The last few days

Greetings!

There has been PLENTY going on here, causing a very busy week and not too much sleep. This past week is revision week here. Revising, or studying, is pretty constant this week as all classes have ended and the two-week exam period begin on Monday. My one exam is on (yikes!) Monday. I've been studying here and there between seeing friends, attending a poetry event, a birthday party last night, a Christmas party tonight, a Christmas carol service yesterday and tying up the figurative 'loose ends' of the semester as we prepare for it all to end in just a couple weeks. All I can say is I'm pretty exhausted, but it's been incredible.

Creative Writing ended this week with a bonus lecture and workshop during revision week, and it's challenging to even put it into words - ironic as it's Creative Writing... - but I can say that it was an incredibly touching last lecture and workshop. While the class only met once a week for eleven weeks, the course has certainly been added to that small vault of past courses I've taken that I finish thinking, 'This was the best course I've ever taken.' The two tutors were just fabulous. The last lecture involved reflecting on the course, how we've all changed as writers, everything that has occurred, and it ended with both the tutors (who knew all of our names and our work!) thanking and saying goodbye to each of us. Perhaps it's just my present and constant somewhat-emotional state after a challenging and changing and continually evolving and symbolic year, but it definitely felt like an incredibly symbolic and bittersweet afternoon, thankfully though, I kept it together. :) I don't know where my writing will take me next. I know that next fall I'll return to journalism, or, as the department is now called, 'Media Studies, Journalism and Digital Arts' and graduate within that concentration, but I've loved creative writing more than I thought possible. Like my interests in dance, music, and visual arts, I see my future writing being a passion and forever present on the side of whatever I choose to do. I don't favor seclusion much and struggle to see myself solely writing. It's a beautiful art form that I've found here, and like the many, many ideas and experiences I feel forever indebted to Saint Michael's College for, I am forever indebted to the University of St Andrews for sparking an interest I didn't know I had and may not have found otherwise. I have two more pieces due as a final submission for Creative Writing in the next week, and as always, ideas and words and phrases and imagery are floating about my mind non-stop. I struggle most days to express everything I want to put onto paper when it comes to mind. I try to always have a tiny notebook with me and a few pens. The daily inspirations of this place, these people and these experiences continue to bring more and more to write about, both fact and fiction.

In other news, it's incredibly DARK here. All the time. So, so often. Each day grows darker and it's grown so incredibly dramatic. As of today, 1-2 pm is often when the sun disappears. 2-3 pm the light fades. 3-4 pm is getting pretty dark....and anytime after 4 pm can only be compared to the darkness of outer space. Thankfully, if my calculations are correct, it appears that when I leave St Andrews in late May 2013 the sunlight will be pushing 10-11 p.m.

Tomorrow I'll be headed to Edinburgh for what promises to be an amazing day as my lovely friend from Saint Michael's, Amanda, who is studying abroad in Spain will be visiting for the weekend! She flies in late tomorrow night and I'm headed to Edinburgh for the day with my friend Allison and then to the airport late tomorrow night. Amanda and I hope to explore some local castles this weekend and we will likely talk, a lot.

A few more images from around St Andrews the last few days are below: