A brief update

I know, I know, I know. I have forgotten about this blog and all of my loyal followers who use this as a way to find out what I've been up to. The joys of going into the "last" year of a PhD means that I am busy with re-writing, editing, and completely throwing out most of what I've written over the last 2 years. But at least it is all starting to come together in some kind of cohesive whole. Scary.

Since my last update I have actually spent most of it elsewhere. I went back to Canada for my yearly month visit. Some of which was good, other parts of it not so much. It's weird to go back to a place where all of your friends still are and realize how much they haven't changed, but you have, or that they have changed in a way you would have never expected. I had some great coffee times with some old friends where it felt like I never left, so really, I was all over the spectrum.

After Canada, I was back in the UK for all of 6 days, then off to Bulgaria to be the "plus one" for a friend at a wedding. It was quite a neat experience, being adopted into a Bulgaria family for 10 days, getting to see the countryside and the "off-the-beaten-track" parts of Bulgaria. It is an amazing place, although I don't know if I'd go just as a tourist. The part that made my Bulgaria experience so great was actually hanging out with Bulgarians and seeing how they live. Wandering around in the major cities just reminds you of any other eastern European city.

After the Bulgaria adventure, I've pretty much stayed close to home. I spent the end of the summer trying to get on top of all my work before the school year started. And I am now at the point where I am doing a lot of re-reading of stuff from my first couple of years, tutoring for three different courses (all three of which are out of my comfort zone), and starting to ask the big questions about what's next. It's a scary thought. I've started applying for lecturing jobs at a couple Universities and have been looking into research fellowships and the like as well. It's made me realize how comfortable I've gotten living here (and comfortable in the PhD lifestyle) that the whole idea of leaving is a little unsettling. At the same time, there are a number of things that I miss since I live in this weird little bubble and I look forward to spending some time in a slightly bigger place. But everything is up in the air. Kind of exciting to think that I really could be anywhere next year.

So what's in the immediate future for our Ancient Historian. Well, besides the mundane proof-reading and re-writing that I do every day, I will be heading off to Cyprus in a week and a half for a nice week vacation. I look forward to exploring another fun and exotic place and taking a well-needed break from my everyday life.

As always, I have at least some pictures for Bulgaria on my picassa site and hope to at least semi-keep up with this blog (although I know I always say that).