I have just finished my first paper (sing the Halleluyah chorus)  One down and just 22 to go by April 16th. January and February have some things due, but come March I have on average 3 papers due weekly (and two weeks have 4 assignments due). Hunker down, be focused, and forget about recreational reading for the immediate future, or recreation period! I am thinking like the little engine that could...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

With the Super Conference coming up I have had to go to my instructors and make arrangements to miss their classes. They have the option of giving me additional assignments or readings, I am keeping my fingers crossed that they opt for the readings.

I have learned that I can never turn off the heater in my room. I had thought that I would have it turn off around 1am, and by then I could enjoy a good sleep. Wrong, not only does the cold wake me up, but I am reluctant to leave the relative warmth of the covers to turn the heater back on. Similarly, I thought I could work down here during the day and be fine. When I realized that my fingers were so stiff that typing was difficult, I decided it was worth having the electric bill slightly higher and me more comfortable.

It is interesting. Having been in education for the past 20 years, I find that I am comfortable with edubabble, I can read it, I can understand it and I can even spew it out. Arriving here, immersing myself once again in the academic world, I am finding I need a dictionary. A new babble to understand, master and spew forth. This time around it is a little more challenging, perhaps I am less intellectually agile, perhaps a litlle more lazy, or perhaps I care more this time around than I did in my undergraduate years, but I really want to understand and be part of the conversation. So I am reading, re-reading and talking about the course syllabus. Along with two others, we have formed a study group to make sense of the most challenging of the work -from the course on Perspectives on Library and Information Science. In my undergraduate years I would never have considered this seriously. I guess I can finally count myself as grown up.

More later,
Peggy