It's Crunch Time (Reprise)

It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year: the last month of the semester!  While it has been hectic academically, some other wonderful—and not-so-wonderful—things have also happened since I last posted.  But never mind the not-so-wonderful things...let's talk about the wonderful things!  And I would much love to take a break from my British Literature paper on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (bleh) to write about them!

(I’m actually posting this from an open Mac desktop in Torgersen Bridge since my own Mac laptop is out of commission for the time being.  Awesome, I know.)

Easter fell over the first full weekend in April this year.  My friend Ben is from Charlottesville, and he invited several of us to stay with him for the weekend!  It was lovely!  He showed us around downtown Charlottesville, where we munched on some of the best bagels I’ve ever had, and got to glance around the UVA campus.  We also had our annual Easter cookout at his house, which consisted of burgers, grilled veggies, fruit and cheese, and cookies.  On Sunday morning, my friend Katya and I found a local Presbyterian church to attend Easter service.    While we were there, I ran into a girl I knew from middle school when I lived in Atlanta!  We had not seen each other in nearly six years!  How crazy is that?  It really is a small world!  I was sad to leave Charlottesville and return to the real world back at school, but it was wonderful to take a break and get away for a day or two.  Thanks, Ben!

This year marked the five-year anniversary of the April 16^th shootings of 2007.  Every year, special memorial events are held, but this year seemed extra-special.  My two favourite events are the 3.2 Run for 32 and the Community Picnic on the Drillfield.  The run was an amazing experience.  Participants are given maroon and orange balloons, and a select few are given 32 white balloons to represent the 32 students and professors lost in the shootings.  Just before the race begins, the 32 white balloons are released, followed by 32 seconds of silence; the maroon and orange balloons are released next, and then the race begins.  Some people ran it competitively, but I chose to take my time, pace myself, and relax.  I met three really nice girls who let me run with them, too.  It was definitely more fun and rewarding that way! 

The same weekend, we went back to explore the hiking trail and abandoned farm property behind our Big Event site.  Jon is into photography, so he brought along his fancy DSLR camera to snap some landscape shots and try some portraits.  I brought along my guitar just for fun, too.  It was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a lovely sunny day.  Here are some of Jon’s awesome pictures from our adventure:

One of the old farm buildings

The trail going around the buildings

One of Jon's fantastic portraits of me with my guitar!

Lovely view of Brush Mountain! 

                                                                 

My 'Sound of Music' moment

I absolutely adore this shot.  So cool!  Love my friends!

After our adventure, we stopped at Firehouse Subs for a quick lunch.  I had never been to Firehouse before, but had heard nothing but good things about it, so I was super excited to try it.  My sandwich was delicious, but I was way more excited about their massive Coke machine!  Holy oh my goodness!  That thing is magical!  126 different coke and flavor combinations in ONE MACHINE!  I was pleased with my Vanilla Coke Zero.  I’ll have to go back and explore the rest of the flavours.  I’m convinced you could spend an hour just doing that!

Last but certainly not least, this past weekend Virginia Tech held its annual Relay For Life!  It is the largest Relay event in the nation!  My team of five people raised nearly $630 just by ourselves, and VT as a whole raised nearly $565,000 toward the fight against cancer.  How amazing is that?  I really, really, really love my school.  There were lots of little events throughout the night like “Minute to Win It” games, themed races, Ultimate Frisbee, and things like that, but my team spent most of the night chillin’ at our own campsite playing board games and eating the delicious food provided at Relay.  It was a long night, and I felt kind of sick the next morning, but it was totally worth it.  I’m already looking forward to Relay 2013!

And so ends this obnoxiously long post.  I probably will not post again until I am back in PA for the summer, unless something magical happens and I get a free minute to write during finals week.  But until then, happy studying, happy life, and always remember to smile!