For my last blog post of the academic year, I’ve prepared a pop quiz.
Question 1:
I am…
-
- back from term 4 in Spain
- halfway through college
- grateful to Wellesley for bringing us back to campus this year
- excited for the summer
- all of the above 🙂
I flew home on Friday after a day and a half in Málaga. We were in the city for the one rainy day on the 10-day forecast. I had a good time looking at Picasso paintings, walking (hiking) up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro (it was so steep and so slippery), and touching the Mediterranean. And then I was ready to come home.
The Mediter-rain-ian!
Hiding from the rain at Gibralfaro Castle
Claire and Amy ahead of me on the hill
The flight from Paris to Boston went about as well as a transatlantic flight can go, since I had my own row. There were at least twelve empty rows on that flight. I kept falling asleep and waking up to one or two friendly flight attendants looking over me, asking if I’d ordered a vegan meal (yes) and telling me to buckle my seatbelt (I was lying across all three seats).
I got my second vaccine dose on the way home from the airport. I was tired and a tiny bit achy the next day; I got off easy. Over the weekend, I’ve been unpacking and tidying up, running familiar routes, and snuggling with my dog. It’s good to be home (even though this has to be the worst Memorial Day weekend weather on record: 50-ish and rainy for three days straight). Yesterday I got coffee with a Wellesley friend who I probably won’t see for over a year, since she’s going abroad in the fall and I’m planning to go abroad next spring. It was lovely.
After I turned in my last assignments in Spain, I realized that I am officially halfway through my college career. It’s unbelievable. Seniors always say that time flies, and I believe them, but especially during a pandemic… many of my friends and I feel like we’ve never moved on from March 2020. To think that I’ll be a junior in the fall is insane. I still haven’t had a full spring at Wellesley.
I’m so grateful to Wellesley for bringing me back to campus this year and for sending me to Spain this spring. Life on campus was not normal, but in a lot of ways, it was fun: eating with friends (but at separate tables), playing guitar out on the quad, attending in-person classes in nontraditional classrooms. The college administration really pulled it off: a year with over a thousand on-campus students during a pandemic, while keeping covid cases down to the dozens. I’m so glad I got to be living with friends and learning with my professors, rather than being tucked away in my room at home.
Massachusetts undergoes a fantastic transformation throughout the month of May, and I was bummed to miss it this year: everything turns green. Outside is green and lush and beautiful right now. Over the next three months, I’m excited to hang out with friends who live nearby (including some who are spending the summer at Wellesley), get back into cooking and longer distance running, and read as much as I can.
Green!