Weeks 15-17 - Catch up and New Orleans!

Monday 29th November to Friday 12th December-

Ok so the last two weeks of college consisted of finishing up with lectures, handing in assignments and studying for finals. My finals went ok I hope, I still haven’t gotten the results back yet though so fingers crossed. I climbed up Mt. Sentinel one day because I wanted to see how Missoula looked in the snow. It was pretty cool hiking up in the snow and I got some really nice photos. On the Friday night before finals started Kate, Shannen, James and I went to a Missoula Maulers ice hockey game. They were playing the Butte Cobras, their arch enemies. It was a pretty close game but the Maulers won. The mascots Slash the wolf and Coby the cobra were hilarious in their competition. On Saturday I went to the parade of lights with my Missoula MIFP family. The parade was really cute with floats from many local clubs and Santa and Mrs. Claus even paid a visit. Later on some friends called over for a Disney movie night. Taylor from our Vertebrate class even bought Aldo, her kitten. I had my finals on Monday 8^th and Tuesday 9^th. On Wednesday Kate, James and I went to the ice rink for some ice skating. Kate didn’t really know how but by the end she was skating away. At first there were only a few people skating but after a while a bus load of young children showed up. They did more sitting helplessly on the ice than actual skating. After over an hour and a half of skating we headed to the mall for some last minute Christmas shopping. That evening and Thursday after work I finished up the last two assignments I had due. Friday we had a going away dinner. Shannen and I made two huge lasagnes and brownies and Siobhan, Dave, Elliot, Eoghan, Kate and James called over. As Elliot and James were only in Montana for one semester this would be goodbye. We had a lovely evening and watched a movie before saying bye to two of the founding members of The Bison Bunch.

Up on Mt. Sentinel

Christmas Campus

 

 

Ice Hockey Game

The Parade of Lights

Santa and Mrs. Claus

Some ginger bread houses

Aldo the cat

Going away gathering

Saturday 13th December-

Shannen and I got up at 3am to get our things ready for the airport. I was heading to New Orleans with a big group of International students, while Shannen was heading home. Our friend Sophia from our Vertebrate class drove us to the airport which we were delighted about. I met everyone at the airport, said bye to Shannen and got on the plane. We had a short flight to Denver, got off the plane only to reboard it a few minutes later and headed to New Orleans. It was lovely and warm when we landed at 12pm. We got a bus to our hostel, The India House Hostel, where we had a dorm for 12 of us. After getting set up we headed to a local restaurant which was very busy. I got catfish which was delicious. That evening after a quick nap we got ready and headed to Bourbon Street, the main clubbing street. We weren't expecting it to be so busy but it was crazy! Safe to say a good night was had.

India House Hostel

Sunday 14th December-

We headed off early and got the streetcar to the French Quarter. This is a beautiful area of the city with some very different architecture. We wandered around here for most of the day enjoying the jazz bands playing in the streets and some real New Orleans seafood. That evening Dervla, Stine, Savannah and I got a haunted histories ghost tour. It wasn't your typical jump-out-and-scare-you ghost tour though. Our guide gave us some actual strange historical stories, including one about the Lalaurie Mansion serial killer. After that the four of us got some food and headed home to get ready. Aoife and Eric had just arrived from Las Vegas. That night we went to Frenchman Street, famous for its jazz clubs. We went to The Spotted Cat, which was pretty cool.

Street jazz

Me, Stine, Stacey, David, Haruna, Dervla, Juri, Barry and Savannah

A streetcar

A haunted house

Monday 15th December-

We got up early and headed off on our Cajun Encounters bus for a swamp tour where we'd hopefully see some alligators. Our bus driver Rene gave us some information about hurricane Katrina and the destruction it caused, which can still be seen in places. When we got to the swamp we were all put together on the same boat. The swamp was amazing, with Spanish moss drooping several meters from Cyprus trees into the water below. We sped along in our boat passing by some houses on the water front, until we can to a dead end. Here we found Scarface, a 300lb male alligator who ruled this area. We couldn't see much more than his tail because he was sitting in plants hibernating. After this we headed upriver to Honey Island Swamp, where we met some semi-wild boar. Our tour guide had been raising these pigs and called them over to the boat for their favourite snacks- marshmallows! Just upriver we spotted a great blue heron standing beside several yellow-bellied slider turtles bashing on a log. We sped further upriver until we came across another alligator. This one was smaller and was lying out of the water on a log. It was sluggish because it's their hibernating season and didn't seem bothered as we passed close-by. From here we entered a very narrow creek to see the swamp up close and personal. After the tour we headed back on the bus and back to New Orleans. We got off at the French Quarter and found a lovely restaurant with a live band. After dinner we went to Cafe du Monde, famous for its beignets doughnuts. We spent the evening wandering around the streets finding a few quirky shops before we headed home to get ready for the night. We again headed to Frenchman Street and a jazz club. The first club we went to had a chicken sitting on a stool, which was apparently part of the band! New Orleans certainly is a strange city!

