Hello all! I have a few minutes before I have to meet my friends for breakfast (10:30 is a luxuriously late time for breakfast, I know… the perks of not having class until 11 every day!) so I thought I would update on all my doings since before finals week!
The end of the semester was stressful, as usual, but we all got through it. I decided to move out of my dorm into the French house, which is one of the university-owned theme houses, so I was kept extra busy hauling all my belongings across campus. Now that I’m all moved in, though, I’m really glad I made the decision to live here. I ended up with a single because no one else applied to fill the spots of the two girls who went abroad and it is very, very nice. I’m friends with the three girls in the house, so it’s lots of fun to be able to walk into each other’s rooms and chat or do homework together, but it is some sort of novelty to me that I can also go into my room, shut the door and work in solitary peace. So as much as I miss living with my other three friends, I think I made the right decision– and I still visit my old room all the time.
Winter break was amazing. We had a little over four weeks, and it was SO nice to be able to be home for that long and just relax. I still have a really close group of friends from high school, so we’re always so, so happy to be together again, and it was great to hang out with my parents. My friend Michelle from Puget Sound came to visit me and Amber, so that was also very awesome and she got to really see California for the first time.
And then, suddenly, everything was packed into my two well-worn suitcases and Amber and I were back on flight 2474 to Seattle, as usual. Moving into my room was fun, and I’m still in the process of decorating the walls, although at least now it looks like someone actually lives here. It was so great to see everyone again, and there are still people I am running into who I haven’t had a chance to hang out with yet. It always feels so good to be back, and it’s always better than I expect. When I’m home, I get really sad about leaving again, mainly because I’m so close with those high school friends, but whenever I come back I am reminded of how much I love it here, and that makes me so grateful.
Classes started on Tuesday, so as of right now, I have had one session of each class. I’m taking International Econ, French, International Relations, Fundamentals of Acting and Chorale– and they all seem really great! I’m excited and optimistic about this semester. I feel like now we are truly upperclassmen– we’ve gotten all our requirements out of the way and we can take all classes that pertain to our majors, and it makes it that much more enjoyable. Another indicator of this is that we all have way more work than we had before, but since it’s only the third day of school, I’m still in my super gung-ho academic mode and the idea of sitting down with books and essays sounds nice.
Aside from classes, I’m just waiting for other activities to start up again. I have my first tour on Friday, which will be nice, and RDG auditions are next weekend, I believe. Tonight is the choreographer interest meeting and afterwards we’ll do the officer transition so I will learn all about how to be secretary! I’m really excited for this semester of RDG. I’ve choreographed about a minute of a contemporary piece, which is something different for me, so I hope it goes well. Last night my friend Kayla and I went to the dance room and showed each other our choreography, so we both got/gave good feedback and were able to make improvements. It felt so good to be dancing again!
And I think that’s it. Yesterday I finally got to go to Office Depot/Target/Safeway so now I actually have binders and notebooks so I can be organized and food in my refrigerator. It also hasn’t started raining yet, so that has been nice, although I’m sure it won’t last for long! All in all, it’s been a smooth and fun transition back into school and I’m looking forward to this semester!