Really really struggling to keep up now. It’s kind of crunch time, what with it being 7 weeks into the semester (i.e. all those little things I’ve left till later are now meeting their laters), and I’ve got two presentations to give next week. Thankfully one of them is pretty much sorted, did it last week. Now it’s just a case of writing a script for the other one that’s to be given in Japanese next Thursday. I’m not particularly worried about it, it’s just all the hassle of having to ‘learn my lines’ etc. Have got the actual Powerpoint done, took a few hours this afternoon; I’m pleased with the result. Will hopefully take everyone’s minds off my appalling grammatical errors etc.
Nearing the last leg of my stint as Japan Soc secretary, thank god, as I spend endless hours sorting through emails and attempting to come up with some voting system for this years committee election. It’s been a right headache, I can tell you, and I am so glad that in a few weeks I can remove that imap email account from Outlook! (Or can I? Will I be able to let go? Will my replacement check the account once every 60 seconds all hours of the day as I have done since October 2004?) (sadly that is not an exaggeration!)
Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great, and I am so so glad I took the post about 18 months back. I’ve gained so much through Japan Soc – uni life without it would have been in a completely different league, in an incredibly dull sense. Being part of the organising committee has really helped me feel absolutely at home here, made me feel like a member of uni staff in a way, which is what I always wanted – I loathe staff/student type barriers, and one of my goals before I started at uni was to get on the other side of the fence as quickly as possible. This policy has been a remarkable success, benefitting a great deal too from the approachable nature of (nearly) all staff at SEAS. Being a ‘mature’ student helps too, ridiculous though it is to apply that term to someone with a libido like mine. I’m sooooooo glad I didn’t ‘do uni’ when I was young and insecure!
ooohh in one of those moods are we?
Yes, well, you’d be too if you’d just superglued your fingers to your favourite bowl , your favourite bowl that was given to you for your brithday by a precious friend two years ago. Dropped it in the bathroom, hairline fracture. Tried to eat porridge in it – it leaked. There was only one thing to be done – break it completely so it could be glued back together. No problems there, until I forgot that superglue has a habit of welding itself to almost any surface – thus the nice patch of skin now attached to the outer surface of afore-mentioned bowl.
*Cough* has been an angel, despite having had a very hard time herself lately.
I’ll be so glad when this semester is over. I’m still enjoying it, but it’s just starting to reach the stage when the workload is such that the enjoyment is being pushed to the back of the shelf. It’s true, we have a 3-week Easter ‘holiday’ as of 1st April – but in that time I have two essays for uni to write, a story for the Austalian mag I write for to pen, and all those bloomin kanji to learn for the test that follows right after that. Oh, and a deep bed to make (I’m looking forward to that bit!)
Ok, enough winging, best get on.
xxx