Who cares about Africa, DC is where it's at!

This one is for all the Grandparents out there who worry about the youngest Merrill. So I safely made it back to campus for my spring semester. You may think that that's a fairly easy feat, but apparently not, because the second I boarded the plane at Albany International, the pilot goes on the intercom and states that the plane failed inspection, and our takeoff would be delayed. This didn't really matter to me because DCA was my final destination, but the woman next to me was furious to learn that she would miss her connecting flight to Atlanta. I just wanted to point out how useless a 2 hour delay is for a 1 hour flight.

(Here is a photo of my friends and I meeting for the first time back. I have no idea why my camera is always blurry when I take selfies)

I'm currently halfway through the week, with one more class to wrap up my Wednesday, and after going through all of my courses, I can tell you how good this semester is going to look. Starting on the highest of high notes, I finally have a solid German professor. I no longer have to deal with homework being sent by email, as this one actually has a page on "Canvas" or the system we use to track grades, homework, syllabi and scheduling. He also apologized for being unable to teach us last semester!

Other classes I have include three business ones and statistics. The theme of this semester in business seems to be analysis. I have a Data Analysis class, and a Global Strategy: International class, which seems to be aimed at critical thinking skills while also pushing the business hivemind thought of charts, graphs, and real world data. 

Statistics looks interesting, and I feel confident going in because I've taken courses involving stats in high school, however the professor warned that about six hours of work would be pushed onto me weekly, which I'm not excited for, but I'm sure I can stomach it. 

(Here's Hudson having a blast on an indoor snowboard machine. I don't have the photo of me doing it, but I totally blew his and Itai's time out of the water)

The social life is also going great. I've had a blast messing around with friends after classes are out for the day. I've enjoyed maybe 10+ Magic the Gathering matches with Itai, Hudson, and Ian, and I've made plans for the upcoming three-day weekend celebrating my Dad's birth. 

Overall things are going smoothly here, I've made fine use of my meal plan, eating first breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, elevensies, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack. I haven't yet gone to the gym or on a run, but I'm forcing that to happen starting next week because otherwise I feel fat and lazy. 

(This was an early dinner/late lunch that Hudson and I had, it was a poke bowl where I got rice, edamame, salmon, onions, and carrots)

All is well for me in D.C., friends are friendly, the cold isn't too chilly, and my room is nice and cozy. I'll try to post more than I did last semester (so if I'm not then someone should reach out to me and tell me to give an update). I hope your winters are doing all fine and dandy, and that my blog posts aren't too distracting from my sister who gets to live it up in Africa this semester (trust me, my Germany blogs are gonna be top notch two years from now). 

Lincoln OUT.