Mid-Vacation Update

OK, it's not mid-vacation yet (good because I want to drag this time out as long as I can). I have exactly 2 weeks left until I leave, so it's really the 1/3-Vacation Update.

As of today, I have my literature review rough draft finished, with most of my references made up for that (I have 105 so far)-- but I have a feeling there are one or two straggler references I forgot to log into refworks while I was browsing PsycInfo, so I'll have to double check whenever I decide to edit the monster.

I have 2/3 pages completed of my mock PhD proposal-- my background info and a little more than half of the experimental design. I don't know how I'm going to write up the timeline, but a prof I met with to help me design the thing said she'd look it over, so I'm not too worried about that anymore. I thik it is some of my best writing, so I feel good about it. The review, on the other hand... I don't know how I feel about the writing. It needs a lot of editing, but at least I gave it direction. The intro paragraph is weak but I hate writing intros... they always sound cliche or like an abstract or something.

And, I also have 2300 of 3000 words finished of my experimental write up. It just needs a Discussion section, then it's done. The biggest hurdle of this one is going to be finding enough references, though. I based the experiment off only a few studies so I need a strong intro with lots of background info on source memory. Unfortunately, I don't know the area well at all, so I'm kind of at that stage where I'm dipping into this huge pool of research with no idea where to start. I'll deal with that later though.

I was planning on working on essays today, but a tiredness just hit me and before I knew it, I was napping for almost 3 hours. I don't really know what came over me-- I went running this morning, but running hasn't made me tired in months and months. And I drank a lot afterwards, too.

Oh, so listen to this... last night, I was up until 3AM with a couple of friends from high school, sitting around at Denny's (I ate pancakes and hash browns mmmmm!) when we all decided we would go for a run at Sunny Lake the next day. Neither of the 2 guys runs really; Billy at least plays casual sports and is in better shape than Jason, who is quite large, and I was surprised he agreed to come running the next day at all.

Well, I got up this morning, drove to Sunny Lake, took a warm-up lap, and soon enough Billy showed up all alone.

"Jason's not coming," he said. "Has to babysit his neice."

A likely story.

I asked Billy if he'd been running before. He said he had run on the treadmills at the gym on KSU's campus, but couldn't remember for how long. I suggested we take one lap around Sunny Lake (which is 1.75 miles around) and see how he felt after that. He kept good pace and made some easy conversation, so I figured he was doing fine. I asked if he wanted to do another lap and he said, "Sure". By the last quarter of the second lap, I noticed him grab his side, so I said, "Looks like you have a stitch" and he agreed to walk it out for a bit. I still wanted to do one more lap, so I asked Billy if he wanted to leave at this point and let me finish up alone. He insisted he was fine, said the stitch was gone, and we ran one more time around. By the 1.5 mile mark, he said, "Okay, I have to walk" which was the first time he said anything. We were walking out the end of our lap, and I told Billy how impressed I was that he was able to run 5 miles when he wasn't a consistent runner, and I thought everything was fine... but, all of a sudden, he said:

"I have to stop."

I gave him a weird look because really, walking feels better after a run than standing still. And then it hit me.

"Are you nauseous?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Are you going to puke!?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. And I turned away just in time.

I feel like I should have been flattered. A semi-fit male couldn't keep up with me without blowing chunks afterwards. Then again, I'm not that impressed anymore, either.

When I got home afterwards, my dad offered to take me out to lunch :D
So I showered and got cleaned up, and I ended up having some satisfactory trout at Ruby Tuesday. But I don't get much one-on-one time with my dad, so the outing was really nice! And now I'm watching him play a new Prince of Persia game... some of the games he plays, ha ha... I bet if he could suck it up and play a game starring Disney characters, he'd really enjoy Kingdom Hearts, which is the best video game ever. I swear, no other game has as good of a blend of story, fighting style, missions, etc. It's amazing!

Anyway, let me make this post incredibly long and talk about my vacation so far.

So the trip here was really nice-- I mean, it went so smoothly, and I wasn't rushed or stressed or sick or anything. I took the train from Leicester to London St. Pancras-- I just love that train station-- it's so beautiful up top, with the sun pooling through the huge arched windows... actually, here's a picture I stole of it:



OK anyway, so from St. Pancras, I took the tube to Heathrow, which takes about 50 minutes. I got to the airport, got my ticket, and had about 2 and a half hours to kill, so I decided to get some lunch and sit in a real airport restaurant, something I've actually never had the time to do before. It was really nice being able to lounge around instead of worrying I'm going to miss my flight-- which seems to happen more often than not.

