We have done it.
Tmarks the 4 month anniversary of the Virginia Monologues (which may or may not have played a part in the several hundred meaningless posts we have spammed everyone with over the last twenty four hours). Anyway over the last four months, this blog has become less excited ramblings and more hardcore addiction. We didn’t really plan for this – seriously it’s like a virtual child – but we have really enjoyed writing it so far so we hope that you have all enjoyed reading it too.
It seems so odd that we have been here almost exactly 3 months – it now seems like we have been here forever. We have seen the weather change from ridiculously hot to still ridiculously hot (for the time of year) with some strange monsoon periods in the middle; we were actually just discussing earlier how none of us have any recollection of exactly when we switched from hideously humid sticky heat to this gorgeous ‘fall’ sunshine…that first night in my sticky prison cell seems like SUCH a long time ago.
We have also read far too many books than can be healthy (I’m reading 19, 20 and 21 at the moment) and have done more work than we have ever done in our lives. Not only that, but we have also perfected our skills in procrastination and I have acquainted myself with the library and the gym for the first time in my life – not only that but I could even possibly be considered a regular at the gym? This of course is all an effort to counter the freshman (slash, exchange student) 1500 that has been consuming us all – or rather, we have been consuming it. I can’t believe we were ever excited by what Sadler had to offer (and don’t even mention the caf!) and to this day I am horrified by the sheer amount of crap we ate in Charlottesville. As well as slightly fatter, we have also probably become slightly more obnoxious, definitely more enthusiastic and maybe actually slightly more British?!
What have the best bits been so far? I think there has been so much great stuff we can’t list it all here. I think for all of us, joining sororities has been one of the best things we could have done here. It’s provided us with a social life, a great group of friends and some sort of activity to fill our time when we aren’t working so that has been great. At this point if I could take one thing from America back to England it would be that. I can easily imagine – actually look forward to – going back to life without a constant stream of work or having my own room but at this point not having Theta just seems absurd. Have to say I am also a massive fan of the frat scene, from singing Sweet Caroline and knocking down ceilings with Sig Chi (which happened again on Thursday, btw) to teaching British drinking chants to Betas and just chilling with our boys in Sig Pi. It’s a far cry from Scrabble and Guardian crosswords in the kitchen of FB200 with my medics . We cannot forget we have also met some amazing Brits here – I cannot imagine my life without the rest of Team England. I never thought coming to the USA we could become such good friends with our fellow British cousins but we have…oops! Sophie also considers the vast and copious amounts of food we have eaten a highlight although I’m not sure I agree…
Surprisingly, and I speak for all the other Brits and not just us that we have been more home/uni sick than we had probably expected. Not that we are moping around constantly by any means but there are times when the work gets ridiculous and all you want to do is eat large amounts of Dairy Milk or go to Arena (or Rococos…) and conveniently forget work. Last year I didn’t miss home AT ALL, but I think this year because you just cannot have time to yourself, you sometimes just want to be able to go home and escape the bubble of the ‘Burg. I think this goes for the natives too though…if the semesters weren’t SO FREAKING LONG life would be much easier to deal with!
That said, however suffocating campus can feel sometimes we know that we are so lucky to be here and actually as we were walking back from the gym this morning (where ABC Family was showing a Harry Potter marathon that pretty much made my life) we all spontaneously commented how gorgeous fall is here and how beautiful campus is. We are all conscious of trying not to wish our time away with “Oh my God PLEASE LET IT BE THANKSGIVING BREAK LIKE NOW” and we know we have sooooo many exciting road trip adventures to come…but we only need to think back to Orientation, and being totally overwhelmed by the Caf, and playing endless, endless ice breaker games led by people in neon green t-shirts, and turning up to our first classes totally bemused by this whole add/drop thing, to the hilarity that was the infamous Hurricane Party and then being evacuated altogether, to realise how many adventures we’ve already had and all the stories we have to bore people with for the rest of our lives…
That was deep wasn’t it? Can you tell we’re both desperate to do anything but work?!
