Goodbye Auburn, hello Portland! I had a lovely winter
break (though it didn't feel much like winter). I returned home to California
to spend a month with my family, and although it was a lot of fun, I was bummed
that I didn't get to go skiing. I live about an hour away from some good ski
places in the Sierra Nevada mountains (and about an hour and a half away from
Lake Tahoe!), but since California is going through a serious drought, there wasn’t
enough snow. I did get to go hiking a lot though. The weather was very warm
back home – so warm, in fact, that I was actually looking forward to coming
back up here where it’s cooler. Running when it's forty degrees warmer than you're used to is no fun. When I arrived here, I was not disappointed. Right now, the sun is
shining, the wind is crisp and chilly, and I can wear leggings and scarves
again!
The landscape near my home in Auburn
Annoyingly hot weather aside, my break was packed with
everything I love about home. I caught up on sleep, non-academic reading, and Doctor Who, and
saw a lot of my high school friends. I celebrated Christmas with my parents,
brother, and grandparents.
Christmas dinner
Gingerbread Tardis, anyone?
Later I visited those same grandparents as well as
my aunt, uncle, and three cousins for a second Christmas in the Bay Area. Seeing
my extended family always involves playing lots and lots of games: card games,
board games, games like Charades, and storytelling games where we sit in a
circle and each person adds another word to the increasingly-crazy sentence. Later, my family went to San Francisco to
eat clam chowder, try on kooky hats, and see the sea lions on Pier 39.
I arrived back at Lewis and Clark yesterday afternoon.
Transportation from the airport to the school is very easy as long as you
schedule your flight on a day the shuttle is running. I flew in from Sacramento, took the shuttle bus, and was back at in the dorm chatting with friends and unpacking suitcases in no
time. That night, we reserved an auditorium in one of the academic buildings to
watch the first episode of the new season of Sherlock. I won’t spoil anything,
but it was so good.
I’ve ordered all of my textbooks from various sources
(both the bookstore and Amazon) and they will be steadily trickling in over the
next few days. I am incredibly excited to start my new set of classes. They
will be very different from last term’s lineup, I think. I am taking Ancient
Greece via the history department, The Art of the Novel in the English
department, Logic in the Philosophy department (which can be used to satisfy one of the General Education math requirements!), a second semester of
Exploration and Discovery called The Ancient City with a religious studies professor, and Taekwondo for PE credit (which I am taking with a bunch of people from my dorm). I will also be continuing to
host prospective students overnight. I hope all of you considering Lewis and
Clark will come and visit sometime this spring! An overnight visit is important
in making your college decision, though it is by no means always the factor on
which you should solely base your decision.
Have an excellent start to the semester, everyone!
Jess