Deconstructing my degree

[felis_ultharus]

Well, I completely altered my degree, today.

First off, I got my first major assignment of the year in on time. Then I went to accounts office to find out why I wasn't being paid (turns out they had the wrong social insurance number). I get that straightened out tomorrow.

I also found a bank that's willing to take on me and my student loan. Hopefully, CIBC hasn't decided it's already too loate. I don't know because my loan officer is never actually in her office. What in hades does she do all day?

Then I had a long talk with Bonnie-Jean. Here are the conclusions I came to:

• I can't possibly do a thesis. Not only do I not have time to prepare one, but the university's two Canadianists will be gone by the time I hand in my précis. The estimable Dr. Laura Groening, our thematicist, is on extended sick leave/sabbatical. And the übercool Dr. Kevin Flynn, our postmodernist lite, is leaving for the University of Saskatchewan as soon as the final exams are marked. This leaves me no choice but to go for comprehensives. Fortunately, I've found out they're no bar to a PhD as I'd been lead to believe (serves me right for believing what I hear on the playground).
  
• I'm worn out, and I doubt a summer off will help much. So I've decided to shell out a little extra money (with my TA funds, I can afford it) and do part-time (one course) the next two semesters. That means going for a summer course. Actually, it's partially motivated by my desire to do the Graphic Novel course -- the comic book as literature -- offered only in the summer. That one will be hard, I'm sure, because professors who do cool courses are always overcompensating for the perception that their course is the easy "A". One course, though, I should be able to handle. And I'll still be finished at the end of next spring.

So yeah. The extra time will help me prepare for comps. And maybe get some more writing done, to boot.

Comments

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

I understand your pain. It seems like ever prof in East Asian Studies is leaving (the Japan side anyways, China is fully staffed). Tom Looser left last year for Cornell and doesn't want to come back. My supervisor, Anne McKnight took off for Kyoto at the begining of the semester. She sent me a postcard and a book. Lovely. That'll help me finish my thesis. Only the wonderful Tom Lamare is left but even he is technically on sebatical. I don't know who will read me thesis when I finish it...

There's a graphic novel course? too cool! I need to get in on that if I can find the time.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

It'll probably fill up fast. In fact, I think it's almost there already, which is unprecedented for a summer course.

(Yo0u're at McGill, right? Can students from one take courses at the other? I wasn't aware of that. Maybe I should look into courses at McGill.)

[jenjoou.livejournal.com]

They can but it's a lot of paper work. More trouble than it's worth probably and another class would probably be a bad idea at this point... I need to worry about the graphic novels I need for my thesis and have fun once I'm done with that. I'd love to see what kind of readings you'll be doing for the class though :)