Week 19: January 17th

Christmas Break. New Years Resolutions. Done Exams.

It's been a hot minute since I've posted. I decided not to do any posts over the break for a couple reasons. Most importantly, I didn't really feel like doing anything productive over the first half of the break, because it was a break (insert Ross screaming "WE WERE ON A BREAK"). During this last half, I have just been studying, so nothing interesting or worth writing about. Studying was also a bit more important to me than blogging. Additionally, I had been planning to surprise my best friend for Christmas so I couldn't post about going home for the holidays anyways, leaving me absolutely nothing to write about.

I spent Christmas at home, which initially I wasn't sure was a good idea. I was worried that coming back, it would be difficult to re-adjust after getting a taste of home. The good news is, this was not too much of an issue for me. The bad news is, I didn't get much of a "break" because I was so busy trying to make time for everyone at home. Also, I got home just in time for the record breaking cold. I didn't take a winter coat with me to Ireland, and didn't go straight to my mom's after landing. I spent the week at my boyfriend's in Toronto, with nothing but a Spring jacket, which left outdoor activities out of the question. Despite being Canadian, I'm also a baby about the cold. I'm single handedly breaking the stereotype that Canadians can handle the cold here in Sligo.

I flew to Toronto on December 15th. Up at 5am to catch the 6:30am bus to Dublin. My flight was on time and arrived at 3:50pm Toronto time (8:50pm Dublin time), but I had to wait around for my luggage for an hour and a half, so between that and customs, I didn't actually get out of the airport until after 6pm (11pm to exhausted Sara). I somehow managed to stay awake until 1am that night, and beat the jet lag. I was up at 7am the next morning, which my boyfriend wasn't too thrilled about. After spending a week in the city doing fun things (Raptors game, improv show, dinner, and packing up bae's apartment), I headed to my Uncle's to see my cousins, and nana and have Christmas dinner with them. Then, I headed home to Owen Sound to surprise my best friend, and spend Christmas with my family. I surprised Natasha on Christmas Eve, and her boyfriend got the whole thing on video (best reaction I could have hoped for, you can check it out here).

After a great trip home, I headed back to Sligo. My journey back was not so great, a shaky and scary landing on my first flight, and a screaming baby on my second, I didn't get much sleep. After finally getting back to the house, I had a little bit of a panic looking for my house key. I ripped apart my suitcase, and backpack looking for it, and had everything out of the front porch. I finally found it, and got inside to find out that our power had been shut off. The power runs of a meter that you have to add money to, or it shuts off. My roommate forgot to add money to ours, so our power had been off, including the fridge. I had planned to nap, and really thought about just leaving the house with no power so I could nap. But all the food had gone bad in the fridge/freezer, and the stove ran on power, so I couldn't make a tea. The shower needed power as well, so I couldn't shower after such a long journey. It was a 30 minute walk into town, and I was exhausted but I needed food and a power card. I was on my way into Tesco when someone came up behind me and grabbed my shoulders. I'm not easily scared, but I honestly had no idea who was still in town that I would know, so this scared the crap out of me. It was my friend Jordan, perfect timing because I needed to complain about my day. When I got home, I decided it was too late for a nap and that I should just stay up and head to bed early. I made some dinner, and watched a movie (Finding Nemo in case you're wondering) and fell asleep at 7pm. Slept uninterrupted until 1pm the next day.

I spent New Years Eve with my sidekick Emma, who I've missed dearly over this break. We went to our friend from schools house, and were hosted by him and his wife. Colin has always been a school friend who we rarely see outside of school, save for group meetings and school related activities. Thanks to New Years drinking, Emma and I learned more about Colin on New Years Eve than we have over the last few years of knowing him. Safe to say it was quite an interesting and fun night. I stayed up until Canadian New Years (5:00am here) to say Happy New Years to my friends. My boyfriend was sick and had gone to bed before midnight (what a loser huh).

I've made a number of New Year's Resolutions for 2018 which I'm working on sticking to. I usually don't make resolutions because I think they're silly, you can change your life at any time throughout the year. I just think that making resolutions a "New Year's" thing encourages people to wait to make changes. I do resolutions at different points throughout the year that are realistic times for change in my own life. I do school year resolutions, and post exam resolutions. I decided to do some this year though, because I haven't made any since September, and have fulfilled those. I listened to my favourite podcast, Stuff Mom Never Told You, and they did an episode on the benefits of journaling (find it here), so I've decided that's something I'd like to do this year. The journalling I'm finding, has been super helpful in terms of mental health, and dealing with your own stuff. Writing things out kind of forces you to think about your actions more critically than you otherwise would. I've found it to be a great coping strategy. It's also going to be really nice to look back on it and recall the specifics of everyday, what I did and how I was feeling.

I had four exams during the last few weeks, and I've just finished my last one this afternoon. I have a bit of a break now, and semester two starts on Monday. We won't have exam results until February unfortunately. Waiting for the results is going to drive me crazy.