Just in time for me to come home and render this irrelevant (this is what happens when you take 17 credits and work 3 jobs, things like blogs and sleep get neglected!), here’s an update on what I’ve been up to for the past 4 months …

Courses in a nutshell:

Multicultural U.S. Literature was interesting but basically a cakewalk, which was what I thought it would be so no problems there.

Arabic as a second language is for masochists. I’m set to take another 3 semesters of it. Yay.

Intro to International Relations was amazing, and basically covered everything that I was originally interested in when I chose my major, so real yay for that.

Intro to Sociology was fine, easy work and very nit-picky professor pretty much evened each other out.

Environmental Science was very cool, and I got to do my final project on the Kyoto Protocol … you can take the girl out of the wonky political science/law classes, but you can’t take the policy geek out of the girl

Jobs in a nutshell:

Early on this semester, I started peer tutoring at Trinity, meaning I tutor other Trinity students in classes I’ve already taken. Signed up mainly to be an English/humanities tutor, ended up almost exclusively tutoring math because that’s what they needed. The fact that I actually despise math doesn’t seem to bother them, and they are paying me, so that’s OK on balance.

Mid-semester I started also working with TU’s athletics department, mainly doing things like videotaping basketball games, because I needed to supplement my tutoring hours so as to avoid bi-weekly paychecks under $20. All of those extra hours became slightly trickier to juggle towards the end of the semester, because …

At the beginning of November, I started an internship with the Department of Commerce! Unpaid, but still basically awesome because I’m accruing some nice resumé material while working in a fun office with cool people. I’ll be continuing with the internship into next semester, and should be getting credit for it as well, which means I’ll be breaking my personal record and taking 19 credits. Caffeine donations are always welcome.

House/Life in a nutshell:

Somewhere in the middle of all this I’ve been living in a house off campus, which equals making my own food (yay!), living with my three awesome roommates (who I adore), and having free laundry and and a couch for people to crash on and fun stuff like that, so basically I’m a happy person.

I’ve also been doing my usual non-school stuff; going out with my girlfriends, doing Aikido and my karate practice, etc etc. Despite it all being somewhat insane and hectic and occasionally a bit overwhelming, I wouldn’t give any of it up; as long as I get some sleep, some coffee, and the occasional vacation, I think I’m set. And so we go!

1. 18 credits is great. 18 credits is also a lot of work.

2. Be thankful for not having had Friday classes up til now. Starting next semester, I have an Arabic lab every Friday at 10 AM. Bah.

3. Springtime in DC = rain. Every day. Yes, the flowering trees and whatnot are all lovely. But they are also wet, because they are in the rain, which is not something that they tell you in touristy literature.

4. Turning work in early makes professors really, really happy for some odd reason. Happy professors write nice rec letters

5. Math doesn’t suck … at least, stat doesn’t suck. Calc and trig are still on the list of things I do not wish to do, ever, thanks very much.

6. Less than 6 hours of sleep makes me stupid. More than 8 may never happen again during a semester. Looks like 7 is about it.

7. DC housing is OMG EXPENSIVE. But so is living on campus, so yeah. Guess we can just change that to COLLEGE is OMG EXPENSIVE.

8. Holding down 1500 things at once is not something you do alone, it’s something that is only made possible by having awesome people supporting you and making you laugh and making sure that you know when stuff isn’t really as serious as you think it is. By the same token, the right people do not always just take you as you are, but push you and challenge you when you need that.

Do excuse the lack of blog posting lately; as most people are aware, I’m taking 18 credits this semester, which is currently translating into piles and piles of reading every weekend, supplemented by other assignments and lots and lots of test prep in various forms (like right now; I’m recovering from a 75-minute in-class-essay exam for my history class while prepping for the 5 other tests that I have coming up next week in all of my other classes). And I’m in Aikido 3 times a week (my rolls are getting better!), still keeping up my karate practice, and trying to leave myself at least a day or so of chill time every weekend if possible, so my schedule can get a bit jam-packed.

In news not in the “why oh why did I take on this workload” category, my birthday is fast approaching, as is Spring Break, so yay! I’m going out Friday and Saturday for the birthday with friends, so pictures should certainly by forthcoming, and I will be home (more accurately, I’ll probably be at home a little and at the dojo as much as they’re willing to have me, sorry Mom!) for the first week of March. It will definitely be nice to have a chance to unwind for more than 2 days, and to get to see as many of my NY and NH people as possible, before I come back to school and do my best to power through the post-midterm crunch season that will be the rest of March and April. And back to the semi-caffeine-fueled study sessions

So, my break has been fabulous. I’m getting plenty of karate in (we did get snowed out a few times, but this is to be expected in New Hampshire in December), I’m reading and hanging out with the awesome people that make up my NH social circle and sleeping in and eating good food on my own eating schedule, thanks very much (which, for the record, involves random meals all somewhere between 9 AM and 11 PM, none of that ridiculous three meals a day nonsense), and basically life is good.

