Time Started Flying

It’s time for some (hopefully) brief recaps of the second half of last semester.

In November school eventually got busy, and time was suddenly running out. From not being great at updating my blog, I went to worse. Or, I went to a full stop. Getting better at this is not one of my new year’s resolutions, I’m realistic.

Anyways, continuing where I left of, November came and went by quickly! Besides more intense school work, we also realized that our time together in D.C. would be over in no time. Therefor, running back and forth between classes, pubs, speakers and travelling became our habit.

Shenandoah, Take Two.

First of all, we planned our second trip to Shenandoah National Park. The Shenandoah Revival Trip included 19 people, including AU students and friends of friends. This time we had school deadlines coming up, and we decided to stay for two nights in the big house in Massanutten, just relaxing, making good food, and hopefully get some hours of good work done.

Campus Life

Back at campus in Tenleytown we spent time playing poker, watching bad movies and having bad beer at the Dancing Crab. It felt like everyone needed to be as social as possible, and every night ended in making plans for the next day. I recognice this feeling from my year at a ‘folk high school’ in Norway: believing that sleeping is overrated, and only wanting to hang out. Which eventually becomes exhausting. Though, we created a lot of good memories these weeks!

Thanksgiving

The end of November is the beginning of the holiday season, and thanksgiving serves as the kick-off! After handing in our first research paper draft we had a week to travel, relax and celebrate! Henrik, Tori and I got on a plane to Chicago, Illinois, as soon as internship was over on Friday, November 18. In Chicago we stayed with Andrew and Meryl, who showed us downtown, good vintage shopping, cozy cafés, Willis Tower, an arcade museum, a micro brewery restaurant and a great time! On Monday we had a flight to Boston, Massachusetts. With Chicago being the windy city due to the lack of any kind of hills or mountains anywhere around, Boston made quite a different impression. With tiny cobblestone alleys, seafood and “historical” sights this city won me over. And that’s an achievement after our three days in Chicago. Boston, besides being a charming city, holds a lot of American history. After studying American politics and history, it was exciting to see the places where a lot of these things happened, all from rebelling against British rule to initiating the American government (that is frustrating us today). Boston is also the home of two famous universities which we visited; Harward and MIT. We met our good friend and classmate, Amanda, and I had the famous New England’s ‘Clam Chowder’ for dinner. On Wednesday we were picked up by Jenny, also an AU student, Erik flew in from D.C. and we all went to Jenny’s home in Providence, Rhode Island, to celebrate Thanksgiving. Besides eating too much turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie and I could go on forever, Jenny showed us Brown University, Prospect Terrace Park and Providence State House which has the world’s second largest unsupported marble dome, or something like that. Our last stop this time was New York City. Erik, Henrik, Tori and I took a bus from Providence, and settled in a hostel in Brooklyn, New York. We enjoyed the sunset in Williamsburg, looking over towards Manhattan, and went on to Brooklyn Brewery for some good beer. In Manhattan we all had different preferences, so we split up! I went to Central Park, Madison Square and Grand Central Station before I met Tori in Chelsea and walked the High Line up to Times Square. We saw the musical “Memphis” on Broadway. The last day we visited Colombia University, Morningside Park and Central Park, again. I’ll never get enough of Central Park.