Good Morning my Dear Friends and a happy post-Thanksgiving.

I am entering my last week of Michaelmas Term! This means that there is at least one essay crisis per day, sometimes two :P

However, the golden nugget waiting at the end is a trip back to Harlaxton. I am very excited to see the wonderful Ralph and Judith Poore again, my host family of yore, and to see the manor, the Baker students there now, and the lovely people still teaching and working there. It will be magic anew.

Then I come back to Oxford to study and in 9th week I have a thesis meeting to discuss what sorts of quantitative regressions I want to use to analyze my macroeconomic data. However, that sort of requires me to have some macroeconomic data. Luckily the meeting is at the end of the week, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be devoted to finding all of the indicators that I want. I am really excited to get started on the development of the thesis, how the question and case study will be structured, and to organize the research. I am reading Case Studies and Theory Development in full to prepare properly for the thing.

Being in the last week of term also means that my 24 day Christmas countdown is soon upon me. I will be reviewing my 24 sets of seminar readings that have been assigned this term, one on each of the days (1-24) in December before Christmas. And my present will be passing my course. Fingers Crossed! This probably means the blog is about to get academic in the next few weeks :P I also need to write a paper for an application on the importance of measuring the qualitative outputs in education and how this can be achieved globally. I was considering revising another paper for submission, but then realized that would be a crazy task, so that is in cunctation (or might get delegated lol).

This past week was very pulchritudinous. St. Hilda's put on the Guest Night which saw the return of some wonderful alumni and other friends of the college. There was a magnificent Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to attend three fascinating seminars, one on Afghanistan, one on institutions in the Middle East, and one on Syria. All in all I think it was quite a successful 7th week, given the circumstances.

Ok, I think I am off to go write my Global Governance essay. Wish me luck!
Will

My Dear Friends,

I have been remiss these past weeks and somehow it is four weeks since I last updated the blog. Well, a great deal has happened!

This now is the start of 5th week and the beginning of some serious essay submissions. My schedule is looking slightly un-human at the moment but these things have a way of working themselves out lol It does help that I find the readings very fascinating and so I really enjoy doing the work and I think the essays will help to synthesize the information in a way that will help me to prepare for the exams at the end of the year.

On the topic of academics, I have chosen a thesis subject! I will be researching the sustainability of the welfare state. I would welcome the opinion of anyone thinking they have the answer (preferably supported with a host of academic sources) or just anyone who wants to pass along a host of academic sources :P I am excited for this topic and am setting myself the goal of assembling an annotated bibliography for my next advisor meeting.

Since my last post, I have been selected as the new Oxford Hub president and I am totally loving this position! The people are so amazing to work with and it is great experience to see where this organization can go and how it will grow in just a year's time. You should all totally check it out at the following link :)
http://oxfordhub.org/xwiki/bin/view/Oxford+Hub/

This last weekend I was at the EMERGE conference which is about social enterprise and many of the questions related to that field. It was my first foray into the topic and I was inspired by many of the panels and speeches that I heard. Next weekend will be the Impact conference and it is in London. I will be going to learn about ways in which organizations and charities (such as the hub :D) can improve their effectiveness and tailor their missions (at least I think lol).

This time of year has also seen the application for jobs. I have found an amazing array of positions that do really neat things and I would love them all! This seems to be a typical problem for me...so I am applying to many different types of positions and I assume something will sort itself out. I cannot pretend to have a grand plan or large scheme into which the first job fits. But I do have some criteria for which they must satisfy, so that is at least something.

Sending good thoughts out there: I made a declaration this week that I am searching for a new positive energy and to effect positive change in the world :) I am going to try very hard to write again next week!
Will