Last week was Innovative Learning Week, in which there are no required courses. Lectures are held to attend out of interest, or further examination into one's studies (hence innovative learning!) but basically, it's just a week off for the Edinburgh students to travel, catch up on sleep, and write midterm papers.
Yes, Innovative Learning Week is week six. Week six is the half-way mark.
That's absolutely nuts.
As it finally sunk in that the semester is halfway through, I began thinking about how much has happened in these past six weeks. It feels as if I arrived in Edinburgh a year ago, yet at the same time it feels as if I still have a full semester left to spend, here.
Being abroad is truly an incredible experience; everything happens in accelerated mode: coursework, making friends, spontaneous traveling.
I can't believe the knowledge I've gained, the friends I've made, experiences I've had, the growing up I've done.. in only six weeks!
Thinking about the way Edinburgh felt when I first arrived: the way the city felt huge, and now it's familiar. The way I felt alone, and now I have friends to greet me on any street I walk down. The way I felt young and inexperienced, and now I feel as if I can take on anything.
My parents are coming to visit at the end of the month, and I am greatly anxious to see them. It's been wonderful to study at the University of Edinburgh, but it makes me sad to think that I can't share this experience with anyone from home. I'm hopeful that my parents will get a real feel for the city. And I'm proud to say I can be the one to properly show them around.
I'm amused by the thought of a shrinking city. Even in Oslo, which we were only in for two days, the city felt so much smaller and more familiar upon leaving it.
It's incredible now to look back on the streets in Edinburgh that I first remember passing, the landmarks I remember seeing, and the "ends of the city" which I was so convinced I had reached. In reality, everything is in very close proximity to one another, and I was never far from where I needed to be.
One of the greatest wonders I've found about being in Scotland is that nothing gets old. I know, a semester abroad: of course I'm going to appreciate everything I experience. But in Ames, at this point, when things became familiar they also became boring. I was less amused by the community.
Everything in Edinburgh is still just as exciting and fantastic as it was when I first arrived.
I hope that I can change my perspective when I return, and find things to appreciate in Ames or Medina everyday. It's such an uplifting outlook, to experience a city in this way.
My challenge for you is to imagine that you are abroad, and the things around you are new and peculiar. Force yourself to re-examine the things you might find banal, and appreciate them again.
Perhaps you can discover something new about your old city, and perhaps you can find a new eagerness in your experiences.
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