Become a Master of Science: Check

I did it! I have officially defended my thesis and submitted it online! My thesis defense can be found here if you are really curious as to what I've spent the last 4 years on. Granted, it won't be as insightful with out all my words of wisdom narrating along with the slides. And the picture is of me and my good friends Courtney and Carole who ALSO defended their theses the same week as me - go us!

It is a little scary to be done with this whole thing. I have been working on it for so long, I don't know what it feels like to NOT be working on it. After finishing yesterday and submitting, Jody set up his SuperNintendo and I played Mario Bros all afternoon while he worked - it was the laziest afternoon I've had in a while. I loved it!

I am so excited about Fiji, but at the same time I am so scared!!! Before I got to just say "Yeah, I am moving to Fiji for 2 years" and people would just "ooh" and "ahh" and I would be excited to go. Now I ACTUALLY have to go and I am still excited but the phrase "scared shitless" comes to mind - 2 years in a foreign country with a language you don't speak and completely different cultural attitudes towards religion, gender roles, EVERYTHING. This is what I signed up for and I can't wait for it to start, but there is so much that I know is just going to give me a reality check as to what things are like outside of the privileged lifestyle I have been living. Oh - and there is a fly in my bedroom that I had to lure out with the light in my brother's bathroom across the hall and then had to rapidly shut the door to trap it outside ... the whole sleeping under a net thing to keep out the bugs is going to be an interesting experience for me.

So, the next 3 weeks will be dedicated to trying to figure what I need and pack up 80 lbs of crap for the next 2 years! That will probably include 4 cameras despite all the best efforts of my friends to convince me otherwise. I have asked a couple other photography minded friends/family and they totally agree the dSLR must come with - thank goodness!!