And I think to myself, what a wonderful week...

It's true. I've had the most wonderful week. It started on Saturday, when I awoke to find an email in my inbox from the Peace Corps - "Your application status has been updated. Please log into your account for more information." A sure sign of good news! I logged in to find that I have officially been cleared by the Office of Medical Services. The medical clearance is by far the most difficult part of the application process for the Peace Corps. Lots of forms, lots of poking and prodding and shots, then requests for more forms and more poking and prodding and shots. Even so, it only took me a month and a half - I feel like that's pretty good time. The exciting thing is that the medical clearance is the last major step before placement. Woohoo! When I got up on Monday morning, I had another email, this one from a girl in the Placement Office. Double woohoo! Things are going well. I just submitted my resume updates (since it's been almost four months since I submitted it with my application). Who knows how long this next step will take. The only thing I know is that the person I'm in contact with is from the Africa placement team, so we're heading in the right direction.
So what else has happened this week to warrant such exuberance? Well, on Monday morning, the university posted class listings for the spring semester. While there is only one undergraduate course that I'm interested in taking (and it's a cool one - an entire class devoted to FILM NOIR!), there were a number of graduate courses that caught my eye. Namely, Dr. Redman is teaching a course on James Joyce. Yes, I'm going there - going out with a bang by taking a graduate-level Joyce class my final semester. At first I was bummed because it was at the same time as Dr. Hatfield's Latin American Short Story class, but then I realized that Dr. Hatfield is also teaching a cool graduate class - "Neruda, Vallejo, and Guillen". It should be pretty fantastic - I went to talk to him about it and he was more than happy to give me permission to take it. He also agreed to be my second reader for my honors thesis.
Which leads me to the other good news. Things are going really well for the thesis. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of movies for it. During my meeting with Dr. Towner this morning to discuss my progress, she suggested that I visit the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University - as they have a wonderful archive of scripts and notes. She's even trying to get me a catalog of it from her friend there! Woohoo! And I have enough money left in my McDermott travel fund to pay for the plane ticket.
Over all, things are going fabulously well. I have a lot of paperwork to fill out (surprise, surprise - that seems to be the theme of the semester), as all but one of my classes next semester require special permission. But it's worth it.
I've been walking around all day with a smile on my face. Wonderful weather. Soft grass and bare feet. Things falling into place all over the place. What more do I need right now?

Starting over again

I've been a terrible blogger. A whole summer of adventures and misadventures has gone by without a single entry. I guess that's a result of my having been in the same country the whole time. But wait - that's not true either! My last entry is from the MS150, which means I never wrote on here about the Central America trip. :-(. Oh well. What's done is done. Most of you have heard my endless number of stories from that trip and those that followed anyway. What I want to do now is start fresh.
It's high time I did so too. A major change in my life is in the works and I'm DEFINITELY going to need a blog for this one - provided I will have access to the internet. Curious yet? Here we go - I'm joining the Peace Corps. I've spent the last three and a half months applying and interviewing and getting poked and prodded by even kind of doctor there is. Now I have nothing to do but wait. I've sent off all the results from all of my doctor visits so that I can get my medical clearance, then I just have to wait some more until I get a letter with my invitation and (more exciting) my service location. I've been nominated for the Health Extension programs in Africa but there's no way to know where I'll end up. Could be three months, could be six. Either way, it's a long wait.
So what do I do until then? Well, finish school for one thing. After this semester, I only have to write my thesis to graduate summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas. I'll probably take a few fun classes as well while I'm still on scholarship. I also have a few things up my sleeve to keep me busy...
After this weekend's trip to Big Bend with my old professor and good friend, I've decided to get back into the lab for a spell to help with a project I worked on my freshman year. I spent an entire semester dissecting herbivore coprolites (fossilized poo) and the results are now getting ready to go into a paper. I'm going to work on producing some kick-ass microphotographs of the specimens, then work some on the latest addition to this project - some carnivore coprolites. Yay poop!
I also need some more volunteer work under my belt. Especially something related to health care to get me ready for the Peace Corps. I'm working on my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certification, as well as CPR and maybe even first responder training. My other goal - learn to ride a motorcycle. Vroom.
Tada. I finally posted something on the blog. Kathe will be excited, as will others I hope.
I also updated my flickr account with all the pictures I've been working on since the Central America trip (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannahefrank/sets/).
I don't know when the next post will be. I'll try to keep regular but you know how life is.

2007 MS150 - Done!

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I agree, and am far too tired after this weekend for a long post, so check out the flickr album here.
A lot of the pictures have explanations but here's a few headlines.

• We had a blast!
• I ended up raising a total of $460 - thanks to everyone who donated.
• I crossed the finish line* (I had to sag part of the way on Day 2 due to an eye injury - why did I insist on contacts on such a windy day?)
• The weather was... less than ideal. It rained all day on Saturday and was windy as sin on Sunday. But we're ducks - we can handle it.
• Lots of bruises and sore under parts, but all told, I think we all came out alive. I'm ready to hop on that plane to Mexico in the morning and climb some ruins (I guess I should start packing then, huh?).
  

oops

The $0.01 mandolin from Ebay came in on Monday (well, $30 once you add in shipping, but still...). I'm so excited :-D. I've been messing around with it all week so far. In fact, I spent about 4 hours making adjustments and restringing last night rather than studying for my final that I have in approximately 34 minutes. Oops. Oh well. It doesn't really matter - I could make a C on this test and still get an A in the class, and I think I studying just enough to pull a high B, so there. I love how apathetic I've become in the last two weeks. Isn't the end of the semester grand?

Good thing that's over

This week has been very, very long. Lots of assignments due. I haven't been able to ride my bike all week. :-(
But I do have a big ride tomorrow morning, then I'm going to hang out with Granny G and my mom and sister. It should be a good weekend.
Projects are done and papers are written. Now all I have to do is sit for a final on Wednesday and I can get out of here.
Oh, I bought the ticket by the way - May 7-18 in Central America (we're going to try and get as far down as Copan in Honduras), then Austin for a few days, then DI in Tennessee May 22-28, then the epic roadtrip to Oregon. It's going to rock.
Okay, off to the bike shop...

Room for one more...

... one more adventure that is.
This afternoon was comprised of a string of serendipitous encounters, by the end of which I had another pre-Portland adventure lined up.
Some of my friends have been talking for a while about a trip to Central America after the semester ends. This is of course only two weeks away (three really since we have to wait til after graduation). I wasn't going to go with them, though I badly wanted to, because I am already committed to the MS150 (and training is going well, by the way). But today, they came to the realization that it would be easier to fly to Cancun and take buses around to all the Maya ruins and other cool places - which means they won't be leaving until after the MS! And since they're also DI people, we'll be back in plenty of time for me to do the Tennessee thing before the roadtrip up to Portland.
This is turning out to be one epic summer indeed. Hopefully I'll be able to work out the details so that I can go on this adventure too, as it would be a shame to miss out.
Okay, I REALLY need to stop procrastinating - to the books.

A quote from the one and only Dr. Towner...

In reply to my assertion that she had made a little muggle girl very happy by teaching the Imagined Worlds class...
"Oh, you're not a muggle, Hannah; you just haven't bounced yet."
I have the best professors in the world.
(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just skip this post)