Checking in

So I've done a little research over the weekend. Not enough to have me writing anything yet. I've been the college kid, eating fake ramen and rice krispies. It's been cold wet and rainy. We havent had any floods like England has had, tho, so that's good. The Christmas lights have all gone up around the city. It's pretty. Seems a little early. And it's sad to me those of you (maybe none of you reading this), but those of you that I know in the states who already have Christmas trees and such. For those of you who get to celebrate Thanksgiving with your family, you should enjoy it. Dont skip it. Dont start Christmas and then have your Thanksgiving meal and day off, and not giving it the attention it deserves. For those of us in foreign countries who dont get to have Thanksgiving, I want to plead with everyone to remember it.

I saw the lights last night when I went with a couple of people from the CU to Immanuel church. It's not a regular looking church. It's a small building on the other side of the Liffey. The morning service has more families and older people and the night service is filled with college age kids. It was funny cuz the introductions guy told us he didnt know one song so if we knew it to sing out. Turns out that one was God of Wonders. Most of the people knew it. Then the pastor said at the end that he was also unfamiliar with our last song, which was Blessed be your name. Again, the people there seemed to know it. But i found it funny that these well known songs that have been out for years now still hadnt reached all the Christian community around the western world.

I guess I do get a day off this week, that would be Tuesday. But it's not to celebrate anything, anything other than a national strike. The school was still considering staying open as of yesterday but decided it may be best to close - hey thanks, so that those of us who have to take the bus, which wont be running, and instead would have to walk the 1.5 hr walk thru the cold rain to school will now get to stay dry! Plus, it's my long day, so it'll be nice to try to sleep in and continue my research and paper writing. I plan on getting a lot done tomorrow. But it's a union strike. None of the busses will be going. We will have bare minimal security here at hall from about 6pm tonight to Wed morning. There will be picket lines all around our school, making it that much more difficult to get in

Try to sleep in is the idea. But my back has been so bad. I didnt sleep 30 mins straight last night. I cant sleep on my back because it hurts too much. So I flip from side to side all night long, every so often, never super comfortable and still in a little pain even when on my sides. I think I got the most sleep this morning between 7 and 8 when i propped up all my pills and blankets and had this lounge chair thing going on in my bed. The last time I did that i ended up killing my neck and shoulders, but this time i was ok. Not digging the jacked up back, here! :-(

I rushed off to the bus this morning and got there in enough time to buy a danish before heading on to my first class. As the class was starting the film students let me and the other film music and theatre girls know that our original 10am class had been switched to Wed nights. Nice of them to share that after we stood in the hall with them for 15 mins. That was fine. A couple of us went to the library and I finally found the books I needed (or hopefully will need). Now I have a few online sources, a couple of handouts from class and 4 books. This afternoon and all tomorrow will see me reading about Irish women play wrights.

After this afternoon's reading, I will head back out to campus for our dress rehearsal for choir. We will get our robes or gowns or whatever and run thru the entire show with the orchestra and the soloists.

I have some busy weeks ahead of me. Right now we are on week 9. I will spend as much time during week 9 to finish my theatre paper. We turn that in next Monday, the day that house cleaning will come through our flat to make sure it looks proper (oh joy). Then all of week 10 will be spent in the national library and archives doing primary research for a presentation that is due in week 11. I havent even used my powerpoint yet, so I'll need time to reacquaint myself with the program. It is encouraged that this presentation be used as our primary research for our dissertation. That's a good idea if we need to do all this primary research, but that also means I'll need to know what my dissertation is in a week.

It's about 1pm so I have about 5 hours to work until I'll need to get ready to leave. I'm not quite in the mood. I just hafta push it and hopefully I'll get in the mood.