I'm so excited to see everybody again. It's kind of unreal how fast the time flies. I've been meaning to blog but I've been absolutely swamped with work. I spent this past weekend in the study room on the 5th floor, basically holed up for 9 hours a day on my laptop just TYPING and reading. And you know what sucks? That NONE of it was for my Chinese classes! Ugh. Insert rant here... Basically I am so concentrated on the "Cities In Transition" course study that I haven't got time to review the new Chinese vocab and grammar structures that I'm learning every week . I'm studying the Baotu Springs for my site, and it's really intricate, extensive, and time-consuming. It's fascinating and I like what I'm doing, but I guess I didn't expect it to take this much time out of my life here in Jinan. It's gonna be worth it, though, because my final project is frickin' sweet and my fieldnotes are awesome. (brag brag brag). These next 10 days are going to be riotous hell, though. There are the things I need to do before I leave Jinan:
- Get Mary and Sage to figure out their pet shipping/travel plans because they need to ship Link to California! Therefore I need to basically hold onto him until they figure out what they're doing with... this whole thing.
- Packing! Oh shit! Packing! This shouldn't be that bad seeing as I think I'll still be able to pack everything up (aka) I didn't buy that much shit here in Jinan.
- Study for THREE CHINESE FINALS! Since I'm leaving on December 20th, before the actual Shandong semester ends, I have to take my finals earlier. This sucks because: a) I have so much other shit to do and b) I have so much other shit to do and c) I have SOOOO much shit to do.
- Buy gifts for friends! I guess I can do this in Hong Kong, too. (This is not important, but it's self explanatory, and also something I want to do. But on my list of priorities, this is kind of next to remembering to put on makeup. So it's not high on my list AT ALL.)
- Cities In Transition Work: I still have approximately 2 major assignments (meaning pages upon pages of fieldnotes, questions, and analysis ... each.) to polish up and send in to Natalie (because my fieldwork has taken so long to condense and organize), wait for her comments and suggestions, and then start on the final project progress report. (Which is a whole 'nother huge bucket of worms.)
- The Final Project Progress Report: Basically what this entire semester abroad boils down to. It's a 1,500 word minimum essay, another 1,000 word minimum essay, and entire compilation of ALL the fieldnotes (I have like... journals full) I've done on the Baotu Springs, several appendices, bibliographies, and I also have to remember to bring home hard copies/ evidence (like tickets, reciepts, pamphlets, news articles that I should've amassed in my time studying the Springs)....THIS THING IS GOING TO BE HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL! I am pretty optimistic about the direction I'm going with this project (I'm actually kind of proud of myself at the moment... we'll see how I feel in about a week when it's REALLY CRUNCH TIME.) so the only thing I'm scared about is the time that I have to do this, and all of the ABOVE things I've mentioned.
- I was thinking of applying for a Kappa Delta Appointed Position of SET Leader, but I'm pretty sure I missed the deadline. I'm also trying to consider everything next semester with classes and shit... it may be a bad idea.
- I also have to do buttloads of surveys and course evaluations for this past semester. Eep! More paperwork! Fuck!
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I haven't completely lost my sanity, though. Things are okay. My friends are all battling their own demons alongside me so we're all in this shit together. I'm going to be so sad to leave them!! :( Jinan has really grown on me! I'll post later and keep you guys updated on this crazy crazy crazy crazy next week and a half!!!
<3
