Farewell 2010

What a year 2010 has been.  My first full calendar year as a graduate student.  This year I took a class during the summer for the first time in my educational career.  I traveled on 20 different trips to 12 different states, several of them more than once.  I attended my first research conference.  I began work on my master's thesis.

I was thankful that I was able to be with my family for Christmas this year.  Though the 600-mile drive home was long, it was worth it to see my parents, my brother, my grandparents, my aunts, & my cousins (including the in-law).  I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with them on Christmas evening.  It's great to be at home because I get to eat such good home-cooked food, this time prepared by my brother.  After a week of holiday relaxation, I made the 600-mile drive back to Lawrence.  When I got back to my apartment, I opened a beautiful letter from a friend from college talking about how much she appreciated and admired me.  I was astounded.  It was the perfect ending to my holiday celebrations. 

And now, bring it on 2011!!

Christmas Tree

Quick study break.

I got a Christmas tree this afternoon.  My first tree not with my family.  It was fun to drive it home on top of my car!  I've still got work to do tonight, so the tree is currently sitting on my balcony chillin' out until I can decorate it during MNF tomorrow night.  I had to get a stand and lights and everything.  Last year I bought some ornaments when they were ridiculously on sale, so my tree won't be decorated in just lights.

Okay. Gotta get back to work.

Caught between Thanksgiving & Christmas

Here we are. In that month (exactly a month this year) between two huge holidays involving travel, family, food, friends, gifts, and thankfulness.  And in which a semester must end, which means that students across the country are frantically trying to finish assignments amidst the "hustle and bustle" of commerical Christmas and parents demanding to know when their children will return home.  Of course, at the same time we all try to fight off the colds & flus that threaten to knock us down.

I've had a busy few weeks.  The BUCLD at the begninng of November, then watching the Monon Bell game (in which DePauw fell completely apart) in Kansas City, then a double trip to southern California, then driving home (and back) for Thanksgiving, and of course the usual lab and homework responsibilities.  No wonder I'm tired.

BUCLD

I'm about to go to my first research conference.  I'll be attending the Boston University Conference on Language Development this weekend.  One of the girls in my program will be presenting her research.  Noam Chomsky will be one of the speakers for the Society of Language Development's annual Symposium! 

I'm really excited but also a little nervous.  I do a ton of traveling, but most of my trips are short (i.e. less than 2 days) and we always get a rental car.  Neither will be true this weekend.  I'll be there three full days.  I won't rent a car, so I'll be taking public transportation, a taxi, or walking.  Believe it or not, I've never taken a taxi before!

Newest GRA's first visit

My Halloween weekend consisted of going on a trip with our newest GRA.  It was her first real assessment and she'd never flown before!!  I was very glad there were no surprises in terms of travel.  The assessment itself went very smoothly.  We got to see a cute kid with a wonderful family and beautiful house in the suburbs of Chicago.

Thankfully we were only going to Chicago so it wasn't an especially long or bumpy flight.  Turns out she loves flying!  She also enjoyed staying an extra day to see her family.  She hadn't been home since she moved to Lawrence, so she was very excited to see her family and dog and house and such.  I could relate - I remember feeling that way about the same time last year.

On Saturday we finished in plenty of time for me to make my flight, so after I dropped her off with her family I went shopping at the Woodfield mall.  I needed some dressy clothes for my next adventure: my first conference!  It was nice to have a couple hours to wander around such a huge mall, especially knowing I could buy something if I liked it!  It helped, too, that I knew I could put anything I bought in the lab's suitcase to get it back home, so space wasn't an issue at all.

All in all, it was one of the better trips I've had lately.