Good evening everyone,
I have to warn you that I am writing this in sort of a bad mood, because France lost the World Cup. It probably sounds very silly and you´s don´t have to get it. I really wanted to watch much more of this World Cup than I actually did. For me, quality time is more important, especially since I´m only here for a year. I don´t want to look back, seeing that I watched a soccer game instead of spending precious time with the people here. Time flies and I´ve already been here for four months. That´s hell a long time and nearly half of my exchange year. But getting back to the World Cup. France played a terrific game and you have to include the fact that they were missing out on 13 key-players because of injuries. Fair plays to all of the lads, that still brought the team to the final and even fighting ´til penalties. They can be very proud!
Anyways, more abut my week now. I started my final week before the christmas holidays on Monday, where I got told, I´ll have my christmas exams on Wednesday. Was a bit of a shock to be honest, but I recovered fairly quickly. With all the practice for the carol service with the choir, I could kinda forget about the exams. I looked over the stuff we had done so far and, in the end, it all came down to my performance on the Wednesday, anyway. The day came and I had to write three different exams in 3 hours. (Successively!!!). It started with Maths, in which I didn´t do too well, I´d say. There were some topics we´d never done before and I had some struggles with my calculator too. Well, I just hope for the best. I never understood those memes online, where they joked about their exams results. Now I completely understand them. My group of people spend, according to my calculations, -10€. That is totally possible I´d say. Hahahaha. Hand in hand, we got the English paper. It was oaky, but in my head, I was still on my Maths exam in the beginning and then, typically Emma, I didn’t read the instructions careful enough, so I did A and B instead of choosing just one. I´m praying, that she gives me points for that. Last but not least, I had French. God, bless French. I got through the exam without any stress and a good feeling. That was a huge relief and good way to end the day :)
If the exams weren´t enough action for the day, we had a christmas carol (=christmas mass) for the whole school in the other hours. My host sister and I sang a solo/duet together and since she played the guitar, I was standing in front of the crowd on my own. Fortunately, all went well and I was delighted to sing.
Even though we officially had Christmas Holidays after our exams, we still went on a trip to DKIT (Dundalk university). The majority of our year was smart enough to stay at home, but my stupid behind thought, I´d give it a go. Not the best decision I´d say. The campus and the tour were okay, but since all of my friends were either in school because they are in the year above or didn´t go, I spend the whole day, walking on my own. Wasn´t that nice, I´ll be honest. BUT, before we drove back to the school, we stopped at their gym campus. Let me tell you, it was every athlete’s dream! The gym was amazing and we got to see some of the pitches as well. It even got better, as we were allowed to play for some time. I played soccer with the boys. For everyone who knows me, this is a huge achievement and it made me so, so happy. I wasn´t even too bad and shot goals and well as made some great saves in the goal. Because of that, everything that had happened before was forgotten and only the soccer game counted. Small steps are also progress :)
On Friday, I had my last day at Sheridan´s. It was brilliant as always and a good ending. I got to help in the store and they were really busy. Reason being christmas coming up. I was gutted to leave though, as I had the best time working there. The people are lovely, kind and generous and I made some good contacts there. I learned stuff for life too and got a good experience out of it. I think, I´ll come back. It was brilliant there and not once did I not want to go to work, so I hope I´ll get a job, when I turn 16. Fingers are crossed.
I´m sincerely sorry, that this entry is so long, but there is just so much happening and I have the time to write it all down or at least most of it. So, on Saturday, my host family took me to Tayto Park. It is a kids amusement park and an attraction in the area. When my classmates talk about it, their eyes light up and their inner child comes out. The same happened to me. Because it is winter a huge part of the park was closed, but I still loved the part that was open. I got to go on kids rides and couldn´t stop smiling. Not even my frozen toes could ruin that.
The weather has been exceptionally good until today. We had frost for the whole week and it is a miracle that it didn´t snow. It rained during the night so now it´s green again, but I wish you´s would have seen Ireland covered in frost. It was absolutely stunning!
Before you I finish, I only want to write about one more thing. Yesterday (Saturday) night I had a look through my photo album mom made for me. All the pictures and the memories were so good. It was so nice to see my younger self and to know that I did her proud.
With that I´m ending the blog for the week, I hope yous are all well and wish you strength for the last week before christmas. Yous can do it, I strongly believe that!
Comments