Thesis process - Lund Graduate School

OK, so now that I have just finished writing my thesis I thought it would be a good idea to write a post that helps to explain the process to future master students at the graduate school in Lund.

We were given a wide range of information regarding writing our thesis in the graduate school but to be honest most of the time I was confused until I was actually in full swing of writing.

1 down 1 to go

This week has been madness and it all climaxed in a crazed filled day yeterday which left me feeling exhausted and relieved!

The day started out with me waking up early and doing my best to write a compelling conclusion for my final paper. I needed to hand it in by noon so the pressure was on! On top of that I needed to move out of my little apartment. With my conclusion down I glanced at my clock only to be gobsmacked by the fact that it was already 10:30. Why the panic?

Well, on top of handing in my assignment I also needed to move out of my apartment. I still had dishes to do, some small things to pack, a bathroom, to clean, and an apartment to sweep and mop. It doesn't sound like a lot but it has a way of stealing more time than you anticipate. So I furiously got to work! The clock hit 11:15 and by now I was running to my friend's (Melanie and Anne) apartment to drop off my backpack and laptop. Then, still running, I went to my apartment mopped the floor and locked up. Time was marching on and I would have loved some time to be sentimental about my little apartment but with only half an hour left to cycle into town, print my assignment, and hand it in I was in no such luck!

Pendling like a demon with the wind against me the whole way (typical!) I managed to get my assignment in just in time (11:59). High fives all round!

Exhausted it was time to have a coffee with classmates I have gotten to know over the past 10 months. It was a weird sensation when we realised that these were the last classes we would have together as next semester would be internship time and the following semester would be thesis time (Yikes!). Unfortunately, I couldn't linger. Oh, did I forget to mention? I also had a Swedish exam at 17:00 which I hadn't started studying for.

So I said by goodbyes and gave some hugs and soon my head was back inthe books! I crammed for three hours and then walked tentatively into the Swedish exam all. Two and a half hours later I felt utter relief! My summer holidays had officially arrived and I was officialy 1 year down!

Completing my first year Masters I feel ready for sommarlov (it's kind of cool sommarlov is Swedish for summer holiday, it just makes me what to speak like Barry White, I'm not sure why).

Now, homeless, I am crashing at my friends place until next week Tuesday when I jet off to Hungary for a month of backpacking around Europe! It should be fun! Yiiiippppppppppppeeeeeeeeee

Happy summer holidays everyone and I hope you are feeling as relieved as I am with the semester done and dusted :)

Yes! It is interesting...

Taken off of swan.ac.uk

I realised today that most of my posts have been about events and things I have done in Sweden but in actual fact most of my time is taken up by studying and reading, of which I have written little about.

As you know I am studying gender studies but I am amazed at how few people (including myself prior to this course) actually know what it is about. Whenever I tell people what I am studying I get this niggling feeling that I am being judged (this could be insecurity but the follow up questions and responses confirm my suspicions). "Ooooh, thaaaat's interesting." I always feel as though people think I am some raging feminist, ready to go out and chop penises off of every man I come across. Although a novel idea (wink wink), this is not what I am studying and not what I hope to gain from the course.

The rooms of my mind

A strange thing happens (or at least for me) when you get into paper writing exam mode. I can literally (literally!) see things fall apart around me the closer to deadline I get.

Dishes slowly start to pile up, I get sloppy with my clothing, papers are scattered everywhere, my hair looks like a hornet's nest, and I become a hermit in every sense of the word.

But I think that there is a hidden process to all of this. I think my surroundings are descriptive of what is going on in my brain. When writing week starts you can slowly see the order crash into disorder. It starts with opening your files and slowly unbinding the material you have been gathering and the more you take out the more it spreads across your floor and desk. However, at this point in the process it is still systematic.

But as the days continue and your brain toys with contradictory ideas fighting for the angle and focus of your paper those organised papers start to be flung across the room and soon all mayhem breaks loose. It is organised chaos. You know where everything is and if anyone dares to touch your precious mess they might be met with a fist.

Then the procrastination sets in. You have an idea but you're not sure about it. So with that you let it mull over in your mind and your apartment finds itself suspended, still not clean. Once your procrastinating is done you realise that you have left everything just that little bit too late and now the deadline is looming closer that you would like it to. Now things get crazy!

Cereal bowls mount up next to your papers. You forget to cook yourself a proper meal and decide to opt for a peanut butter and jam sandwich, cereal, or anything that you can grab. Cooking is simply too much when you are at the stage of delirium.

As you feel yourself slip closer towards dementia and your heartbeat starts to speed up as that inevitable paper writing frenzy washes over you. You stop. You take a look around you. Gasp! "I can't concentrate in this mess". And just like that you find yourself cleaning up: doing the dishes, stacking your papers, making your bed and brushing your hair. A weird calm washes over you as you sit down in front of your laptop. Yip, you are in the zone now. You have organised the space in your room and in some magical way you have also organised your thoughts. You are ready to argue.

Then the typing comes, flows, stops, goes. The rat-tat-tat of the keyboard falls into a steady rhythm and you are no longer at your wits end. "What will be will be"; "I can only do my best". With that you finish typing close your laptop and do something totally unrelated with your time before giving it one last squizz before hand-in which results in a couple of hyperventilated breaths as you start to question your arguments before you realise "it's too late now" and hand in the paper.

Then you take another breath and brace yourself for the next round of madness.

Let the madness begin!

Ok, so classes started this week and I can officially say I forgot how demanding studying can be. It's only been one week of class and I'm already running around like a crazy women let loose on a pig farm.

When I saw our schedule, which has two lectures a week and a seminar I thought that this would be easy peezy! Not because I'm being all overly confident but because during my fourth year at University in South Africa I had five courses each with two or three lectures a week. So when I saw that in Sweden at a Masters level you tend to only do one course at a time I stupidly equated that to mean I would have hordes of time to engage in all of the other cool things happening on campus.


You see, I have been given reading, but not just a little bit...each week we have hordes or material to wade through before the lecture. For next week Tuesday we have 12 chapters of a book to get through. Phew! And to top of all the madness as class started I also started meeting people, fancy that!

So with all this work to do what am I doing today on a gorgeous Saturday in Sweden. Staying home? Nooooo, I'm actually about to hop on a train and head to Copenhagen which is only half an hour away! And what will I be doing tomorrow you ask? Tomorrow I'll be reading like a demon...I'll be reading so fast the pages will be on fire ( I figure this is the better attitude to have...) As long as I have a mid afternoon nap to re-charge my batteries I'll be all set and ready for Tuesday. Nap!? I know right...but they are actually one of my little loves in life....mmmmm.

So this was just a very very quick entry to say that things are officially underway. Class has started and now it this time to step up to the plate and prove my worth. But it is also time to start to get to know my surroundings a bit better and in the coming weeks there are some cool things coming up. Unfortunately I won't be able to partake in all of the events, one because there are simply too many of them, two I need to make time for studies, and three some of them tend to be a bit pricey. But when I do go to one I will be sure to let you know what weird and awesome things I have been up to

Alrighty but I better start getting ready for my daytrip to Denmark...I'll let you know how it goes!