Well, in stark contrast to last week, this week has been pretty good! I've joined another French class (much easier, with much more talking - I'll skip the singing though), I've completely re-written my coursework (thanks to being able to see it on my brand-new shiny laptop) and I've applied for one of the two PhD programmes that I have wanted for months. I suppose this is why I'm now ill - you can't win them all.
The past week was week 4 - I can't believe I've been 'back' for a whole month now. Of course, in reality this means I've had only four days of lectures in total, but that's just how it is. Overall, I have another 8 weeks to go before the Christmas break, and I'm sure after this break time will run even faster. Although I'm not wishing the time away as such, I think now I want to move on to bigger and better things. There are only so many times I can read about Freud and Pavlov without being bored.
Speaking of bigger and better things, I managed to buy myself a new laptop! I'm being paid for my work as a clinical study coordinator, and so for the first time I've found myself with money to spend on things other than rent, bills and food. After much deliberation over the weekend, I finally took a deep breath and pressed the 'buy' button. While it's the most expensive thing I've ever bought, in reality it was pretty cheap for what I've got, and I'm enjoying watching stuff in HD and actually being able to properly see what I am writing. I could easily get used to this whole 'treating yourself' thing.
So, to my final big news of the week: my PhD application. I had a draft cover letter written for quite some time now, but I was never particularly happy with it. While lots of people told me it looked good, I was never totally convinced. I hate writing about my achievements - talking about them in person is fine, because you have all the subtleties of my tone of voice and so on. Writing is a whole other story - it's very easy for me to sound arrogant, and I want to avoid this at all costs. Luckily, there are some great lecturers at my university, and I had a meeting with someone on how to improve my cover letter. The upshot of the meeting was that I was too modest - I'm sure not a lot of my peers would agree with this! Still, I got lots of tips on how to 'sell myself' more effectively, without sounding arrogant, and my cover letter was complete at last.
Thus, on Wednesday I sent my application. The programme to which I applied was one of two that I have been dreaming about for months (my family and friends are pretty sick of hearing about this, I think - sorry!). So, it was a huge relief to finally send off those forms. I must admit though, that while one weight was lifted, another one has now been put in its place, and the next couple of weeks will be a tense wait. Still, I have another two applications left to send, so I should have plenty of options.
While the range of options should be reassuring, I'm fairly certain I will be a complete bundle of nerves until I get my answers. I honestly don't think I have wanted so much in my life, but all I can do is wait for the responses. At least time seems to be going much faster now - hurry up, January!
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