Mmm, Finals, End of Year, all that Stuff

Alas. I have arrived at the end of another beautiful academic year. Yes, dear reader, next year, I will officially be a JUNIOR and proud of it! Things I am looking forward to:

• Studying abroad in Bath, England
• Traveling a lot while abroad
• Living in an apartment with two of my favorite people: KJo and Sadie
• Junior Ring Week (we'll see how this one turns out...)
• Rings!
• Being done with almost all my Gen Eds (argh French, one more semester)
• New freshman, not that I'm tired of the old ones but it is time for some fresh ones
• Seeing what happens with the BCM and hopefully being instrumental in the changes that are coming
• Opportunities for future classes with Rafferty, Lorentzen, Harding, and McAllister (yes, I am an English geek)
• Autumn in Bath
• Spring at UMW
• Writing many letters and sending many postcards to friends back home (I'm so going to be broke from postage costs!)
• Receiving letters from friends back home!
• Going to see live soccer matches in England
• Exploring the places where J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling and Shakespeare and Jane Austen walked and...wrote (the geek has reappeared)
• Talking to friends on skype
• Growing in my relationship with Christ and learning more about Him and how He pervades my life.

So I guess this post hasn't really been about finals-- I got distracted. Instead of spending this time to reflect on the past few months, I look forward to the futures and all the possibilities therein.

My address in Bath is...
Claire Cecil
c/o Advanced Studies in England,
Nelson House
2 Pierrepont Street
Bath BA1 1LB, England

The Importance of Being...Studious?

Where to begin? I really don't like to complain, mainly because I can't stand hearing others complain but (and I know this doesn't justify complaining here but--) why does it have to be so darn beautiful the weekend before final exams?!?

Even as I sit here desperately trying to work, hence the blogging, I can't help but look out the window that my desk faces at the idyllic scene. I've found myself using that word quite frequently of late: "oh look at that idyllic spot over there," I said yesterday to my friend Liz. Apparently, I did not notice the little colored landscaping markers that also dotted the scene which she so kindly pointed out to me. I only saw the dappled light streaming through the branches onto the verdant green grass and the blossoms on the trees undulating in the breeze. I try not to notice all the scantily clad young women who trounce around out campus in bikini's. Bikini's, for crying out loud! The only way to show more flesh is to be naked.

So yesterday I did approximately no work. Sometimes I pretended to do work which counts for some individuals. But now, I am at a point where I need to study...for French. French is a language that I actually enjoy learning about and there are some aspects of its grammar that I find fun but I do not enjoy being tested on it. Tests imply that you know every nuance of every grammatical exception which I find hard to cram into my brain. Hence the studying. And the blogging.

I saw The Importance of Being Earnest for the first time the other day and I can't think of many other movies that have made me laugh that hard! I really want to read the play now...no, must focus! Anyways, I brought that up so I could preface the clever quote from that movie and include it in my blog:
"Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."

[and one more for kicks]
Jack: Good heavens, I suppose a man may eat his own muffins in his own garden.
Algy: But you have just said it was perfectly heartless to eat muffins!
Jack: I said it was perfectly heartless of YOU under the circumstances. That is a very different thing.
Algy: That may be, but the muffins are the same!