Restart?

So...I'm thinking of starting this thing back up. Mostly because I like being able to go back and read about myself ;) But really, with my new interest in pinterest I've been trying out a lot of new and interesting recipes and want to start trying out some sewing/knitting/crocheting projects as well. It will probably only be able to be a once a week thing as I have a lot of other life stuff going on that makes my evenings less free than I would like. But I try to make at least one new thing a week, even if it is just trying cottage cheese with blueberries and cinnamon (which is actually pretty yum. I was surprised). I'm also trying to work on portion sizing in my cooking, so I'll be able to tell you how many servings you should get out of a recipe and how many calories it is per serving. So look for posts on Sunday nights. I hope to start this weekend. I made Banana Pudding Cupcakes last week :)

Back in the USA

Well, I have returned to the US, so that is the end of the regular postings on this blog. I may still put up the odd entry if anything exciting has been going on, but I assume my life will be less exciting in general from here on out, so it won't be worth blogging about. I got home without any excitement. I had a free seat next to me on the plane, so I got to lay down and sleep, which was really nice, but other than that, nothing exceptional. So here are the pictures from the last few days I spent in England. I have a new American number now, so if you don't have it send me an email and I'll give it to you. Take care and hopefully I'll get to see you soon!

Megan

Last Week in England

Wow. This is my last week in England. Next Sunday at 1:30 I will be back in Green Bay, WI. I can't believe it's over. I will be sad to leave all the friends I've made here, the rational political mindset and the general hatred for Rupert Murdoch and Faux News.

Well, this past week I basically just spent working on my dissertation. I finished a pretty good draft yesterday. It is 59 pages long, including a crazy amount of graphs, pictures and tables, but not yet including the appendices which will be quite long. I plan to get those set up today and start to put the table of contents together. So if I have any volunteers out there to do a read through I'd like to hear from you :) Anyway, I hope to be done with the editing by the end of Monday and do a final read through on Tuesday before printing it and taking it to the binder's. Then I will have a few days to do fun things before I leave. I still want to climb Maiden Castle, so maybe that can happen.

Well, I suppose that's about all the news I have. I plan to go around and take some pictures of campus and Bournemouth this week before I leave so I'll put those up either by the end of the week or early next week after I'm back in the US. Have a great week and wish me luck for the printing of this monster. Bye!

My neighbor is Mary Shelley

Well, better late than never, right? This is mostly just to put up the link for the photos from last week. And Mary Shelley, of Frankenstein fame, is buried in the cemetery behind where I live. Kind of cool to find out. Mostly I've just been working on my dissertation all the time. I'm editing the beginning parts now and will be starting to write the discussion and conclusion sections this afternoon and hopefully finishing them tomorrow so that the entire thing can be edited this weekend and then printed and turned in early next week. Wish me luck! Here are the photos.

Three Weeks Left

Well, only 3 weeks left in England before I turn in my dissertation and go back to the US. The paper is coming along pretty well and I have pretty much proved what I set out to do. So that is something, although it just means that all of my graphs and statistical tests just tell me that there are no differences between the groups that I am testing, which gets old.

This week I went to London with a friend. We wanted to see an exhibit at the National Gallery about fakes and frauds in paintings. It was a really cool exhibit and by the end we were able to see some of the problems with the paintings, but realized that you would have to really be an expert in one painter to really suspect that a painting was or wasn't by that person. After the museum we went out to Hampton Court Palace. We had to take a train about 30 minutes outside of London, but it was a really cool place to see. I have pictures but I haven't gotten them onto my computer yet, so when I get them up I'll put the link on here. We saw Henry VIII get married and saw the apartments of William III(?), a Mary, and Henry VIII. They also had some beautiful gardens and the world's largest grape vine. They also had a hedge maze that we went through. The day was going really well until we got off at the wrong tube stop on the way home and then missed our bus. We had to buy a new ticket home and it cost us more than the round trip that we had originally purchased. So that was crap, but overall the day was nice.

Thursday I packed and cleaned all day and then Friday was moving day. We had to check out of the place we've been staying all year and then move into the new place in Bournemouth. It took two trips to move all of my stuff and I'm going to have to make some decisions about things to throw away before coming home, but for now I'm all moved in to the new place and can just work on my paper with no other distractions about moving and such. So I suppose that is all from me for now. When I get the pictures up I'll post again. Have a great week and I'll talk to you later.

Oh Dear....

Well, we just finished the last full week in August. I thought that I was way ahead of the game, but now I'm not so sure. I have about half the length of my paper written, but it is in rough shape. I've started the results section, but as I haven't actually done the statistical tests yet there is only so much that I can say along those lines. So this week will be a hardcore week of maths. I must get the statistics done so that I can finish writing the paper the following week and then have a week for editing and then a week for printing and binding and hand-in and drinking and then I'll be back in the US. Crazy!

So this week was another rather boring one. I spent Monday and Tuesday at school working. Wednesday I stayed in Poole and went to a pub in the morning and then the local library in the afternoon to work. I have to be out of my flat to get any work done, but I don't like having to go to school everyday, so I try to change it up a bit now and then. Thursday I was back at school.

Friday one of my flatmates was leaving to go home, so I stayed home so that we could clean the flat. It took a few hours, but we scrubbed out the oven and washed out the refrigerators and most of the cupboards. So now we just have to try to keep it fairly clean so that there isn't too much to do on Friday when the last two of us leave. The other two leave on Monday.

Friday night I also had dinner with my friends. It was kind of an anything you have left party, so I made chinese bbq ribs again as I still had a few in the freezer from when my parents were here. We also had mac and cheese and salad and apple pie. It was a really nice night.

Yesterday I did some more studying in the morning and then wandered around the shops with a friend for awhile. Then I made chicken tacos for dinner with a few friends as I had some taco seasoning and chicken. So that was another nice dinner. After dinner my other friend came over as she had just gotten back from Denmark where she was looking at skeletons for her dissertation. It sounds like she had a really nice time there and we had a really nice time hanging out. It is starting to get sad that I will probably never see some of these people again. Some that won't be so bad, but others I will really miss.

I am also now expected to make a trip to Asia at some point to visit my friends in India. I am very scared of Asia, so that will be a challenge for me. I don't know why I have a fear of Asia, but I do. At least I would have some chaperones in India though, so I guess it will be okay. I'll just have to start saving money as it is super expensive to get a plane ticket there.

Today I am packing in the morning and then going to a cafe in the afternoon with a friend to get some work done, hopefully. Tomorrow is a bank holiday, so the library won't be open. I may just lay out all my work on the living room floor and start my giant math undertaking...we shall see. Wish me luck.....

Also, we are look for the word one would use to describe when you have been on a quest and you are done with it. What would you say? I have ____ my quest. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Have a nice week.

Sorry

Sorry this is late, but I really don't have much for you this week. I spent almost the entire week at the library. I got my outline approved by my adviser and started writing. I am at almost 5000 words of 15000. I think it will end up being too long, but I'll just edit it down at the end. I feel like I'm in a pretty good place at the moment and plan to do a lot of writing this week so that next week I can have my advisers read a few parts of it and get some feedback. Hopefully I will be able to finish it then in the next few weeks so that I have another couple of weeks to work on the formatting and verb tenses...blah!

I went to the Bournemouth airshow this afternoon, but it was rained out...so that was disappointing, but I had a nice coffee/lunch with some friends. I guess that's all I have. Sorry to bore you to death. Have a great week!