Hi there, sorry it's been a while, but with the semester ending it has been very hectic at school with lots of tests, exams, and even “mock” exams. I haven't made a post in a while but December has been very fun. It started off with going to port rush with Ryann and Emily on December 5th. It was so much fun, we went to the Giants Causeway, we saw this castle that was used in game of thrones and we visited the beach before going and looking around port rush town. It was very beautiful and I really enjoyed it. On the way back we stopped at some grocery store who had this “mascot” called Percy Pig that had a bunch of items centered around him and they also had this stuffed perfect that I of course had to buy. To make it even better it's the 2021 Christmas limited edition. Yeah you heard that right, limited. edition. To say I'm proud is an understatement. I really enjoyed portrush and spending some time with just Emily and Ryann. Fast forward a couple of weeks through lots of tests and leaving cert stuff I'm never going to use. This past week stretched. Like really really stretched. On monday I had to make up a chemistry test that I missed when I was at a basketball match. My teacher is Mr. Reed who is also the principal. I went to his office to take the test last period. I spent about 20 minutes on the test before I handed it in to him. He marked it and let's just say chemistry isn't my strong suit. We went through a couple of things and then he began talking to me about other classes and if I think I'm smart and whatnot then the bell rings and he is still talking to me. This was the final bell of the day and keep in mind I take the bus home from school. The buses begin to leave at 4:02 when the final bell is at 4. Mr. Reed is still talking to me and finally he finishes and I leave his office at 4:05. His office is on the complete opposite side of the campus (the campus isn't that large, but still a good walk). I can see my bus is gone and by then i begin to call my friend Maks. Boy isn't answering the phone so I called him 4 more times. Boy still won’t answer. To actually leave the school you have to walk down this lane that is about ¼ mile. I’m walking down this lane and I see my bus. As soon as I'm about to catch up to it, it turns onto the main road and speeds away. I am panicking. Finally I get a call from a random number and I'm like, ok let this be Maks and thank God it was. I frantically tell him what happened and he asks me where I am. I tell him I'm at the bottom of the lane. He says he's still at the school and that there's an extra seat in the car he is going home in so I ended up just going home with him and getting a ride from his house when his dad got home from work. This was only monday. The next day my class is in PE, which is my last period. The PE coach is also the football coach. She comes in and is like does anyone play football? Ryann does so she goes over and is talking to her and when they finish talking the teacher calls me over and is like Casey do you play football i say no. Now flash back to a couple weeks before when the team was first made and I told Ryann she needed to play. She said she would only play if I did long story short we didn’t end up playing until this moment when Ryann says I thought u did and yeah I DID, she said she would only play if I did so I sucked it up and said yes. That's when we were told there was a match the next day and that would be pretty cool to play in a football match in Ireland so I said ok, yes I'll go. Now the fun part, i had to go into town to get both ryann and i shin pads, we had to borrow socks and boots (cleats) from the school and on wednesday we were off to the match. It was so fun I played defense for ¾ of the game and we won 3-1. It was a great day and it only got better. Wednesdays are half days and we get out at 1:10. We got back to the school at 1:05 and I had to rush to get my bag and get to my bus. I met Maks on the bus and told him all about the match. We took the bus into town, got some lunch then went back to his house. We watched black Widow, then we decided to go for a short walk. This walk turned into a very very long walk. We went to Rossmore park and it was absolutely beautiful. The entrance of it started with a little path with small trees that then opened into a bigger path with a wide open field that was surrounded by trees in the distance. It was so pretty. It was also pitch black so i'm just assuming it was pretty anyways we kept walking along the path the field ended and it then went to a path with trees on either side. Also quite pretty. We kept walking and we came across this massive park, it was literally so fun. There were these giant swings, lots of things to climb on made from the wood they got when they cut down the trees (so sad). There were also these zipline things that were so fun, but so low to the ground i would hit my back most of the time Maks and I spent like an hour there, but then when we were on the zip lines I thought i heard a voice, but i brushed it off until maks was like Ha i just heard a voice. Then I freaked out because I guess I wasn't just hearing things. We were out of there so fast. We went back to his house and got some food before I went home. Thursday was normal and Friday was so fun but so so sad. It was Ryann’s last day. She was only here for the semester so Friday was her last school day. I said bye to her in our last class, but there was a christmas party that night we were all going to so my whole friend group said bye to her after the party. It was so emotional we were all crying and just couldn’t imagine coming to school and her not being there. It was really hard that night. The next day was rough as well. Her flight wasn’t till sunday and one of my friends Micah wanted to surprise her one last time. I was so in, he had asked 6 of us if we wanted to come. 2 didn’t want to and we didn't really know where she lived or how we were going to get there so we kind of just decided not to. Although me being me I wasn't going to give up so easily, I was already at Maks’s house so he and I wanted to go. I called micah and asked him if he still wanted to and he did, same with Harry. So I made a plan that we wouldn't meet them at this community hall 3 miles from her house (I had to use google maps and snap maps to find the way there). We met there at 7, I bought a card and some sweets and we all signed the card and left notes. We walked/ran to her house on pitch black country roads, but it was worth it. She was so excited to see us. When we got to her house we turned all the lights off and called her and said “it's getting cold out here can you let us in”. I just see her through the window and watch her fly to the door. We said our last last goodbyes and that was it. It was very sad and she will definitely be missed. This week was the only eventful week in December plus portrush so see you next year!!!!!!