the long absence

Hey Everybody!

I'm back. So that this blog is broken up into readable chunks and in proper chronological order, please scroll down for entries covering the events of the past 3 weeks, they will be popping up in the near future. And now I shall explain why I haven't updated lately. As soon as I got back from the Highlands, I found out that my grandpa was in the hospital, and he had been there for the last 5 days, and they still didn't know what was wrong with him. For the next few days, I was really off-kilter, and so I was doing anything and everything to keep my mind off of it, but I kept coming back to how worried I was. I'm so glad that I have made a really tight network of friends here, and that my flatmates are so awesome, because I was having a really hard time for a few days, and if there hadn't been people here who I knew were there for me, I think I would have broken down a lot more.

I don't think I can leave this out of my blog, because it has really affected my experience here. Not in a bad, or a good way, but in an "oh, maybe I actually do miss being home a little bit," sort of way. I hadn't really thought about home at all, or been homesick since the first few days after I left Barrington, but I can tell you that it's been one of the hardest things in my life to be so far away from the people I love at a difficult time in our lives, and to be entirely out of control of the situation. The doctors couldn't figure out what was happening, and my mom was reliant on my aunts for information, so I was really, really out of the loop. Mom and Matt went out to see him, and I guess things weren't looking so good, but miraculously, he made a full recovery, and after I think, a week and a half (?) he was back at home. So, there you have it, my grandpa is a medical miracle (and a medical mystery worthy of Dr. House, apparently)! When I heard he was out of the hospital, I don't think I have ever been so relieved in my life.

In the midst of all this, I was starting to panic about a) my essays that are due in a few weeks and b) registration at Minnesota. Every semester I have a huge and paralyzing freakout concerning which classes I will take, and this time it was possibly worse, considering that I have only 3 more semesters left at Minnesota, and a lot of stuff to fit into that time. Scheduling karma is not kind to me, so I had to scrap a lot of my original plans in order to take things that count to my major. I think I'm okay with it now, but it was not a pleasant couple of days. Here's the kicker... I don't even register til 11/11, so I guarantee I'll probably change my mind at least 3 more times before then, and probably a few times after.

I am not too worried about my essays... I'm pretty confident in my abilities to crank them out. I just get so many thoughts running around my head when I'm researching, that it's really hard to organize everything, or even to sit down and read one thing without jumping around to a million other books. I'm pretty sure I have severe ADD, but I've been able to beat it for a long time, I don't see why now would be any different.

Okay- time for class. Remember to keep scrolling down for more updates, because they will be coming! Here's a preview: horrible field trip, the Classics Society, Edinburgh weather, classes, the visit of my (paternal) grandparents, and future travel plans! As of 28/10 at 9:46 AM CST, there is one entry below this, and it contains links to some photo albums.