kareina

Yesterday's progress report: from 9am to 5pm using the microprobe to attempt additional analyses on the phases for which our data was lacking on the previous experiments. Now I need to process that data to see if any of it worked, this time. Another 3 or 4 hours of uni work in the evening writing the first draft of my speech for the Marie Curie conference next week, since the conference organizers required that it be e-mailed to them by noon Friday of this week.

Today's progress report: Revised the speech and e-mailed it to them with five minutes to spare on the deadline. Then did further revisions to it before posting it to my academic web page. Followed that up with booking flights and a rental car for aelfgyfu and I to get to the Academia della Danza/Revel in a Castle. This should be a much easier trip than Coronation was. Instead of spending two days (each way) in a rental car, on that Friday we will walk 30 minutes to the train station, then take the hour-long bus ride to the airport, where we will wait two hours for a 1 hour, 40 minute flight. Then we will take a rental car a 3.5 hour drive to the event, reversing the process on Sunday.

I am planning on taking a train tonight or tomorrow morning (depending on if the cost is the same or chepaer to wait) to Florence to join aelfgyfu and her SCA brother & his friend for weekend fun stuff, but I feel vaguely guilty about it, since I really need to:

*polish the last experiment I ran to get it ready for analysis
*process the data from yesterday's microprobe session
*book flights to Budapest for the August conference
*figure out how I'm getting from Budapest to Vienna
*figure out where I'm staying in Vienna for the August short course
*book flights back from Vienna
*create the poster for the Budapest conference
*create the poster based on the speech for next week's Marie Curie conference (since there is a poster contest we speakers have been encouraged to do posters, too)
*finish re-arranging everything in The Closet now that only one person lives there
*write that(ose) paper(s) from my PhD research that should have been submitted months ago
*apply for the three interesting sounding jobs
*find a source of funding to which to apply to do research at the Uni in Tromso--they'd take me if we can find funding

I really, really, really enjoyed the Stockholm trip. I'll try to remember to post about it later, but I met lots of delightful people and enjoyed the singing and dancing at the event.

I now have until Thursday evening to:

* finishing processing my data from my experiments and get graphs & short write-up onto my poster for the conference next week and adjust the layout/design/contents of the poster to be visually and intellectually interesting (and decide when/where/how it will be printed)

* get everything from the Stockholm trip unpacked and washed, sort out what all I need to take with me for a month of travel including the Bay Area, Seattle, and Alaska, and pack it, all within the mass/volume limits of the strictest airlines I'll be flying

* decide what sewing project(s) to take with me, and get them to a point of being work-on-able during the flights (when I won't have access to the scissors in my checked luggage)

* attend Wednesday's dance practice

* make certain I've got people to pick me up at my various transition points and places to stay each place I'll be

* arrange 12th night tickets

* decide what to make in the way of gifties for the cousins I'll be spending the holidays with (I'm morally opposed to purchased holiday gifts, as a general rule. I'd rather do nothing at all if I'm unable to find the time/energy to make gifts.)

* update my records of the money I spent while in Stockholm and figure out how much I've got available to take with me for the longer journey

I've accomplished several more crucial tasks towards settling into Milano. With luck I'll get them all done soon and can commence doing the work for which I've been hired. I suspect that it will be much more interesting than the bureaucratic stuff I've been dealing with, and I am ever so grateful to my colleagues here who have been running errands with me and translating as needed.

Today's accomplishments:

* paid for the deposit and first month's rent (this involved taking two buses into the city centre, where the other portion of the university is located, going to the housing office, taking forms from there across the street to the bank, depositing the money, and bringing in the stamped forms back to the housing office)

* obtained a local bank account into which my pay check will be deposited, once they start doing that (not before the end of the month, apparently; I'll be living more frugally than usual until then). (This involved walking perhaps two blocks past my apartment--I may not like cities, but there are some advantages.)

* Lunch! (The folk in our research team eat lunch together most days. It was kind of fun to sit there and try to make out where one word stopped and the next begun when they spoke Italian, and it is appreciated how often they switched to English to include myself and the German PhD student in the conversation.)

* obtaining a "numero di dodice fiscale" (works like a tax-file (Australian) or social security (US) number--this involved an early morning trip to the office, arriving five minutes before opening to discover a huge, noisy crowd waiting outside the door. At 9:00 the door opened, and the first 50 names from the sign-in sheet whcih had been outside the door were called in. The person who explained this to us was #68 on the list. The sign-in sheet had disappeared inside, so we left, and returned again an hour before closing, when we were helped fairly promptly surrounded by peace and quiet. Hard to believe it was the same place.)

* put the "numero di dodice fiscale" and the bank account numbers onto the form for the direct-deposit (alas, there are a few questions on the form for which we don't yet know the answer, so it will have to wait till tomorrow).

* learned how to access journals via this library's web page. (This one is actually directly related to work!)

Still to be done:

* acquire a health care card (now that I've got the "numero di dodice fiscale")

* pick up the forms from the post-office to complete my visa paperwork and get it extended for the full term of my contract

* obtain a local ID card

* find out what my e-mail address and password are for the account at this uni.

* find out what I'll be doing for work

My visa has been affixed to my passport, and is en route to me.

