First Paper DONE!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Now off to a Presidential debate watch party!

The Weekend of a PhD student!

The weekend of a PhD student...writing during the day and gettin' social at night. Friday night was ladies night which began with a progressive house hopping, including wine and appetizers, followed by the elusive search for the Athens nightlife scene. But, let me qualify that last sentence by adding that we were in search of the non-undergraduate nightlife scene...no cougars in this crowd! Downtown Athens is divided into the west side (undergrad heaven for those cougars out there) and the east side (where you sometimes find an older crowd). Living in a college town in the middle of small town America doesn't make it easy to meet people over age 25. However, I think we are slowly finding the few "hot spots" that do nurture non-undergrad crowds.

Saturday night was a night of dead cockroaches, American college football, hanging with my work peeps, and beer pong (table tennis without paddles and lots of cups, balls, and beer). One of the guys I work with purchased his first home in Athens, so he threw a housewarming party complete with beer pong in his manly-man shed. Beer pong is a popular American drinking game. The intent is to throw a ping pong into the opponent's cup, whereby the opponents must drink the beer in the cup and remove the cup from the triangle. The winning team eliminates all of the cups of their opponents before their own cups are eliminated. The people I work with are the fun-lovin' student affairs type. For those of you that don't know the student affairs type...well, they put the "F" in F-U-N, they can coordinate an event in their sleep, they aren't afraid to get silly, and others view them as "fluff" of the university. Once you are a student affairs type...it is hard to look the other way.

A Paper Writing Machine!

Leasa's world is now filled with paper-writing (day in & day out!). In my Introduction to U.S. Higher Education class we have to analyze how an U.S. institution of higher education works (organizational structure & governance). The kicker is that we had to choose an institution that we did not have affiliation with, therefore I chose a university I know nothing about...the highly reputable Ivy-league university in the heart of New York City, Columbia University. Did you know that the tuition at Columbia is almost $40K/year? Did you know that Columbia also has the 2nd largest number of foreign students in the U.S.?

The other paper...ugh...social theory! We have to analyze a social theory and I have chosen the market theory. Ya know, the exchange of goods for a price, consumers/producers, market-oriented policy instruments, blah, blah. It is all mushy in my head right now. All I know is that I am a consumer and I need to purchase a massage, as I have a knot in the middle of my back the size of a watermelon. Maybe the government will look at this knot as a market failure and bail me out...like they did AIG. What the hell? Okay, maybe I'm getting a bit off topic...back to writing! 10 more pages to go...

When the Rubber Hits the Dirt!

When the rubber soles of my Adidas trail runners hit the dirt, you know life is good! Yes, I have found a little piece of heaven right here in Athens, Georgia. For awhile I was starting to think my days of hiking would be limited to my dreams of and vacations to Colorado. However, a classmate of mine, Stephanie (who lived in Boulder for a short period of time and also shares the same love of nature), was kind enough to introduce me to the the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia, right here in Athens. Ok, it is not the Rocky Mountains, but it is a beautiful and lush forest with over 5 miles of trails. It is much more than the groomed flower beds that you typically expect when visiting a botanical garden, rather the dirt trails are lined with lush native plants/trees and even a few exotic species. The best part is the wildlife...the first weekend we saw a tiny tree frog perfectly camouflaged with the surrounding flora. The lizard in the photo was smaller than my pinky finger. Here are a few photos from the trail. Notice, that the leaves are starting to change colors. 'Tis the season!

A Palin LOVE-FEST!

Living here in the south, I am very careful when choosing who to engage with in political banter. You never know what you are going to get; a bible belter that wants to change the nation, a right-wing radical, or a conservative who would jump at the chance to convert anything or anyone (especially a liberal democrat from Boulder, CO). I suppose it is a lot like when I was living in Europe, but in Europe I didn't know if I was going to get anti-American sentiment or not. The other day, I was in my office--the one that I share with two other graduate students--and suddenly I was involuntarily in the middle of a Palin LOVE-FEST! The love for Palin was oozing from the pores and reverberating from wall to wall. I quickly zipped up my Obama-lovin' shield and fought off any desire to open my mouth. They were talking about her speech at the Republican National Convention and how she is a "great speaker" (yeah, with a teleprompter), how intelligent she is (um, Mrs. Palin what is the Bush Doctrine?) and how she is a much better leader than Hillary (What?! Oh my!)

