The End of the Semester

Current Location: New York, NY

I know, once again I fail at updating. This past month has been a whirlwind of work - lab reports, group project, problem sets galore. I always thought my senior year would be a time for relaxing and partying, but no such luck.

Exciting thing in the past month? Well first of all, I had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I actually have two different thanksgivings with two separate and extremely important groups of people with me, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. My first thanksgiving was with the girls - Lucy and Laura, along with myself prepared a FABULOUS vegetarian Thanksgiving feast! Anyone who says you can't have thanksgiving without turkey most certainly has not had our thanksgiving food! I made my mom's bourbon sweet potatoes, because it most definitely is not thanksgiving without them. Laura made some delicious mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, and the two of us helped out with the rest of the feast Lucy had planned out - mushroom red wine gravy, the most amazing stuffing EVER, a rice and cheese loaf, and brie and cranberry sauce mini quiche things. I think there was even more - I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! After stuffing ourselves, it was time for the obligatory thanksgiving nap before I headed downtown to Dana and Nate's for Thanksgiving part two. Down there I got to eat mac and cheese (the best recipe ever, both Dana and I make it, though I made it first hehehehe) green beans, and potatoes! They also had meat turkey and gravy, which I obviously didn't eat. They made quite the feast! After stuffing myself so full, I crashed in Brooklyn for the night before heading back up to Columbia.

Another exciting thing was I had my Peace Corps interview! It went really well. I was rather nervous, because they told me the interview could go between 60-90 minutes. Well my interview went over 2 hours, but it was GREAT! My interviewer was so nice, and it felt almost more like a conversation than an interview. I felt very much as ease and thought it went very well, and I was rewarded just a few days ago with the news that I have been nominated for service! The next step is an extremely thorough medical clearance - Physical, ObGyn, Dental, and Eye exams all required, I think. I can't wait to continue moving forward with the process - maybe in a few months I will know for sure what I could be doing and where! It's nerve racking, because I could not find out until as little as 6 weeks before I leave for my service, which would be July. But it is also so exciting, and I can't wait to continue to learn more!

I am not going home for Christmas this year, as many of you already know, I decided to do a little bit of decorating in my room! Gotta get into the Christmas spirit after all! I haven't done much yet - I got myself a little Christmas tree that I decorated and made a few little paper snowflakes to hang around the room (yes, I know I am a total nerd). It makes me happy, since I can't be home with my usual Christmas traditions to at least have a little bit of festive cheer in my room. Hopefully it will help me get through exams!

In other news, the semester is coming to a close. Monday is the last day of classes. It's really flown by - I can't believe it's actually my senior year. I guess with all my traveling I didn't really see the weeks passing by me. Only one more semester and then I'm off to the real world - I don't know if I am quite ready to be there yet! I actually don't have a ton yet - for our group project, we have our final report, we have a 5-6 page progress report for senior design, one final lab, a GIS assignment and the take home final, and 2 sit down finals left. Wow, when I list it all out, it sounds like I still have a lot to do. Less than two weeks left, and I will be done with everything! My parents and grandma come up on the 23rd for Christmas in the city. And then on January 1st, I leave for my two weeks in Chile! I cannot wait for that - we got some more information, and I think it's going to be a really amazing trip. They only accepted 16 students out of a large group, so I feel so honored to be able to go!