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!