So I don't really know what to write about this time around.... I'm just not quite ready for bed and don't really have anything else to do this late at night. Plus, I feel like the last post was a little too serious for my tastes. Serious is fine, don't get me wrong... but it has its time and place. And now is not such a serious time.
Things this week have been busy. I've been trying to finish off the things I have to get done before I head to California over fall break (which is coming up a week from Saturday... *panic!* **but in a good way**). I had a killer economics assignment to get done (which trust me, nearly killed me), I had an exam in another class on Tuesday, and I had a prof discuss my final research paper with me... I'll be writing about military sonar use in the oceans and how it effects marine life, comparing occurrences, Supreme Court trials and resulting legislation (if any) in both the U.S. AND Canada. Something I'm really interested in, but it means I'm literally doing twice the research for it. And it has to be done by a week from tomorrow if I want him to read my first draft. (GAH!)
Also, I had planned on having a fairly chill weekend, devoted to coastal law readings and research, and possibly even the occasional social event. However today I was informed by my editor at the magazine that there's a Farmhand event Saturday (where a bunch of students get together and spend a day working on a local farm for free) that they need me to take pictures for. And they literally can't get anyone else. So now I have to go to campus early tomorrow morning to finish off my GIS lab, go to a mandatory seminar from 11-1, then cram in everything I was planning on doing Saturday into Friday afternoon, so I can spend Saturday getting down n' dirty with my camera. (I know, I know... that sounds so wrong. But I'm tired. So sue me. My law prof would argue that it would help me learn the legal system better).
BUT, on the bright side, I can finally justify getting all the fun camera-related stuff that I haven't been able to justify until now :) I'm now planning on taking my good camera to California with me (since I'm supposed to be photo-stalking one of my classmates for the magazine... part of an assignment. Don't ask.), so I've decided I'm finally going to invest in the Camera Armor I've wanted for a while, since it's the kind of trip where my camera will probably need a little extra protection against the elements. Also, I'm getting a good camera hiking backpack, because I need something that can hold my camera AND all the crap I need to carry around on daytrips so I'm not juggling 2 bags. I've found a great camera store that seems to have really decent prices, so I'm tres excited :)
On the social front, things are definitely looking up. It always takes me a while to get adjusted to a new place, and this time was no exception. In fact, it seemed to take me a lot longer this time around, which I wasn't expecting at all. But last weekend I managed to squeeze in a shopping date with my roomie, a great Vietnemese dinner followed by a campfire in Duke Forest with a couple of new friends, and a Rosh Hashanah dinner party. And this week I realized that I literally can't walk more than 10 feet on campus without running into somebody I know and having to stop and chat for at least 5 minutes. After a month of having nobody talk to me in the hallways, it's a pretty big change. And it's nice... except for when I have 3 hours to proof the upcoming issue of the magazine and people are stopping by every few minutes to chat or ask questions about classes. THEN it gets a bit annoying. But I love it anyways! I've realized it's definitely a lot harder to make friends in grad school than it was in undergrad. We're all living off-campus, we all have our established friends back home, and many of my classmates are married or are in serious long-distance relationships and are caught up in that. When I first got here, I thought everybody was just really immature and clique-ish. I realized in the last few weeks, however, that this wasn't the case. As it turns out, other people are just as timid as I am when it comes to establishing new relationships. And now that I've recognized that, it's a lot easier to accept their timid advances as exactly that, and not as some pity-conversation. So the moral of the story is, I'm meeting new people. I'm finally getting to know these people outside of classes. And I'm finally feeling more at home here.
And the kicker? The weather is beautiful and my hair has stopped rebelling for the most part.
Yes, everything comes back to the hair :P
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