Yes, you read that title correctly: I’m officially halfway through my year abroad!! *screams internally* How can this be so? Where has the time gone? It feels like just yesterday that I was walking through Oxford for the first time, lugging my suitcase behind me and wondering how I would ever learn my way around without a map. How things change!
Mansfield College has this fantastic tradition called Halfway Hall, which is a formal dinner for all second years and visiting students to celebrate the halfway point of their Oxford experience. Formal hall is one of my favorite parts of Oxford, so I was ecstatic when I found out that we were all invited to this special event. After three courses of delicious food (and a dessert that was actually safe for me to eat with my allergy!), we laughed over the announcement of who won the superlatives we voted for earlier that week. There’s nothing that makes you feel like you belong to a place more than sitting at a long table with friends, laughing over wine, and savoring the delicious chocolate dessert.
In some ways, recognizing this halfway mark feels like an acknowledgement that my time here at Oxford is dwindling away fast. At the same time, I keep having to remind myself that I still have another four months abroad– the end is far from here! I suspect that the next term and a half will fly by faster than I expect or would like it to, but it’s nevertheless nice to know that I still have a significant amount of time left.
There are still so many things I want to do and places I want to go in the next four months… Fingers crossed that I can check off as many items as possible from my list!
Thanks for coming along on this journey with me through this weekly series. Also, please let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to talk about in future weeks! Food? Bookshops? Libraries? Restaurants? Cafes? Tell me what you’d like to hear more about!
Click here to check out other posts in my Holly Goes Abroad series!
Do you feel like the past six months have gone by quickly? Let me know in the comments section below!
Yours,
HOLLY
nut free nerd 
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