Lauren Goes Loonier
So today was the very last day that I had to sit in a lecture theatre and get talked at by faculty members in my school. I am done. Finito. The taught portion of library school is finished! In so many short months!
That is not to say the work is finished. There is oh so much of that to do! In fact, today was all about research methods for our dissertation, and it was absolutely terrifying. On the one hand, we have the LIS lecturers telling us it's no big deal. That they are not expecting original research, and would prefer if we did not try and do any primary research on our own. On the other, the head of SLAIS and various other people are talking to us about qualitative and quantitative research, and how to choose and justify our methodologies, and how to conduct interviews and handle focus groups.
On the one hand, I'm more inclined to listen to Vanda and John, because I love and trust them, and they don't make me feel scared. On the other, the head of SLAIS is my dissertation supervisor and he was the one on about Deep Log Analysis. Three months is not enough time for all of this! And travel! And spending lazy summer days enjoying myself in London!
My initial goal was to make it through the end of May and then everything would be ok. Now I don't think it will be ok until the end of August! Someone hold me!
I turned in the last of my work from last term on Tuesday. That was very exciting! I celebrated by buying new jeans.
Wednesday I cleaned my flat and did some laundry, and then headed south to Waterloo train station to pick up my sister, who had managed, with only slight difficulties, to get on the Eurostar and make it over from France. 'Twas her first time in Londonland, and my 8940249382th time going, "And yonder is Big Ben" (which, again, is the BELL not the TOWER! I KNOW!!!).
We saw many sights. Thursday involved a quick stop in Leicester Square to by tickets for Phantom of the Opera, and then mosing on down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. On the way there, we ran into the most perplexing thing!
We also went, "Uh, wha?" I thought it looked quite Jules Verne-y, and I was right! It was! Auburn lives in Nantes, which is Verne's hometown, so that was kind of weird.
Anyways, it was related to this: The Sultan's Elephant which we did not see anymore of, and I'm sorry I missed!
After Buckingham, it was up to Whitehall, and then over to take a trip on the London Eye. Very overpriced, but great views. It was 70+ degrees outside and very sunny and hazy, so it was a nice day to be flying high above the city.
We headed back up and visited the National Gallery. Then we went home to get ready to go see The Phantom.
The next day was not quite as warm, but just as sunny. We headed to the Tower of London for some gruesome history lessons. I also managed to get a nice sunburn on my face. Quite a feat considering this is England!
Then we took a tour of the South Bank, and saw St. Paul's, the Globe, and Burrough market. We finished the day by heading up towards Camden, strolling around, and seeing a band I like play in a record store.
Saturday decided it wanted to be a bit rainy, which was unfortunate. We spent the morning in the British Museum. Then we gave up on sightseeing, and went with Claire and Danielle to see Mission Impossible III: Alias Attacks. I was highly amused watching the big budget episode of Alias, but no one else was with me on this. It was a pretty good flick.
Afterwards, we went back to our flat, where Auburn cooked us as authentic a French meal as we could muster shopping in Sainsburys. It helped that she had brought the fancy bottle of Bordeaux and a tin of foie gras from France. After we mopped up the last of our scallops and mushrooms in a white wine, garlic and butter sauce with our terrible English baguette, we headed out and spent the evening in Soho and Camden Town.
The next morning we wearily managed to find our way back to Waterloo, despite the Northern Line being closed down for our convenience and forcing us to take a rather circuitous route, and Auburn got back on the train for France.
I went home, took a shower, and spent the entire day recovering in my PJs.
That is not to say the work is finished. There is oh so much of that to do! In fact, today was all about research methods for our dissertation, and it was absolutely terrifying. On the one hand, we have the LIS lecturers telling us it's no big deal. That they are not expecting original research, and would prefer if we did not try and do any primary research on our own. On the other, the head of SLAIS and various other people are talking to us about qualitative and quantitative research, and how to choose and justify our methodologies, and how to conduct interviews and handle focus groups.
On the one hand, I'm more inclined to listen to Vanda and John, because I love and trust them, and they don't make me feel scared. On the other, the head of SLAIS is my dissertation supervisor and he was the one on about Deep Log Analysis. Three months is not enough time for all of this! And travel! And spending lazy summer days enjoying myself in London!
My initial goal was to make it through the end of May and then everything would be ok. Now I don't think it will be ok until the end of August! Someone hold me!
I turned in the last of my work from last term on Tuesday. That was very exciting! I celebrated by buying new jeans.
Wednesday I cleaned my flat and did some laundry, and then headed south to Waterloo train station to pick up my sister, who had managed, with only slight difficulties, to get on the Eurostar and make it over from France. 'Twas her first time in Londonland, and my 8940249382th time going, "And yonder is Big Ben" (which, again, is the BELL not the TOWER! I KNOW!!!).
We saw many sights. Thursday involved a quick stop in Leicester Square to by tickets for Phantom of the Opera, and then mosing on down to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. On the way there, we ran into the most perplexing thing!
We also went, "Uh, wha?" I thought it looked quite Jules Verne-y, and I was right! It was! Auburn lives in Nantes, which is Verne's hometown, so that was kind of weird.
Anyways, it was related to this: The Sultan's Elephant which we did not see anymore of, and I'm sorry I missed!
After Buckingham, it was up to Whitehall, and then over to take a trip on the London Eye. Very overpriced, but great views. It was 70+ degrees outside and very sunny and hazy, so it was a nice day to be flying high above the city.
We headed back up and visited the National Gallery. Then we went home to get ready to go see The Phantom.
The next day was not quite as warm, but just as sunny. We headed to the Tower of London for some gruesome history lessons. I also managed to get a nice sunburn on my face. Quite a feat considering this is England!
Then we took a tour of the South Bank, and saw St. Paul's, the Globe, and Burrough market. We finished the day by heading up towards Camden, strolling around, and seeing a band I like play in a record store.
Saturday decided it wanted to be a bit rainy, which was unfortunate. We spent the morning in the British Museum. Then we gave up on sightseeing, and went with Claire and Danielle to see Mission Impossible III: Alias Attacks. I was highly amused watching the big budget episode of Alias, but no one else was with me on this. It was a pretty good flick.
Afterwards, we went back to our flat, where Auburn cooked us as authentic a French meal as we could muster shopping in Sainsburys. It helped that she had brought the fancy bottle of Bordeaux and a tin of foie gras from France. After we mopped up the last of our scallops and mushrooms in a white wine, garlic and butter sauce with our terrible English baguette, we headed out and spent the evening in Soho and Camden Town.
The next morning we wearily managed to find our way back to Waterloo, despite the Northern Line being closed down for our convenience and forcing us to take a rather circuitous route, and Auburn got back on the train for France.
I went home, took a shower, and spent the entire day recovering in my PJs.
posted by Lauren Matson | 8:59 PM
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