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.
