It’s the Most Hectic 19 Days of the year…

As of today, there are 19 days left in my first semester of my senior year. Can we cue the panic music now?

Before I begin with what’s to come, let’s back up and see where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing since my last post.

Last Friday (the 19th) was Senior Ball, which was held at the DCU Center. I never knew that my classmates could look so elegant and/or dance so well!

Dancing!

Carrie, Miriam, Janet, and Tina posing

Carrie and me being total hams. Not much has changed since Freshman year.

Alyssa and me representing Kimball

Then that weekend was spent in Dinand (which is now open 24/5, which makes sleeping over in the library a possibility. Don’t tempt me!) writing my thesis and my Shakespeare paper since on Tuesday, I left for (wait for it…)

England.

Yes, although I only had a five day break, I hiked over to England for my Thanksgiving Break. For those of you who don’t know, I won a qualifier for the national ISTD championships in the Latin event. My parents decided to let me go back to compete at Nationals, provided that my mother joined me so I would return to America. I left on Tuesday right after my classes and we arrived on Wednesday morning. Mom and I spent Wednesday to Friday in London seeing some sights that Mom didn’t have a chance to see when she visited me during my year abroad. We spent Thursday in Oxford, where I had a brief and disastrous lesson with my coach, Neil, and I also saw two of my best friends from my year abroad. Then we left for Blackpool, which is the home of ballroom dance, on Saturday. I competed on Sunday, and after my lesson on Thursday, I was incredibly nervous. I ended up in the top ten for my ballroom event, which pleased me since I haven’t properly danced  a basic quickstep since about April. Then the Latin event came…

I was incredibly nervous about my Latin even since my coach was less than impressed with how I had regressed since I left England. He told me that I had about 72 hours to fix my dancing and remember everything that he taught me last year. Well, I guess that worked since I kept going on round after round. Finally, they were announcing the numbers for the final – there were seven girls who had made it. My number was high for the event (24), and the first six numbers were incredibly low (the highest one announced was 13). I was a bit devastated since I thought that I didn’t make it, but my number was the last one called. Woo hoo! I made it to the final. At that moment, I didn’t really care about how I danced; I was just excited that I made it. After dancing the final, they announced the placings. I won second place. No, it still hasn’t sunk in that I did that well. My coach thought I should’ve won, but considering the fact that I haven’t properly danced with him since July, I was excited at even making the final!

Me with my shiny trophy! It’s currently in my dorm room.

The new Latin dress that my father loves…not really.

Me with my coach, Neil.

And that was my Thanksgiving break! I made a mad dash for Heathrow yesterday, flew back to Boston, and arrived on campus at 10:00 p.m. last night. In the next 19 days, I have to finish my thesis chapter, write a Shakespeare paper, present my findings on Karl Rahner, present my thesis chapter to the English faculty, and take two finals. Although I could’ve used this weekend to get ahead on all of that work, dancing in England was totally worth it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under Ballroom Dance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “It’s the Most Hectic 19 Days of the year…”

1. Barbara Howells boukater says:

   December 5, 2010 at 12:18 pm

   Colleen! You are accomplished, driven, talented and beautiful! Of course you were all these at Christ the King too. 🙂 it was amazing to read about you in the AJC today! Congratulations and happy holidays!
   Barbara
   Aka Miss. Howells