By gjmacdougall
Maybe it's the amount of caffeine and sugar in my system to get me through deadlines and finals (for a time I was feeling my body was 60% coffee/coke and not water), but even though there is almost a week left after this one, I'm starting to get emotional about the end of term.
One example was at the end of my last Beginning Acting class, which I have loved this semester. In a class earlier in the term we had 'thrown' an imaginary big ball to the ceiling as part of an improv lesson, and in our final time together our professor said 'the last thing I want you to do is to get into a circle', before reminding us that the ball was still up there and that we needed to bring it back down. We did that and then he said 'I want you to grab a piece, and bring it to your heart, and keep it there...forever'. I would be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary-eyed.
The class has grown together so much over the term and the professor is just amazing - if anyone is looking for course options for next year, I can't recommend it highly enough!
This week has been a collection of other 'lasts', such as the last time for tots and trivia at Tonic with the same group of people. It ended with a bang as we placed the highest I've ever experienced there, though I haven't exactly improved on the level of my contributions from the beginning of the semester, my role still being little more than ornamental. However, my moment of glory came in knowing that a 'brolly' is British slang for 'umbrella' (though if I had failed there they would probably have made me relinquish my UK passport).
It was also the last pre-class Tuesday Dunkin' Donuts date I had with my friend, which had seen the sweet sustenance of donuts and friendship power me through each week.
And the donut theme continued with my American poetry professor bringing in Duck Donuts for our final class together, to accompany our study of Dunbar (the American, not the Scot).
It seems free food is everywhere if you know where to look as the university tries to give its students some motivation and respite from work. From stumbling across an academic department party, to attending the Midnight Breakfast (breakfast food, activities and prize givings one night from 10pm - 12am) laid on by GW, as well as cookie hand-outs in Kogan Plaza from different societies, we were stressed, but well fed! Socialising over delicious food was also a feature of the GW Exchange Farewell Party though the occasion was bittersweet as it was great to catch up with fellow exchange students who we hadn't properly seen for a while, but sad to know that we wouldn't see some at all next semester.
A week of all-American college stress obviously called for an all-American college study break and so I went with a friend to burger chain Five Guys. It got a rare thumbs up from both of us and so will be returned to in the future.
So the week has been a time of endings but also of future excitement, as I attended the GW Student Theatre Council's 'Star Wars Disco' Prom - which revolves around the announcement of the different theatre societies' upcoming Spring 2016 seasons - as a reward to myself for completing the week's deadlines which had seen me pull all-nighters of an intensity I never had to in Edinburgh.
I'm incredibly grateful I get to spend another semester here at GW and in DC as the end of term has completely snuck up on me. However, I will be really sorry to see the semester-only exchange students go, as well as American friends who are leaving for a term abroad.
To more emotions, finals and the final week!
Grace