That Travelled World

I'm sitting here in sunny Edinburgh (just kidding, it's cloudy.) with one more week before I head home. I'd say it's hard to believe, but we all know how quickly time slips away. Yesterday I bade farewell to my parents after a great 1.5 weeks of traveling throughout England together. Over the past few weeks I walked along the coast in Bridlington, ate Yorkshire pudding in Yorkshire, watched Big Ben strike twelve, survived a terror drive from Cambridge to York, met a University of MN student in a Chip shop in York, and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day on Arthur's Seat. Many new memories to lie among many more made this semester.

The quote at the top of my blog comes from Lord Tennyson's poem Ulysses:

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and ever when I move.

Over the course of the last five months, my own sphere of 'travelled world' has expanded. Four stamps now sit on the previous plain white pages of my passport, stamps which represent so much more than just the name of a country. Thanks to this semester, I've gained a much greater appreciation of my friends, family, and school back home, while enjoying the company of new friends and a new school here in Edinburgh.

I am a part of all that I have met, and Edinburgh is now a part of me.

Thanks for reading. I'll see you soon across the pond.  
(also I'll probably keep this blog open to write things occasionally, since I like to do that.)

Jeans and Jean Action

Jeans and Jean Action: a class studying the, ultimately revolutionary, impact of the worldwide denim craze from 1960s to present.*

Oh, wait, you mean it was GENES and Gene Action...?

I had my two hardest exams this past week - Celtic Civ + Genes and Gene Action. That means I have a nice two-and-a-half week break before my easiest, German, on May 21st. After spending the past two weeks essentially locked in my room or the library studying, my mind can barely comprehend this freedom.

It's hard to believe I head home in about three weeks, though I feel like I'm ready to go back to my friends and family in MN. A semester was the perfect amount of time to be in Edinburgh. In about an hour I'm off to the train station to begin my travels through England. I haven't had the opportunity to spend much time there, apart from my Lake District trip and homestay, so I'm really looking forward to seeing more.

I don't think I'll have the time nor the willpower for an update before I get back for my last exam, so see you in a few weeks.

Perhaps literally.  

*credit for this goes to someone else in my class