Just a Little Recap…

Well, I dropped off the face of the blog planet for a while again. Sorry about that. It’s just so hard to keep up — especially at the end of a semester. You deserve to hear what I’ve been up to though, so here’s a quick run-down of what the last month or so of my last fall semester of college had in store for me.

November was a busy but exciting month, with a couple of great trips!

-Hiking Old Rag (see Sam’s blog about it!): part beautiful autumn views, part dangerous rock scrambles, part seeing the first snow flurries of the season, and part Chipotle stop on the way home. So awesome.

-New York City! Kelley, Sam and I made an uber-spontaneous roadtrip to NYC to go see the Daily Show with Jon Stewart — an alum of the College! In about 36 hours, we: made the drive to the City (who knew that if you wake up really really early, you can be there by lunchtime!), survived me driving my Kentucky-licensed-plated car through the busiest streets of NYC in a sea of taxis, grabbed a burrito lunch and wandered for a little bit, watched a taping of the Daily Show, visited with two W&M alums now living in New York, drove along Broadway and through Times Square at night when the whole city was lit up, drove to D.C. to stay there for the night, and drove back to campus the next day in time for class. What an adventure. Let’s do it again. 🙂

After Thanksgiving ended and exams began, I managed to live through final papers and final tests, and like every year, life at the College gives you plenty of opportunities to take your mind off stressful schoolwork. The first weekend of December was Grand Illumination, where hundreds of people from across the state joined William and Mary-ers in Colonial Williamsburg to watch a great fireworks show kick off the holiday season. Then, the weekend in between exam weeks, the College gathered in the Wren Courtyard for the annual Yule Log ceremony. A favorite tradition at W&M, at Yule Log you’ll see the choir and Gentlemen of the College a cappella groups perform, the College’s creative ‘Twas the Night Before Finals, and a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas given by the College’s president dressed in full Santa Claus outfit. Then you’ll touch a piece of holly to the yule log for good luck, toss it into the Great Hall’s fireplace for a stress-free new year, and enjoy hot cider and cookies with friends on the lawn of Ancient Campus. We’re not exactly your average school. 🙂

Now that it’s winter break, it’s nice to have a break from classes and schoolwork. While I’m off for these 5 weeks, I’m excited to be filling my time with more roadtrips! I’m spending a week in Florida with my cousins right after Christmas, and then in January I’m visiting one of my best friends from high school at her school in Kentucky, two amazing fellow W&M-ers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey (before one leaves me forever for her semester abroad in Scotland this spring…sad), and two of my closest friends from my semester abroad in Athens who go to school in the Boston area! Wish me good weather on all those drives! It’s a bummer, though, to go 5 weeks away from the friends and crazy adventures that Williamsburg brings. I’m already excited to get back. 🙂

Have wonderful, relaxing breaks, and stay tuned to the blogs in the spring!