Getting up close and personal

A swamp house

Scarface's tail

Wild pigs

They love marshmallows

Yellow-bellied sliders

The second alligator

Juri, Max, Me, Aoife, Dervla, Savannah, Stacey, Eric, Stine, David, Barry and Haruna

Beignets

Tuesday 16th December-

This was our last day in the city. We headed out to the Garden District to see one of the famous above ground cemeteries. It was eerie seeing how many people were buried at each site to save space. One tiny tomb had ten children buried there, all under 2 years of age. In the 18th and 19th centuries the chances of making it to your 5th birthday were 1 in 10. After visiting here we headed to a voodoo museum in the French Quarter which was very interesting to see. We went to Deanie's Restaurant which was said to have the best seafood in New Orleans. I had a fried softshell crab and gumbo, which tasted much better than the one I'd had at the fancy restaurant the night before. From here we went to the French Market for some souvenir shopping. That evening we packed our bags, checked in for our flights and relaxed at the hostel. A few headed out to town but Savannah, Stine, Dervla and I stayed in and had the chats.

Lafayette Cemetery

Voodoo museum

Voodoo dolls

Softshell crab

Wednesday 17th December-

We woke up at 5am and got ready for our flights to New York. Dervla, Stacey, Stine, Savannah, Average Dave, Haruna, Juri, Francesca and I had breakfast at the airport. I said bye to them as they were flying to JFK and I was headed to Newark. My first flight was just over an hour to Charlotte and the second was about three hours to Newark where my cousin picked me up. I will be staying with my cousins about an hour north of New York city for some of winter break. I got settled in and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

View of the Mississippi

Charlotte

 

 

 

 Thursday 18th- Saturday 19th-

Just spent these days catching up on some much needed sleep, getting to know my cousins and relaxing. Went to the Palisades mall, a huge 4 story shopping center with two cinemas, a carousel and an indoor Ferris wheel! Planning a trip in to New York city to meet up with everyone again next week. I'll write about that later.

 I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays! Thanks again for reading- Fiona

Week 14- Thanksgiving Week

Monday 24th November-

We got the results for our Vertebrate Design & Evolution lecture and lab back today. I got A's in both so was delighted. After class we met up and discussed the results of our bird experiment. We will be presenting our project as a group next week. That evening I decided to watch All Dogs Go To Heaven with Shannen, which I haven't seen in years. After that we watched documentaries about the Galapagos.

Tuesday 25th November-

I had my last Mammalogy lab today, where we dissected an owl pellet. This is what an owl regurgitates after it has finished digesting it's prey. It was essentially a wad of fur and bones. They had been sterilised  so weren't as disgusting as they sound. It was so cool finding so many bones in such a small object. It was about 9cm long and had remains from at least 4 animals. It was pretty cool seeing tiny versions of the bones I learned in my Vertebrate class. Today was the last day of college for the week because it's Thanksgiving. Shannen, Eoghan and I headed shopping to get what we needed for our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm doing my Wildlife Habitats term paper on a Himalayan wildlife community so that night I watched a documentary on snow leopards.

Wednesday 26th November- 

I got up early even though I didn't have college to write my term paper. I basically finished the whole thing which I was delighted about. Sarah's parents came to pick her up and brought her cute golden retriever puppy to visit. That evening Kate, James and Elliot called over to begin the Thanksgiving prep. James made caramel slices for dessert, Kate made the batter for Yorkshire puddings, Shannen made queen cakes for her Missoula family, I prepared the vegetables for dinner and Elliot made tea :P When the prep was done we got pizza and watched "Beneath" a not-very-scary-horror movie. It was about getting trapped in a mine and essentially going insane.

