Random Thoughts for Today...

The sky is black outside and it is only five o'clock in the evening. And until February twenty-first, it will only be getting darker earlier and earlier. I am sitting at a table on the third floor of the SPU library with my notebooks, textbooks, and Russian notecards scattered across the tabletop--finals week is here! 

Last night my University Seminar class went out to the Cheesecake Factory downtown, and it was lovely. Downtown Seattle is just ethereal during Christmas time. The trees are covered in lights, the street performers are delighting the ears of those who pass by with Christmas melodies, and it's just crisp and cold enough to produce rosy cheeks. I felt so delighted as my friend Avena and I walked, arm in arm, up and down the sidewalks just enjoying the night.

After the Cheesecake Factory, about eighteen of us all headed over to our mentor's house, packed like sardines in two (small) cars, which were each made to hold only five. We played a few games and just enjoyed being together. I felt/feel so blessed to be with people who I feel like I've known for a lot longer than two months. The ease I feel around them is the same ease I felt after spending five years with the same eighteen people in high school. Except I've only been with my USEM group for two months.

Being a college freshman, it can often be hard to truly connect with people and get a sense of family. Obviously, meaningful relationships take time, and being thrown into a place where no meaningful relationships have been built yet can be tough. Upon arrival, no one knows you, you know no one, and home becomes sort of a place of longing. Yet eventually, relationships begin to develop, and that feeling of having no true interpersonal relationships begins to die away. It is true that there is no place like home, but last night, I felt like I was around family. The pro's in me moving home greatly outweigh the cons, but leaving the people I am just getting to know is definitely one of the cons. It makes me sad to leave such a talented and diverse group of people, but I have a feeling that the friendships that have developed here will go beyond my stay here...

Now, I dive into the rules for making Russian nouns plural. Molitess o tom, chto ya dobitsya uspeka ve finale ne!