A famous Irish poet once said that life imitates art. As I walked through the South Campus on the last weeks and saw the first attempts of spring to come, I could not help to think that it is interesting how, at least for me, life, in fact, tends to imitate nature.

I have mentioned in a previous post how incredible it is to see the seasons changing. As this is my first time living abroad and I came from a tropical country, I had never actually experienced the four distinct seasons. In Brazil, the intermediate seasons (i.e. autumn and spring) are often imperceptible, but now they are the ones that most amaze me.

Three months ago, I found it symbolic how the academic year starts in Autumn, that shows us how beautiful it is to let things go and make way for the new. Just as the first leaves started to fall out of the blue in September, flowers are shily emerging now, together with the beginning of my second semester abroad.

Winter was an interesting experience. December was such a busy month, with lots of assignments to handle as well as the first thoughts about our thesis proposal. In January I took a winter break and got to visit Rome and Barcelona; it was such a blissful trip! I had not realized how much I missed the warmth of the sun until I felt it again. Then we had a few more assignments to deal with and our thesis proposal presentation before we could finally start the second semester in February.

In my previous post I already mentioned, I wrote that things were beginning to settle down. Now it is quite easy to walk around the town, and I already know where things are located at the supermarket shelves. I have classmates that help me to get through assignments I find hard to understand, that help me when I need it, and with whom I can have great talks. Thank God I have also met some lovely Brazilian friends from the church I go to in Dublin, so I never get to feel alone, especially during the weekends. But why did I say at the beginning that life imitates nature? Well, things have not been all a bed of roses, but living abroad has clearly been an experience of self-growth. Winter can represent this quite hard period of settling down, of attempting to belong to a place. And the first flowers shyly emerging can represent the new hopes and expectations that come once your path has been paved, once you start to feel that you blend in more than you stick out. And I just can say that I am excited for this second part of my journey.