I am once again in grant proposal hell. I know that many of you are in similar positions, or the even harder position of applying for jobs and things, so I won't spend all my time complaining. I just want to say that I hate this time of year. The city of Paris is beautiful and I should get out and see it before all the leaves fall off the trees, but alas I spend my weekdays hiding in the underground library and my weekends freaking out about grant proposals and when I will actually be able to begin writing my dissertation.
On the good side, I wrote the first two sentences of my dissertation yesterday! Of course they were a historiographical overview of a couple of books written by former students of our lovely department, but hey - you've got to start somewhere, right? I had hoped to write another two sentences or so today, but I got sucked into the Flight of the Conchords and the actual reading of documents. Unfortunately I am somehow starting with the hardest chapter to write, which is the opposite of what you are apparently supposed to do. I also already submitted a conference proposal for a paper that will come out of this chapter for next spring, so now I have to write something before I leave for North Africa. Yikes!
I went to the marché biologique (in other words, the very expensive market) down the street this morning and bought a 3 euro mango from an Algerian guy who told me that "Barack Obama is my friend, and George Bush is my enemy." I said "Me too!" and then he shook my hand and left me to pay for my incredibly expensive mango (but not as expensive as the 3 euro bell pepper that somehow slipped in there).
Tomorrow I am going to once again tackle the autobiographical essay for the AAUW. I have given up on it more times than I will admit, but I have to do it tomorrow because on Tuesday we are headed to Berlin for a week to see Knut the polar bear, and I won't have too much time when we get back.
Ok enough blah blahing from me. I am going to go drink a lot of wine and pretend I don't have to get up tomorrow morning.
1 comment:
congratulations!!! first two sentences!! that's a big step...one I need to take on my proposal. You have inspired me, and now I have a goal for tomorrow.
Enjoy the polar bear!
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