done!!

no, not done writing the thesis...

but done entering the data from the final questionnaire!! 801 initial questionnaires and 635 final questionnaires. not bad at all, i'm quite proud of it! i'm glad to be done entering the stuff because it's just not a whole lot of fun. i also cleaned the data, replaced rarely used languages and countries with "other" and calculated students' ages (thank you excel forumulas!).

i also got the statistical analyses done for the first research question! that's good news. on tuesday, i spent 2 hours with the stats consultant, and i am proud to say that TOGETHER we managed to figure out how to analyze the data for the second and third questions. it's complex but it's doable. the new consultant who's helping me is great, because she knows less than the previous one so she talks things out and we can think aloud together. it's better than when the previous consultant, who knew everything, just said "that's what you need to do" and she would do it and that was it.

i still haven't been able to go back to my chapter 3... but at least i'm writing my chapter 4. sometimes. it might be going somewhere.

i sent two new job applications, one in minnesota and one in washington dc. i am VERY MUCH hoping to hear from the people who interviewed me at mla, because that was a great school! but for now, i'm trying to get ready for new york and canada...

got my visa problems sorted out, it was kind of tricky and i'm stuck here for at least one an a half more years (except if i get a new kind of visa with a job), but at least i can go to canada for a few days.

yeah!!!

got a campus visit in canada with a school i'd LOVE to work for! feb. 10!! very very very exciting!!!

now i need to figure out what i'll do with my american visa, which is expiring in march... might create some serious problems!

ok ok people, what do i NEED to know for campus visits????

what mistake should i not make during a teaching demo? a research presentation? a meeting with the dean? a breakfast with the committee???

aahhh this is soooo cooooool!!!

Other than that, we're almost done entering the data. 37 questionnaires left to enter, then we need to compare our two entries, and then tadahhhh, big statistical analysis!! i'm meeting with the stats consultant tomorrow because what i WANT to do is still not clear to the consultant... it was clear until she spoke to the person who helped me last year and made all the mistakes with the first analyses... anyway, hopefully i'll manage to get the results i need before ... next christmas... ...

i'm also taking care of the NNEST caucus elections (chair and editor) right now, plus i have to make some changes to the article that was just accepted, plus my cat's not doing well at all and needs to have surgery, so i'm a bit busy these days!

horoscope

You're in the zone and can grasp legions of data that would ordinarily stymie a platoon of analysts. It's the perfect time to plan out your next several moves -- either on your current project or in terms of your career.

i am NOT making this up, hahah!

i'm done matching all the questionnaires i got... and i'm still waiting for one school... not done entering the data though...

oh, and this morning i finally reached that one school that wanted to meet with me this thursday for a job interview (i had a wrong number)... they were supposed to tell me if it was a phone interview or if i had to actually go there (new york) and never did... so the lady told me that i had to go there... but was kind enough to change the date of the interview to the 31st. they'll pay for the trip. i don't know if i'll fly in and out on the same day or spend a night there. thank goodness i didn't have to go there on thursday though!

ok, i need to go find a plane ticket now...

funny

i'm still entering data, right now... it never ends! and i'm still waiting from stuff from one school, i'm so mad! anyway, i must already have about 600 final questionnaires, which is good!

so i'm entering, and entering, and entering... some schools didn't make the copies correctly and are missing pages or questions or stuff... the arabic questionnaires are a complete pain, as usual, and one school did copy the questionnaires from back to front, which makes it even more impossible to enter... and then there's the occasional comment from students, mostly about mistakes (especially in spanish, darnit, when i think of the money i spent on those translations!! someone should get sued).

at the end of the questionnaire, i wrote "thank you very much for your help" and a few students have written "you're welcome" which is nice. and then i found this one questionnaire where the student wrote "you're welcome! nice to see you again!" huhuh. it's someone from texas, so not someone i know, but someone who remembered the first questionnaire. it's funny, and kinda cool, and it breaks the routine.

i can't make myself work on revising my chapter 3. i'm blocked. it feels like if i start, it'll never end...

yapediyap

got my big article FINALLY ACCEPTED!!! no, i won't tell you how many times i've tried before it got accepted. as the saying goes: the more you fail, the better your chances are to succeed soon.

happy b'day to me :)

and thanks to everyone for your wishes!

stuck

it had to happen: i'm stuck. i don't want to write, i don't want to enter data, i don't want to talk statistiques, i just don't want to do anything. and i mean, i really don't. i did match initial with final questionnaires on tuesday, though, for three hours, with veronica, but i can't make myself actually enter the data that we matched... let's just hope that this is not going to last.

... ok, maybe it's because i got my chapter 3 back and ... well... i knew it wasn't perfect, but looks like i'll have a LOT of work to do on it and it's very discouraging. and i'm going to have to argue about stuff with my advisor because she thinks i explain things with too many details but my tesol quarterly article was rejected because there weren't enough details, so i'm not making the same mistake twice and i'm going for TONS of details!

i'm going to michigan this weekend, for my b-day, plus my sis is pregnant (first one of the four of us!) so we'll celebrate! hopefully, that'll be a good change of air and i'll get back to work after that!

interviews

i'm not so good at being interviewed. afterwards, i spend entire nights thinking about all the things i should have said and didn't, and all the things i shouldn't have said and did. i don't know how to sell myself. the interview at mla went well, i would LOVE that job and the people were very nice... i don't think i did BAD but i think i could have done much better. if i'm not invited for a campus visit i'll be very dissappointed because i think i'm exactly what they need and they are exactly what i need.

the interview today was awkward... i felt like the interviewer spoke more than i did. plus the questions were tough and i don't think i did too well on some of them. there's no doubt that i'm better at being interviewed in person. i have an interview on the 19th and am not sure if it's going to be on the phone or there... it's far and would be a pain to travel, but at the same time it'd be much better for me.

that school that just interviewed me intrigues me. they decided to interview me even though they had not received the letters of recommendation, had no teaching materials or evaluations from me whatsoever, hadn't seen a single article or writing sample from me, and didn't know about my research grant. why did they choose me?? it was actually nice to speak to the interviewer, she told me some interesting things about their school and program. and i had met someone very nice from their office of international students at nafsa... we'll see.

the worst question, for me, is "how would you teach this course?" it's not that i don't know how i would teach it. it's just that the way i would teach it feels boring and so conventional and my answer is just a list of stuff i would cover... and i'm sure that's not what they want to hear. once i'd be in the classroom and would know the students better, i know i would be a wonderful teacher. but just talking like that about it sounds... well, uninteresting. the toughtest question i had so far was "how would you teach a litterature class and what would you teach?" hah! not my field!!! studied literature 10 years ago!!! i hope i didn't make mistakes with the dates and authors and styles... i think i did. oh well.

i wish i heard from the canadian universities... and kent state and syracuse...

oh, i crossed out one school because i received, YESTERDAY, an email that was sent to me on the 13th of december... asking for additional materials before the 20th or else my file would be closed. i don't know why my email system does that, it's not the first time.