haven’t updated in a while so here’s a catch up…
yesterday i booked a flight to brisbane which is about a2 hr flight from here in the state of queensland. brisbane is often called brisVegas so we shall see. at least it will be warm!!! probably sunny & mid 20s/70s instead of the grey rain and cold (it was supposed to be near freezing last nite but normally it’s in the 13/55) of melbourne winter.
the trip is to attend a conference, going virtual: the future of work (if you don’t know.. my thesis is about virtual teams). last monday i had a wonderful conversation with the research director (or whatever her title is) where i asked for some money for this and she informed me they don’t even have much money for PhD students so there’s none for masters students. although she did agree this conference was perfect for me to attend. so i’ve decided to fund it myself.
i also handed in my PhD application last week. yeah, u heard that right. i’m pretty pissed off about the way this thesis is handled at my school (‘oh, it’s wonderful, it’s great, the research you do is worth 50-60k on the open market’ but then there’s no support at all and an unrealistic time frame) and i heard about this scholarship so i applied. i’ve been told there’s only 6 of us so keep ur fingers crossed. i’d really like to do this research properly … i’ve scaled back what i want to do soooooo much for the thesis.
last wednesday i went cross country skiing for the first time. i stayed up til 5am so i could get work done (had 2 assignments due last week), had a couple hours sleep and then a 2 hr drive to the snow. here they say they’re going ‘to the snow’, not going skiing or snowboarding. its kinda funny but i guess since it never snows in melbourne it makes sense. like if u said u were going to the snow in nyc, that might mean walking outside the apt.
anyway, it was fun. i’ve never been on skis before and was expecting to break a bone so i was a bit freaked out at first. we took a lesson which was great. ended up being the 2 of us and the instructor who’s from england and follows the snow (freak). the lesson lasted an hour and by the time it was almost over i was feeling fairly confident (had fallen only once n that was when i first put the things on). i wasn’t confident enough to go off w/o the instructor so i decided to go down the mountain (um, it was a hill. there was nothing mountain like at this place) with the instructor. i ended up falling 3 times but that’s because i was confident enough to go pretty fast (he even commented that i didnt seem to be afraid of speed) even on the turns.
but it was fun. i’d def do it again.
and then i just worked or sat in front of the computer and worked the rest of the week and pretty much all wknd.
oh… speaking of the plane… here’s a shocker for everyone… this will be the first time since i’ve arrived in melbourne (18 months ago) that i’ll be on a plane. yes… travel addicted me hasn’t been on a plane. really weird…