Ladies and gents, I cannot remain tight-lipped any longer...Palin is not presidential material and if McCain kicks the bucket (which is not too far-fetched) she would be our next President. Shame on McCain for choosing her to be his puppet and putting her on display, like the 'pit bull with lipstick' that she self professes. I hate to say it (and deep inside I don't want to believe it), but I feel she was chosen for her gender. She certainly was not chosen for her experience! Palin is a 'token' appropriation because the Republicans saw an opportunity to ride the waves of Hillary love.

There is my rant...now for a rave! First of all, Tina Fey makes a brilliant Palin. Finally, there is good news on the home front...a dear friend of mine, who has always voted republican, recently sent me this email:

"I am horrified that she is nominated as VP. What an insult to
women. I may vote Democratic this year. Can you believe it?"

Confessions of a First-Year PhD Student...

To say that I am content would be a lie! My days are quite bipolar...as I have waves of doubt, excitement, overwhelm and pure confusion. I have been told by many of my colleagues that this is a natural feeling the first year of PhD devotion. Not only am I trying to process through heaps of reading material, but I also have these soul-searching thoughts that flood my mind daily. Here is a quick and dirty run-down of a few thoughts that graced my mind today (beware: the following thoughts are negative and not recommended for children with dreams under the ages of 20):

1.) Is this really where I should be right now; doing a PhD and living in the south (away from my friends and family)? Living in a world away from the mountains in the deep south where Palin love fests are an everyday common occurrence? No weekend travels to Italy, no hikes up Sanitas, no Sunday walks in Bygdøy, no foreign languages, no Colorado sunsets, just a laptop and a stack of books and assignments. No ski season, #&%@!

2.) Ok, the reality...this is a huge transition from the exciting life I just experienced; gallivanting around the world with the free-spirit of a bald-eagle soaring through the crisp blue skies. Now, I spend my days planning what I will read tomorrow, when I will write the upcoming papers, thinking about Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. Some might prefer to live this life of a thinker, but I am not sure I do. The transition has been quite dramatic.

3.) What the hell am I doing?

4.) The workload is at the level of ridiculousness. I just need to surrender to the fact that I will never be able to read everything that is assigned.

5.) Am I really cut out to be an academic? What will I do with a PhD? What will I write my dissertation on? Will I make it through second year comps (tests)...or first year or better yet this week?

6.) How can I get a travel grant to do research in another country?

7.) Why am I finding it so hard to find the goodness in all of this?

8.) Why am I writing this blog, when I should be reading/studying?

Honesty, damn it's hard to swallow sometimes! I'm hoping that by posting these thoughts, it will be like a garbage disposal and grind up all of the nasty residue in the kitchen sink. If you have answers to any of these questions, dial 1-800-Leasafreaksout.

The FIRST Football Game...Carnage!

UGA is ranked #1 (in the nation) in the pre-football poll! This is big news for all of those bulldawg fans in Georgia! As a result of this ranking, a football ticket is like a barrel of oil; expensive and in high demand. Luckily, I was eligible for three of the six home games, based on my class standing. This was the first year that the Athletic department only offered three of the six games to students with less than 38 credit hours, and this made for some disgruntled students. But, for me this worked out well, as I only want to go to a few games to experience the hype. On Saturday, UGA played Georgia Southern and crushed them...45-21.

You know you are at a UGA football game when:

1.) Men wear red pants.

2.) Women wear sundresses, heels, and UGA tattoos on their face.

3.) The beautiful green space on campus is transformed into one big tailgate party! Beer cans, pop-up tents, and BBQ grills are as far as the eye can see.

4.) People buy tickets from scalpers for $250 (no joke!)

5.) It's not a UGA game unless you see at least one undergrad puking out his/her guts. Binge drinking is all the rage!

6.) The town of Athens becomes a ghost town during the game, good time to go shopping!

7.) You see big men with big bulldogs on leashes walking through the downtown area.

8.) There are bake-sales on every corner as you walk to the stadium.

9.) Little boys are dressed up as UGA football players and little girls are dressed up as UGA cheerleaders.

10.) The family friendly zone (alcohol-free zone) is absolutely desolate (see picture!)