This week was my crazy week. I had papers and creative writing portfolios due. Now I have a calm week before finals and then the semester is over. How did the semester go by so fast? What do you mean I only have two weeks left? It has come as a bit of a shock, but I'm not freaking out the way I was at the end of last semester when I was preparing to leave Spain, because while I'll be very sad to say goodbye to my housemates, :( at least I'm not leaving England. I'll be here (or in Europe) until Aug. 11.

The Greek Orthodox Easter is very different from the Western Catholic Easter celebrations. There are some similarities, like the selling of chocolate-shaped bunnies and the dying of hard boiled eggs, but when you break it down there are far more differences.

This is a story I wrote in my Writing From the Self course. Since it is a true account of something that happened to me this past February in Bath, I thought it would be something to post here in the blog.

Even though I have been in Copenhagen for nearly four months and feel very much at home here, I'm getting to learn the city all over again now that the weather is gorgeous. Everywhere I go people are sprawled out sunbathing in parks, most of which I had never even realized existed. The sun rises around 5 a.m. (or so I hear, you can be quite sure I have yet to experience this firsthand), and it's light until at least 9 p.m. Instead of hurrying around or avoiding the wind and rain of the outdoors, we now walk around all the streets with shops, sit outside cafes, and barbecue.

So today is officially my last day a Roma... my last day in Rome. Which means that this semester is over and summer vacation has begun. And that I am actually leaving Europe tomorrow to return to the (good ol') US of A. What a strange and wonderful/disconcerting concept. But, as they say, tempus fugit.

Gr�sse aus Deutschland noch einmal! Es ist endlich Fr�hling und wir haben nur Sonne die letzte zwei Woche gehabt. Hamburg Wetter, glaube ich, ist eine Woche Kreis: es ist entweder sonnig die ganze Woche oder regnerisch die ganze Woche. Und habe ich versucht, das Wetter auszunutzen.

Grüsse aus Deutschland noch einmal! Es ist endlich Frühling und wir haben nur Sonne die letzte zwei Woche gehabt. Hamburg Wetter, glaube ich, ist eine Woche Kreis: es ist entweder sonnig die ganze Woche oder regnerisch die ganze Woche. Und habe ich versucht, das Wetter auszunutzen.

Dearest blog and readers, I apologize for being MIA for almost three weeks. So much has happened and I just couldn't be bothered to write it all down. "Couldn't be bothered" is a fun Australian expression I noticed today ... or maybe it was just the person I was talking to. Anyway, I'll do my best to catch you up on the past threeish weeks, they've been fantastic!

Oh, and to any faithful blog readers: don't worry. I know that all of the other bloggers are starting to wrap things up in Europe, but I'll still be chugging along here for quite a bit longer!

Today is Sunday, May 18 - the infamous date of departure. For myself and about 20 other students, this date signifies the beginning of Bucknell in Northern Ireland. It is also graduation on campus today, so for the class of 2008, this signifies the conclusion of their time at Bucknell. Needless to say, this is a pretty big day for Bucknellians. Although the weather outside isn't exactly complementary for these events, it's gonna take a lot more than a bit of rain to distract me from what lies ahead. In fact, I'm kind of happy about the weather. EVERYONE I've talked to about Northern Ireland tells me how much it rains there, so if it were a perfectly sunny day it'd be tough saying goodbye.

So I'm officially settled into my lovely five bedroom flat, I'm beginning to get a hang of the currency and I've learned to look in the correct direction when crossing the street. These miniscule every day tasks take an enormous amount of concentration here. After living in the mods for the past year with four other girls, I'm thoroughly enjoying the single rooms we each have here. I'm getting used to pulling the string on the ceiling in order to turn the shower on, and I still am enamored by the view of the river I have from my bedroom window.

I have decided to submit my first blog entry, finally! This summer and fall I hope to take you along with me on my journeys to Khartoum, Sudan and London, England.

It's Tuesday morning in sunny California! I am looking outside my window and it's gorgeous! Memorial Day weekend flew by and my mini-vacation is slowly coming to its end. I have been home for three weeks and I leave to go to Bucknell on Sunday night to begin my Marine Biology class. I am very nervous, for some reason it feels like freshman year all over again. However, the idea of meeting new people, being at Bucknell in June (something I've never done before) and simply going to the Virgin Islands makes me feel better!

Time is passing too quickly. I now have less than a month before I leave Australia. I wish these weeks could last forever. I don't want to leave. Studying somewhere for a semester really isn't long enough. It feels like as soon as you really start to feel at home and start to make lots of random friends it is time to leave. There are so many things I still want to do, but there just isn't enough time. I have a whole string of uni assessments standing in my way. That's right, world - it's getting to be exam time.

I was fully prepared for grey skies, rain and conflict when I arrived in Northern Ireland. Two days before I left, me mum and I went shopping at the Tannersville outlets, and after dragging her around for two hours in a specific search for rain boots and a rain jacket, I managed only to find a $25 rain jacket at a store called Totes. In a frantic frenzy to find rain boots I later ventured to the Susquehanna Valley mall and purchased a pair from the Shoe Department. After spending a week and a half in Derry, I've finally decided that the stress and mere $50 I spent on these items was not worth it. Not only have we had blue skies, sun and warm weather, but every person I've encountered has been nothing but cheerful, enthusiastic and extremely welcoming. Not to mention they have complimented by beautiful accent! I've worn flip-flops more than I've worn my rain boots and the only reason I wear my rain jacket is because out of the two jackets I brought, it is the lightest.