I hate how complicated migraines make my life, how useless and weak they make me feel, how insufficient, and how lazy. It doesn't help that I know I have a chronic illness, because on a day-to-day basis it doesn't feel all that incapacitating (after all, I am used to feeling like this), so on a general daily basis I feel like I am lazy, rather than ( Read more... )

 I really do feel I should try and write regular updates again. Of the type that make you guys feel you actually know what is going on in my life. Because, believe it or not, the break-up isn't the only thing on my mind. So here's some of the news ( Read more... )

You are allowed to scroll down to the last (and best!) one and cheer for me :)

1. Societies' Day yesterday was a great success. 96 (!) people signed up for our new society. Of course, not all of them will actually stay a member, but there was sufficient sincere interest for me to think that this is really going to be cool. And I was very social, I ( Read more... )

Do research and write a thesis 
Teach tutorials
Work as a waitress
Learn: Swedish, Sanskrit and Modern Irish
Take a seminar on Aided Derbforgaill taught by the world's expert :)
Give up on the idea of taking a course in the history of the German language and another course on comparative linguistics (come on, Esther, you are supposed to write a thesis, ( Read more... )

It’s time to write a long update on the last couple of weeks, to start with the conference in Bonn. It’s probably not going to be as detailed as I’d like (but probably far too detailed for you to like) and I might fill you in on more details later. My memory of Bonn is hazy, to say the least, so I will use the timetable and the updates of several ( Read more... )

Supposedly other PhD students find it supportive to read  blogs bij other PhD students, which is why I have made a couple of past entries public again and will from now and write some public entries. To show you all you're not alone out there and really, really, it isn't total hell.

Anyway, two more days to go and then I'm off to Bonn. I'm really ( Read more... )

How, for heaven's sake, am I going to choose???

Personal Timetable for Bonn

Bold: want to see for this reason
Italic: Might be interesting for this reason

Monday
9.15-11.30       Opening
12.00                 Tour of Bonn
 14.00-14.30    Feargal Ó Béarra                Late Modern Irish & Dynamics of language change & death
                               ( Read more... )

Sometime very soon I am going to wake up one morning, look in the mirror and find out that I have changed into one of those students who not only join societies, but are active in them or worse, set up a new society. I will probably find that I have also voted in one or other election thingy at university and am about to become president of the ( Read more... )

Not the big one anyway, the one I worked so hard for, the one that would have meant I would no longer have to work. Now it's waiting until August or even September to hear about the smaller one that will certainly solve our financial problems, but  Iwill still need to work.

I know there were plenty of people applying, and I know there were only ( Read more... )

Jay, life is good :)

Friday we had a lovely night with Aoife and her boyfriend Lee, playing Koehandel, which is a great game (turns out to be German, natürlich) that's kinda hard to explain. Basically, you've got to buy animals by bidding for them. Of course the animals each have different worth, since the idea is to get four of each, sometimes the ( Read more... )