Six months, six countries, and three continents later…

It seems like I always begin each post apologizing for my lengthy sojourn! So I’m gonna skip that part this time, and dive right into it. 

Once again, a million things have happened since my entry of six months ago. When last we spoke, I was in the middle of my Journo Masters, training for the Great Limerick Run and preparing for a month-long summer holiday. And now, I’m living all the way down in the Rebel territory of County Cork, working in the Irish Examiner, and desperately trying to make time for the gym!! Quite a leap if I do say so myself, so I’ll begin at the beginning:

The Journo Maters went well, though I didn’t finish my thesis this year as expected due to a few bumps along the road.

Firstly, some of my forms were lost by the college meaning that I didn’t have approval for my topic. It’s a long and annoying story, so I won’t go into it, but it means that while I could still have finished the thesis, it wouldn’t have been the one I set out to do.

Secondly, I started a placement in Cork with the Irish Examiner during the summer, and I simply didn’t have enough spare time to complete the thesis with the level of commitment it required. So in the end, I deferred the thesis part of my Masters to next summer, and I’ll be graduating in Jan ’15. I don’t really mind though, because now I have a whole year to pay the balance of my fees as opposed to a few months. So I think things are actually working out for the better. 

My placement in the Examiner is going well, I’m pleased to report, and I’m really starting to fall in love with Cork! I’m getting a good variety of work published and everyone working in the offices are really nice. They’re just about to move the whole show down to Blackpool though, which may throw a spanner in the works seeing as I’ll have to walk/cycle a good bit extra to get there now, but sure we’ll see how it goes. 

Every weekend I’m trying to get out and see a bit more of the City and attractions in and around it. I’ve been up the bells of Shandon, out to kiss the Blarney stone (see the castle below), and even an odd and musty trip to the Butter Museum (don’t ask). 

And now to backtrack a little – I finished the Great Limerick Run a few months ago and I’m so delighted to have done it. My medal is hanging up on my wall right now, in fact, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. A truly great, if intensely tiring experience. After that, it was off to see the world! 

Here’s a brief snapshot where we went and what we saw:

First stop: Italia! Flew into Rome, basked in the sun down by the Trevi Fountain (below), went to see the man himself in the Vatican, got given out to for having bare shoulders in St Peters Basilica, took a train to Naples, marveled at the strength of Mt Vesuvius, trekked around the ruins of Pompeii.

Second stop: Turkey. Flew into the Asian side of Istanbul. Covered up my hair for the mosques, soaked in the softness of the carpets on my bare feet, scoffed down Turkish Delights, moved around palaces that hurt your eyes to look upon, ran away from Taksim Square and the police (below), ran towards Taksim Square with the protesters, took buses over to Asia to the Black Sea, jetted up the Bospherous and rented bikes on Prices Island. 

Third stop: Greece. Strolled down the avenues of Athens, took in the sights from the Pantheon, drank wine on top of the mountain by the Acropolis.

Fourth stop: Spain. Flew into Barcelona for the Feast Day of St John, joined in the lighting of the flames off La Rambla, climbed to the top of Mont Serrat (below), risked our necks on the cable car, went the wrong way up a mountain to the theme park we heard was on top, spent the night on a beach looking at fireworks at talking to new friends from Australia and America. Bought Duff Beer, hated it. Marveled at the designs of Antoni Gaudi. 

Fifth stop: Morocco. DIED in the heat, went to see monkeys, ran away from the monkeys, touched a snake by accident, got harassed for money by almost everyone, got given out to for taking a photo of the palace guard, went to a water park int he middle of the desert, got sick from swallowing the water in the water park, went to the Ouzoud Falls anyway (below), bought a lovely dress, got a tattoo, had an allergic reaction to the tattoo, sweat away three times my own weight in water. 

Sixth stop: England. Good old London town! Recuperated, regrouped, had food, got ready to go home. No point seeing the sights, been there seven or eight times before. Stayed in a crap hostel, stole some wifi. 

Phew. 

By no means is that everything either. But If I was to write it all down here, this post would be twenty times as long. At least. And ain’t nobody got time for that. 

Maybe I’ll start a travel blog or something. I’ll let ya know. In the mean time, I’ll try keep this up-to-date more often. I promise 🙂

Kel  x

A Hiccup or two is Good for the Soul

Its been almost six months since I last wrote a personal blog update – doesn’t time just fly by?!

There are quite a lot of updates to fill you in on, so I might as well start where I left off and continue in some sort of chronological fashion.

When last I blogged, I was feeling a bit down in the dumps. I was stressed, I was juggling a lot of projects at once, and I was worrying about my health. But, as you see, I got through it! Unharmed, unscathed, but a little wiser. I completed the end of the semester, finished exams, and had a long Christmas break back home in Kilkenny.

Then I had to go to the hospital for a bit 😦

I wrote a bit about having HHT disease last year. I won’t go into it again in that much detail, but I had the official screenings down in Cork a few months ago and received the official diagnosis… which did indeed confirm that I have it. I had to go for a good few tests then – an Echo, a CAT scan, brain scans, MRI – that type of thing. The good news is that my brain scan was totally clear… but my lung scan (the Echo) wasn’t.

In case you’re confused, HHT is a hereditary disease that is very uncommon and affects your veins. It means some of my veins are malformed and the ones affected could burst easily. It’s not very serious in general, but if these veins occur in areas like your brain, lungs, stomach etc, then you’ll have problems. Pretty big ones.

