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. 

Filling In The Gaps

So let’s talk about how I’m four weeks away from finals.

How the hell did that happen? How could I possibly be drawing to the end of my first term at UNM? Can we all slow down for five minutes please? I’ve hyped this year up since Year 13 and now you’re telling me it’s nearly half-way over?

This means I have four weeks to whack out two response papers, one essay and two final projects, on top of studying for finals. Well, this should be fun.

But it’s not just the current looming work load that’s making me want to slow time down. It’s also the fact that I’m having a bloody good time here. Even when I’m sat in my room doing nothing, I feel like I’m doing something or achieving something, because I’m doing it 4000 miles from home. This is flawed logic, I am aware. But it’s just because I’m enjoying it.

One monumental weekend of enjoyment I never got around to writing a post about was the Fall Break road trip I went on. I’m annoyed that I never got around to it, but all of the photos are on Facebook so family and friends at home could deduct how much of an INCREDIBLE time I had. But for the sake of writing it down and remembering it, here’s the lo-down of the trip.

A few of us couldn’t leave until late in the day because we had a mid-term that finished at 6:30pm on the day we were leaving. This meant we didn’t arrive at our first stop in Utah until pretty late. Bright and early the next morning, we set off for Monument Valley. Here, I saw some of the coolest natural sights there arguably is to see on Earth. I also obtained the memory of hanging out of a car window with three other people driving around the Valley, sun shining down on us, singing Elton John obnoxiously loudly. I will genuinely (or certainly hope I will) never forget that experience for as long as I live. It’s borderline embarrassing thinking about how cool we felt.

Bryan and Ashleigh feeling a lot cooler than they are

The next stop was the Antelope Canyon in Arizona. Without the tour guide, I’m not sure this sight would have been worth the $40 we paid for it, because without them, we wouldn’t know how to appreciate. It’s essentially a place to take really, really cool photographs, and the guide showed you where and how to take them. It reminded me of the cave in Little Mermaid where she hoards all her human clutter, only this place was clutter-free. From there, we stopped briefly to watch the sun set at the Horseshoe Bend. This sight was delightfully free and slightly overwhelming. We were (very) high up, and it was difficult to tell how far down the water was, let alone how deep it was. The sight itself was so enormous, no camera in our possession really did it justice. Still, we all tried our best.

Horseshoe Bend - maybe the most underrated but brilliant sights of the tip

 The next day, we headed to Zion National Park, Utah. It was beautiful, and what started as us driving through quickly to attempt the hiking trail turned into us stopping so many times along the way to take pictures and admire it, that we didn’t actually have time to hike. We weren’t too disappointed though, because from there, we began the drive to Las Vegas. Poor us.

I say this wholeheartedly: everybody in the world should get the opportunity to experience Vegas at least once. Half of us were under 21, but the group decided to stick together regardless, and we had a brilliant time. Some of the sights to see are incredible. The hotels are stunning. They have this way of making you feel very fancy, but at the same time, remind you of how woefully poor you are. One day, when I’m mysteriously rich, I’m going back and I’m staying at the Mandalay Bay hotel and I’m going to love it. I can hardly complain about the hotel we were at, though, which was Circus Circus. You couldn’t get bored there, that’s for sure. We had to tackle the strip in two halves, experiencing one half in the night with the mania and the lights, and the other in the day. It was no less manic, but everything seemed to make sense, as if we were seeing a behind the scenes of Night Time Las Vegas. We also rode the New York rollercoaster, which was fun, if a little rough (especially with a tiny little hangover).

Leaving Vegas almost a whole day later than planned, we drove to our motel in Flagstaff (two days after the university shooting there – scary stuff, I spoke to a Swansea Uni students there this year, all was okay if a little shaken) ready for the drive to the Grand Canyon the next day. The Grand Canyon was exactly what you’d expect it to be. Really, really, really big. It was so big, it was almost like an optical illusion. You have no idea which layer of rock is the bottom one when looking down. It really was breath-taking.

So all of that, followed by a very long drive back to Albuquerque in a car full of very tired students, concluded my Fall Break trip. At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was nothing less than unforgettable.

Flash forward a few weeks. The only real social event that’s happened since the trip is, of course, Halloween. I’d heard a lot of hype about American Halloween, it’s pretty well known that it’s a much bigger deal here than it is at home. Unfortunately, I didn’t really experience too much of it. I know there were plenty of parties and I’m told I missed some pretty good costumes but for a few reasons including lack of motivation/funds to buy an awesome costume, and me being a socially anxious so-and-so, I decided to stay on campus and spend it with the trusty bunch in my building. I’m slightly bothered by the fact I didn’t pull up my socks and go to a big party, but in honesty, I couldn’t have seen it going well for me.

I also attended my first drag show last night, which was an experience. It was basically a drag lip sync battle, but I rolled with it. It was very entertaining, I’ve got to give them that. It won’t be my last.

Okay, so this post essentially turned into a delayed Fall Break post with a few other things thrown in, but I feel like I needed to fill in the gaps. I can't see me having a great deal to share over the next few weeks other than my Thanksgiving experience - that should get its own post. 

Note to self - don't slack on this thing again. You'll want to read all of this back in a few years.

Giving Sports a Go

Anybody who knows me will know that I'm really don't have much time for any sport that isn't rugby. But when in Rome, I thought, I might as well give Roman sports a shot. But I'm not in Rome - I'm in America. So I went to see a baseball game and, of course, the Lobo's first football game of the season. Mixed reviews.

Isotopes Stadium

Two Sundays ago, I went to see the Albuquerque Isotopes play the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. It was the last game of the baseball season, so I figured I should go to at least one game while I had the chance. Now, I'll admit it - I didn't have particularly high hopes. Everyone I knew who had watched baseball before told me it was really boring. The premise of the game, after all, isn't the most exciting. Hit the ball, run around the bases, the end.  I have to say though, I actually really enjoyed it. It might have dragged on a little, but there was so much happening in the stadium between plays, it wasn't hard to keep yourself from feeling bored. I'll admit that I got a little distracted from the game towards the end, but I still enjoyed myself. Also, the Isotopes lost, but they did put on a fireworks display to make up for it. I am a sucker for a good fireworks display.

           

The following Saturday was the UNM Lobos first football game of the season against Mississippi Valley State. Luckily, we actually won this one, 66-0. Even though that's a pretty impressive win, I really don't have much to say about it. I'll be honest, we got a little caught up pre-game tradition (let's call it that, I'm not getting myself into trouble!) and actually ended up missing most of the first half. We also left early to get a head start on post-game tradition. So well done Lobos - sorry I didn't offer a little more school spirit! I've seen American football before, though, so I kind of knew what I was missing. 

Engaging in 'tradition' may or may not have hindered my ability to take as many photos as I'd have liked to, but here's a low quality snapchat picture of the Lobos stadium, and another of Ashleigh and I sporting the Lobos' colours.

Over the next few weeks, I'll actually get to enjoy my kind of sport now that the Rugby World Cup is almost upon us. Despite recent tragedies in the Welsh team (I don't want to talk about it), all three of us Welsh here at UNM plan to watch as many games as we time zones will let us together and hope for the best. You never know, Wales could surprise us.