I browsed the shops and picked up a bag of Crunchies (my mom's favorite candy bar-- and apparently, they exist in the USA, or so says my friend Matt, but I have yet to find them). Got on my plane, watched a couple of good movies: Black Swan and Tangled and before I knew it I was in NYC, with a 3-hour layover. That seemed to pass pretty quickly as well, since I had some good reading material, and soon we were boarding for Cleveland. I napped a bit, we landed, and I met my mother at the airport.

The very next day, my friends were getting together to celebrate one Borders employee's last day, which turned out just perfect. I saw everyone I'd been missing, and we had a great time.

On Saturday, I had lunch with Matt at an impressively vegan restaurant called Tommy's up in Lakewood, before heading off to Laura's place to go together to Stefani's show. Stefani was performing at a bar in Lakewood, and I was really excited to have my friends finally hear her music! However, I'd texted her earlier with something along the lines of:

make sure u warm up really well tonite cos I want u to impress my friends <3

No pressure. And granted, Stefani's voice was great on Saturday, but apparently the band hadn't had time to practice her songs much, so there was a strange key change in one song, and timing was off in another, but it was nothing Matt or Laura noticed (or at least they said they didn't notice, he he he).

I'd missed my friends a lot, and it was great getting together with them again. After the show, we stopped at Giant Eagle to pick up booze and a pie, and we had a great night as usual at Laura and Justin's place. Justin was there when we arrived, and I was actually pleasantly surprised that he was excited to see me-- I've always liked Justin, but we never got to hang out much in the past couple of years. He's a good friend-- they're all good friends-- and I'm so happy to have them :D

The next day, Laura had to leave early for work, but Justin, Matt, and I went out for brunch to this amazing authentic little American diner called "John's Diner", and we ate good old-fashioned comfort food. So good! Yes, one of the best parts about being home is going out every other day for delicious American eats! Bottomless coffee and all.

And I'm looking forward to Friday because that means-- Yours Truly! One of our "usual haunts" for a Friday night, with lots of memories of wonderful summer evenings. And the weather has been so summery lately, hopefully we'll get a good blast from the past. I can't wait! Laura and I even agreed to read a short story for the heck of it ;) Oo that reminds me, I need to e-mail Matt and see if he wants to join in on the reading. He's coming too, so that way we can all discuss good fiction.

Stephen, if you're out there-- let me just give you a shout out-- you are sorely missed! I won't go as far as ordering a wrap or a salad in your honor because I hate wraps and salads, but I'll be thinking of you. I've been missing your face in the past week, but we will meet again! Maybe if I pine you'll agree to hike the Appalachian Trail with me one day. Just throwing it out there.

I actually don't want to go back to England. I mean, I do because that's where the other half of me lives, but I am not going to enjoy coming back to a crappy house. My parents' house is just... so nice! And my bed is large and soft, and I'm going to have to abandon my cat again... :(

But! No point worrying about that now! My trip back is weeks away! Ho ho!

What I am worrying about constantly, and will be worrying about with increasing intensity over the coming months, is what I'm going to be doing next year. I applied for a PhD program in Rome, but now they're asking me to send a 3-page research proposal and I'm stuck because I would have to make something up cos I've never studied what they're offering before. I sent my CV already, and a motivation letter, and I've asked for a couple of recommendation letters. So all I have left to do is send my transcripts and this proposal... I don't really feel like I have much of a chance... I mean, it's just realistic-- they only have one fully-funded position for an international student, and my experience is in other things.

The thing IS though, I always hear of PhD students getting into programs that weren't in their 1st interest. Getting into your favorite topic is not always realistic, either-- you take what you can get. So maybe if I come up with a project convincing enough, I'll make it... but I just don't know where to begin. Should I e-mail the program coordinator and ask what projects they WANT their international student to do? Should I really be expected to pull a random project out of thin air and send it along hoping they will be interested in that? I feel like what you're supposed to do is work with the adviser to come up with something you BOTH want to do. That's the problem with the application process for any graduate school... how much of it is you trying to channel the adviser, and you actually communicating with the adviser? I don't know the etiquette-- will they be reluctant to give me any information because they're too busy or have someone else in mind, or... what?

If I don't get into a PhD program, I might be able to get a research position for a year or two... what I think would be great fun, would be teaching at a community college or a regional branch of a university. You only need a Masters degree to teach at those places, and they pay pretty well-- between 45-50,000 a year, mostly. I don't know how the interview process would work, and I know I'd be too late to start teaching at the usual time in the fall because I don't get my degree until September. But maybe if someone likes me enough, they'd let me start late? But I don't have any professional teaching experience..

It seems research assistant is the most likely position I'll get after my Masters, but I don't know how into that I am... it doesn't pay well AT ALL, but I would have a job, and it would be related, at least.

I don't know. My mom put this idea of teaching at the junior college level into my head and it's spread through my brain like a fungus... I feel like this is something I could really enjoy doing.

I guess... we'll see...