Christmas Break in Ten Minutes or Less

Oh hey there! Long time no see! Which, by the way, is a translation of a common Chinese saying, in case you were wondering.

So, it's been quite a while since I've written here, mostly because I was busy taking over Portugal with my friends, driving around the southeastern United States, and then frantically trying to get my life together in time to apply to programs for next year, get back to the UK, take an exam, make it to France for the weekend, and then come back to Oxford and start classes.

If that one sentence exhausts you, imagine how tiring it would be for me to try to walk you through it step by step. Honestly, just thinking about writing it all makes me want to take a nap. I don't even know where to start, so I'll just kick it off with this anecdote:

In a college writing class, a professor gave a strange assignment. She asked her students to write the shortest story possible, but also incorporate religion, mystery, and sex into the story. Only one story in the class got an A, and it was as follows. "Oh God, I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?"

So, moral of that story is that sometimes, less truly is more. For example, take the case of having a lot of work to do, a lot of blogging to catch up on, and a lot of social obligations that frankly sound more fun than agonizing over a computer for hours (no offense). If you're feeling put off by the lower word count, consider the thousands of proverbial words added by the copious amounts of pictures included below.

Ready, set, GO. 

First up, Portugal. We were in Faro for three days enjoying sun, beach, and lots of Moorish architecture and tile, and then we made it to Lisbon for egg tarts, castles, and the eerie realization that the hills and long bridge across the bay were eerily reminiscent of San Francisco. The only thing stranger than that was the "Bone Chapel", a small church made up entirely of cement and the remains of almost 1,300 former monks.

Then it was off to Switzerland for a night to switch airplanes and retrace my path across the Pond for a quick weekend in DC. I went to the Rhodes military dinner with Joe and our friends, saw the people who made this summer a blast, and then spent a glorious two weeks at home relaxing and doing nothing more mentally strenuous than eating and going to spin class. In a whirlwind long weekend, I visited Joe's family in Tennesee, saw my best friend Reagan and her boyfriend at a mountain house in NC, and then swung through Charlotte for New Years' Eve with my other best friend, Kelly. I then had a week to frantically apply for programs for next year and pack to head back to the UK, but I did take some time out to enjoy my sister's awesome Christmas present of a private painting class with all of the Woodlee women.

I got back to Oxford with three days to finish studying for my first exam at the big, scary, Harry Potter-esque Exam Schools. Ironically, my overwhelming concern with the carnations, sub fusc, candidate numbers, and other arcane Oxford traditions displaced my worry with the test itself, and once I was finished I had a nice weekend in France to look forward to. There was good wine, beautiful scenery, delicious food, great friends, and a bedroom formerly inhabited by Sting to boot, so it was an amazing weekend (albeit short on sleep).

So there you have it! Despite my constant lamentations about my natural verbosity, I just gave you six weeks in less than ten minutes. If it took you longer, read it again at a faster clip! :)

Teaser for this term: there will be trips to Budapest, Malta, and various parts of the United Kingdom, friends coming to visit, and more of the general Oxford ridiculousness. So y'all come back, now.