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February 08, 2005
Catching Up
I've been slacking in my journal lately—not for any good reason, just that I've been doing other stuff. I spent a huge number of hours last week reviewing almost a hundred sustainability reports from the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) website. Then, after having a two hour meeting with our project leader, we have revamped our thesis proposal to largely eliminate the work I've done. Part of me is irritated at time lost, but I remember a similar feeling during my other M.A. program. Once I got over the fact that the focus of the research changed, I was better off having dumped the old research. So when Ronan and I meet tomorrow afternoon, I will try to focus on how to make the most of our shift in emphasis.
I was also supposed to have a conference call with the GRI people today, but my main contact was sick. So I suppose we will just reschedule for later in the week. It will be very helpful to sort out what type of information we can get from them, and also where we can add value to their organization.
I went to a Superbowl party last night at Kristoffer's house. I was the only one cheering for the Eagles (I felt that someone should be on their side), so I was sad when they lost. We didn't get to see any American commercials, since they overlaid the same three Swedish commercials during every programming break. The party started at 7 p.m. with a kick-off time of 12:30 a.m. The game ended at roughly 4:30 a.m., which was unfortunate because there were no taxis running at the time. Because I had come straight from school, I didn't have my bike and was forced to walk the 2 miles home in the freezing weather (it was -4 degrees Celsius) by myself. OK, to tell the truth, I was encouraged to stay over with some friends until the buses started running, but I was determined to sleep in my own bed. And it was totally worth it. Sleeping on other people's couches is just not my idea of a good time.
Yesterday afternoon (before our thesis meeting with the program leader, and before the subsequent Superbowl party), we had a Girls' Spa Day in the basement of our school building. We got the keys to the sauna, set up a couple tables with spa products, and enjoyed a variety of spa snacks (ranging from the very healthy fruit platter that Renee brought to the pile of candy bars that Roya procured). Nearly a dozen of the girls from our program came, and we spent a fun couple of hours doing all the grooming we had neglected for the past 4 months. In the end, we decided that there was too much work to be done, and that we would need to schedule a regular spa day for continuous upkeep.
What else have I been doing? This whole entry is totally out of order, but rather than spend a lot of time organizing it into a coherent chronology, I'll just write it all down and be done with it.
I am getting really excited about my trip to Oslo, which will take place February 24-28. Trish and I will spend a couple days visiting the fjords, and I'll spend a day on my own taking in the Oslo scene. Scotty has been so kind as to give me a whole list of things to see and do, although I'll have to pare it down given the time constraints.
On the budget front, I have been keeping good track of my expenditures. I realized that my main problem here in Sweden is that I'm operating on a cash-only basis. I have always been terrible at keeping track of my cash expenditures, so I've resorted to taping a couple pieces of paper to the wall, where I write down what I've spent at the end of each day. It's been about two weeks, but so far, so good.
I also got a great new haircut. Laura came over to give Jess a haircut last week, and I spontaneously decided that I needed a new look. Actually, I've gone back to an old look, but one that I think is very flattering. It's still long enough to put in a ponytail, but there are shorter pieces in the front (like long bangs) that sort of frame my face. I would post a picture, but I seem to have misplaced my camera battery charger, so no pictures for a while.
Things are kind of weird with no regular classes. This past week I've been swamped with thesis work, and I assume that will continue as the weeks progress. But now that we are changing our methodology, I'm not sure what to expect. I'm also working on a writing project with a couple of other students. This week we're focusing on the idea of leadership. Normally, I'd post this sort of thing, but since our goal is to get published at the end of the project, I think I'll hold off. I'm still in the very rough stages of the paper (which will ultimately be about 10 pages long), but it's really interesting to see how my thinking has evolved over the course of several days of writing. I'm eager to see everyone else's initial efforts, as I think we will approach it very differently.
I've also been reading a lot. I've finished Margaret Atwood's "Lady Oracle" and have moved onto her "Bodily Harm". She is one of my favorite writers (I know I've written about her in the past) and I'm sad to realize that I've now read more than half of her stuff. Soon I'll need to find another fantastic writer to scour the library for.
And now, looking ahead to the agenda for this week:
* Meet with Ronan and review our thesis proposal. Figure out a new methodology and divide up the work. Set a new schedule for project completion and arrange a new time to meet with the GRI people. Rewrite the proposal and submit for approval.
* Figure out travel plans—do I really want to come back home for a couple weeks? I probably should be taking this time to see Europe (or will I do that this summer after the program is over?), but I will be able to get more work done by going home and working during the day and seeing friends at night. Going home for a couple weeks will also give me the opportunity to set up some job interviews. But it will be a lot of money, money that I should save for later.
* Laundry. I'm going back to the crappy laundry facilities in the hope that I can get a couple loads of sweats (ahh, happy sweatshirts!) washed and dried during our regularly scheduled laundry day. If not, I'll need to borrow the key to the "special" laundry facilities again.
I think that's about it. It's 3:30 a.m. (I've fallen into my typical thesis-writing schedule of working from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. with some regularity) and I should get to sleep since I have to be downtown at 3 p.m. for my meeting with Ronan and grocery shopping must be done before then.
