Down To The Wire

I took today off from work to finish up the the presentation, paper, and homework assignment that are due for class tomorrow afternoon. Originally I had hoped to have them done over the weekend, but as it turned out progress was very slow and now the pressure is on. This is just as well since I'm always at my best under pressure. Oddly enough, I just haven't been motivated enough to make the necessary progress, owning to the myriad of distractions this semester and the inevitable case of "senioritis" (e.g., this is my final class).

It's a weird feeling knowing that this is my last official class of the masters degree; all the remains in the thesis project research which will be completed by this time next year. Of course this probably isn't my last class since I have a bad habit of taking extra classes when I can, mainly for fun and personal enhancement. And they'll probably be biology courses as well. Epidemiology has been enlightening and certainly a challenge, but overall I've found it lacking in many ways compared to my own primary area of interest in natural history. Perhaps I'll even take some foreign language courses that are better suited to the ultimate goal of international public health work than the two years of German I took as an undergraduate. Spanish would be the logical choice but I will explore some other options before enrolling in anything. Shortly after the return from Thailand in January, I began learning some of the basics of Thai in preparation for future trips (and certainly there will be many), but as I'm learning this on my own, progress is slow. It's a shame Thai isn't offered at my university. My Thai friend coaches me on some pronunciations from time to time and there's a Thai temple maybe half an hour from where I live, so there are options for taking the language aquisition to the lext level should I choose to do so. My goal at the present is not to become fluent; I just want to be able to get some basic communications skills down and learn enough of the script to avoid taking the wrong bus the next time I'm in Bangkok. So essentially, the Thai language will be a wonderfully challenging hobby with the potential for future career applications.