Dear readers,

Well... what can I say? ^__^" It has been over 4 whole months since my last update... That's a record even for me. I have just been super, duper busy. To make it up to you I will post two posts today; one will be my very much overdue report of my trip to Sheffield and this post, which will contain an overview of the things that have been keeping me busy.

After Sheffield I have visited my aunts for a weekend (which was very, very fun), I have been on another trip to Disney (and got my free year pass... OH YEAH!)... I have done so many things I have forgotten half of them already! O.o

The reason why I could not get round to writing blogposts is that I have been either too busy or too tired to do so. During my trip to Sheffield I received an e-mail informing me that funding had become available at the English Faculty for two PhD students in the form of a research and teaching assistant possition. I, of course, immediately applied for the job. As a result, I have been a research and teaching assistant since October 1. I got hired for 16,7 hours a week. Of those hours I have to spend approximately 3,5 - 4 hours helping out teachers and staff members of the English department. The rest of the hours I can use for my own research. So far teachers have asked me to scan course materials, to order and archive certain documents and I have been asked to help out with a new project called the Writing Studio. The Writing Studio is aimed at first year students who find it difficult to write essays. By asking them to send in an essay beforehand we try to give them feedback during 30 min. appointments, which they can in turn use to improve their writing. Due to some administrative difficulties, however, I have been only able to help out one student so far.... I hope to be of more help soon though.

Basically, my research, the assistantship and my other 16 hour job have pretty much been swallowing up all my time. The only free time I really had was when I was with my fiancé (which is about one day a week).

Things seem to be settling down a bit now though, so I really hope that I will be able to put up blog posts more frequently again. I have really missed writing T_T.


Well that is all for today. I wish all my (extremely loyal) readers a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!


Love,
Blacky