So back to the test results. Brain one was clear, lung one wasn’t. Upon further examination, they determined that I do have the problem veins in my lungs, but at the moment they’re very tiny and aren’t a problem. I have to go back in 3-5 years to have all the scans again and in the mean time I’m not allowed to go scuba-diving. Which, of course, only makes me want to actually go scuba-diving!

But it’s not all doom and gloom – I’ve had a great few months since that I’m pleased to report! Along with some smaller hiccups which I’ll mention later.

I did very well in my Christmas exams thank God and I now have a 1.1 honors degree, though that could change in the second semester. I’m delighted with it so far though, I hope I can keep it up!

I had the chance to go to Two Door Cinema Club – have been dying to see them for ages so that was great – and I went to the Irish premiere of Lincoln and got to meet Daniel Day Lewis and Steven Spielberg! Also met Katie Taylor, Shane McGowan and a few other celebs who were attending. It was insanely enjoyable!

More recently, I spoke at the Croke Park launch of Spunout.ie – a Dublin based website aimed at educating young people right across Ireland about the issues that most affect them. I was speaking on the topic of Sexual Health for their live launch and I loved it. Excellent initiative.

I’ve been writing for the Limerick Leader as much as ever – which is to say, every two weeks or so. I’ve covered a good few local events recently, most notably Jan O’Sullivan TD’s opening of the Girls Room in Ballincurra Weston and Madeline Mulqueen’s visit to the area.

I also decided recently that I was going to work out more. I’ve roped in a friend and we’ve agreed to set ourselves a goal of the Great Limerick Run which is on the 5th of May. Now that I have a goal, I find I’m more willing to go to the gym or go on a run. It’s great! I’m keeping up the yoga too, but that’s just because I find it enjoyable.

It’s into the second semester now, and it’s going much the same as the last one. I have some new modules this time around – I’m studying News Feature Writing, Radio Broadcasting, Current Issues in Irish Journalism and Shorthand. They’re all going well – particularly the Broadcast module, I love it!

And now for the hiccups.

The last time I wrote, I was taking driving lessons. I’m tempted to gloss over it, but I’m gonna take the good with the bad and fess up to having taking the test and failed. I’m normally great when it comes to exams, but I was so nervous – I just completely fell apart! I made so many silly little mistakes – it was an awful experience. So I’ve given up the lessons for the moment to concentrate on my course and I’m gonna start back into it after summer.

The second hiccup, is that I’m now €4,661 in debt.

SUSI, the grant authority, told me over the phone in October that I would be eligible for free fees if I was to do a Masters in Journalism. I then took up the course, filled out all the forms, and thought nothing more of it. Then three weeks ago, I get a letter from SUSI basically saying “Hi! How are you? Oh yeah, you’re not eligible for that grant after all!! Ok thanks bye.”

So now I’m liable for my course fees, the aforementioned €4,661.

But hey. It’s not the worst thing that could have happened. If they had told me back in October I wasn’t eligible, I wouldn’t have done the course. So I was obviously meant to do the course because everything happens for a reason right?

Well that’s what I’m choosing to believe anyway!

And finally, to end on a somewhat happier note – I’m going on holiday with Kevin in a few weeks! Yes, I know I just told you I was in debt, but I booked and paid for the holiday before the SUSI letter came. Ironic, I know.

But that’s where we are and I’m actually really looking forward to it. It’s a whole three weeks in June where we’ll be away from everything with nothing to do but travel Europe. Sights include Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Barcelona, Morocco and London. It’s gonna be fan-fricking-tastic 🙂

Kel xxx

The Mid-Semester Slump

It happens every year, the mid-semester slump, but this time around, and for the first time ever, I think I’m actually dealing with it properly!

From first to fourth year, I’ve experienced this slump, this waning of interest… the year starts with a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and then you hit four or five weeks in and you’re tired, frustrated, bored and annoyed with all of it!

Part of it has to do with the evenings getting shorter and duller and the inevitable approach of Winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and everyone feels like crap. Semester One is always the worst semester in this regard. Another factor is the course and the workload. At the start, everything seems more than manageable – classes aren’t all that demanding, you’re just finding your feet, everything is new and shiny and interesting… but before you know it, it’s week 6 and you’re on the go 24/7 and you’re not getting anywhere!

That’s how I’ve been feeling these last few weeks anyway. I’ve so much going on that it’s really hard to keep on top of it all. I have assignments every week, in class tests and assessments, we have off-diary stories to work on, we’re gearing up to the newspaper, there’s shorthand to be learned and InDesign to get the head around… and that’s just the course work! On top of all that, I’m working with the Literary Society, with Student Radio Ireland, taking an evening course in Creative Writing, working for LaundryMom, The LaundryShop.ie and the University, blogging, writing, reviewing, presenting, pitching ideas to the Limerick Leader, taking driving lessons… the list goes on.

It all gets a bit much BUT I think I’m slowly working myself out of the slump.

Last week was particularly bad. I was feeling depressed and emotional and everything was getting to me. I felt like I was doing so many things, that I wasn’t doing them all to the best of my ability. That’s probably still true… and I did think about giving up a few things… but I really enjoy being busy and I really enjoy all the different aspects of what I’m doing – social media work, journalism, creative writing, radio… they’re all very different, and very demanding, but also creative, artistic and rewarding at the end of the day.

But this week has been far more positive. I had a really good driving lesson, I got an A grade in my Shorthand exam, I FINALLY pitched a good story idea to my lecturer and I’m doing well with the social media thing. Not to mention the fact that my boyfriend has been so supportive of me this past while – I’m so lucky to have him 🙂

So all in all, things seem to be looking up.

Fingers crossed xxx