Still here!

Sorry, this first month has been a bit rough!!

But, no worries. I'll be back again soon with an update.

FYI: today we went to a cider mill, 'cause we wanted to 'do something fall-y' :)

School TIME!

Today was the first day of class and I think it went pretty well.

My first FIRST class was a seminar on graduate school life, specifically the department and the state of the field. I think it should be pretty interesting.

The second course is on foreign policy and I'm REALLY excited about it. The readings seem good, the prof seems knowledgeable/engaging, and the material sounds like fun. I'm excited for next week!

I'm still pretty nervous about the rest of this week--I'm worried (what?! that's new and different...not) about my workload. We'll see.

On the plus side, got to meet the university president today. Two other students and I went over during an open house :)

More later :)

This is IT!

My last week before GRADUATE school! Math camp finished up today--I'm glad I went to meet the other incoming students, but most of it was review. However, it was nice to feel like I actually know *something* !!

Later this week I'm heading out to a conference, which I'm pretty pumped about. I like conferences for some reason, although it'd be nice if I could knit while there :)

As I'm getting ready to start classes, I'm trying to get everything together and organized for the semester and beyond. My knitting/xmas list has definitely suffered as of late, so I really need to get the ball rolling. I thought that I'd knit myself one more selfish thing before I started on my xmas list, but I'm definitely stalled!! Oh well. I'm hoping inspiration will strike soon.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about starting this semester. I'm glad I was here for the summer to get used to the area and settled in our house, but I'm a bit nervous for classes to begin. At first, I thought graduate school would be the mental equivalent of rocket science, but so far my summer courses have seemed very manageable. Not easy, but definitely something I could do!

I'm hoping to post semi-frequent updates about life over the course of the semester. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to study and what type of career I think would be right for me. This will be a start to a long journey...wish me luck!

Exciting

Am turning in my fellowship app tomorrow. Good riddance!
Now, on to the writing sample!!

My work companion decided to not come in today--I'm a bit jealous, but appreciative of the peace and quiet in which I am now working :) --and I've gotten quite a bit done. I started my WS for (what must be) the 15th time last night and have nearly 3 single-spaced size 11 font pages with 1" margins. My goal is 12-15 pages double spaced, size 12. (I would love 15, but am willing to settle on 12.)

Goals for this week:
today: NSF, WS
Tues: WS (5 pg ss, sz 11)
Weds: WS (6 pg ss, sz 11)
Thurs: revise WS
Fri: Huz revise WS
Sat: Phil prof revise WS, praise my insight (haha)
Sun: get frustrated and rewrite large portion of WS
... Sat: final version to Phil Prof

I'm not sure why writing this thing has been so painful. I've spent most of my summer/fall being frustrated at myself for my failure to produce clear writing that puts forth ideas. However, now I just need something to send places. Preferably something that doesn't make me look like a blathering idiot, although at this point, I can't be too picky.