Free at last...

Wowie zowie. I turned in three of my of my five solitary assessments for classes yesterday, and let me tell you, it's a huge load-off. Five thousand words is far too much for one paper. I've got one more paper due next week, but then I'm done until the end of May, when I take my Old English exam.

I'm also feeling pretty good for a few other reasons. First, I think I'm going to go home a little bit earlier than planned. After Andrew and Ami's visits, I realized just how long I've been away, and how long I'd have to stay away in the months to come, and it made me incredibly homesick. Additionally, if I go home the day I'm scheduled to go home now, I'd be in Dublin alone for five days. And I don't do very well alone. Since my only exam is on May 27th, I'm aiming to be home in the first few days of June. Ann Arbor in June--nothing could be lovelier.

I've also been thinking about what Hamilton will be like next fall, and I can't say I'm not worried. I admittedly had a weeping fit while discussing housing with Andrew on Skype for two and a half hours, having finally realized that Hamilton next fall is going to be unlike the Hamilton I'd loved in years past. Most of this realization was that the current seniors are going to be gone, out of the Hamilton scene, forever. When Andrew and I were trying to think of a cohesive group of seniors for a suite, honestly, we couldn't think of six people who would create the same dynamic as the girls of Babbitt 32 or 34, the boys of Babbitt 21, the dwellers of Milbank 12 all those years ago... Honestly, I've been looking forward to finally pulling my weight and creating a social space my senior year, and it just doesn't look like it will work out. Maybe I'll have to inflict my party concepts on other suites.

Course selection has also been stressing me out to no end, all because of one golden, impossible course: A history seminar about the IRA (Irish Republican Army). The bulk of my program's Belfast trip concentrated on the strained relationship between the Catholics and the Protestants, synonymous with the Republicans and the loyalists. I was actually out and about in Belfast the night some IRA members shot up some members of the British army. I'm absolutely captivated, and I know I would love this class more than many I've  taken at Hamilton. HOWEVER, it is a seminar, which means it takes up all of Tuesday afternoon, conflicting with 75 percent of the upper-level English classes I wanted to take. Ironically, I can't learn about the IRA and Prison Writing during the same term, a set-up that had enormous potential. Even if I opt out of the IRA class, I'm still struggling to put together a four-class schedule. I can't take studio art or anthropology, two things I've been meaning to do my whole time at Hamilton, because I don't have any pre-requisites. I'm only really interested in two or three of the English offerings, and god knows I don't want to take Women's studies again. I have a few extra credits that would allow me to take three classes, but going into a semester without a full courseload? I'd feel like such a slacker-pants.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the rest of my time at Trinity. Trinity Ball tickets go on sale tomorrow, and I'm super amped. The student administration group put together this really cute trailer for it, you should check it out. Very Irish humor.

April's going to be a really busy month for me. This weekend I'm home, but I'm going to London for Easter with Sally, and then back to Galway and maybe up to Sligo with Caitlin the weekend after that. The fourth weekend of April will be Belgium with Sally (resident Belgian beer expert), and then I'm hopefully going to Paris for May Day weekend. I'm trying to plan one week-long trip in May, either to Prague and Vienna or to Berlin and Poznan, the old capital of Poland.

I'll break spring break up in a few sections of the next few days, so no one gets overwhelmed by a single epic post.

I hope your Marches are going out like lambs.