So... I have about 5,000 words to write for class before next week. Yet here I am, sitting in the library blogging. I'm really good at this school thing. :)
The last few weeks have definitely been crazy, to say the least. The weather got nice and like it always happens, we started spending all of our time outside. So far we have had two barbecues and a picnic over the last few weeks. We are big fans of buying the cheap disposable barbecue from the pound store and then loading up on picnic type food. Meat, burgers, crisps, chocolate and of course alcohol. Then we pack everything up and head to wherever we have decided to cook on the particular day. It's been amusing, to say the least, watching a group of British boys trying to light a disposable barbecue in the wind. One of my favourite days happened last week. I got a text off Jo in the early afternoon asking if I wanted to walk to Main Arts with her to turn in a paper. After getting everything turned in, we decided to hit up Morrisons and buy some food. It was just too nice of a day to not sit outside and enjoy the weather with a little picnic. 20 quid worth of snack food and alcohol later, we were sitting outside J Block enjoying the delicious sunshine. We called everyone that we thought would be available and we even convinced Lewis to bring his acoustic guitar over. We sat outside for hours and hours and only packed up the picnic after the sun went down and we couldn't stand the chill any more. That weekend we headed up to Roman Camp for yet another barbecue, and I'm predicting several more before the end of term with how nice the weather has been. :)
On a note a little more related to my course and what I want to do with my life, I can now say that I have met, shook hands with and talked to a famous and well published linguist. Bangor brought David Crystal to campus last week to do a series of talks on everything linguistics related. I went to three of his four talks (mostly because I couldn't be bothered to be up and at the lecture hall for 9am) and it was such an informative day! Language in the first year of life, Life as a linguist, and Language Death. All three of the talks were very interesting and I feel like I learned a lot and I have plenty to think about now. The second talk of the day, life as a linguist, was one that I feel I needed to hear. I love linguistics, but I have no idea what I want to do with my life at this point, so hearing this talk and hearing the adventures and things that Professor Crystal has gotten to have in his career has reminded me why I was attracted to this field of study. I bought his autobiography (around which this talk was based) and I got to have my nerdy linguistics moment when he signed my copy of the book. When I have more time and less essays to write, I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading it. The last talk of the day, on language death was interesting as well. I did a final research paper for Purnell last year on language death, so I had done quite a bit of background research on the topic prior to hearing Crystal's speech. As he started talking though, I was thinking that his ideas sounded oddly familiar, and seemed to follow the gist of what I had written about in that paper. I checked my Central folder on my computer when I got home and I found out why. David Crystal had been my main source when I wrote that paper, and here he was, standing in front of me explaining his ideas in real life. I'm just saying, it was a fantastic day and I'm so happy to have gotten the opportunity to hear Professor Crystal speak at Bangor. We definitely don't get those sorts of opportunities at Central every day!
So besides trying to get through these three essays and still have time to hang out with everyone and enjoy the weather (the second option may be getting more of my attention at this point...), we are getting sooooo close to Easter Break! We get a full three weeks off from the university, and I'm getting excited. I think for the first week I will head over to Granada, Spain and see the study abroad students there and then the second week, Shireen and I are going to Italy!!! :) Tickets are booked, hostels are reserved, money is changed over to Euros, and now all we have to do is pack and get on the plane. A week wandering around Rome, Florence, Venice and Naples with Shireen is sounding pretty awesome at the moment. :) For the last week of break it's probably going to be pretty chill. I have a paper due soon after Easter and so I will probably need a few days to actually get to work on that... and I may head down to London for a day or two to see Jason and the Central students there. I really like this three weeks off business, and I'm thinking that we should adopt it back at home. One week just doesn't seem like enough time to fully enjoy a break from school. ;)
After Easter though, I know that time is slowly running out until I have to catch a plane and head back to America. I'm still not ready to leave yet, and I know that when we get back to Bangor and into exams after all of our travels that it will start to hit me how little time I have left. But for now, I'm not thinking about it. I'm going to focus on school, picnics, Italy!, and just enjoying the time we have left in Bangor.
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