Out of the dark!

Hi all! Last I wrote, it was.... well, it was a long time ago. Can you believe it's been four and a half months?! Needless to say, I've been slacking on the blog -- one or two things have happened since February! The biggest overall news actually comes from the States. I have a new sister! Perry and Julie went to Ethiopia last week to adopt the lovely Mebrat. I can’t believe I have to wait until my visit in August to meet her! I cannot wait -- I’m so happy to have a new member of our family. My family(ies) is what you might call an ultra-modern one! Or maybe post-modern… I’ll have to think on that one. The biggest news on this side of the pond is that I applied and got accepted to the University of Edinburgh! However, love's a fickle thing, and when I also got an offer to stay on at Oxford for an MPhil, I couldn’t refuse. So essentially I am staying for a research-based continuation of my current program, meaning I get an extra 8 months or so to write a longer, better dissertation. Which should leave adequate time to put into my new posts of the rugby team’s Social Secretary (I plan the parties!) and Treasurer. On that note, anyone with amazing party theme ideas should let me steal them!
Varsity Match, 7 March, Before and After...
A rundown on life since February. Suffered an incredibly busy and stressful term (initiating my lack of communication). Played and lost the grand Cambridge vs Oxford Varsity match. Went home to Wyoming for a happy visit (got to do all the quintessential WY activities -- horseback riding, skiing, Yellowstone, Jalan Crossland show, Buckhorn Bar, hiking, driving long distances, perfect sunshine, raging blizzards, not to mention friends and family! I guess I missed climbing, but not for lack of trying (thanks Frank!)
Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, birthday shots, and Dublin Castle

Got back just in time for a Marshall trip to Northern Ireland with a stopover in Dublin (where I had my birthday!) Then essay-writing deliciousness and a class trip to Paris to present websites we designed to Bruno Latour, one of the head dudes in my field (which apparently is some blend of Science and Technology Studies, Human/Economic Geography, and Anthropology… not environmental policy as I’d once thought). That was fairly intense, reading Latour’s work all year and then showing it to him in a website! On a lighter note, it must be said, for any Lost lovers, I may have geeked out in Paris and gone to the Jules Verne Awards to see the creators of Lost given lifetime achievement awards. Plus, Kate and Ben were there! Very fun…

	Then my third term began (which sounds a little too pregnant, but there you go.) The last few months have been short on classes, but heavy on writing and studying. We had a big literature review for our dissertations and then studying for our upcoming final exams. I have three three-hour-long essay style exams, so a total of nine essays in nine hours. More on that next week after they’re done! I have been having some fun in the middle of the studying (or revising, as it’s called here) and dissertation. The most exciting bits have been a ball (yes, a ball!) that almost everyone from my course went to. Basically an opportunity to get really dressed up and eat, drink, and dance from about 8pm to 4am. Then, I went on a day-long climbing trip to the Wye Valley (right on the border between Wales and England). It was so beautiful! Big cliffs perched right up above Tintern Abbey! And the climbing was much less sketchy than the Lakes District.

Well, enough from me, for now. I’m off to write a three-hour practice exam! Kill me now!!! I miss you all, and I will really try to get posts out regularly again. Bad as the exams are, I think the worst is behind me.

Your bar-hopping, ball-bopping, rock-topping American transplant,
-Lyssa