Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted... I've been busy with some stuff--like working on my dissertation. I spent much of the last month at the library trying to get it done.

And, I am pleased to announce that THE DISSERTATION IS COMPLETE!!! It has been submitted as of Monday 3 September at 14:00 GMT. My dear friend Meredith delivered it to my course administrator for me.

So does this mean mindislondonexperience is over?

In some ways it feels like it's been over for a while. Now that school has started and I am back to teaching, things are back to the way they always were--it's like I never left.

On the other hand, my London experience will continue until:

• I hear about the grade on my dissertation--November.
  
• I pay off my enormous student loans--shooting for 2018.
• I forget that it ever happened--never.

I don't plan on continuing this blog forever though, so ending it now is as good a time as any.
Thanks for reading my blog over the past year. I hope you enjoyed it. If I feel inspired by something else someday, perhaps I'll start a new blog. If I do, I'll let you know.
Cheers!
~Mindi

I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm with spending time in the library to work on my paper. Good progress is being made on my dissertation, but it is now August and I still wonder how I will get everything done on time. Actually, I am determined to get the dissertation done, I just think it might turn out to be really crappy. In all my years as a student, I've never been one to just settle for a passing grade--I've always shot for an A--but I think this might be an occasion where I will just take a C and be satisfied that I passed. As long as I get my degree, I'll be happy.
I am thankful for my nanny job this summer. Even though it's technically 'work', it's more like a break to me. I actually get to be outside, go to the beach, ride bikes, and run around. If I didn't have that, I'd be on my butt at a desk all day.
Sometimes I get a little bit down about how I haven't been able to take any fun road trips or go camping or shopping or read books this summer. But then I remind myself that there were many times this past year that I was able to travel to amazing places...and, in a sense, the entire experience was a vacation. So no self-pity is justified on this account.

I’ve made some real progress on my dissertation this week and hope to submit a draft of one portion of it by the end of this week! Hallelujah!

Yesterday I talked with one of my London friends, Marta. (We used Skype and were able to talk free for over an hour! Gotta love the internet phone for overseas calls.) She left London about a week and a half ago and returned to her home in Latvia. She is also feeling burdened and overwhelmed with her essay, so we had a pity party for ourselves. Then we snapped out of it and set a goal to write at least 2000 words by this weekend. I’ve failed at every other writing goal I’ve set for myself this summer, but since Marta and I are holding each other accountable this time, I WILL accomplish this one!

Let me just say that I LOVE that reference citations such as (Mendick, 2006, p. 25) count as FOUR WORDS! YES! I think I click the ‘word count’ button just about every minute to see how much I have written. This might be considered OCD behavior.

This week I started nannying again and today I earned my first paycheck in about 10 months! Yay! It feels good to have an income again. Unfortunately, I won't be able to spend a dime of my hard-earned money (well, not really HARD-earned...my job is pretty posh) until I make it back to IL where I can cash the check at my bank. But, it's okay--I've gotten pretty good at not spending money; London tends to suck a bank account dry pretty quickly if one does not exercise restraint. Having said that, I am happy to not have to deal with the terrible GBP/USD exchange rate anymore. Just about every month I was in London, the dollar sunk to a new record low. And this week I cringed when I read that the dollar has reached the lowest value against the pound since 1981. My poor (literally) American friends who are still in London!

My nannying job was especially posh this week because I did not even have to keep the kids occupied or entertained on my own. For two of the days, I just had to chauffeur the kids to their tennis and swimming lessons. Then, while they were busy learning their back hand and/or freestyle, I kicked back and watched...I mean, I worked on my dissertation.
The kids take their swimming lessons at Holland Community Pool or 'Aquatic Centre' or whatever the name is now. It's fun for me to be there because I remember taking lessons there when I was a kid. The pool seems so much smaller now. I think one of the instructors there now is the same one who was there when I took lessons like 20 years ago. He ends the sessions by whistling really loudly and that brings back memories from the recesses of my mind.

I bought a bottle of soda from the machine at the Aquatic Center and was shocked by the size of it. I could barely get my hand around it to get a good grip. It was the standard 20 oz size, but I realized I haven't held one of these in nearly a year. In London, I would buy single bottles of soda once in a while. But I guess the bottles were smaller there--I think they were 500 mL. I don't know exactly how much less that is compared to a 20 oz, but the American bottles are visibly larger than the English ones. Along the same lines, I continue to succumb daily to my latte addiction. The first time since London that I went to JP's downtown Holland and ordered a coffee I did a double take at the hugeness of the serving. I guess I had gotten used to the cute mug that my school's bar served coffee in and forgot that when one pays over $3 for a latte in the States, the serving size will be much larger. I wish that American restaurants/cafes would halve their portion size and also their prices.

So the dissertation...
Earlier this week I reassessed my status, had another panic attack but then composed myself and modified my plan of action. The past couple days have been more successful than the last two weeks combined, so I have a renewed perspective and more positive attitude now. Let's hope this continues. I won't say how many words I have written...let's just say that it's still not enough, but the word count is inching up. One of these days I expect a word EXPLOSION! YEAH!

I'm not quite sure how to bring my blog to a close. It seems weird to just end it abruptly. If this is my last entry, I should have something profound to say--but nothing is really coming to me at the moment.
Or maybe I'll continue to add things here and there throughout the summer. After all, even though I'm back in the US, my 'London Experience' will not be over officially until I mail in the final draft of my thesis at the end of August.


I keep changing my mind about how it feels to be back in the US. Sometimes I'm happy to be here and other times I miss London. I find myself frequently thinking about my friends who are still there. I was one of the first to leave, so I wonder what I am missing out on. I also miss the simplicity of my life there. Each day I had pretty much one thing I had to do--write my paper. Now that I'm back I'm already stressed out with all the things I need to do this summer, not the least of which is--write my paper.
One of my primary objectives for the next couple of weeks is to find a new place to live. I have to move out of Julie's house in Lansing since she is getting married. The mere thought of moving AGAIN is depressing. And I can pretty much bet the new place will only last a year too, which means I'll be doing the same thing again next summer. Ick.
Well anyway, I don't want what is left of my blog experience to be a downer and a place to vent, so I'll try to make sure I only update with pleasant topics. Such as the great strides will be making on my thesis!
Current progress= 2000/20,000. OK, that is kind of a downer actually...