May Day! May Day!

May 1st is the official first day of summer here in Ireland, and it reminded me of a little bit of Memorial Day back at home. It was a 4 day weekend, but there was little to no sign of human activity in the city! Hardly any cars were on the roads, and the buses were nearly all shut down for the holiday. There weren't any patriot displays or thanksgiving for the service of men and women in our military, but it had the same quiet celebratory feeling. Shops, stores, banks, and offices were closed until this Tuesday which made getting laundry coins very tricky. Of course I had forgotten to buy them earlier last week...waiting until the last minute when I had only 1 pair of clean socks in my drawer. Go figure! ha ha

In my history class, I had learned that there is some folklore attached to May 1st. It was a day of new beginnings, and it was a superstition that if one milked a cow, churned butter, or did anything with the milk, their crops for the year would be cursed by the bad fairies. Hence, no one lifted a finger to do any sort of farm work on May day for fear of the curse.The tradition has carried on today as a bank holiday, and the official beginning of summer. I know what I would be doing on a summer holiday...BBQ and campfires!! But it was not so this time around . . .

I spent this summery weekend in a very uneventful way - studying!! As well as breaks to watch movies and make myself a cup of tea :) Even though my 2 final exams are over a week and a half away, I need to review a whole semester's worth of information. That's one thing I really don't care for in the schooling here...there were no quarterly or midterm tests in my Anatomy & Physiology class and the classes were huge lecture halls of at least 350 students. Much different than my 40-50 students/classroom in my "medium sized" university back home! I also don't care for the month of prolonged studying. I would much rather have a week to review old tests, cram it all in, have library parties and hunker down in my room, then take the test, be done and go home! I have yet to see if this month enhances my studying and absorption of material...we will see with my exam grades I suppose ha ha.

On the other hand, I should not be complaining. I am very lucky that I only have 2 finals for the end of the year. My Irish roommates have 8 finals, covering material from both this semester and last semester. If I was in their shoes, I would be praising the high heavens for this month long opportunity to study! I can see why this month long Easter break was necessary for them.

It's 10:45 pm here, and just about 2 hrs after the sun finally set. It's beautiful having my window open, seeing the green leafy trees (finally!), and listening to the breeze. I think this late sun set is affecting my sleep cycle, because I have only been able to get to sleep around 2 am and I wake up at 8:30 with the sun beaming through my window. 8:30...that's earlier than what I'm used to, but I shouldn't be complaining about that either I suppose ;) I have yet to hear any crickets or peepers; this is very odd for me and I'm sure I will be quite spooked when I hear them back at home.

Less than 4 weeks and I will be back in my beloved country! I'm trying to enjoy the rest of my time here in Ireland, but this studying is really nagging me. I have 10 days after my last final before I go home, so I am hoping to take one last trip around Ireland, or maybe stay here and bond with my roommates. I won't see them ever again, so I want to make the best of the remaining time with them!

Alrighty, I'm off to catch up on some Glee episodes online. I shall return with more updates of my experiences and travels here . . . Even if my travels mean that I walked to and from the library in one day :)

Talk to you soon! Take care, mariss