Escuela.

Remember when I wrote in November saying that I felt like I was the utterly clueless kid on campus? Well I'm starting to feel like I fit in a little. Yaaaay.

Last night I found myself making tea during our break in the teacher's lounge which I never would have dared at the beginning of this grad school adventure... One of my classmates walked by and giggled, and that's when I realized that I was starting to feel that sense of entitlement that I had at Episcopal and Millsaps and even in the Chi O house. That sounds rather presumptuous of me but it's true; it's how you measure your level of comfort in a new setting. You wouldn't feel like an intruder helping yourself to a cup of tea at your best friend's house, right? It's the same thing.

Besides making myself at home in the teachers' lounge, I'm also really enjoying the people in my classes a lot more this term. The ones in Grant Writing on Mondays with me are very down to earth, easy/ outgoing people, which really shouldn't be surprising in a class about working for non-profit organizations. And the class itself is really fabulous. It's like being back in first semester Greek or Ms Cobb's senior English class where I not only liked the subject, but also the teacher and my fellow students and the actual material that we're covering on a day to day basis. My prof Adam is really really enthusiastic about grant writing and non-profits in general. He has us do all of our work in-class. There's a lot of writing: some alone, but mostly collaboratively with a small group, and then in critiquing the other groups' work. I really love it!

Today I've been so darn productive and it feels great. I moved into the single room of the flat so I have my VERY OWN PAD now. So I did a lot of rearranging and moving and decorating over the weekend, and today I woke up with an even more exaggerated spring-cleaning spirit and started attacking the entire flat. Jessica and I have made a huuuge difference in the hallway and living room today - we've made a sweet little library corner by the window, hung up more wallpaper and pictures, cleaned out under the stairs (Harry was happy about that), thrown out and recycled all the old crap that past roommates left behind... It feels GREAT.
Now that Loly and Jen N have moved out, that leaves me as the veteran of the downstairs - sweet! Josefina is a really sweet friend of Loly's from Chile who has moved into my old room and their other friend, Trini, is moving in in a week or so. Josefina says to call her "Jose," and Jessica and I have decided this will lead to a lot of corny "No way, Jose!" jokes. Hardy har.


xoxo