I have scheduled my Master's thesis defense.
It's a scary and exhilarating idea - to defend my thesis. It means I have to justify why I did the study I did and explain what I found and why it is important. It also means that my last two full years of work haven't been for naught. I'll have something tangible to show for those long days and short nights.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Performing Arts
One perk of being a student at a large public university is the wide variety of performances I have the opportunity to attend. Friday night I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the National Acrobats of the People's Republic of China at KU's Lied Center. Last year I saw Fiddler on the Roof, and later this school year I'll see two Broadway shows - South Pacific and Mamma Mia!, as well as the Celtic Tenors and Mannheim Steamroller. What a year!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
New Bern, NC
This weekend's trip was ... interesting. I'm not sure if there's a better word for it or not.
We traveled to a town on the North Carolina coast named New Bern. It's the birthplace of Pepsi, and during our time there, we got to visit the location of the original pharmacy where Pepsi was first served. I got to buy some Mountain Dew swag! =) In addition to that stop, part of what made this trip neat for me was my current novel. I've been reading the very popular Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. During this trip, I finished the fourth book (Drums of Autumn) and began the fifth book (The Fiery Cross). In both books, the main characters are living in a relatively uninhabited area of pre-Revolution North Carolina. The closest minor town is Cross Creek, and the closest major town is New Bern. The governor of North Carolina is Governor William Tryon, whose palace is a notable historic landmark in modern times. So cool!! How often does it happen that you read a historical novel describing a relatively obscure place, then end up visiting that place while you're reading about it without making explicit plans to do so??
New Bern, like most of the East Coast, had been hit by hurricane Irene last month, so we'd postponed our trip to allow the family some time to recover. Thankfully their house wasn't badly damaged. I won't go into details about the visit itself, but suffice it to say it was exhausting - mentally and physically. To make a long story short, we were not able to make our originally scheduled return flight, which meant we had to wait for the next one. Unfortunately, Delta only has 2 flights per day from New Bern to Atlanta. We were scheduled to take the second one on Sunday. So, we found ourselves stuck in New Bern for an extra day. It wasn't as bad as it could've been - the weather was beautiful and we were able to gather all the data we needed from the family. We just hadn't planned on an extra day away from home. Thankfully, we were able to make a quick Target run to get some necessities. We did make it home safely Monday evening, but for me it meant today's slate of classes was much tougher since I'd been up much of Monday night finishing up the homework I'd planned to have all of Monday to complete.
I guess our trips had been going too smoothly lately. Here's to hoping my next two trips go better than this one did!
We traveled to a town on the North Carolina coast named New Bern. It's the birthplace of Pepsi, and during our time there, we got to visit the location of the original pharmacy where Pepsi was first served. I got to buy some Mountain Dew swag! =) In addition to that stop, part of what made this trip neat for me was my current novel. I've been reading the very popular Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. During this trip, I finished the fourth book (Drums of Autumn) and began the fifth book (The Fiery Cross). In both books, the main characters are living in a relatively uninhabited area of pre-Revolution North Carolina. The closest minor town is Cross Creek, and the closest major town is New Bern. The governor of North Carolina is Governor William Tryon, whose palace is a notable historic landmark in modern times. So cool!! How often does it happen that you read a historical novel describing a relatively obscure place, then end up visiting that place while you're reading about it without making explicit plans to do so??
New Bern, like most of the East Coast, had been hit by hurricane Irene last month, so we'd postponed our trip to allow the family some time to recover. Thankfully their house wasn't badly damaged. I won't go into details about the visit itself, but suffice it to say it was exhausting - mentally and physically. To make a long story short, we were not able to make our originally scheduled return flight, which meant we had to wait for the next one. Unfortunately, Delta only has 2 flights per day from New Bern to Atlanta. We were scheduled to take the second one on Sunday. So, we found ourselves stuck in New Bern for an extra day. It wasn't as bad as it could've been - the weather was beautiful and we were able to gather all the data we needed from the family. We just hadn't planned on an extra day away from home. Thankfully, we were able to make a quick Target run to get some necessities. We did make it home safely Monday evening, but for me it meant today's slate of classes was much tougher since I'd been up much of Monday night finishing up the homework I'd planned to have all of Monday to complete.
I guess our trips had been going too smoothly lately. Here's to hoping my next two trips go better than this one did!
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