Tag: writing

I need to stop jumping into the ocean with my clothes on.

Published on by ashleybmuirheadLeave a comment

It seems that I have this silly little habit of jumping into the ocean no matter the circumstances, and I know for a fact that my dorm washing machine hates me. I’m fully clothed? I’m getting in the water. I have nice white pants on? Doesn’t matter, ocean here I come! I just washed my hair? Looks like I’ll just have to wash it again. It doesn’t matter where I am, who I’m with, or what I’m wearing – if someone even jokes about getting into the water, I’m there (socks and all). I have only been in Perth, Australia for about two weeks now, and the amount of times that I have had to do laundry because of this habit is getting concerning.

So far, I have jumped into the ocean fully clothed three separate times. The first was on one of the first nights of O-week; my new friend, Kallarni, and I decided to go visit one of her hometown friends that was staying in another dorm. All three of us chatted, laughed, and hung out late into the night. Later, we decided to go and meet up with a larger group of friends, some of whom are from all over the world (Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, and some locals, too). It was really cool being able to talk to people that I otherwise wouldn’t have to chance of meeting. Anyways, we all decided to walk down to the Swan River to look at the stars, and long story short, we all jumped in at the end of the night to celebrate the start of O-week. The Swan River is a part of the river delta, meaning that it leads out to sea. Because of this, the water is filled with large brown jellyfish. Thank God it was dark outside, because otherwise I might not have gotten in!

The second time I jumped into the water fully clothed was when my dorm won the fresher dance! What is the fresher dance you may be wondering? Well, each of the dorm houses compete in a mega dance-off at the end of O-week on the shore of the Swan River. This event is a huge deal – we spent close to four hours a day perfecting our 7-minute dance, and the hard work clearly paid off! Anyways, its tradition for the winning dorm to run into the river right after being announced, and we did exactly that! Thankfully, I took off my shoes just in time.

The third time was just this past Sunday. Kallarni and I went out to a dance club that was located right by the beach. We were celebrating a few different people’s birthdays, which was so much fun (side note, there are some great dance clubs here, if you’re into that!). After a good long night, we decided to walk down to the beach, considering that it was literally across the street from the dance club. Once again, long story short, I ended up being (quite easily) convinced to go headfirst into the water, despite having to get in an Uber 10 minutes later.

Being from Colorado I have never gotten the opportunity to live so close to the ocean (or even a large body of water), so I think it’s important to take advantage of my location while I can. I went into this adventure with the goal of saying yes to more opportunities, more adventures, more everything! I don’t regret jumping into the water (I’m convinced I was a mermaid in a past life, despite only being able to hold my breath for 30 seconds max), and I definitely will do it again. Hopefully next time I think about packing a change of clothes!

Move over Scarlet Letter, there is a new challenger

Published on by showtimeherink2Leave a comment
The Scarlet Letter

When reading the title of this post, you may ask what I am referring to. The Scarlet Letter is by far the hardest piece of literature that I have ever read. I dreaded reading it every day for my AP English class my sophomore year of high school. It was deep, dark, and just had too much wording to explain something so simple (a few sentences vs. a few pages). I thought nothing would ever top that piece of literature. That is, until I first got to Maastricht. When I first started by EU Law class, I was given a textbook and a reading list for when I needed to have certain chapter done by. I didn’t think of it much because every textbook that I have read in the past has been pretty straightforward. That is, until I started reading this particular textbook.

When first reading this textbook, I was flabbergasted at how complex EU law was and the history behind the EU. I thought US law and its processes was complex enough, but EU law was something else. That is what made the textbook so in-depth and complicated. I would spend hours sometimes just reading a chapter and it did not help that I had to read two chapters (ranging from 80-100 pages) a week. This actually had an impact on my schedule, particularly with the gym and frisbee practice. I had to skip most of my sessions just to finish reading these chapters. The note taking was not far behind. Every time I would take notes, I would get excited to turn a page only to dread when it was my notebook page and not a page in the book. I would be up until at least 1 am finishing the chapter depending on how much I procrastinated, or just took a break because that book exhausted me. I needed a lot of Starbucks to help me finish certain chapters of the book (the store nearby sold cartons of Iced Carmel Macchiatos).

Despite how tough the readings were, they helped out a lot and I was able to do very well on my midterm exam. After the exam, I thought the amount of reading I had to do would die down; I was so wrong. For the next 3 weeks, it was two chapters a class for two days a week. In addition, the second half of the class was all cases and application of what we learned in the first part to the second part of the class. In other words, the readings were longer and more complex, so that means more note taking and longer periods of time to finish the chapters. This part of the class was one of the hardest stretches of schooling that I have ever had. I had to put all of the non-schooling aspects of my life beside just to focus on the readings and to finish them on time. This included restructuring my gym plan and having to do full body workouts any time I could go to the gym (about two times a week during this stretch). It was a tough crunch, but I was able to make it work. However, at the end of every week, I was exhausted, too exhausted to even go out and let off some steam. I needed sleep, and because I only averaged about 5 hours every day, I often went to bed early on the weekends.

I just recently finished the textbook and I was overjoyed. The pain and stress were over. I was able to learn a great deal from it and now I have knowledge on the inter-mechanisms of the EU. Anyway, is this book my hardest read ever? Yes it is. Sorry Scarlet Letter, but there is a new holder of the hardest piece of literature I have ever read.