25 Days and counting

That's how long it is until I leave for eleven months. Holy moley there's a lot to do between now and then.

Based on the original list of things to do I can say that I've made progress

Dental Appts: Done

Expensive, but necessary. I wanted to get any big problems taken care of before I left. My dentist gave me a prescription toothpaste with extra fluoride, but when I run out of that I'm going to try to find some ACT or the German equivalent while I'm there. With my luck I'll have to get it from the pharmacist. blah....

Meet with Advisor: Done

We talked about my exams, my prospectus, and classes that might be useful while I'm in Germany. He thinks that taking my exams via Skype should be no problem, but we'll see what actually happens when I get there. Ideally I will take my exams at the beginning of October, from Germany, and then write my prospectus and have that done by January. Apparently, the graduate school has specified that you must submit and defend your prospectus withing 3 months of taking your exams. I suppose there's a bit of wiggle room there, but not much. I'll be glad to start focusing on my own work, and to start outlining what will be my dissertation.

Reading for PhD exams: In progress

I've just kept reading and taking notes but now I have a helper monkey. My husband (BookBoy) has offered to type out my hand written notes for works I've already read. This is enormously helpful, because it's seemed a little daunting up until now to get all of those hand written notes on paper. Plus, I spent the better part of 3 weeks working with him in the archives and not on my own stuff, so he owes me. ;) I'm getting to the point where I need to be strategic about what I'm reading. I need to turn in library books before I go, so I'm focusing on the books that I can get from the library, that I probably won't be able to find in Germany, and that I can't find electronically. I can't do that for all of the works, but that's my strategy for the next three weeks.

Making sure my husband doesn't starve: Ongoing

We've been stocking up on dry goods, purchased a shelving system on which to store the reserves, and last week I browned up 5 lbs of beef so that he can add meat to his pasta sauce.