Eaten by Tapirs

With but nine days to go...

I have 17,000 words written on my thesis, the weather is rainy and lovely, and the local social life has become an increasingly maudlin series of farewell parties for departing students. Perhaps two-thirds of the student body have departed, and the remainder are scrambling to wrap up theses. Good times!

Most of the students wrapped up their courses in early May and turned in their theses by the end of June. for these lucky souls, the graduation ceremony and subsequent nifty party were a real turning point. For those of us whose courses ended the week before graduation, and whose theses are due at the end of July, however, the long, anticlimactic month of July has become a bit the downer. Everybody's leaving, we're still slogging through the work, and Ciudad Colon and the University are becoming ghost towns. It's my turn soon enough...I handed in an incomplete draft yesterday, while belatedly realizing that this bloody thesis may be the most intellectually demanding thing I've ever done.

To celebrate my ongoing academic progress. I accomplished nothing of value today. I played videogames, watched Shaun of the Dead and Dodgeball. I earned it, dagnabit! I had four hours of one-on-one Spanish instruction every morning last week, and then slogged through my studies (in accursed English, no less!) in the afternoons and evenings. I spent my Saturday rearranging my incomprehensible 60-page opus into something marginally legible, and finally fired off the draft to my adviser at 1:30 AM this morning. (She leaves for Iraq on Tuesday, hence my rush). I realized as the clock passed midnight that my brain and body whad been grinding to an ugly halt all week... so today, I wasted the entire day! Yay! Totally worth it, too.

Okay, enough of this exceptionally dull post. Back to the grind tomorrow! More news on my return as it looms nearer.

posted by Paul @ 10:41 PM