Firstly, and perhaps most significantly, I handed in my dissertation. A few weeks ago I decided to bite the bullet, put aside frantic and rather pointless editing and re-editing, and hand in my 20,000 words. Actually, the paper was much longer and really the actual content of the paper stood somewhere around 19,000. Regardless, it was a heck of a lot of words on one topic. In retrospect, it was actually a lot easier than I thought. I managed to complete the task from start to finish in about 3.5 months, which is quite fast now that I think of it. Writing in sections definitely helped. Being able to sit down and knock out 5,000 words at a time was a definite advantage as well. Long story short, it's all bound up nice and pretty and sitting on someones desk somewhere now. Marks are expected back around the beginning of October. An update will surely occur after the marks are back.
Now, the most recently time-consuming and boring task that has taken over my life since submitting: job hunting. In reality, I've been actively searching for a full-time teaching job since March. But since handing in the diss, I've been dedicating many hours a day to searching for vacancies, filling out applications, drafting cover letters, and beefing up my CV. Who would have thought it would take so much work and time? Certainly not I, or I would have tried harder in earlier months. So now here we are at the beginning of the first week of school, it's nearly 11 AM and I'm still sitting in bed in my PJs. This is not at all where I thought and desperately hoped I'd be. I guess that's just how things work out. For those of you who care, I've had a few serious offers and been held up by the Visa requirements. Frustrating to say the least. I'm now registered with at least 6 different agencies, and spent this past Friday sending out nearly 30 speculative letters to various schools around the city. I'm cautiously walking the fine line between feelings of panic and hopelessness, and would like any who can spare it to send their most positive energy and thoughts my direction. I think it's safe to say that I'm rapidly approaching desperation.
On a brighter, lighter note, I've been able to spend my relatively open afternoons and evenings doing some fun stuff. You know, taking advantage of what the city has to offer. Saturday we hit up the annual ice cream festival near King's Cross. What a sad disappointment, but I did get to pet a cow so I'll mark it as a success.
I am likely to soon hit up the London theatre district. There's so much playing, and tickets can be really cheap, so why not? Cheap tickets are key, however, because I am quickly running out of funds and must ration carefully, especially with no monetary replenishment in sight.
Boring post, I know. But that's all for now folks. I'll leave you with a fluffy song that's been stuck in my head for the past few days.