 Thursday 27th November-

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shannen and I got up at 9am and after a quick call to my Mom I prepared the turkey and got it in the oven. Shannen prepared her Mom's special potato stuffing and also regular bread stuffing. My Mom called back after a while to make sure I was cooking the turkey right. Elliot called over with extra stools and plates for dinner. When Kate and James arrived they headed to Elliot and Dave's apartment to make the Yorkshire puddings while Dave made the starter, which was a surprise. Eoghan made mash for us and because he was having dinner at a friends house we kept a dinner for him for later. Shannen and I had the dinner ready to go at 3pm, but Kate's puddings were taking longer than expected. I carved the turkey while we waited, which was incredibly moist (Thanks Mom!). After much juggling of trays trying to keep everything hot the lads and Kate called over. Dave's starter was a lovely fruit salad with melons, grapes, pineapple and watermelon. Dinner was next and everyone helped themselves. We had honey roasted carrots and sweet potato, Mediterranean style peppers and onions, mash, peas, bacon wrapped turkey, two kinds of stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. It was amazing! So good to have a proper home cooked meal. Everyone ate till they were stuffed and even went for seconds and thirds. After dinner we decided to relive our childhoods and watch Hey Arnold the movie while munching on caramel slices. Shannen was going to see her Missoula family so she took Dave with her and dropped James and Kate home. I was meant to visit my Missoula family but their dinner was running late so we rescheduled. Myself and Elliot had nothing better to do so we watched the infamous Sharknado, a completely ridiculous movie where sharks get picked up by tornadoes and get dumped on Hollywood. It's so bad it's funny! So funny they made a sequel: Sharknado 2! Eoghan called over after his dinner at his friends house so we watched 21 and Over. Shannen got home halfway through that movie. It was looking to be a quiet night until we heard that Walmart and the mall would be open all night. As Black Friday technically started at 12 we decided to go for some midnight shopping.

Me carving my first turkey

Our food line

Dave, Elliot, Kate and James

Our feast

The clean up crew

Me and Shannen having a well deserved rest (Photo by James)

Friday 26th November-
Brace yourselves..Black Friday is coming
So we got to Walmart expecting riots in the aisles but everything was pretty quiet and orderly. No scrambling over bargains like I was expecting. We browsed the offers and found some stuff to buy. I got a 16GB memory card for $5 so I was happy out. After Walmart we headed to Southgate Mall. It's so strange seeing so many people shopping so late. Aeropstale, American Eagle and Hollister all had great deals so we were pretty happy leaving. We got home after 2am and headed straight for bed. The rest of the day was spent working on my presentation for my Snow Leopard project. That evening Shannen, Elliot and I watched The Late Late Toy Show. It's an annual Irish talk show where the host asks children to review the most wanted toys for this Christmas. It's really cute and some of the children are hilarious.

Saturday 27th November-
I spent the morning working on assignments. When Shannen got up she decided we would go to the National Bison Range because it was such a lovely day. So off Shannen, Kate, James and I went. We were just heading north out of Missoula when a light snow started. The clouds ahead looked ominous but as the snow wasn't sticking we decided to continue on. When we got off the highway things started to go downhill. The snow had started to stick and it was getting heavier. As we pulled into the Bison Range we saw a white tail doe. We stopped by the sign for some quick snowy pictures and headed off on the track. Shannen started to get nervous so we stopped an oncoming car and asked how the road ahead was. They said it was ok but all they had seen was some white-tailed deer. Deciding it wasn't worth it we turned around and started the journey home. There were a few sketchy moments but we made it home in one piece. The snow was still deceptively light in Missoula so we decided to try Applebee's for dinner. I got honey roasted chicken goujons with mac and cheese which was lovely. The snow had started to get heavier so we dropped Kate and James home, rather than watch a movie.

The white-tailed deer we saw

Me and Kate at the Bison Range

Seems about right...

The road home

My chicken mac and cheese

Sunday 28th November-
Spent most of today on yet another assignment, this time my squirrel journal. I got it finished complete with photos, drawings and dried leaves. As the roads seemed to have been de-iced myself and Shannen headed to Walmart to stock up on food and deicer for the car. Shannen parked up when we got home and decided she wouldn't be driving again for quite some time. I relaxed for a while before getting ready for work. I had a whole week off seeing as my work days coincided with Thanksgiving break. I headed off early because I was walking as it was way too dangerous to cycle. I got finished really early because the Foodzoo had only been open for a few hours so wasn't too messy and my friend dropped me home after work which was great.

Someone made a ginger bread house a put it outside

Hope you liked this week's blog. I'm not sure if I'll be putting up a blog next week because it'll be during finals week. - Fiona