And I somehow also feel good about heading back down to DC; I’ll certainly miss home,  but you will not find me madly clinging to something in Boston Logan Airport and refusing to leave. Compounding my general feeling of non-stress is the fact that this time, unlike when I left for last semester, I actually know what to expect; the prospect of having classes for the next 3 months is not quite as unbelievably exciting, being as I’m now aware that classes = getting up early, heavy textbooks, and lots and lots of paper writing (woo), but at least I’ve got a very clear idea of what I’m going into, which as everyone knows is something that I’m very fond of having. I’ve also once again managed to save a bunch of money by renting my books ($204.20, to be exact), which is nice. That about covers it all—DC people, I will see you starting the 12th, NH people, you have 7 more days to catch up with me if you haven’t!

It hasn’t quite set in yet that I’m really finished, but officially I am done with my first college semester. I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts on it as a whole, given some time to reflect, but right now it works down to:

I’m glad I did well academically

I made some great friends

I’m not sure yet how living on my own in DC has affected who I am, but I’m sure it has in some way

I strongly dislike school food

I am so, so, so happy to be home.

I kind of can’t believe it yet, but this semester is well and truly nearly over. Thanksgiving Break is next week—New York! Food! And … other stuff I guess, but mainly food!—followed (for me almost immediately, because I am a final-week-skipping schedule ninja) by Winter Break. Followed of course by another semester, but I am not going to be particularly enamored of being reminded of that fact during the next couple of months, thanks very much. I’ve been having a really good time in DC, but I am still definitely looking forward to heading home; 5 weeks of New Hampshire, my friends, my family, and nothing on my schedule but karate classes.

In the meantime, I’ve been fairly busy; my school workload has picked up a bit, as we’re coming up on finals, although it’s nothing unmanageable, plus I’ve been apartment-hunting with one of my friends (no, dorm life doesn’t suck here, but I’m irked by the food and the guest policies, so I’m looking at other options), plus people keep inviting me out to lunch and things … so I’m comfortably busy. I hope everybody’s doing well

Just another brief entry, as I’ve not got anything new and earth-shattering to report. Aikido is still going well; my rolls are starting to look a bit more roll-y and a bit less like a collection of sharp edges hitting the floor, so that’s good. I’ve got a semi-ridiculous amount of homework to contend with at the moment (we’re talking 3 papers plus reading and problem sets due next week alone), but I’m managing it all OK.

I’ve got classes all next week, and am then heading up to New York on Thursday for the weekend (yes, my weekends start on Thursday—I love my schedule!). I’m looking forward to the elections, even though I (obnoxiously) can’t vote; I’ll definitely be needing some coffee before my Wednesday morning 9 AM class, because I’m sure to be up pretty late on that Tuesday. And 3 weeks after that, it’s Thanksgiving break in NY, immediately followed by winter break in NH (I’ll be home starting December 4th, for anyone that didn’t know), which, considering how much work my professors seem intent on piling on us in the last month of the semester, I am definitely looking forward to. Hope everyone’s doing well!

Just a quick update to say that I:

Survived the GJV weekend, which was intense and physically uncomfortable, but a valuable experience.

Am doing fine in my classes, just trying to keep up with the crush of midterms-season homework, and am looking forward to having this Monday off (yay for the historically inconsequential psuedo-holiday that is Columbus Day).

Get to see Daddy when he comes down this weekend, so yay!

And am doing pretty well with Aikido, it’s a lot of new stuff to learn (like, for instance, how to do a forward roll without landing on my head, my neck, my elbows, my knees, and every other part of my body simultaneously), but I’m enjoying the process. Also, I got my weight back up, for those that were privy to that particular fun episode and might have been worried. But that doesn’t mean you can’t all send me food

I’ve officially done my first full week of Aikido: class Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It’s been good, I’ve met some really nice people, and I’m starting to get a feel for the rhythyms of the dojo, although I’ve still got a long way to go before it begins to feel really comfortable for me. But I’m worked out and happily sore (the “ow” would be referring to my knees, my back, my shoulders … no, that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good workout), so it’s good.

As a reminder, I will be gone this weekend, Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. This means no cell phone availability (shock! horror!), so if you call or text, expect a response no earlier than Monday afternoon. And next weekend, assuming everything works out, Daddy should be coming down to visit me, so yay! Then it’s less than two months to Thanksgiving break, which I am looking forward to; it’s not like I don’t like school, not at all, but I can tell that I’ll be somewhat burned out by November, and will welcome the time off. In other news, this week and next week is MIDTERMS oh boy! Most of my teachers aren’t doing actual midterms, but many of them are taking the opportunity apparently presented by there being midterms to start handing out assignments like they’re afraid we’ll float away if we’re not weighed down by 5-foot stacks of paper. Thus, having just finished 2 papers, about 30 pages of reading, and 2 assignments for my geography class, I still have homework left. I’m just determined not to get bogged down and burned out on this schedule; if I can manage to keep my head up, I think I can maintain the really good grades I’ve been managing to garner so far. That’s all for now, wish me luck as I go off to brave the wilds of West VA

I just got confirmation today that I will be participating in the Global Jubilee Village, which will hopefully be fun and interesting! Practically, this means that I will be gone and without phone/email/etc, October 3-5.

Aside from that, I went to my Aikido trial lesson last night, which went pretty well, and I’ll be starting classes there next week—there are some areas where it’s pretty different from karate, so I’ve got some adjusting to do, but hopefully training there will be a positive experience nonetheless! I’m also somewhat buried in homework at the moment, and am still missing home quite a bit, but I should be fine. More verbiage to come at some later point