After having been home for Thanksgiving break, I really miss home now that I am back at school, even though we have only two weeks of classes and then finals before Christmas break. It seems really crazy to me that I am almost done with my first semester in college already! It has gone by really fast, looking back. I am a little nervous about finals, but I think I am doing well in all my classes, so hopefully the tests will be okay too. I know I need to study a lot for the Calculus final, and I’m not looking forward to that. But my goal is not to procrastinate! We’ll see how that goes.
Linfield is all decked out now with lights on one of the trees on the Renshaw lawn, which also has three camel statues next to it. It makes me really excited for Christmas, although everyone has to be extremely carefully passing under the mistletoe now attached to the hallway entrance in Hewitt Hall. I’m looking forward to more festivities such as hall decorating. My neighbor already stuck a small fake tree in the hall outside her door, but today I overheard our RA telling her that facilities demands she remove it. This is a little depressing, but that’s the way it goes. A bunch of people also really wish we were allowed to have Christmas lights. Cut out snowflakes and paper chains will have to suffice as far as decorations go. It’s too bad the rules are a little strict, but I guess they are there for good reason. After Halloween we had to take down all our decorations in the lounge the next day. It doesn’t seem like it would matter if we left them up just a little longer. Oh well.
Swimming continues to go well, although I’m not going as fast as I would like to be going. I’ve made a lot of really good friends on the team and we spend a lot of time together. The weekend before finals apparently the team will have a white elephant gift exchange and a formal dinner, which I hear from upper classmen is a very fun tradition. I have settled into a routine that includes a number of solid naps during the week to make up for the lack of sleep imposed by morning workouts at 6:00. I never used to nap at home but I really enjoy it now and I am getting better at falling asleep during the day but not sleeping the entire day!
I am extremely sick of Dillin food but when I was home I heard some college food horror stories from family friends that made me feel very thankful that there are never any snails in the salad greens. I am also so thankful that the food is already made and waiting for us after swim practice. I am just so thankful to be here, even though I miss my family and my pets, because I love it here. I am beginning to be really excited now for January and spring semester and the classes I am registered for. I am also excited to not be perpetually confused in Calculus any longer, and I think I will try to get a job next term!