dreams...

i think the nobel prize of cooking should be invented just for me. when i graduate, i'll close this blog (after i write an article on "how i survived graduate school") and open a cooking blog! when i'll retire, i'll marry a rich man who will open a restaurant for me in "le vieux." it'll be called keskon riz and we'll serve tons of vegetarian dishes (and others too), and all the dishes will contain rice in one form or another! haha, feels good to dream ;)

entirely finished writing about my research questions 1, 2, and 3. done. finished. byebye! i'll meet with margie tomorrow to discuss the last two questions, the job search, the defense, graduation, etc. i miss her, i'm sad that she is on sabbatical during my last semester... but i guess it forces me to be more independent, which is good. i still miss saying hi from time to time and speaking french and german and dutch with her... it's thanks to her that i didn't give up and that i'm graduating after only 4 years.

other than that, i got a phone call this afternoon inviting me to a campus visit... during tesol. i said i'm awfully sorry can we do this another time and they said ok, the following week. i checked the plane tickets (the place is about as remote as pocatello, idaho!): nothing below twelve hundred dollars, so even if i'm reimbursed later, i don't see how i could pay that much up front! talking about reimbursements, i finally got new york's and that will allow me to rent a car in tampa (because i'm staying with my sister's in-laws who live 45 minutes away from downtown).

it feels really good to be "wanted." getting the tirf grant really validated the importance of my research and showed me that what i know and what i am doing is important and valuable. this job search is doing the same thing. oh, and one kid in the esl phd program asked me today when i'd be done with my article about dealing with multiple IRBs because he needed it urgently. huhuh. i never thought ANYONE would ever get interested in that! (haha, i checked on google.ca what IRB stands for, in case my canadian visitors wonder what i'm writing about. ironically, it stands for canadian immigration and refugee board. i'm writing about the institutional review board, more commonly called the committee on the use of human research subjects). i guess i'll finish this article sometime during the summer... maybe...

i wished the tornado sirens would stop! we've had them practically all day today and right now we have a monster storm... i need to get out of the midwest soon, before i fly away with the roof!