The time has almost come...

In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!
Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O!
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

She was a fish-monger,
but sure 'twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they each wheeled their barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!
Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O!
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

She died of a fever,
and no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
But her ghost wheels her barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!
Alive, alive-O! alive, alive-O!
Crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!

Well, Sarah, Addis, Rhian and I are gearing up for St. Patty's Day weekend in Dublin, Ireland and I thought you might enjoy an Irish tune!! We've booked a 4-day hostel tour, which includes ferry transport, coach travel, hostel accommodation, admission into the Guinness Brewhouse, and a variety of other activities, all leading up to the big parade on Monday!! I absolutely cannot wait. It should be an amazing time. The only downfall being that I'll be boarding a plane back to the US the day after our return from Dublin....

This week has kind of been an emotional rollercoaster, alternating from feeling really excited about returning home and seeing all of the people, places, things I've missed so much, and feeling extremely sad about saying goodbye to my friends, my job, and my home here. I feel unbelievably fortunate to have had such a great experience here in Wales and in traveling the rest of the UK and parts of Europe. I feel I've made the absolute most of it, and for that I can leave feeling really happy.

I also found out last week from Trevor & Katy that I may be getting a publication from my work here with them, which is incredibly exciting! This basically means that for all the work I've done here with them on the drugs/crime project, the authors for the publication to be written from their data will possibly/likely be listed as Bennett, Holloway & Beall. This really makes this experience even more exciting. I feel incredibly honored and have been so lucky to have had such wonderful people willing to teach me so much during my time here and letting me be a part of their projects/research.

The weekend last was definitely an exciting one! Beginning really on Saturday afternoon with Wales defeating Ireland in the Six Nations Rugby match. This means that they have one match to go to win the Grand Slam, which means they're undefeated!! We were in a Cardiff pub at 12:00p to share in the excitement! The shouting/singing/chanting was thunderous as they went on to overcome and defeat Ireland!!

From Cardiff we returned to Pontypridd at about 6:00p to set out on a pub crawl of Pontypridd and Treforest, which is where I live and where we normally go out on the weekends, and seeing as it was my last Saturday in Ponty, we thought we'd celebrate by hitting up all the worthwhile pubs (skipping over the danceclubs...thank goodness!). Needless to say it was a highly entertaining night of complete silliness ending with a slumber party at mine! What a laugh indeed!! Photos from this madness have been added to the bottom of the album and can be found HERE.


Sunday night I went over to my co-worker Harriet's home for dinner (tea). All of our gang from work was there, with their respective partners, minus Trevor. We had an amazing meal, a champagne toast to say farewell to me, and several hours of playing SingStar on PlayStation2. For those who don't know what that game is, it's like a karaoke battle. It was horribly embarrassing!! Although highly amusing! We found out that Katy is quite the rapper and Neil should be a country superstar...and I need to learn some R&B songs apparently, because I was absolutely clueless; however, I did do a rather impressive job with the ultimate stalker song, Every Breath You Take. Again, horribly embarrassing!

Anyway, this week I'm just trying to finish my last two projects at work and clearing of my desk, as well as packing up all my stuff, which I think might actually fit into my suitcases, minus a few casualties that will be left behind. We'll see how it goes! I'm hoping to have it all packed by the time we leave for Dublin on Saturday morning. Tomorrow night I'm going out with the girlies (and probably Addis, since he seems to be one of the girlies!) for dinner and drinks, saying my goodbyes to most of them I would assume. Thursday is my farewell luncheon with work. We're going for one last Indian curry. This should be a tear jerker... Then Thursday night we have a BSC talk in Cardiff and are hitting the town afterward for a final farewell night out! This really will be goodbye to my co-workers, minus my final few hours of work with Trevor & Katy on Friday.

So this journey is just about over and I guess a new one is ready to begin. I just wish I knew what the new one had in store for me. I guess I'll find out in a couple weeks time when that magic acceptance letter comes from UMSL, or when I win the lottery and decide to travel the world for the rest of my life...

Take care.
Can't wait to see you all, really!
XO