Half - A - Semester Later....

SORRY FOR THE WAIT LOVELY READERS!!!

This is brought to you from MIAMI. But it has NOTHING to do with Spring Break.

It's been a crazy half a semester complete with all the highs and lows of this study-abroad programme. In many ways, this semester has been a lot easier - I'm relaxing more because I've finally taken to heart that it's the experience and not the grades that matter here (I mean... it's pass/fail right?) and there's also the small fact that I don't need to strive with all my punitive might to make friends. No, the hard part, the settling in and finding you feet, the geography and the schematics... that's all done. The Safety Net and the Ways That Be, that's all figured out. 

Of course, some things have been very different from first semester. I'm attending entirely different classes, I've fallen in love with the cutest dog ever and my local haunt seems to have been overrun by new exchange types. I do love those new exchanges though - they're all real characters, especially the Aussies and the new Weegies.... and I've finally met the renown Aiden, befriending the plethora of Irish as we go. Furthermore, things are constantly metamorphosing. Fiona and John have both moved rooms, I'm down a room mate (yup, Andrea has gone home to bonnie auld England) and Alex is shacking up with a pretty Southern Belle.

I'm only just beginning to wrap my head around some of the stuff that's happened. It feels like the only reason I'm able to step back and think is because, right now, I'm sitting in Miami, sipping a hard lemonade, the 'Allner-glow' about my pinkish skin and loving the fact that whilst some people are being strange and evasive, this holiday is looking like a wonderful time to make new friends and reacquainting myself with others.  Not only are some of the Godstowe Girls here (namely Nnesochi and Jackie Mocatta) and tonnes of girls from ADPi Miami/Florida bound - but I met the author of Eve of the Gods yesterday! It was rather wonderful, though since then I've had an interesting time with 'the voices in my head' aka nom de plume M.

Thinking about it, I almost don't want to note down the banal, day-to-day activities of Chapel Hill. I've said it once and I've said it a hundred times: UNC is a tiny, blinking light on a billboard, or maybe just a photon floating along the light pathways given off by said billboard or... I don't know - the giant bowl of Mojito is going to my head. But yes - UNC is infinitesimally puny. I miss the city. I miss big, busy, pollution-filled streets, complete with high street shops and bizarre fashionistas and the muddling crowds. I like being one in a big ocean of people, where everyone makes an effort with how they look and yet people won't comment if you're having a frizz-off with a jew-fro; where everyone acknowledges each other with glances rather than with drawn out small-talk conversations; where dinner is had with a glass of wine and no one looks askance when you buy Ben&Jerry's alongside Pinot Grigio. Chapel Hill is sweet, friendly, you could sleep in the park without fear of lunatics there - in fact, some passerby is more likely to check you into a hotel than to steal your purse - but my god, it's wonderful to be out of the rhythms that harken back to the GCSEs and IBs. What a sweet, strange, nostalgia accompanies the international student at Chapel Hill. 

So instead I'll update you on.... something else. People maybe. Spring break, certainly. But for now, I can promise I'll be back writing in the next few days.

LOVE TO YOU ALL.

Je serai poète et toi poésie,
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