we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you...

...just an update, really.

I promise I'll tell you the saga of how I got from point A (Virginia) to point B (California) next time. Really, I swear. Complete with pictures of my first-born child.

Psych! I don't have a first-born child, but someone in Arkansas thought I did. Now you're really hooked, aren'tcha?

Anyway, you might have gathered, if you're up on your Facebook stalking, that I'm back in sunny ol' St. Andrews. And oh MY, what a difference a month and a half makes. The sun now rises closer to 8, and sets closer to 5:00...and we've had about a week of gorgeous, clear, cold days that just make me want to spend all my time wandering around my beautiful seaside town.

Maybe it's the sunshine, maybe it's the 6-week vacation, or the prospect of a new semester, but I feel like my whole outlook has changed. This programme is ridiculously rigorous (big surprise), but I gotta get back to enjoying it a little more than I did in the end of last semester.

In that spirit, here are some things have made the last 2 weeks, and potentially this whole semester infinitely better than late November- early December, in no particular order:

- spending an entire day watching Lord of the Rings (yes, all 3. yes, the extended editions) and eating junk food with my coursemates instead of doing work.

- playing guitar

- praying. consistently, and honestly.

- working in the English Research offices in the morning, instead of in my room at night.

- giving up on Surprise Latin (for which I was never prepared), in favor of self-taught Latin Breakfast with 2 of my medievalist buddies.

- reading 2 books for fun in the last 2 weeks. because I wasn't getting anything done between the hours of 11 pm and 2 am anyway. And also because these books are freakin' addictive.

- committing to a Zumba class with my flatmate. (We start tomorrow. I'm excited.)

- talking to my siblings on a fairly regular basis.

- realizing that I don't have it all under control. and I won't. And that's ohhhhkaaayyy.

There's more (lots more!), but that list is really getting out of hand. So I'll spare ya.

Finally (yes, finally. I know you're all begging for the end now. I gotta update more to spare you all these rambly posts)-- This week marks the three year anniversary of my very first week in St. Andrews, ever. I'm glad to know some things haven't changed, like the uncanny amount of sunshine we get here, how silly and wonderful my friends are, and the fact that I'm starting an Old Scots class next week ... but MY, in my heart, three years has made quite a difference, too. :)