Home is wherever we are if there's love there too

so today was my final day on the emerald isle! very exciting indeed. The time has definitely come for me to go home though. All of my friends here have been slowly leaving over the past three days and now I'm pretty much the only one left. Having it be my last day, you'd expect that I'd be going wild with guinness and wrecking as much European havoc as possible, but it's been pretty low key.

I woke up this morning around 9am after a terrible nights sleep. I am sick here AGAIN. i seriously don't know what it is. I take care of myself pretty well. I sleep enough, eat healthy things, exercise when im feeling good, blah blah blah. But ya, i went to bed last night with a stuffy nose that turned into a sore throat that turned into a sleepless night. booo.

BUT then I looked out my window to see this!
snowstorm in belfast!!! I've been dreading the concept of snow for the past few days because I want my flight tomorrow to go off without a hitch, but there really is nothing like the first snow of the season :) I walked down the road to pick up some orange juice, enjoying the big fat snowflakes. I guess it had started around 2am and it ended around 10- an hour or so after i woke up. We only ended up getting about an inch or two, but that didn't stop the Belfast kiddies from wanting to eat dirt on the snowy pavement.
After taking my sweet time waking up and starting to pack, I headed downtown to do some last minute souvenir shopping/stopped at the library to print my boarding passed.

Yesterday was the last day of the Continental Christmas Market at City Hall so they were tearing it down. :( It was sad to see it go, but also made me feel even more like it was an appropriate time to be heading home.

After exploring downtown a little bit for one last time and buying some gifts for peeps at home, I headed back to pack. this was definitely a tough job. I don't know why I thought it would be okay that one suitcase coming home would be good when my one suitcase coming over was STUFFED. I ended up having to throw away some nonessentials to make room for new beer glasses/gifts/etc. Well worth the trade off.
Look at my new coaster collection :)
Got guys there from Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Derry, London, Amsterdam, Munich, and Glasgow. Ya buddy.
The hardest part was figuring out what to do with all the crap on my desk. I'm kind of a packrack, collecting lots of useless things when I travel that end up cluttering up everything. but! success!
Before:

After:
i cracked open my commemorative 250th anniversary Guinness can to celebrate. I had actually intended on bringing it home to keep..forever...but it really wont fit and i dont want to risk having a Guinness can explode in my luggage. So instead it was my job well done celebration beer.
3 months of stuff in one suitcase, a carry on, and a backpack. Nicely done.
Now I'm bored out of my mind. No one is here, I am broke, and it is freezing out. I could go out to a pub but I dont really want to sit in a bar by myself on a rainy Sunday night. I also literally only have the exact change to pay for my bus ticket to the airport tomorrow. Oh well, i've had a good run in Belfast, I don't need a crazy last night to prove anything.


SO QUICK RECAP OF THIS PAST WEEK.
Thursday
Thursday started the fun around here because everyone had to hand in their final papers for the semester. A bunch of people started leaving on Friday as well so Thursday night was the final big hurrah for everyone. The international students in Grant House threw a big Christmas party. Our original plan was to eat, go to the Grant House party for a bit, and then head to the Stiff Kitten ( a really good club in Belfast which I had never been to). Anna Anna Hannah and I started out with a delicious/unconventional dinner of a Mediterranean olive/artichoke/sundried tomato mix , hummus, a variety of cheeses and french bread/crackers. and wine of course. this meal was surprisingly really filling. yummeee
We were then a little delayed getting to the party because there was some countdown of the best christmas music videos of all time. I wasn't going to leave until I saw Mariah.
After lots of silly Xmas videos, we felt merry and headed off to the party.
But first i'll throw this picture in for good measure. I'm going to miss my little french anna!

The party was a lot of fun. Pretty much all of the Europeans who I'd met over the past few months were there. I guess no huge stories from here. I did some mingling with the Queens rowing team and bought a copy of their lovely holiday fund raiser calendar. oh baby.

FRIDAY!
or should i say FRYday. "Ulster fries" are basically one of the least appealing meals possible (well, I think). Fried eggs, fried mushrooms, fried sausage, fried bacon, fried potatoes, pancakes, baked beans, and toast. BUT they are Belfast's most prized culinary attraction. So on Friday morning a bunch of us went out to a breakfast place to order some. HOWEVER, I was actually feeling pretty sick on Friday morning and ended up sticking with scrambled eggs and toast. I know. Lame. but oh well. Anyways, here is a picture of Jenn's fry:
And here are some buddies who came along:
Britney! (Tennessee)
from top right clockwise: Mike (LA/goes to school at BC), Julia (Germany), Laura (Belgium), Brittany (Tennessee), Tessa (Holland).

yes yes good fun.
The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging with various Belfast friends before they started heading off over the weekend. Jenn and I spent a few hours just bumming around her apartment, doing the usual- boytalking and singing shakira. We got pretty restless around 3 and decided to head downtown so I could go on the big belfast ferris wheel once before leaving.
check it outttt
good fun :)
Following the wheel we played around the christmas market a little, meeting up with Alex, Mike, Anna, and Anna. The market was in full swing because this was it's last weekend

We tried to find a good pub to stay in, but downtown Belfast was packkeeedddd. The weekend before Christmas is a madhouse. We ended up settling on a pizza place at the mall. Not quite the cute irish pub night we had planned but good fun all the same. The bottle of wine with a dinner deal lead to lots of laughs/close calls of getting kicked out. good times
Jenn knows how to get in Mike's face.

ANYWAYS, so from there we went on to Morrisons- one of Belfast's top pubs for a few drinks. Anna Anna Mike Laura and I then split off from Jenn and Alex to go see Where the Wild Things Are at the the theater nearby. I loved it. That book was a huge part of my childhood, and Jack and I would NOT go to bed without rumpussing first. The movie was kind of depressing though, and I can't even imagine how it was the first time around (originally made as a dark movie but lightened up to keep the kids happy).
Saturday
Brittany, Sean, Jenn, Anna, and a bunch of others headed out on Saturday morning. Anna (france), Mike, Laura, and I spent a good part of the day down at St. George's Market. Mike had never been so we took our time strolling the stalls and sampling until our stomachs hurt. I bought some niiice aged stanky cheese to bring back. I didn't really consider how that was going to luggage smell but oh well. worth it. Sorry if your christmas present smells like cheese.
Then I went to the gym and tried running again! I've been slowly getting back into it lately because I've been sick. I did a solid three miles but my knee started hurting again. lame. i'm also sick again today so i guess no running for a while AGAIN. ugh.
Last night was pretty relaxed. Anna Mike Hannah and I made dinner then watched Babe cause Anna had never seen it and it was her last night here. She had to be up at 4am for her flight so we didn't do anything too wild.
Then today was today, as talked about earlier.


Oof, I'm at the point in the entry where i am tired of writing so i'll update later with my flight status and whatnot.
cheerio