Counting Down The Days

I've just counted and I've been in Albany for 107 days - in some ways it feels a lot shorter but when we talk about things that happened in the first few weeks it could honestly have been a year!
I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week studying for my American Legislatures final exam - it was quite difficult but I'm glad I put as much time in as I did. On Thursday night we went to WT's for our first proper night there for the best part of a month - it was a nice relaxing night.
Ever since I've been here, especially in the last few weeks, I've been craving Indian food so Joe arranged for us to have an Indian lunch buffet on Friday as he considers himself as a bit of an Indian connoisseur. Eight of us went to a little restaurant which was surprisingly busy considering it was quite unattractive from the outside. The food was good, better than the bad curry I had in Boston, but still nowhere near as good as British Indian food. A few people who I've talked to said they've had Indian food when they've been in Britain and it's the best they've ever had. On Friday night, a few of us went to a surprise party for Joe's room mate Alex that his girlfriend had organised to celebrate his graduation, he was pleasantly surprised which was nice. Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop that Joe, Ellen and Austin's friend had opened that week. I met him in the first week and he said then that he planned to open it within a fortnight but he's had a lot of trouble renovating the property, but it's finally open and it's very nice!
I spent Saturday afternoon watching The X Factor. I don't think it's been as good as last year but I'm still absolutely hooked. I'm happy for anyone but Matt to win but I think he'll probably win! In the evening, I went to the cinema with Ellen, Joe and Josh to see 127 Hours. It was directed by Danny Boyle and was about a man who went rock climbing and got stuck alone in the middle of nowhere so had to resort to cutting his arm off after realising that no one would find him and that he would soon die because he had no water. It sounds really gory but it was really well made and it's probably my favourite film I've seen since I've been here. At night, we went to Ellen's intending on going to Bayou at about 12.30 but just as we were about to leave I got some horrible stomach pains that I get occasionally so I couldn't go with everyone. A few others chose not to go, even Ellen couldn't go because she got a serious migraine. The pains stopped after about 20 minutes so we went to the coffee shop for a while before I went home.
I spent Sunday and Monday trying to do my 10-page essay that's due in on Wednesday but I always work best under pressure so I expect to have a heavy work session on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning! After that's handed in, I have a 3 page essay due in for Monday and exams on Tuesday and Wednesday then my first semester in Albany is over work-wise! The weather at the moment is quite awful, it's generally around -3 (26F) no matter what time of day it is and it tends to be quite windy which makes it feel even colder. We haven't had any snow besides the one day in November but today there was snow floating around in the air all day like dust, although it didn't settle - January and February are supposed to be the worst months for snow. Exams finish on Friday 17th so we're planning on having a goodbye party on the Friday night then travelling to New York City on the Saturday where everyone who's going home will stay until they fly. It's going to be really sad because a lot of my closest friends here are only staying for one semester so we have to say goodbye in less than two weeks! On the other hand, I'm very excited to come home, as the title of this post suggests! My friend Natalie who I lived with last year in Nottingham has booked flights to come to visit me from the 3rd to the 13th of March next year which is very exciting and I'm considering going to visit her in the Caribbean for Spring Break in April!
That's all for now, I'll try to blog again before I leave to come home for Christmas, but as you can tell it's going to be a very hectic time! Bye for now!