After a winter break of jetting between continents and travelling the length of the country (I may be single-handedly causing global warming), it’s really nice to settle back in at Haverford. Everything has changed this semester with new classes to take and new friends to make as so many people have gone abroad. Today we said goodbye to Pat and Sarah – Pat is going to Shanghai and Sarah is off to Italy, which was tearful for all. They’ve been great friends, and it’s going to be very strange without them here as they’ve been so integral to our social lives, but we hope we’ve learned from them and will continue to branch out.

Instead of last semester’s ridiculous workload thanks to the four 300-level courses I had to take, this semester I’ll be taking three 300-level courses and one 200-level. I’m taking Spectacle and Spectatorship in 18th century London (English Lit), Informal and Formal Empire in Latin America (History), Explorations in History (looking at theories of history), and the Evolution of the Jihadi Movement (Political Science) which I am particularly enjoying despite the lengthy Arabic names and fairly depressing outlook.

You can see from my course selection that, despite Haverford’s size (under 1200 students), a wide variety of incredibly fantastically interesting courses are on offer. Last semester I took an equally eclectic spread – a history of America as a nuclear power, a class on the construction of racial and national identities in the British Empire, an investigation into the use of sound in writing, and an exploration of the representation and use of trauma in literature.

On top of my classes, I’m still writing for the Bi-College News, in fact I just wrote an article about Haverford’s arrangements so that students could watch the inauguration, and I have also joined the newly-founded Debate Society. I’m also hoping to join hearts club, begin yoga and continue with aerobics, so it should be a very active coming semester. For spring break, the American institution immortalised in a thousand mildly pornographic films, I will not be partying it up on a beach in Florida or California, but instead will be in Shanghai visiting my boyfriend.

I’ve barely left campus at all this week as I’m quite content residing in the Haverbubble. On Sunday, a group of us decided to eat dinner at Bryn Mawr, the local all-girls college and part of the tri-college system of which Haverford is a part. If you’re on the meal plan you can eat at any college for free, which is great if you have class at Bryn Mawr or Swarthmore, or if you just want to switch your meals up a bit. Bryn Mawr is known for having good food, and we were not disappointed. We stuffed ourselves on Thai red curry, Vietnamese hot and sour sauce, tortellini, garlic knots, beef curry, beef taquitas (thin and crispy rolls filled with beef and vegetables), salads, pizza. and chocolate fudge bars. It was delicious, and we have sworn to go back every weekend from now on, and this is a resolution I can definitely keep.

So it’s off to yoga for me, you’ll hear how it went next week.