earth. I finished off my Halloween costume, which is a Pocahontas dress I made from a huge t-shirt. I actually had a lot of fun turning a shirt into a dress.

A really cool pumpkin someone made

Friday 31st October-

It's funny how seriously Americans take Halloween, like there were a few students dressed up in our 8am lecture! A few people in work were dressed up too which was pretty funny. In my Vertebrate lab we studied the arteries and veins of the cat, which was so cool! Getting ready that evening was really fun. I dressed as a zombie Pocahontas and Shannen was a zombie cowgirl. I had way too much fun with the blood and scar makeup. Elliot hadn't got a costume so we turned him into a zombie too. We headed over to Aoife and Amber's apartment for a predrinks party with the internationals. When they headed to town we went to Elliot and Dave's apartment to wait for Kate and James. When they got there we just decided to relax for the night and we ended up getting pizza and 2am. Typical Halloween night! :P

Zombiefied

Saturday 1st November-

Just had a relaxing day off. Arsed around for most of the day and rang a lot of my friends. Eoghan called over too to hang out. We decided to have a horror movie night so Kate, James and Bridget called over. We watched The Uninvited, which was pretty good with a twist I did not see coming, and Zombieland, which was very funny. 

Sunday 2nd November-

I spent most of Sunday working on assignments and studying for my Mammalogy exam on Wednesday. Eoghan made a delicious roast dinner for Shannen and me. It was really nice and reminded us of home. After dinner Shannen and I facetimed Sarah and got all the news. I rang my cousins in New York and made my plans to spend Christmas with them. I booked my flight ticket from New Orleans to New York, can't wait now to spend winter there!

Hope you liked my blog. Until next time- Fiona