And Breathe.

My life in the past week can be summed up in one word: hectic. I had a doctor's appointment Monday morning, and have been going non-stop since then. As always, professors here really seem to enjoy stacking due dates on top of each other, and loading us up with work right before the Easter holidays. Outside of classes, Monday - Wednesday was spent in the studio and the darkroom finishing up the portraiture project in photography, and Thursday was spent writing an entire assignment for financial reporting. What surprised me most was the lack of stress I had -- usually when I let things pile up at the last minute, I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But this time was different. Even though I had a huge workload ahead of me, I wasn't really worried about it at all. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I need only pass these classes for them to transfer back home, so I won't freak out if I don't get an A+ on my assignments.

I'm telling you, I feel like these English students have it sooo easy. First off, they only have a couple of assignments per class, so they don't have to worry about weekly assessments and projects to turn in. While I'm in class, I'm taking notes and writing down as much as I can -- I glance around and notice that 90% of the other students are just sitting there, eyes slightly glazed over, and only picking up a pencil to sign their name on the register for attendance. Professors put all of their lecture slides online, with notes already included (some of them even print them off to give to every student in the class). So if you have a really awful professor (as is the case with 2/3 of my classes), you don't have to show up at all. Simply check online for the assignment due dates and powerpoint slides, and never step foot in the classroom. Pop quizzes simply don't exist. The English schooling system sets it up so that students only go to uni for three years, as opposed to our four-year colleges at home. And, to top it all off, the first year doesn't even matter; only the grades from the last two years of uni will go on their CV as I understand it. It'll definitely be interesting getting re-adjusted once I get back to App.

As for now, it is officially spring break and I am loving it! I've done absolutely nothing for the past few days and it's SO nice to just be able to breathe. We have a three-week Easter holiday, which I can already tell will definitely spoil me. I still have one more assignment to get done before Thursday, but again I'm not worried about it at all. The rest of my break will be filled with lots of traveling and taking pictures: I'm headed down to London for 5 days later this week, and then I'm meeting up with Katie to do a quick Euro-trip the second half of the break. We'll be hitting up Barcelona/Girona in Spain, Paris in France, and Pisa/Rome in Italy in an 8-day span. I'M SO EXCITED! The only thing that won't be fun is fitting 8 days worth of stuff into a carry-on that's only slightly larger than my bookbag. We'll make it work though! I am so so blessed to be here, and I am so looking forward to the rest of my travels. Thursday can't get here soon enough :)