Still alive!
Sorry to drop off the face of the earth again -- December's always chaotic beyond belief. I'm back home as of this evening and am more exhausted than I've been for a very long time.
Successfully survived a 22-credit semester and did quite well, all things considered. Never again, though. I don't think I've gotten more than four hours of sleep a night for the past week, but (almost) everything is done. It's out of the frying pan and into the fire now that I'm back, though. I've got three seperate projects to complete over break and a heck of a lot of prep work to do before Switzerland.
I'm not sure I ever posted about it officially, but I am, in fact, going to be in Europe next semester. I'll be based out of southern Switzerland but will be spending a fair amount of time in Germany, Italy, and France as well. I've got a semester-long project on European nuclear policy to keep me entertained, so expect enthusiastic rants about science and culture and possibly Cherenkov radiation. I am extremely excited and also extremely nervous about this whole affair.
I am also apparently going to Ghana, as I learned, er, yesterday. One of the professors who's traveling with us on the Switzerland trip is Ghanaian and wished to take us all to his home country for a week, which is brilliant, but I really wish I had a little more than one day's notice (I am not exaggerating at all here) to fill out and mail a visa application and start scheduling doctor's appointments for vaccinations, the latter of which I am especially not looking forward to. Oh, and I will need anti-malarials, which are a thing I really was hoping I'd never have to deal with, based on horror stories from some of my buddies in the wildlife department. Friendly tip: stay the hell away from Lariam. (I'm getting doxycycline. Everything should be fine, but still. One of my classes had an entire unit on blood parasites, and even the thought of plasmodium makes my skin crawl.)
I really don't like moving out. A large chunk of my friend group is scattering across the globe in the spring, and while it's obviously very exciting, it's also bittersweet. These people are my family and I am really going to miss them. I know I'll only be gone for a semester, but I've got quite a few senior friends who'll be graduating in the spring who I had to bid farewell this morning. Exam stress plus emotional wobbliness led to a few near-weepathons from all parties on the hall. Sigh.
I should get to bed, as I am incredibly overtired, but you can expect to see me a little more active in the upcoming weeks. LJ's not going quiet on my watch.
Successfully survived a 22-credit semester and did quite well, all things considered. Never again, though. I don't think I've gotten more than four hours of sleep a night for the past week, but (almost) everything is done. It's out of the frying pan and into the fire now that I'm back, though. I've got three seperate projects to complete over break and a heck of a lot of prep work to do before Switzerland.
I'm not sure I ever posted about it officially, but I am, in fact, going to be in Europe next semester. I'll be based out of southern Switzerland but will be spending a fair amount of time in Germany, Italy, and France as well. I've got a semester-long project on European nuclear policy to keep me entertained, so expect enthusiastic rants about science and culture and possibly Cherenkov radiation. I am extremely excited and also extremely nervous about this whole affair.
I am also apparently going to Ghana, as I learned, er, yesterday. One of the professors who's traveling with us on the Switzerland trip is Ghanaian and wished to take us all to his home country for a week, which is brilliant, but I really wish I had a little more than one day's notice (I am not exaggerating at all here) to fill out and mail a visa application and start scheduling doctor's appointments for vaccinations, the latter of which I am especially not looking forward to. Oh, and I will need anti-malarials, which are a thing I really was hoping I'd never have to deal with, based on horror stories from some of my buddies in the wildlife department. Friendly tip: stay the hell away from Lariam. (I'm getting doxycycline. Everything should be fine, but still. One of my classes had an entire unit on blood parasites, and even the thought of plasmodium makes my skin crawl.)
I really don't like moving out. A large chunk of my friend group is scattering across the globe in the spring, and while it's obviously very exciting, it's also bittersweet. These people are my family and I am really going to miss them. I know I'll only be gone for a semester, but I've got quite a few senior friends who'll be graduating in the spring who I had to bid farewell this morning. Exam stress plus emotional wobbliness led to a few near-weepathons from all parties on the hall. Sigh.
I should get to bed, as I am incredibly overtired, but you can expect to see me a little more active in the upcoming weeks. LJ's not going quiet on my watch.