Mid-Feb Mid-Course

That's right! Not only is it now mid-February (happy day-after-Valentine's day everybody), but it is also the exact midway point in my time here in Bangor. I've been here for exactly 5 months as of tomorrow, and 5 months from today puts me in the middle of July, by which point I intend to be home. This does all depend on my project and how that goes off (I'll take mine without a hitch, please) so I can't write it in stone that I will be home by then, but I'll do my best to make that happen.

Speaking of project stuff, remember that proposal I've been going on about for weeks? Well, it's DONE. It nearly killed me, but it's in and done. We all worked for about 2 weeks straight on our proposals and I really hope it shows in the finished product. It was due on Friday, and by Wednesday night I was tearing my hair out. A couple of us went out together for a bite to eat that night to clear our heads and none of us could begin to think about coming up with our own dinner, and it was clear we were all in the same boat. Thanks to Bangor's trademark lack of clarity or sufficient information, it proved a little overwhelming to try to figure out for ourselves what exactly this proposal business was supposed to look like. We finally got some slightly more concrete guidelines for the structure of it, but this was a mere week before it was due. A week. That's not much time to wrap your head around a concept and do all the work involved to write up a proposal which alone is worth an entire course for this semester. One document, one shot at it. One class worth. Talk about pressure!

Needless to say, by the time we were finished and it was turned in, we all needed a nap and a night out. And that is exactly what we got. After collapsing for some nice mind-numbing internet tv, Catrin and I went out on our own Friday night for some classier drinks down the hill, and eventually met up with a whole load of friends from our program at the club Octagon. Now normally, that place is kind of revolting and has an overwhelming stench of god-knows-what awful bodily substances that I just can't get past. Friday night however, it was magically unstenchified like they cleaned or something. It was meant to be. So we all had a much-needed fun night out. Saturday night we went out as well, but that was just a calm chill-out type of evening with a couple of friends, nothing wild. The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing as well, involving as little brain function as possible. It was wonderful.

All in all the past week has been a bit of a roller coaster. Some parts extremely stressful, and other parts a whole lot of fun. To be honest, now that it's done I'm really glad that I have my proposal. It may not be the best it can be, but it is done and it took a lot of work. And, as Alejandro said to me earlier, it puts us halfway there. No, it's not worth half of my entire degree program, but it is about half of the work done in the writing of our dissertations. And knowing that some of the hardest parts are already written? That's pretty great. Granted there's still a LOT of work to be done, but it's nice to think the glass is half-full.

So I've made it halfway into February, halfway into my program, and halfway to my dissertation. Happy life half-full everybody!