Red wine, mistakes, mythology

Another year has passed, and looking back, it has passed really quickly. Here’s a little traditional summary.

• The first half of my year was mostly spent on effort of trying to graduate from the university. So, I wrote my first (of many?) thesis on Thatcherism in literature on the basis of Hollinghurst’s brilliant Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty. It was an effort but not as bad as I had feared. I was lucky to have a great supervisor and a topic that I think is interesting even right now. After all, all the hard work paid off when my reviewer decided on an A instead of a B that she wanted to give me, which meant that I graduated my Bachelor cum laude. A few days after my graduation, I also applied for MA programme and was accepted. So I’m still a student at the University of Tartu.
• You can say what you want about the hot summer we had here, but I personally found it horrible. I’m a Nordic person through and through. I can take +25C and more  temperatures for a few days but not for weeks! I was constantly grumpy and suffered from headaches and nausea and often had to take painkillers just to survive the day. I really hope this summer will be slightly cooler!
• Like a much needed breeze, my trip to England cooled me down in a good way. My first time travelling all by myself and I don’t want to have it any other way. I fell in love with Liverpool, met a lot of great people, drank considerable amounts of alcohol, did a few silly things, met friends I hadn’t seen for ages… Everything needed for a perfect trip!
• The autumn arrived with university again but somehow it felt a bit different. I felt that we are treated a bit more like equals and even the courses are much more interesting. I really feel that I want to go to the lectures and I sit there with all awe and wonder. I’m also lucky to have great coursemates (a few exceptions here and there but generally, they’re great) and I was able to be a conference assistant at the Canadian Studies Conference, which was not only interesting to listen to but also a good glance at organising side of the thing (not to mention the Canadian ambassador’s reception…).
• Although university was great this autumn, my body decided not to co-operate and after feeling completely empty again, I hurried to the doctor’s for a blood test and the results were record-breakingly bad: my haemoglobin level was 77 (normal begins with 120). I had a few additional tests made but there was nothing to explain why my body doesn’t acquire iron. Probably because of this, I fell ill in the middle of September and didn’t really get well until 2 months later. I had all sorts of cold, cough and even lost my voice twice! All this was quite devastating on my mental health as well, so I was down in the dumps more often then I was out of them.
• It was my birthday that help me get my peace of mind back again. In 2010, I decided to have as my present a long weekend in Northern England. I got to see 30 Seconds To Mars again and party with my international friends. It was all I could ask for and plenty more!
• The year ended covered with snow. Quiet Christmas time and even more quiet NYE. The last minutes of the year I spent all alone on top of a hill next to my house waiting for the fireworks…

This was it. In conclusion, I had a lot of time with myself and although I can’t say that I’ve signed an everlasting peace contract with myself but so far I’m feeling much at ease with myself.

My New Year’s resolutions are classical: be more active physically, do better at the university and be a better person to my friends and family.

Happy New Year!