One Last Adventure!

I can't quite believe I'm in my very last week here in Albuquerque. All my essays have been submitted, I've completed two of my three final exams, and the reality of my year abroad coming to an end has well and truly hit home. 

But before the madness of finals and such kicked in, I managed to squeeze in one more little road trip / weekend of adventure around New Mexico with English Ashleigh, Ben and Michael. Our first stop was White Sands in the south of the state. White Sands is exactly what it says on the tin - it's completely different to the rest of the land in New Mexico, which is more grassy desert (according to Wikipedia, the science behind it is that the sand is composed of gypsum and calcium sulphate unlike most most desert sands which are composed of quarts). It's essentially miles and miles of huge, rolling dunes made of the most beautiful sand that doesn't even burn your feet because it reflects the sun's heat rather than absorbing it. If you can get past the wind and sand blowing in your face, it would be the perfect place to spend the day in a state where a real beach is at least a state away.

Seriously - it was really, really windy.

So we made it to White Sands just in time to watch the sun set over the dunes, with only one small hiccup on the way. We drove past an immigration check point, who pulled us over to check who was in the car. As three of us were British, they wanted to check our visas, but as we were staying in the state, we didn't realise we'd need them. Plus, their system was down so they couldn't look up our visas manually. Initially, we were told we'd be waiting 1-2 hours for the system to reboot, meaning we'd miss sunset (the whole reason we went), but for whatever reason - maybe the system started working, or maybe they just took pity on our little tourist selves - they let us proceed after around ten minutes. Crisis averted. 

We then faced a little bit of a trek to Carlsbad. Apparently, we drove through some areas with beautiful views, but it was pitch black, so we missed out there. We stayed in Carlsbad overnight, grabbed all we could from the complimentary breakfast (they're never great, are they?) and set off to Carlsbad Caverns the next morning. 

The thing about caverns is that they can be pretty deep underground. In the case of Carlsbad Caverns, the caves stretched 80 stories below ground level. Walking down these 80 stories is a breeze. You can take your time, stop and concentrate to appreciate the wonders around you. At the bottom of the trail down was what they called the Big Room, which was essentially a massive chamber with a looped path around the edge, and the most ridiculous natural formations in every direction you looked. Ben seemed to be particularly enthralled by the stalactites and stalagmites that were nearly touching to form columns (GCSE Geography, anyone?). They were great, don't get me wrong, but I was most intrigued by the formation that looked eerily like the female genitalia. I only took a few photos because, as Ashleigh pointed out, without the context of seeing the entire cave and its wonders in reality, they really are just a couple of photos of some rocks.

The very start of the winding path down.

Oh look, a column.

Vagina rock. Go on, tell me I'm wrong.

At the end of the trail, there is a lift that takes you back up to ground level. However, when we were there, that lift was out of order. That meant the lovely, leisurely 80-story stroll down into the caverns doubled up as a horrendous, torturous 80-story climb back up to the light of day. I nearly died.

Carlsbad Caverns are famous for their bat flights, but they take place in the evenings, so we didn't get the chance to watch that. Honestly, I'm quite glad. The idea of watching thousands of bats zoom out of a cave I'd just spent three hours in actually freaked me out a little.

Starting our drive back to Albuquerque, we stopped in Roswell for dinner. Roswell is famous for it's alleged crash-landed UFO debris discovery in 1947. I wouldn't say I was in town long enough to make an informed decision, but on first impressions, I'd say that's about all it has going for it. There were plenty of memorabilia shops (of questionable quality) full of aliens and conspiracy theory books. There was a museum, but it had closed by the time we got there. But that was the last stop of our weekend tour of New Mexico, getting back Saturday night to prepare for the last week of classes.

There are still a couple of things here I know I won't have time to do that I really should have done by now (I can't actually believe I haven't been up the Sandia mountains - I have failed this city), but I'm still glad I was able to fit in one last trip before I left. I'm so grateful I've been able to have experiences like this, from touring the state, to touring most of the South West. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to get home, but I'll be coming home with a new-found desire to get out and see the world.

Semester Two So Far!

What's this? A blog post?

I knew I'd do this. It's been four months since I last posted anything. Oops.

But this leaves me with a lot to catch up on! This semester has felt very different to the last. Last semester, I was in every day of the week with an early start. This semester, I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm sad to say this hasn't done a great deal to help motivate me. As much as I hated the early mornings last year, I could definitely do with a little more structure back in my life.

My classes for this semester are Human Rights in 20th Century Latin America, Race and Class in American Film, Military History of the U.S., and 20th Century Russian History. It's quite naturally a history orientated semester for me with varying levels of enjoyment (military history is on the verge of being the cause of sudden and violent hair loss), but on the whole, they're not too bad at all.

For some reason, I seem to have so much more reading this time around. My poor heart (and bank account) wept when I received the list of books I had to buy at the start of the semester. Much to my dismay, quite a few of them aren't even stocked at the library, so I actually had to buy them. This is something I will not miss on my return to the UK university system. 

With the boring business out of the way, I'll move on to what was undoubtedly the highlight of this semester: Sprink Break in Cancún.

 I wasn't actually supposed to go on this trip because I absolutely couldn't afford it. How I ended up with a plane ticket isn't necessarily a story I'm proud of (don't drink and buy plane tickets online, kids), but I'm so happy it actually happened. I was apprehensive for a long while - I was worried it was all going to be too much and I'd be an anxious, crowd-conscious mess and spoil everybody's fun. It turned out to be a much more chilled out trip than I expected it to be, which I'm glad of. Of course we went out and did the only thing to do of an evening in Cancún, but the days were spent laying by the pool or swimming in the sea in a hungover bubble of bliss. The sea was a little bit fiesty - I'm quite sure English Ashleigh nearly died in those waves a good few times. But once you got over the enormous, human-engulfing waves and took a step back to admire the view, it really was stunning. I'd love to go back - three nights is nowhere near enough to enjoy the full Cancún experience. My only regret is that we couldn't stay longer.

We got back to Albuquerque to be met with a friend of English Ashleigh's from Swansea, Will. While he was with us, I managed a trip to Old Town Albuquerque. It's a short, twenty-minute bus ride away and it really is beautiful. I'm almost annoyed we hadn't ventured down there sooner. 

Since then, life at UNM has been somewhat uneventful for me, but I'm okay with that. With only a few weeks left, I plan on cramming as much as possible into my remaining time here. There is still so much I haven't done, so I'm hoping I'll find the time to fit it all in. The inevitable mix of emotions is also starting to hit with the realisation of how soon I'll be on my way home. On the one hand, I'm so excited to get back to the people I love, but at the same time, I'm going to miss so much here. I wish I could bring everyone and everything I love over to me for another month or two so I can enjoy a little more of New Mexico (especially the weather - I know you're all jealous of the weather). But that's not how it's to be, and the reality of that is hitting hard.

Endnote: I hereby promise to make at least two more posts before the year is out.