I Promise I Didn't Forget This Existed

Hello!

I promise I didn't forget that I have this blog! It's senior year and that takes up way more time than anticipated. Although I probably should have seen that coming given how busy I've been every other year at PLU. 

Despite the fact that I haven't been blogging, I have still been doing stuff. While most of it focused on school, I also travelled a bit. But before I get to that, let's do a semester review. As of last week I am officially done with my first semester of senior year (yikes!). This means that in a little less that six months I will have graduated, something I try not to think about very much. I am officially taking a gap year next year, and I have no concrete plans for post-graduation yet but I'm sure I'll get there. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know! As for the semester, it was a doozy. The workload was intense and I don't think Microsoft word was closed on my computer for an entire semester. Besides all the schoolwork, the big change is that I am living off campus this year. I happen to be living with four of my favorite people in the world and it has been a wonderful experience! It makes a huge difference coming home to a house as opposed to a dorm room. 

We had to have family Christmas photos for the house (please admire our fan tree).

Now for the travel! I went on two trips this semester that are worth reporting on. The first was a weekend spent on Orcas Island and the second a weekend spent in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. While one was for pleasure and the other for school they were both lovely experiences. 

In October I spent a weekend on Orcas Island visiting friends that I work with in the summer. It was both incredibly different and strikingly the same being on island, and at Four Winds, during the off-season. I had a truly wonderful time and am so grateful for the time spent with friends in one of my favorite places on the planet. It was exactly the kind of mid-semester break that I needed to push through to Thanksgiving.

My last view of Orcas for the year.

I love the woods on Orcas Island.

My other big travel was going to Coeur d'Alene for a humanities conference. Three students from PLU got accepted into the Northwest Undergraduate Conference in the Humanities at North Idaho College and we drove over one weekend to present our papers. I presented on Jane Austen's Insular Radicalism (if anyone is interested I would love to talk about this subject more). I happened to be on the same panel as my friend Emma which helped me feel comfortable and confident in my presentation. It was the first conference I had ever participated in, and it was a rewarding learning experience. 

North Idaho College (these are the leaves in November which I cannot understand).

The PLU contingent, we didn't plan to match but we did anyway.

Post these trips, the only other place I've been was Alaska for Thanksgiving, which was a short break in a hectic semester. After three weeks of break-neck work at school I am back in Alaska for winter break. It's snowy, cold, and dark but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Almost all the cousins at Thanksgiving.

And who knows, maybe I'll get better at blogging soon. I won't promise anything quite yet though!

Madeline