The Beginning of the End

As I write this final post from Ireland, I am watching my final sunrise over Galway Bay from Cottage 6. (No, I'm not up at the crack of dawn, it just doesn't get light here until almost 9am!) Today is actually my last day at the Park Lodge and in Ireland.  I don't know how that happened! These three months absolutely flew by, but they have been some of the best of my life. Even though it is so sad to leave, the experiences I have had and the friends I have made will forever be part of me. Here is a re-cap of my last week in Ireland:

Monday: I literally worked on my final paper for theology ALL day long. For our classes, we had final papers in three of them and a final essay test for history. Theo was my last one to do, and it was a longer, more research-based paper than the others.  I took breaks only for meals and tea time (surprise, surprise!). We had the girls of Cottage 4 over for brunch and made a delicious carmel French toast bake, scrambled eggs and of course breakfast potatoes. We have been eating pretty well in Cottage 6 lately trying to get rid of all our food! It ended up being a pretty late night, but I kept thinking of how sad I was about leaving so I had trouble concentrating! (This was not helped by the fact that my lovely roommates kept playing every sad goodbye-themed song just to see if I would cry!!)

Tuesday: Today was my last literature class, and I sent in my theology paper, so I only had one more to go! It was sunny for about half an hour, so my cottage decided to take advantage of some of the last Irish sun we would see. We walked across the street to the beach to take some pictures. After spending about 12 hours writing papers yesterday, we needed a little activity! We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening studying for our history final.  It is kind of a bummer that we have to do so much school work on our last few days here, but compared to a normal finals week at St. Ben's, I really can't complain!

Wednesday: I think this is the first and last time I will ever be done with classes before December! After our history final, we went into Spiddal with Cottage 2 for a celebratory lunch at a cafe that (actually was named the best cafe in Ireland last year!) and some last bits of shopping. We have finally been experiencing really November weather in Ireland this past week, but I guess that is to be expected and we got really lucky with it being so nice until now! It was great to have the afternoon to just relax by the fireplace and have absolutely no obligations.

Thursday: Today was our last full day all together at the Park Lodge. It was also the first day of December, but it definitely didn't feel like it because it was sunny and warm.  I can't believe how lucky we have gotten with the weather here...it does rain a lot, but it's always nice when we most want it to be! A bunch of us helped bring the books, desks and chairs back up to the storage loft for the winter. It honestly seems like last week that we brought them down! Afterward, we walked into the beach in Spiddal and did a polar bear plunge into Galway Bay!! People were pretty hesitant at first, but we ended up getting a pretty big group of us to go swimming and even more came to document the event. It actually wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. The sun definitely helped! That night we had a pizza party and awards night before our last night at JP's pub.  I won the "Bro Co Near Death Award", which you might need a little back story to understand...our theology professor was Brother Colman (nicknamed Bro Co) from the Glenstal Abbey and he missed several classes and excursions from being in the hospital, which Joe, who was in charge of awards, equated to my hives incident! Our cottage award was Most Likely to be on Martha Stewart because of our reputation of planning events and making treats. When presenting this award, Joe said we were the "cohesive glue that held our group together." It was such a nice compliment! After awards, we all celebrated our last night as a group with JP, who ended up getting a little annoyed because we didn't want to leave at the end of the night!

Cottage 6 with John Paul

Friday: We got up pretty early today to start cleaning the cottage and getting all of our things organized. Kelly, Michelle and I took the bus into Galway for the morning for one last round of shopping and exploring the city.  When we got back, the first group to leave was getting packed up.  We all gathered outside their cottage in the pouring rain to say goodbye.  Even with just four people gone, our group feels so incomplete. We spent the afternoon packing, cleaning and organizing before dinner.  One of my favorite parts of this trip has been the dinners we share together as a cottage.  Last night we sat for a long time taking about our "pits and peaks" of the trip overall, and it's not surprising our peaks greatly outnumbered our pits!  I shed my first goodbye tears when dinner ended because Kelly said, "Can we just sit here for a while, I don't our last dinner to be over!" Many people left at 5 and 6am this morning, so we had a low-key last night at the Park Lodge. We watched Elf and had hot chocolate in the lounge.  It didn't really hit me until we got back for the night that it was our last one in Cottage 6. This place has truly begun to feel like home, and I know it will be so hard to leave.

Today, Kelly and I start our next leg of the adventure. We are leaving Spiddal at 2pm and heading to Dublin to start our 12 day travels around Europe. We are going to London, Venice, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid. It just so happens that there will be other people from our trip traveling to these places as well so we will be able to meet up with them! That definitely makes saying goodbye a little easier. I don't know how it got to be December 3rd already.  We woke up early today to say goodbyes to the groups leaving at 5 and 6, and now our group is definitely dwindling.  The places we saw and experiences we had were absolutely unforgettable, but I really think it was my 28 new friends that made this semester what it was.  Ireland will always have a piece of my heart, and even though it's hard to leave I know I will be back sometime soon. We are already planning to attend the 30th anniversary of the program in three years :)

Thank you all for reading my updates, and I will try to post a few things about our next adventures! I can't wait to see you all soon!

Ellen