Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Papers!

The semester is wrapping up. We've been trying to find the perfect balance between study and fun. I think fun is winning out. I finished that huge paper and on the same day was assigned another paper. But, so far i have 2 papers done and a presentation (well in an hour the presentation will be done) So, i have 3 papers, 2 reaction papers, and 4 exams left. *whew* exams start next week and i have them through the 9th of june. they told us we'd be done june 4th...
Marlo made some maltese friends and so, vicariously, so have I. since she invites me everywhere they go. Which means i've been riding in cars! *yes* Last night we were going like 45 mph and i thought that was quite fast. Since i've last posted I've seen Star Wars, been to the beach a couple times, and i've done some shopping. quite a lot of shopping actually. Nothing horribly exciting or memorable. The weather here is beautiful. We all have really reall nice tans. I think i'm darker than i was at the end of the summer last year. and my hair has bleached out a lot.
We're trying to come up with plans for the summer. On the 10th I'm going to London to see my friend Stephanie (from high school) and I'll stay til the 13th. Then, i could go to Egypt with Kate (from Ohio) we found a Nile Cruise. Or i could do some traveling with Marlo. I hope to have it figured out by the end of the week. which is coming up quite fast.
I'm nervous about going home. I dont know what to expect. I've gotten so used to everything here. its hard to believe that in a few weeks i'll be able to go to Target and buy EVERYTHING i need in one stop and i'll be able to drive there in my car at any time of day. no more Malta buses. I'm excited for Wendy's, DQ, and Chipotle and crappy daytime TV. I think coming home is going to be really really weird.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Camping and Hiking

This weekend was pretty good all considered. We went to Gozo to camp on the beach on friday night. there were 11 of us. We made a fire on the beach which burned down pretty quickly. there wasnt a whole lot of wood laying around and no one thought to bring anything thing. we had a couple pieces of cardboard, a phonebook and toilet paper. that was it. but we had fire long enough to make hot dogs and smores. it got really really dark and it was SO nice. there were so many stars. it was pretty great just laying in the sand listening to the waves and looking at the stars. it was really humid and then it got really cold and we got really wet from the water in the air and when we woke up everything had beads of water on it. I dont think anyone slept very well, at 3 am we were woken up by possibly the biggest man i've seen carrying the biggest gun i've ever seen. he was going to shoot some of the smallest birds i've ever seen. they shoot sparrows with shotguns here. once the sun came back it got hot right away. walking to town from the beach was pretty cool too. Gozo is alot more rural than malta and there were bird hunters out starting fires in the bushes and hiding in their stands, kind of like walking through a war zone. there were farm fields everywhere and they were all really small fields and it was really really cool. it was beautiful. Then, saturday night we sat on the roof and watched the fireworks in Valletta. They were celebrating the one year anniversary of being accepted in to the EU and it was a tourism thing kicking off fireworks season. Sunday we went on a hike with Receptionist Ray and he got us lost and we had to climb up some pretty steep cliffs and then climb down them. unfortunatly i ran out of space on my memory card so i can't show you what we were climbing... hopefully someone else has pictures. we walked past a nude beach from waaaaay up on a cliff. everyone was pretty amused by it. then we did a little bit of swimming and then later that night we watched south park and Chris Dan and Brett left for Egypt. I hope they come back. everyone was pretty nervous considering the shootings and bombings that happened this weekend. i think they should be fine though. Inbetween all of these exciting things i've been working on a paper. i started the actual writing of it today and i got 1600 words down in just over an hour and a half. good words too. so, i'm pretty confident about it. he wants 5000 words, but i dont think thats going to happen. close, but not quite. thats like 18 pages, thats like a dissertation, and its only worth one credit back home. so there you go. thats been my life for the past few days.