All Cultured Out

I've not posted in a while mostly because I've been a bit overwhelmed around here. Lately I seem to spend either ALL my time in the library (like 9 straight hours last week on my friend's birthday) or ALL my time relaxing/socializing (like this weekend when I barely cracked a book for three days). Now that I'm reaching mid-term burnout phase, it seems to have gotten worse. I'm going to have to reestablish a balance. That's what life's about, right? Balance.

So this is just a quick update to let you know I've not died. Definitely haven't gone to heaven. :) I expect to buckle down seriously this week, and then I want to establish a schedule maybe Thursday afternoon to plan the work for next week, since it looks like it will be pretty intense. This weekend I'm supposed to go to my tutor's house in London for Shabbat, while really is a lovely thing for him to do, but it makes me very anxious. I'll be sure to update on whether or not that happens.

Social life has been a bit strange for me. I was always the mellow one who just wanted to chill and read and hang out with some close friends. I have people here with whom to do that. But when I'm in a huge social gathering (like the Bop we had on Saturday night), I flit, flit, flit and drink, drink, drink and am not myself. I'm not sure I like who I am when I'm like that.

I think the strangest part is how much I drink when I can count on one hand the number of times in the past two years I drank during the school year. It's part of the culture, it's there all the time -- it would be easy to drink every night straight for a couple of weeks, and I know people who have. It's horrid, really, when you think about it like that. It seems, somehow, that this social lubricant is absolutely necessary for mingling here. Anyway, it's a very interesting social study, if I can remain sober enough to observe it!

OK, back to work, work, work. There ought to be new photos soon, too!