Lighting up Rhodes

So Rhodes :) It has all started. O week is now over and the real stuff has allll started. Everything seemed to have just fallen into place.

Lectures started and the work didn't hesitate to come. My subjects are all really different but they all seem to compliment each other which is really helpful. Linguistics is surprisingly interesting, especially since I didn't plan on taking it at all. At the moment we are learning about phonetics and the Internation PHONETIC alphabet. So that one you see in dictionaries after the word and it looks like giberish. Yea, I'm learning that! It is quite epic. In tutorials we sit there emphasising SH-i-ingle, and then seeing what articulator we use to say it. Then when I head to my Drama speech tut and learn how to breathe with my diaphragm I think about linguistics and what exactly I am using to breathe somewhat diaphagmatically.

And the Drama is so cool. It is more fun than anything else, but I think that is because I truly love it. Theatre making is great. It is all about improvisation and gives me a chance to fully let go. Which I do in normal day to day activities anyway without warning people. But the ones that know me have gotten used to it. It is just such a relieving hour or so after long days in lectures.

Speaking of which, the friends I have made are dandy :) I have become particularly close with Georgia and Nicky in my res. I went to PE with them over a weekend and felt perfectly comfortable making tea at Nicky's house. Then of course Greg is here and he has made friends with Matty from his res. I always feel good when they are around. Gill is our very own american exchange student and she is really interesting and fun too :) But it was when something horrible happened on the weekend when we all needed to be there for George. Barely having known each other for a month, we all came together, Nicky, Greg, Paige, Matty, Ben and I, and we were there for her. As if we had known her for ages. And sitting there altogether, I noticed how quickly things have fallen into place. And how awesome that is.

I have also picked up contemporary and ballroom/latin american dancing :) And I am writing for the Activate newspaper which is cool.

I still miss home, but it is a different kind of missing compared to the one I felt when I was in England. Different types of experiences this time. And I know I am going home a couple of times during these years. I feel absolutely content about being here though. I don't know if it just because I am used to adapting to new surroundings. But I feel that there was definitely a reason behind the fact that I have been wanting to come here since I was 14. Why I didn't apply to anywhere else. I feel like I am in the right place to learn and study and experience life in this next stage of adulthood :)

Wow getting really deep here. I ramble like a mad woman. But according to my journ lecturer, I have to keep writing - no matter what I am writing about. So to add to the rambling, I wrote this. It is called 'My meaning of life'. It is quite in depth but I thought about it carefully. Okay, this is what I think.

I feel very strongly that the meaning of life is whatever you choose it to be. If you want the meaning of life to take the path of sin and guilt – then that is your choice. If you want your life to be lead on a path of joy and fulfillment then that is your choice too. There is no specific meaning of life, but life is what you make of it. The meaning of life comes with how you approach it – and the reason for birth, or purpose comes with what you want the reason to be, and what you want your own personal purpose to be. Whether you want your mark to be left is up to you.

‘Why are we born?’ is a difficult question – but I feel that we all are brought into the world with specific tasks to fulfill. I was brought into this world to work to survive and come to have experiences. I have communicated, and have been faced with challenges. I have to make decisions, I will grow, and I will mature and will be given guidance. I have gained skills and then have gone on to play. I learn how things work and will then go on to do work. I belong to a society of some sort, and choose to conform to its traditions or not. I have my God and celebrate in His name. I have and will find friends, and find a companion. I will one day go on to acquire wealth and amass power in any sense. I will feel sensuality and experience sex, create a home, express myself artistically. I will display myself and hence accumulate wisdom. I have and will break the rules at least once, but I will parent and teach. I will expel waste, heal, fail, lose, and cry. I have and will love. I will accept others and change states of consciousness. I will open myself up to new depths. I will write my story. I will die, and enter a new world. And I will be remembered. That is my meaning of life.

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=689140772 - - - Many photos!

Over and out! :)