Just finished with our final performance and it went pretty well. Now we're off to dinner with the group as a final hurrah, to bad I have two more papers due. Tomorrow is my play reading, hopefully it will go well. One of my actors, Nora, is getting an emergency root canal tomorrow. I'm certainly not mad, it really sucks for her because the dentist basically said that she couldn'y fly with a swollen cheek, because it could pop...gross.

Once home on saturday we'll be very briefly stopping at Adam and Jess's to see baby Sam, hopefully. Then whisking Bri to her home, saying hello to the family, then sauntering up to the Welch Manor to sleep for a few weeks. Food requests include, but are not limited to: tenderloin, chocolate cake, Chocolate chip Cookies, apple pie, Sprecker Root Beer, and Culver's anything.

Almost all packed too, I tossed/gave away half of my clothes to make room for Xmas gifts and other purchases. Its excited to get home, but I'm very sad to leave this beautiful country and even more sad to leave all the friends and teachers i've met. It'll will be hard to explain what i've gone through. Lots o' stories.

Pete

I am alive. Barely. Currently I have a pretty bad headache. I'll get over it. Tomorrow is our end-of -term actor showcase. I'm not terribly excited, so I'm not nervous at all. I am nervous for Thursday, when I have to reading of my play adaptation. We just had rehearsal and i think it will go well. Right now I'm neglecting the 1.5 papers i have to write in favor of packing my suitcases. I have a few more gifts to get then I'm done. I've laid out my outfits for the next three days and everything else is either getting packed or going to the garbage. I should leave here with just about the same amount of stuff. Saying goodbyes will kind of suck...I'll miss people, but only some. Just three more days.

I has been a deliciously wonderful weekend of doing nothing at all. After being rather down about the whole "Thanksgiving in Dublin" thing, it was good to take time for just me and Brianna. A lot of our classmates were out of town this weekend, so we just bummed around Dublin doing things that looked fun. As of right now there are only 20 more days here in Ireland, and though I'm excited to go home and see friends and family (especially Sam!), there is still a lot that needs to happen here. Our final performance project is in two weeks and is completely ridiculous. There are four performance-based classes and so each teacher gets 15 minutes in the hour-long show to demonstrate what we've learned....barf. Some are ok, but the majority of our instructors are insane. You know its bad when I, a theatre student well-versed in the art of taking something symbolic WAY too far, thinks that what we've doing it silly.

Other than that, we've several papers due at the end of term; mostly easy ones. I'm going to try to get my Seagull reading off the ground (haha) and performed just as a directed reading right after our final performance, hopefully it will work.

I'm finishing up my X-mas shopping and I am proud to say that for the first time ever, I've gotten something for everyone in my family. Like...everyone, all the cousins and siblings and spouses. Granted, they are all around 2 euro each, but its the thought that counts right? And besides...I'm in Ireland, so i've found little cheap pieces of ireland to give to people. Also, if i didn't get them here, then I'd only have 10 days to shop when I get back.

Well, my iPod is charged and I must go find Bri. We're going out to dinner for our 3.5 year anniversary and watching the Christmas light lighting and parade on O'Connel street!

Pete

Well, Anna and Jim are on their own now. I just got home from dinner with them, bri, and a couple of my classmates. It was pretty fun. Anna, Jim and I went out for a drink afterwards...well, Jim and I had a drink, Anna watched. : ).

They did all kinds of fun Dublin stuff while Bri and I had class...Boo.

Bri and I also lost a friend this weekend. Our friend died in a Madison house fire on Sunday. We are very close with his brothers and extremely close to his father, so its a pretty painful loss all around. So, prayers for Peter Talen and his family would be appreciated.

Um. I think thats about it for now. Packages are still welcome....especially ones containing X-mas things.

Peter Welch
27-29 Lower Rathmines Rd.
Dublin 6
Ireland

Hello friends.

Anna, Jim, Bri, and I went to the Cliffs of Mohr today. Well, yesterday; it's 12:43am. We got up at 5 to be on the bus at 7. Our bus driver was nuts. It took up 3.5 hours to get there, on curvy Irish roads that make you car sick. Fun. It started raining and we got soaked once at the Cliffs....they were beautiful though....and we got good pictures. It took us 4 hours to get home. Ug. Plus, I feel like crap. Stuffed up, soar throat, the works. I just want to curl up with Bri and the history channel, luckily i happen to have the more necessary part of that equation. : )

Feeling a little homesick, but its nice to have Anna and Jim bring home-ish feelings with them.

School's slowing down. I had my first play reading of my Seagull adaptation. It went really well and i plan on having a live reading soon. I finalized with my director back home that I will be directing two shows this spring: Proof, by David Auborn, and my own adaptation of Chekhov's, "The Sea Gull". So come at see! I'm going to start work on my new project (which was bri's idea (Jess will appreciate it)) which is a stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "The day I traded by Father for two goldfish" into a children play. Should be fun.

Sleep now!

Hi!....so, I somehow accidentally deleted my blog. I easily remade it, but I lost all my old posts. :(


Anna and Jim are here safe.