Christmas Trees and Exams

Classes are over for the semester. Books are returned, my final paper (called an essay) and my final exam (called a paper) have been completed (the former one a week early, I might add), my brain has turned to mush... All the students that now gather in Uni areas are talking exam questions and grades, and they slowly but surely turn to holiday plans and hugs and good-byes and see-you-next-terms. It all feels quite like Harry Potter; probably because they're all British. No trains, though. No snow, either, I might add. Harry Potter sets lie. I also have to admit that the exam situation reminded me an awful lot of Harry Potter movies, which was enormously distracting during the actual exam, as I kept wanting to cast spells instead of discuss the views of the West as held by Al-e Ahmad and Sayyid Qutb and what they would fight about or how Ali Shariati uses history to further his religious-revivalist, anti-Western arguments. The hall itself was situated in Old College, a large courtyard full of almost gothic-looking (very creepy and medieval, at any rate) architecture. The inside of the hall had high ceilings and intricate arches and was wonderfully poorly lit and about 0 degrees celsius. It was long, with 20-foot windows that looked out over equally medieval-looking buildings. My mind kept wandering.

I think I did alright.

Jonmikel and I also just put up our first Christmas tree. It's a silly little fake tree, but better than what we expected for what we paid for it, and it feels festive and wonderful. It's very strange to be putting up my own tree this year instead of the behemoth of a tree my parents have. And it's strange that these ornaments are so unfamiliar; some of the ornaments on my parents' tree I have grown up with, literally, and I have put them on a giant, fancy fake tree since I could stand up to reach the lowest branches. It feels very... grown-up in a way that not even moving out and getting your own place can feel. Is it strange that a metaphor for life and growing older and more mature can be found in a Christmas tree?

It definitely gives the place a holiday feel, and I could use some holidays.