Wow. It's been a while. I've officially been a sophomore for two days now. How strange. It's all so surreal!!! I hate this feeling that my life, the one thing I should have some measure of control over, is the most surreal thing to me! I'm currently sitting in the newspaper office listening to Death Cab waiting for Brian to finish... I finished early but don't have anything to do. It's beautiful outside and all I want to do is lay outside reading "The Time Traveler's Wife," but instead, I'm blogging. How lovely.

Finals week wasn't as bad as it was last semester, probably due to a better balance of classes. Econ final was evil, of course, but the papers situation wasn't too horrific, as I actually enjoyed writing my Spanish paper (on Real Madrid!!!) and my French lit paper. My French lit class definitely reawoke my love for literature that I didn't... forget... but I guess I tried to suppress. I think I put away the idea of majoring in English after hating English junior year, even though I adored Sawaya's class last year, but then this year, I really loved the French lit class.. Grr. Liberal arts colleges and how they make you reevaluate what you want to do! Grr! We'll see.

Anyway, before I start running away with my plans in life, I should probably recap what's been going on. All these goodbyes. I went to the ABC (a restaurant) and bid Benjamin, the French TA, farewell, which was really saddening. I wish I had gotten to know him better... I learned so many things about him just having dinner with him and I really wish I could have spent more time with him. Oh well. I guess I'll have to go to France! Ethan left Thursday after introducing Shannon and me to an AWESOME movie, "Brick," which I highly recommend to all of you. We spent Friday and Saturday packing. Jaclyn's dad came Friday morning and took us all out to lunch, which was really nice (and expensive). He's so cute!! He's my new BFF since we share a love of DIsney movies and rubber duckies (the latter is a secret.) Saying goodbye to Ethan and Jaclyn was sad, but there was nothing like bidding my beloved roommate farewell. As the taxi pulled up, Camille and Shannon piled their luggage in and then turned to hug us all, Shannon hugged everyone else first and then the two us just embraced and cried in what Jorge described as "an emotional vortex sucking out all the happiness in life." It was so sad!! I love Shannon... :( Spanish House better be amazing next year and better improve my Spanish exponentially to justify leaving my awesome roommie. I feel like I can tell Shannon so many things that I can't tell anyone else, and she makes me think of things in different ways. There's no better feeling than when we're both sitting there at our desks doing work or laying in bed falling asleep and just being able to say whatever thought comes into your head.

Eliot came shortly after to come help me move all my stuff to their attic, which was really nice of them. It was so sad taking my room apart, the concept mind-boggling and rather depressing. I don't know how I feel about the fact that I can compartamentalize my life into five boxes and it'll be like I was never there.

Anyway, Eliot drove me to his house and Heather fed me delicious, non-Val food, and then helped me, Brian, and Robert move the rest of our stuff up the Hill to Tyler, the dorm that we're staying in for the week. Definitely not a very nice dorm, especially in comparison. The showers are really gross. But that's okay. It's just for a week.

I'm currently working 10-6 days for the newspaper, which may sound bad, but it's actually not. It's really made me realize how much I love newspapers. I spent all day yesterday making a two-page spread, compiling the best stories from the whole year and summarizing them, which was rather tedious work now that I think about it, but the thought didn't cross my mind at all at the time, and before I knew it, it was 6 PM and I was done. Eight hours flew by, and I had.. not "fun," exactly, but I enjoyed it.

I'll be home on Friday! California, get ready!!