having finished my 16th term of college.

Today is the eleventh of December, 2009, and I am one third of the way through my last year as an undergrad. I have also submitted two thirds of my applications for grad schools. It's a little sad, and also exciting, to think that this may be my last year in Portland. I would hope that I will be back sometime (at least to visit).

This past time has been a bit hectic I feel. Since I returned from Germany, I haven't really had a whole lot of downtime. I took summer classes (for the first time), and straight away after that I started working in the lab. All the breaks I have had seem to have been too short to really be considered breaks, or I was busy doing stuff, or otherwise preoccupied. And I have a sense that once I begin on my PhD, it will be much the same for the next five years or so, and perhaps ad infinitum. I guess I'm not really complaining (of course I am really), but I do enjoy it, whether it's good or not, I find I know less and less what to do when I'm not doing something, in my free time (more and more) I find myself working, and not just relaxing, and the more I do, the faster time seems to go.

I'm not saying I'm always working, and don't know how to relax (I even started reading a book yesterday) anymore, but even with doing so many things, I don't often feel super productive, so I don't know about that. But I am REALLY glad this term is finally over. Most of my classes were fine, but American revolution (though interesting) required way to much time input (that I didn't really have the time for, or rather I needed that time for more important things). As long as I walk away with a passing grade, that's fine with me. Also, as of now, I am done with bio classes until I start my grad work. It's kind of a weird thing, it's not that I'll really get away from biology (and not that I want to either), but that I'm done with my major classes (for the important major anyway), it's a little bit of a strange thing. The end of this term also brings an end to application stuff (mostly, though the others won't take long to get finished and sent out), and after the thirteenth, I'll be done with all my GREs.

I hope everyone is enjoying the cold and the holidays!