(Look! My first ever multi-word post title!)
I know it’s been a while, and I have no one to blame but myself. But in my defense, I’ve had a series of weeks jam-packed with homework, classes, meetings with the Catholic group, babysitting a family with 4 kids, hosting my radio show (Literary Works as Musicals! 9 a.m. on Thursdays at wsrnfm.org) and dragging myself off to the gym. And on the weekends, when I might have been catching up on this blog, I’ve been having adventures, the likes of which I haven’t really had since freshman year!
On the first exciting weekend this semester, Miriam, Linda, our friend Susanna, and I trooped off into the Crum, hoping to stumble upon the abandoned ruins of a water garden. We had read an article about this place in the Daily Gazette, the online newspaper, last year, and though we didn’t really know where we were going, we had a (foolishly?) high degree of faith in our combined navigational abilities and luckiness. After wandering for hours, with no water, no breaks to rest, chasing a deer, almost losing a shoe in mud, calling a local historic site to ask for directions, and several photo-ops, we finally found it! Here’s a sampling of our photo-ops:
Look how deep my shoe sank in the mud!
- Standing under a fallen tree that looked like a rib cage
Orienteering
Linda in the ruins!
The next weekend was College Day in Philadelphia, and Linda, Miriam, and another of our friends, Linda’s roommate Yin, and I went into the city, where we ate incredibly delicious hot pot and Korean barbecue at the International Smokeless BBQ. Then we walked around the city, rode a carousel, went to Chinatown to bring back pastry. Here’s what our food looked like:
Grilling meats and vegetables, which then get dipped in mixed sauces
Other food gets boiled in this pot that's in the middle of the table
I was a picky eater growing up, and as I was gorging myself on this, I couldn’t help being really happy that I’m not anymore.
The next weekend, I did something I’ve wanted to do for years–– went and visited my best friend, Jenn, at Yale. We’ve known each other since sixth grade, and although we went to different high schools, we talked on the phone every weekend. Sometimes we miss weeks now, but we’ve had an ongoing email exchange, plus Skype and Facebook chats, so it’s not often that we don’t know what’s going on in each others’ lives. She’s come to Swarthmore 3 times, but I hadn’t made it up to see her until the beginning of October. It was a really great time; I got to meet her friends, eat Cuban food, ice cream, and the first good falafel I’ve ever had, go to Yale’s museum of British art, and take the Tour of Being Jenn (i.e, see all her class buildings, study spots, church, and the places where she lived for the past two years ). We didn’t take any pictures, but here are a few examples of our shenanigans:
In Woolman's lounge last spring, when she had a Tae Kwon Do tournament at UPenn
Sometimes (often!) we wear matching clothes
Sword fighting in front of the Science Center last summer
All in all, I’ve been having such good weekends I’ve barely had time to be stressed, even though with 5 classes, a radio show, two clubs to manage, and study abroad applications to submit, I have a lot going on. And that brings me to the exciting news I mentioned in the title–– I found out this morning that I was admitted to the first study abroad program I applied to, the one that I’m pretty sure I’ll attend! That means next semester, I’ll be at Cardiff University in Wales, taking classes in religion, and sociology and frolicking around the UK. I’m so excited about this! It seems like things are really falling into place, and everything’s worth being excited about.
