Success!

Thursday brought feedback on the translation assignment for Social Studies - I got a fantastic mark for it, and I really enjoyed doing it although I spent most of the annotations picking holes in the author's thinking. I managed to mistranslate one word and get a passive the wrong way around in the last section, which threw the whole thing off, but apparently everyone had got the same word wrong. Most of the Social Studies sessions were a concerted attempt by the tutor to get us back on track and keep us on time as we kept talking around and off the topics. But very stimulating nonetheless.

The dissertation and annotated translation sessions were very interesting and helpful in terms of what you need to do. Unfortunately, I still have no idea which I want to do, or what I want to do at all. Either one, now that I've had them explained in detail, is a lot of work. But I can't submit a proposal until I've handed in my last essay, which will be in November as I'm going to ask for an extension.

Feedback on the presentations was good, although the debacle with the laptop put me well over time - the tutor assured me that it was just over five minutes since I got the slides up (we have five to eight minutes in the exam). I also passed the Japanese prose section, although I would have liked to do better. I really need to practice the letter and report sections and keep on reading in Japanese to get my marks up.

Most of the students managed to meet up on Thursday night for dinner, which was a lot of fun even if we were all ready to drop. The first-year students from my course were finished, as was the lone Japanese Language and Society student, although some were staying on to use the library. The librarian had unfortunately gone on holiday, as I wanted to ask her for some things...

Friday was mostly Social Studies, followed by feedback on the Japanese to English translation mock exam and final feedback. I was ready to drop. Coffee and chocolate every two hours, and even that wasn't doing me much good. I passed the Japanese to English mock with a strong mark - really happy with that. We finished up early and headed over to the pub for a quick drink with a few of the tutors and course staff.

I headed back to the library and was there until it closed at 7:00pm. Although there were several of us around, everyone disappeared off - that happened last year too, leaving me feeling quite alone at the end. I picked up a fried rice takeaway and headed back to the halls. Watched Appleseed Ex Machina - gets quite overblown at times, but extremely watchable and well, pre-cyborg Briareos is just fnar.

Between spending most of Wednesday night importing the Sheffield and SOAS library searches into a program called EndNote Web (referencing tool) and then half of Friday in the library building up lists of interesting books, I decided to take it easy on Saturday. First I got a day ticket on the tram and headed in to have a look around and most importantly get my hair cut. Then it was back to the halls to clear out and hand back my keys. I settled in to the outdoors area of the pub up the road with a trashy novel, determined to enjoy the sunny day.

I enjoyed it a little too much as I later found out - the back of my neck burned! I had some lunch and coffees, then moved on to wander around town and picked up some CDs. I had earlier wandered around Waterstones, and bought two brain-off novels (Dead Witch Walking and Magic Bites - both highly entertaining but prefer the latter) and also two 'worthier' volumes, A History of Misogyny and The Descent of Woman. I almost finished one book on the train, as we were delayed by signal problems. Himself had checked for anywhere open late, so we had a lovely Chinese meal before heading home.

On Sunday I was up to pack, then we went into town to meet up with friends for lunch before I headed off again. There was another delay with air traffic control in Frankfurt after a thunderstorm, but we weren't too late. I dawdled in the bookshop in the main station - which has English books - but ended up not getting anything. I really miss the library...

Monday was back to work and turns out we have a desk move. More searching of the content management system for updates, my brain was pretty much shut down by 3:00pm with the heat, and when I went to find my new desk it had no PC on it... so instead of trying to come in early to beat the heat, as I had planned, I now had to come in late so they could put a computer on the desk. Spent half of today waiting for the content management system to do a full checkout. Brain dead by 3:00 again. The German team said in a meeting that the paperwork for the air conditioning had only just been signed so it would be in in November. I can never tell when Germans are joking, but I have a horrible feeling they weren't.

So, I am going to try going in early tomorrow. I'm also making my own salad at the moment, as I'm sick of everything in the supermarket. And my beloved black bag, which I got in Loft in Nagoya back in 2002 or 2003, has finally developed a massive hole, graduated from the tear which I noticed before the craft fair. sigh

Although I decided I would have a week off, I did end up thinking about a topic for the presentation at the exam weekend - I think I'll do it on biofuels, the pros and cons and next stages. Should work in the same pattern as the last one. I'll do up a new study schedule at the weekend. And in the meantime, I bought the eBook of the sequel to Magic Bites, Magic Burns. More brain-off time.