Reflections on the Summer Term

The summer term was definitely a roller coaster, with so many things going on and dealing with my mixed emotions over leaving.  We had a 6 week break between the spring and summer terms, so it was definitely a high to see everyone after that and begin what would be my last term ever at Sussex Uni.  The break was great – I was in the USA for the first three weeks, spending time at home in NY, and visiting friends up at Holy Cross and down in Washington D.C. for the semester.  For the second half, I went to La Coruña in Spain to visit my friends, and then I spent a week in Greece (Santorini and Athens) followed by a long weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Sussex only had 4 and a half weeks of classes during the summer term and then roughly the same amount of time reserved for exams.  Therefore there was a lot of down time, but I filled it with interesting things.  For instance, the royal wedding was a national holiday, so it was so fun sitting in my kitchen with Charlotte and watching 5 hours of footage.  The next day, I departed for Sicily to meet up with my dad and meet for the first time some cousins of mine who live there.  Later on in May I had one last trip – this time to Brugge, Belgium and Amsterdam, Holland with Nora.  I also did fun things with flatmates in this time including trips to see their new houses for next year, special flat dinners, a barbeque, lots of birthday celebrations, enjoying the warm Brighton weather and soaking up as much as I could about English life, culture and of course the people I lived with.

I studied a lot for exams in this time and took my exams over a very spread out period – May 28th, June 6th, June 9th and finally June 23rd.  I came home for a week for my brother’s high school graduation and then finally moved out of the flat the day after my last exam.  At that point in time, the girls had moved out of the flat already and it was just me and the boys.  The year ended on a good note, but it was so strange leaving.  I have never lived somewhere and with people that you never know when you will see again, so it was really hard. 

As excited as I was to get back to my normal life in America, I realized that England is a part of me now.  At this point in time, it is a month and a half since I left England and I miss it every day.  I miss Brighton, I miss my flatmates, and I miss the culture and the lifestyle.  On the bright side, however, there is more of it to come!  Not only do I plan on having my flatmate Danielle visit me in a couple weeks, but I will be visiting England again before 2011 ends.  Oh life, it can be quite ironic sometimes.  If you asked me what I thought about this whole experience in December, I would have told you I had had enough.  But if you asked me in June, I would have told you that I just can’t get enough.

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