Done

Wow it's been a while since I updated, I've been pretty busy. This last week I had my seminar paper due along with my regular two tutorial papers, and since the seminar paper is 80% of my grade for that class, I was pulling my hair out a little bit. It didn't help that I wasn't really sure what exactly I was really trying to show prove until Wednesday. So most of my week was spent either on my computer staring at a word processor, in a library reading, or at my desk reading/getting distracted by the internet. Despite the hurdles, I managed to finish, and I believe my seminar paper turned out pretty well, though I still have to find out what grade I'll be receiving for it. But it's done, along with my two tutorials, so there's no reason to stress anymore. Spent the weekend relaxing, and getting started on planning things out for traveling after term and when Mom comes, both of which I am looking forward to. After the amount of work I've done these past 8 weeks, I'm looking forward to going back to Elmhurst, which will feel like a cakewalk after this. Being here has definitely helped me prepare for the two Senior Theses I'm going to have write next year, but I am guaranteed going to miss the Bodelian Library system. It's in a class of all its own, and Elmhurst's library can't even compete.

As for this past week, it's been bittersweet. It started with GREEK ending, which made me feel old. That show has been on since before I started college, and now that it's over, I'm growing closer to my own graduation, which is an extremely frightening thought. Anyway, Tuesday was my last Anglo-Saxon England tutorial. While the papers for it were always difficult, requiring hours in various libraries, and Dr. Sykes always found things to critique, it was still a class I enjoyed. I liked the subject matter, and our discussions were fun, where she pushed me to think about things I didn't know or even considered, and really challenged me to push my limits. So while I won't miss the hours I spent researching and stressfully writing papers, I really will miss it. Oh, also on Tuesday they actually had Rice Krispies for breakfast, making it the first time I've had some other than Corn Flakes in 3 months. This is the St. Peter's students last week here as well, so the kitchen seemed to be pulling out all the stops.

Thursday was my last Medieval Travel Writers tutorial, which was very sad. Alun Thorton Jones and I always had such fun conversations together, and most weeks I enjoyed the topic. Some weeks felt pointless, like the Vikings in America, but still, it was all interesting to learn about. It was also to bad that I had my seminar paper this week, since the topic was on imaginary maps now that Europeans had a better understanding of the world, which really was fun but because of seminar I couldn't devote the time to it that I would have liked to. I did bring in the map from Wizard's First Rule to talk about how people still make up imaginary lands and maps today. Fortunately Alun leads the field trips we'll be taking soon, but I'll still missing having a one-on-one tutorial with him. We laughed a lot.

During all this I was working on my seminar paper, reading different books and trying to get a specific topic. I had to meet with Dr. Philpott on Wednesday to try and nail it down, which was a little scary since the paper was due Friday. I had spent about 6 hours on Tuesday after tutorial in the St. Peter's library, and still had some more reading to do on Wednesday and Thursday on top of my last tutorial stuff. Started writing my final paper after lunch on Thursday, though I really didn't start making good progress I liked till after dinner. Got stuck quite a few times where I just stared at the screen with nothing to write. Around 1am I was about 3/4 of the way done, and Craig was looking to go to bed soon so I moved to the computer lab to finish. Unfortunately being me I wasted about an hour when I got there fiddling around on Facebook and watching TV shows on my computer. Finally finished a little before 4, printed, and right as I was about to leave let Lauren M. in, who had just finished her paper. Talked a little with her, then finally went straight to be.

Didn't managed to get up for breakfast Friday, 3 hours was too little sleep. Had one of my Chewy Dips bars though. I'm proud of how long they've lasted, and I've still got some left, which is a good thing cause I haven't been able to find them here anywhere. Beside the point though, spent the morning editing my paper, and on my way to lunch meant to drop my paper off, but Dr. Philpott had a tutorial, so I threw it in my mailbox, and then coming back from lunch turned it in. He just told me to drop it on the table when I walked in, and then went back to work. I was hoping for a little more acknowledgment on having finished, like a congratulations or something. Fireworks would have been nice.

Anyway, after that all the sleep I'd missed out on over the past week or two instantly caught up with me, and my brain just shut down. Also started getting a headache. Still, decided not to nap, and played games till dinner. Friday was also our St. Patrick's day/most people are finished with work party, for which the JCR bought plenty of alcohol and snacks. Fortunately I went down late enough to miss helping with most the set-up, which I was very happy about. I'm so sick of moving that big table. Anyway, they made three things of Jungle Juice, all different, and then there was liters of cider, which is as strong as beer but tastes different, I've been informed. Whatever makes people happy, I really don't care.

I like the Doritos and the chocolate cupcakes with green frosting. Definitely ate too many of those. There were also some kids from the St. Peter's badminton team there, that people here had joined and invited over. It was a little awkward at first, but they were a lot of fun here. Sadly, even though we had to explain Beer Pong to the one English guy Nathan, he won for over over 2 hours before he finally lost the last game of the night. I'd say dominated, but since some of the rounds took over 30min, that doesn't seem like the right choice of words. Might have been easier if we actually had SOLO cups. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, but there was a BOP that night as well, so a lot of CMRS people left early to go to that. After cleaning up, which went really fast since all the English kids helped (seems to be a common thing whenever we have them over), I decided to head over and check it out one last time, since there won't be anymore before I leave.

Apparently BOP stands for Big Open Party, or so I've been informed. The reliability of the information is slightly questionable, since even most the St. Peter's people don't know what BOP means. Anyway, I had a headache that came and went throughout the night depending on what I was doing. So when I walked into the St. Peter's courtyard and the music started to make my head throb from that far away, I knew I was in trouble. Still I went to the bar, which was super crowded, definitely much more than I'm comfortable with, but I managed to squeeze through to find some of my friends. Could barely hear what people were saying, the floor was super sticky, and after like 5 min. I knew staying was out of the question. Said goodbye and pushed through the way I had gotten in, went over to the dance floor but there really wasn't anyone there either, and the music was even louder with a strobe light, so I took off right away.

Came back to the room, put on a movie and just let myself unwind. Got invited to go out to a club around midnight, but neither Craig nor I were up to it. Both of us were just fried. Took a shower, read for a little bit, and went to sleep. Craig was still doing something, but I hit the pillow and passed out. I was dead tired. Spent the weekend relaxing, which I will hopefully write about tomorrow. I feel this post has gotten long enough, and I feel like doing something else.