Dreamin' of Colorado, California & Europe!!

I have a few exciting adventures on the horizon and since the light is shining brighter at the end-of-the-semester tunnel...it's time to start thinking about what's next!

So, here is my life for the next 8 months...

May 4: to COLORADO! (QT with family & friends)
May 6-17: Shoshoni Yoga Ashram, Rollinsville, Colorado (yoga, meditation, veggie eats, and lots of mountain time)
May 21: to CALIFORNIA (to hang with my little kid bro on the beach)
May 25: to LA, California (to attend a conference on international education)
May 28: to GEORGIA!
June 1: Take two month-long PhD courses
July 4: to ENGLAND (not only Independence Day for my nation-state, but independence day for ME as I go back to Europe to study at Oxford for 6 months.)
August: travel with my dear friend Ali (the crazy Brazilian!)
September: ESTONIA (to present at an academic conference)
December: to COLORADO! SKI!!!



PHOTOS: Dennis' (a fellow PhD colleague) b-day BBQ.

Men Dress Like Women!

Men dress like women, dance around on stage, and lip-sync to cheesy music. The crowd goes wild, cheering and waving dollar bills in the air. This is a drag show! In Athens, (yes, in the conservative state of Georgia) the gay community coordinates an annual drag show fundraiser, "Boybutante," to raise money for the AIDS foundation. I have a few good guy friends who are gay and so we saddled up to the bar for an entertaining night of beautifully-defined calf muscles, facial hair, heels, big hair, and lots of make-up. We even knew a few of the performers: the elegant Miss Ella Gant who has a patented Duct-Tape Boob Job and Gloria Manderbilt, founder of the Garden Hoers Club and famous for her "bridge and purge" garden parties. It was hilarious and a much-needed break from the intense week of final exams, papers, and projects.

The Realities of End-of-the-Semester ICK!

'Tis the season to be consumed in research projects and papers, hence the reason I have been deliquent on posting a blog entry. Ugh! I have three papers gormandizing me: the effects of NAFTA on higher education (10-20 pages), a final exam in research methods (12 pages), an annotated bibliography (20 pages), and I just turned in a 13-page article critique. Only 30 more pages to write as the due dates rapidly approaching. Note to self: break into automatic happy dance after completing another page. I have resulted to counting down pages--to keep my sanity--a great numerical representation of my semester diminishing before my eyes. To explain my experience in layman's term: this sucks! I thought that the second semester would be easier to manage, and easier to cope with, however the knots in my shoulders are telling me otherwise. Sometimes I wonder...am I cut out to be a PhD student? Yet, something keeps pushing me...it's the little red train "I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can, I-think-I-can!"

Photos: Athens Classic City Brewfest: over 175 samples of beer. A great springtime event to drink away the stress!

A Bitter Sweet Scare!

On April Fool's Day...a few of us students became aware of a legislative update that read:

"The Senate committee included a number of reductions in its version of the FY 2010 Budget. For example, the committee eliminated funding for:

The Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia ($2.23 million)..."

At first we thought it was an April Fool's joke and then soon realized it was legitimate. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended that the entire line item budget (consisting of faculty and staff lines, and all administrative expenses of the program) for the Institute be eliminated, not reduced, not cut...but completely eradicated. We tried not to freak out, but how can you not feel a little anxiety when your existence at the University of Georgia may be cut short due to policymakers making haphazard budget decisions? I found myself not only looking for jobs on the Vail Ski Resort homepage, but dreaming of their tag line, "Like Nothing on Earth." Becoming a ski bum and a yoga instructor suddenly had a sweet ring to it. As I fell asleep that foolish night my breathing was shallow, but my sweet dreams took me immediately to the Rocky Mountains. PhD vs. skiing?!

On April 2, we received this email message from the Director of the Institute: "Some of you may be aware that the Institute of Higher Education (IHE) was caught in the budget cuts in the senate higher education committee earlier this week. Evidently, there was a misunderstanding regarding our role (instruction and research, plus service) and placement in the system; consequently, in the rush to reduce the USG budget, IHE was affected."

Finally, on April 3 the Director of the Institute sent this email, " I just received the news, and I am pleased to let you know that the IHE budget was restored by the conference committee."

Flowers & Showers!

'Tis the season for beautiful new blooms and enough rain to wash them all away. Last week we experienced four soggy days of rain, followed by one sunny day and now it is raining again. I suppose it's not so bad. Georgia has been in a drought since late 2006. The rain has brought much-needed relief to the dry land, so when mother nature spits on a dry canvas you just have to grin and bear it. The good news is that the rain has made an impact...just a few days ago, North Georgia was deemed drought-free.

Plus, the rain makes it easier to be indoors, in front of a computer, typing my life away. Yes, it is officially that time of the semester...brain slam! I have 2 large research projects due in 4 weeks, and a 10-page paper due in 10 days. Then, I'm as free as a bird for the month of May.

PHOTOS: A few of my favorite spring sightings on the University of Georgia campus.