Wait, You Mean I Have To Leave?

The first week of class is already over and to be honest, I feel like it went a little too fast. Seeing as this is my last semester of college, I want to be able to savor it. Unfortunately, having a thesis and two seminars doesn't exactly allow you to do that. Seminars (in case you are not yet a college student) are basically 2-3 hour long classes that meet once a week to discuss your assignment(s) (usually a book) that you read over the course of the past week. The pros? The class only meets once per week and discussions are generally more interesting. The cons? The classes are longer than normal and, well, you pretty much read until your eyes are about to fall out. Then you read more.

But the good news is that my thesis is due in mid April, after which point I basically only have two real classes. Even better? No classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays, and my only class Fridays is hiking and backpacking, which is for-real fun, not just something I try to convince myself of being fun. But until then, I have to write two chapters of my thesis within the next ten days (that's do-able.... right?) and just hope that everything works out.

On a more depressing note, I did receive notice of graduation today. Sometimes Vassar likes to psych me out by sending me little paper reminders telling me that I'm a senior, kind of like the one I got today. Except this one was the worst one yet. It basically outlined the entire schedule for graduation (which I guess is kind of good because it lets me know when and where the free food and champagne are), then reminded me to reserve dorm housing for guests that had not yet arranged for a hotel. After receiving this letter, I called my parents to say, "You reserved a room at that hotel, right?" while basically praying to every known God that they wouldn't be staying on campus during my senior week. Oh no, they'd forgotten. But on the bright side, they're normal middle aged people--maybe they'll fall asleep around 9 so I won't have to entertain them during my last few nights here. Yikes. Did I just say that?

Last week, I rented a book titled, Great Jobs For Sociology Majors!, which basically means that it holds the secrets to my post-college life. Luckily, the Career Development Office had these awesome pins that said, "No, I don't know what I'm doing after graduation," so maybe now people won't ask what my plans are. Over the weekend, I did manage to formulate some rough plans, which basically consist of signing up for Americorps in hopes of stalling my entrance to the Real World for at least one more year. Trust me, when you get here, the Real World is like a foreign universe. I don't know how to take care of myself--is this a joke or something? Okay, my boyfriend said it isn't. Yikes.

Well, seeing as I have class tomorrow at ten and I'm kind of tired, perhaps I shall go to bed. But trust me, I'm prepared for nightmares.

I Was Born A Ramblin' (Wo)Man

So that is probably one of my favorite pictures ever. That's right--two deans of the college serving ME, for a change. The event is called "midnight breakfast" and it's really the only time of year when you can catch the college deans wearing aprons and serving you free food. And yes, I most definitely had seconds.

I'm finally back at school and although it's nice to have a change of scenery, it's time for the endless cycle to kick into full gear once again. Winter break seemed unusually short this year, but I would say I made the most of it. Here's a short synopsis:

First of all, my family sort of spontaneously moved into another house and I had to help, which I wouldn't have minded missing. I kind of have a thing for manual labor, but not so much when my parents are around. They have a knack for making anything simple into absolute chaos.

The second fun thing was going to the west coast for the first time EVER. My boyfriend and I planned the trip back in October and ever since I'd been looking forward to it, and for good reason! We went to Portland, Oregon (and did manage to make it up to Vancouver, Washington for a day). Now, I know what you're thinking--"Why would you go during the winter? That's the rainy season!" Fer sher it rained, but it was still beautiful.

If on graduation day they asked me what trait I acquired during college, I'd say it was my love of travel. I'm scared to death of heights, which makes flying a bit scary, but I can handle it if it means going somewhere new. As I may have mentioned before, I studied abroad in Prague, Czech Republic, and while there I made a point to visit France, Austria, Turkey and Italy, then backpacked through the Balkans, meaning Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia (okay, so we more or less passed through that one), and Slovenia. I came back from Prague a few pounds thinner and a lot better traveled than before I had left.

In Portland, we mainly looked at colleges and schlepped around the city. What else would two tourists do? (Oh yeah, check out microbreweries). We also stayed at a hostel called the Hawthorne Hostel (it was in the Hawthorne district of the city, duh), which was awesome because beds cost only $17 a night--which is definitely in my price range.

On the way home, we had a layover in Houston, which was cool because I'd never been to Texas. I decided to get the southern breakfast classic, which included grits, and was pleased when the cashier referred to me as "youngster" in a pleasant southern drawl. I may be 21 years old, but apparently I qualified as a youngster. Then again I was mistaken for a 15 year old the week of my 21st birthday....