holidays

the fall semester wrapped up nicely with a holiday sweater, crackers and cheese, and crafts party thrown by my apartment-mates (see above). the party turned out very well with a good, calm crowd, cute decorations, an abundance of snacks and all kinds of farewell wishes as we all packed up to go abroad. my roommates were a steady, comforting presence this semester and i'll miss them as they depart to turkey, costa rica and italy respectively. i am very glad to be done with my classes this term. they were all good but just a lot of work. i am most proud of the website i created for my performance studies project, which can be found here. i'm also proud of the goucher post secret project, which was a surprisingly huge success this fall. students sent in their anonymous secrets, whether silly or serious, to the suicide awareness and prevention group (which i started and serve as pres.). we had an exhibit of them in a community room on campus, and also started to post them on our blog. it was really cool to see the great variety of responses that came from students.

at this point, i have been in shoreline for 9 of my 12 days here and the seemingly never-ending snow has prevented all seattlites from doing much of anything this holiday season. i've ran a few errands with my dad as he tried to drive through the slushy mess of snow, but in general i have stayed in the house for over a week. even with all this free time, though, i haven't accomplished as much as i would have liked. i'm not sure what it is about coming home, but i always just end up watching movies and sitting around instead of being productive and busy like i am at school. hmm. other than the weather and its implications, it's been a lovely break and i'm very thankful to be able to come home and celebrate the holidays with my family. i have really enjoyed spending time with my extended family, especially my adorable little second cousins, and feel lucky to do this.

i've been doing lots of reading and research-- both online and in the little guidebooks i've accumulated from family, friends and the program-- about copenhagen and it's made me antsy to leave. i know what to pack, a few basic phrases (pronounced poorly, however), etc.-- now i want to just go! i leave january 16 and until then, will be working, packing, running errands, etc. in baltimore. of course communication may be difficult and i'll miss everybody here in the states, but i know this is going to be one of the most memorable and eye-opening experiences of my life. i am so excited!

crunch time

i hope everyone had a very nice thanksgiving. i had a relaxing time, pretty much doing homework by a woodstove the whole time. central massachusetts is more beautiful than people give it credit for...or at least the old houses are.

as always happens this time of year, i feel like i'm just swimming in final projects. social science students get slammed not with final exams but huge papers every semester. i gave two twenty-minute presentations today (one of which you can see online at http://students.goucher.edu/auhus001) and have to write a paper on a 1000-page novel. i also have a major qualitative analysis paper lurking over my head. what i dislike more than the work itself, however, is how everyone gets so wrapped up in our own little world of homework and finals. our perception of what is important in life gets totally out of whack as everyone obsesses about the number of hours they'll be stuck in the library. i find myself doing this too.

an alarming reminder of this phenomena: the recent attacks in mumbai. what an atrocity. the situation was terrifying, deadly, symbolic. i really cannot fathom how haunting the scene would be for the people of mumbai. this could have serious global consquences. yet as i returned to school on sunday, awareness of this event seemed to have vanished from everyone's mind. we were all running around stressed out about getting the newspaper published and finishing up assignments. i'm not quite sure how to break out of this pattern, how to be reminded of the real world around us, but i look forward to the end of the semester so that i can more actively participate in life outside of school.

and speaking of life after this semester, i am thrilled and a bit worried that my excursion to denmark is coming right up. by and large i really can not wait, because i know it will be one of the most eye-opening, fun and unique experiences of my life. the program i'm going on seems very well-coordinated to maximize students' time in copenhagen. this week they sent me a map of the city, a luggage tag, cell phone info, and arranged bus transportation from the airport. i'm impressed! i have concerns about traveling so far from my comfort zone for so long, but i know this will just end up boosting my independence and familiarity with the world. i'm also worried about running out of money-- i've heard copenhagen is wildly expensive-- but i hope to avoid that problem.

i'm really looking forward to being in seattle and seeing my family at christmas. i'm also excited to have some free time-- any at all!-- to catch up on reading, seeing friends, doing some art projects, watching movies, etc. i'll be in seattle december 18-30, baltimore december 30-jan 16 and copenhagen jan 17-may 17....