Main travel tickets have been purchased. I fly from Sydney to San Francisco on Thursday 18 June. This means that I *must* have the thesis done before then! I will need someone willing to drive me to June Crown from the Bay area--any takers, or shall I ask on SCA-West? I might need crash space on Thursday evening--I've given my step-sister, who recently moved to SF first refusal on my company that evening, but haven't heard back yet.

I will be doing a road-trip with a friend after Crown, getting me to Seattle by 26 June, where my sisters and I will all be at the same place, at the same time for the first time since my step-dad died, over five years ago. It will be different--back then two of them were contemplating starting families, and now they each have two children...

I will be flying from Chicago to Milan leaving on 6 July, but I still need to arrange travel to Chicago. I will probably head that way early enough to visit with family in Wisconsin before I go (with a potential stop in Colorado to see friends there), but there is a slight temptation to stay on the west coast and attend An Tir-West War instead.

I arrive in Milan in the morning on 8 July. Give me a few days to get settled, but after that, friends are encouraged to come visit, I may not wind up with luxury accommodation, but I'm always happy to provide at least floor space...

But, before any of that I need to:

* finish the additions/corrections to Chapter six my advisor suggested.
* ditto for chapters 1-4
* get the figures for chapters 2-4 camera ready
* book flight from Tassie to Sydney
* print the thesis & get it bound
* unpack my boxes which have been in storage since December, get clovis_t's stuff out (he will help with that part, but I so want to be involved), and repack the boxes with a detailed inventory, including value of each item
* decide when/where all to visit & book flight to Chicago (+/- additional stops?)
* get boxes to a shipping company & on their way to Italy
* cut out sewing projects to take on the plane with me--make certain that they won't need to be touched by scissors again till I arrive.
* pack luggage
* ship by air anything that was too important in the short term to send by boat, but that I don't have room to take with me

oh, and some sleep would be nice, too. I got almost three hours last night before getting back up to return to work. Got sleepy and curled up in bed for a nap, only to have an important text message come through. After replying to it, and to the two follow-up messages I gave up and returned to work, but it may well be time to try for another nap, because my brain is going fuzzy...

I just met with my advisor and discussed what is left to do with my thesis, in order to achieve the goal of finishing by the end of May. Since I need to type up notes anyway, I'll put them here, so you all know I'm alive, but I've put it behind a cut so that only those of you who want to know will have to see it.

( meeting notes ) He tells me this is all possible. I believe him. But I'm not doing much else between now and the end of May...

minor panic starts to set in--I want my thesis submitted at the end of May, because I'd like to travel in the US in June, and I need to be in Italy to take up that job offer at the end of June (this assumes that all goes well with the visa application and paperwork etc.)

I lost some working time today heading in to town to talk to the woman at the Italian consulate. Yes, it turns out that Hobart has one. It is a one-woman office, and it isn't listed on the web page listing the Italian consulates in all of the other capitol cities in Australia, but when I couldn't get any of those phone numbers to work, I tried the phone book, where the Hobart consulate (but none of the others) is listed. When one dials that number the voice on the other end says "hello" (not "Italian consulate", nor even the name of the travel agency, which is on the door of her office). When I told her I needed to know what sort of visa to apply for, she told me I needed to bring in my application, passport, passport photos, and all supporting documents. This not being as helpful as I might have liked, I printed out the e-mail letting me know that I have been selected for the position, and went in. She read the letter slowly, moving her lips as she read the words (and so I guess that she learned English later in life), and then printed out the form for me (which is good, because I couldn't find any forms on their web page) and let me know that I'd need information on my salary and health insurance. She looked at me funny when I admitted that I didn't know what the salary was yet. (As one who has been on a student budget for most of my life, it is reasonably safe to assume that the salary will be "more than I'm used to", what more do I really need to know than that?) Armed with solid information, I then went back to uni and e-mailed my contact in Milan and let him know what details I'd need to apply for the visa. He replied with salary details (why, yes, it is more than I'm used to!) and let me know that he'd have a copy of the contract (in both languages) soon. So I can put "visa application" on the back burner till I get that, and keep focusing on thesis stuff.

Which is not as far along as I want it to be, but I am determined to succeed in the goal of done on time to travel in June. I've just completed the last calculation for chapter five, so I hope to give that one its final edit (and checking that the numbers quoted match the new, officially final version of the table of results) and get the figures together tomorrow. ok, that is a long list, it might go longer than just tomorrow, but I sure hope not much longer). Then I can fill in the last of the holes in chapter two and write chapter six (discussions and conclusions). I think I've been doing a good enough job with organizing the figures that there shouldn't be much time elapsed between finishing chapter six and having a good copy ready to bind and turn in.

Other things to do--investigate air fares and see how many places/friends I can manage to visit during early and mid June (if you want to see me on that trip, let me know. If you've got crash space, let me know that, and if there is a special event you think I'd want to attend during that month, let me know that too--I may not get to see everyone I want to see during that trip, but I can try!) Check out how long shipping takes, and figure out by when I need to ship stuff such that it gets to Italy around the same time I do. Then make time to open up the packed boxes and get clovis_t's stuff out and re-pack things before shipping. It is going to be a busy next few weeks! They say that sleep is for the weak, but, alas, if that is true, then I am week, because I am not willing to slight myself on sleep (though, I will squidge it around to odd times in the day as needed).