Eaten by Tapirs

More importantly...

I graduate tomorrow!!!

Not graduate in the sense of actually finishing school, but graduate in the sense that they will fork over a blank sheet of paper simulating an actual diploma! You see, my program finished 6 weeks after everyone else's (just the way of things here) and our theses aren't done. Once that minor 23,000 word hurdle is vaulted, my time here will be complete and my academic career finally, thoroughly, irreversibly over (for now).

Ah, the thesis. I have but 8,000 words left to pen, and each comes slower than the last. But gradually daylight is beginning to creep over yonder hills... I'll be done soon enough. Anybody who actually wants to read the dang thing (80 pages on the evolutionary psychology of suicide terrorism! Joy!) is more than welcome to do so.

But wait- there's more! On Monday I'll start two weeks of intensive Spanish classes, wherein I'll attempt to achieve in 10 meager days what I should have focused squarely on for the last ten months - Spanish fluency. Wish me luck!

Still more! In less than three short weeks I'll make my triumphant return, having exchanged a year and thirty thousand dollars (not counting opportunity cost) for a piece of paper that will hopefully serve me well. I'll be back on July 19th... and starting work on the 20th, oddly enough. The same PR shop that helped fund this trip will thankfully be sponsoring my next one...

... to sunny Thailand! In mid-September, subsequent to Bree and Will's nuptials, I'll be departing for Chiang Mai,Northern Thailand, to begin a job teaching Burmese activists. Good times, and it'll do wonders for my development street cred! But I'll need a new blog name... any suggestions?

Ok, much to do, and graduation starts in 8 hours. Up next - pics! Joy!

posted by Paul @ 10:18 PM