I'm back in Newcastle now, thank goodness, and getting back to real life. Turned my paper in yesterday and basically collapsed flat the rest of the day. Pulled my first real totally-all-nighter since like freshman year, but it got done in the nick of time (some tech problems had us scrambling right up til 11:30 when I had to leave to get it in for the 12 deadline). I'm not super pleased with the paper, but I did my best, just had a lot of setbacks.

I have my dissertation proposal due the 10th, so a couple days left to figure out what to do, and write it up. I'm interested in looking at how the cultural tension between Catholics and Protestants is portrayed in Glasgow museums, but that would involve a lot of travel to and staying in Glasgow, to do research, and the very cheapest possible tickets would be like 60-70 pounds, plus staying in a cheap hotel for at least one night per trip, because the train schedule wouldn't really let me get a full day of work. I think it could be potentially interesting (although, really, I don't know if they DO portray that tension, they might totally overlook it, although I guess I could write about that too... I don't know). I'm having a debate with myself about if I want to try this or not.

What I put on my proposal is flexible, it's really just to get your professor assigned who will work with you on your dissertation, but I don't want to change it completely, our professors have made it clear we should have a good thought out idea. I liked the Glasgow idea, up until I looked at the train prices.

It's nice to be home, but just unpacking out bags, doing laundry, etc, makes the room even worse than when we left, and it never really got done. But, after my dissertation proposal's in, and before I have my first supervisor meeting, I have a couple days in which to clean and organize the room, catch up on sleep, do everything.

I will be making phone calls soon, I had some fraud on my skype account and had to shut it down, but I'll set it back up and top up my minutes soon.  But thank everyone for my christmas and birthday presents and cards! I had them waiting for me when I got home, it was wonderful! <3

Back again soon <3 Hugs!