Time Flies...And So Will I

As I mentioned before, Macquarie University is a semester based school where each term is 13 weeks long. We get a two-week break mid-semester (Macquarie is one of the few that does this) and there are two-weeks at the end for exams (click here to see Macquarie calendar). So my term ends in the middle of June and that is just over a month away! Now that I am more than halfway the semester is moving by quickly and assignments are coming up fast.

The ideal situation for a student would be to have each assignment evenly spread out so that you only have to focus on one at a time. So far I have been able to take care of just one at a time for the most part, but now things have changed. I have one major assignment worth 60% of my grade due at the end of the semester which you are supposed to be working on regularly throughout - easier said than done. I just finished my statistics assignment due tomorrow, and now I am working on the biggest assignment I have for my MRes (Academic Writing) class which is due on Friday. We have to do a 2000 word critical analysis of an article or comparison of two articles. I'm just now starting it! After this I have two major assignments to continuously work on. I have one major assignment for Biology worth 60% of my grade due at the end of the semester which you are supposed to be working on regularly throughout - easier said than done. The other big assignment is a working group proposal that has the potential to be a nightmare. The proposal is basically a 5 page summary of some fantastic question that you would address by bringing in multiple researchers from various disciplines or backgrounds on that topic. Coming up with the idea, the people, the theoretical itinerary of the meetings, etc can be quite difficult. I definitely have my work cut out for me for the rest of the semester. 

On top of my building amount of work to do, my internet is being really finicky again. I talked to Maria who works at the main office and she said it's always had problems and that it's worse than dial-up! She's going to talk to the IT people, but it sounds like I'm just going to have to live with it for now. My solution is just to spend loads of time at the library. Although school is going by quite quickly, the time it's taking for me to be with Matt again seems slow. I'll have to deal with all the internet issues till the end of July when Matt will be here and we will get our own place. That transition may bring it's own set of frustrations so perhaps I should just be happy with what I have for now. 

If you were not yet aware of my July plans, I am going to fly back to the US on July 4th and then the very next day Matt and I are going on a trip to Ft. Lauderdale, the Bahamas, and then Orlando/Walt Disney World. After we get back we'll have just enough time to make any final preparations before we fly to Sydney. I've been monitoring flights to Florida and Sydney for a long time. It's quite stressful actually. I created e-mail alerts on kayak.com for every possible combination of flying to and from Florida, different dates to fly to Sydney, and more. Last week my e-mail alert showed a really good drop in a flight from Orlando to Eugene, but Sydney flights had jumped up $300! I found a decent combination for the Florida trip and decided to look at a flight to Sydney on July 21st which I hadn't really looked at. It wasn't the cheapest I had seen, but it seemed likely the flights would not go down much below the $1086. I was still torn on whether I should buy them right then or not so I e-mailed the information to my mom, and got ready for bed. As I was praying I was asking Heavenly Father what I should do about the flights and felt that I should trust my mom's advice. By the time I ended the prayer my mom had e-mailed me and I was able to call her. Normally she doesn't check her e-mail at that time, but that day was different. This was a huge blessing because my internet wouldn't let me load the pages to purchase the tickets so I had to give my mom all the information over the phone to purchase them. Had I waited I likely would not have gotten the  prices I did. Although I was up past 1 a.m. that night it was well worth it. Now I don't have the stress of getting stuck with expensive flights anymore. 

Recently I made my first ever batch of oreo truffles. You grind up oreo cookies (takes a long time!) then mix it with cream cheese and form it into small 1in balls. After being in the fridge for an hour I dipped the truffles into my peanut butter/chocolate mixture and left in the fridge again to harden. They are so good! I try to only eat 2 or 3 a day. Also, to add on more calories, I went to spend time with Paiges again on Sunday. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and home-made rolls! Sunday dinner American style for sure. I'll be sad when they go back to the U.S. like many other American families in our ward. That night we had some fun as I helped Corene Paige put some useful apps on her phone. One of which I highly recommend for husband and wives called Find my Friends (click here for android version, or here for iphone). This app allows you to know where someone is, create alerts for when they arrive or leave at a place (use it on your teenagers), and some other fun features. The iphone free one isn't as nifty as the android one, but they still work the same. Another thing I introduced them to was the animal personality test I randomly found (click here to test it out). Matt and I had done it earlier and discovered that I am a fox and he is an otter and our love and marriage is tricky, but worthwhile. It's a lot of fun and it was surprisingly accurate for me and Corene.

Hopefully I will be able to have some fun while I combat all my assignments in the next month!