oops, nearly forgot to give this post a title

Nearly a month has gone by since my last post - I can't believe how the time is flying past at the speed of a Concorde! As usual, quite a few things have happened. I must say however that I do believe that this blog makes me sound a lot busier than I actually am. The truth is that my time management skills could do with improving so I spend a lot of time procrastinating in between being busy. The best days in my opinion are days like yesterday where I had lots of place to be and was running in between them but the problem is that those are the days where I get the least work done...

So what have I been up to since the 11th February? Well, I have continued looking into different options for volunteering to fill up some time in my week that I would otherwise use for procrastinating. I had a meeting with someone from the local Red Cross office and will hopefully be doing some volunteering for them as a volunteer coordinator and fundraiser. Sounds good, huh? Also, yesterday, I went for the first time to Sneinton library to be a Reading Auntie. Basically this means that I get to hang out in the library for an hour and have kids read books to me! How much better can it get? I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definately be going back next week!!

I have also started work on my applied research project (i.e. my dissertation). I had a meeting with the lovely lady who is now my supervisor and we discussed my ideas and came up with a good piece of work to do. What is most exciting is that after getting in touch with the company I want to do it in they told me that they were just starting a project that it is in the same area as my research and they would like to get me involved in it! Wooo! Anyway, the title of my project so far is: Cross-cultural comparisons of perceptions of diversity policies and trainig in a global organisation. I will hopefully do a few interviews and send out a bunch of questionnaires and get back lots of interesting data, which the company can then use to discern where they stand in terms of implementing their new project and I can use to write up into a nice little portfolio.

Next, days away from Nottingham: Firstly, we went on the PGSA trip to York, which would have been better if we hadn't got stuck in traffic and therefore lost a lot of time and also if it hadn't been Valentine's day and the rest of the world hadn't also been there BUT York is beautiful! I will have to go back one day to explore some more and go into some of the many little shops and look at some of the many museums. The minster is very impressive and so are many of the other architectural quirks around the town. This past weekend I went to Leeds to meet up with my godfather James who I hadn't seen in about 10 years and I spent a fantastic Saturday there getting to know his life a bit and talking a lot about books, dogs, and all things him and I both seem to love.

Visitors: Lena was here!! Oh yes, and Andi, Christian und dr Zürcher :) We enjoyed various pubs in town and I have now been in most pubs that are proclaimed as old and famous and whatever and I have also drunk a lot of ale, seen English ice hockey (not at all impressive!! but it is quite funny that although we thought it was bad, five of the Nottingham Panters players have been nominated to play for the English national team...), and danced at Rock City! It was a fantastic weekend and was over far too quickly... Tomorrow I will have a brief visit by Aurelia who is currently hanging out in London and then in about two weeks Steffi will come for about five days to celebrate my birthday. Hopefully we will manage a day out to the east coast (Skegness) in between parties.

My course is still going well. It is interesting and I am looking forward to the research project and also the workshops coming up in the summer. In the meantime I have an incredible number of essays to write, a workbook to work my way through, and a portfolio to do. And of course - don't forget reading for exams! We just had a consultancy workshop the other week, which was interesting as it gave more insight into how the speakers got to where they are now and what their experiences have been as consultants as well as teaching us or making us aware of necessary skills for the real world.

Hopefully I will be able to get quite a lot of reading and thinking done while travelling in my Easter break. I am planning to go to Liverpool for a few days to visit Dan, Andy, and Flora then travel all the way down to Bexhill (possibly stopping in Brighton just to have a look) to stay with NP, then to London for a few days of relaxing with V&J between grandparents and then on to Waldringfield to stay with G&G and hopefully also catch up with Mum and Mark!!

Before then there is the Broadgate Easter formal, more ARP meetings and teleconferences, reading in Sneinton, lectures, bday celebrations for various people, visits to Manchester (this Sat) and possibly Stonehenge and Salisbury at the end of the month, seminars, film nights, and then of course Steffi's visit. Plent of stuff to do - maybe I should write a list and then not follow it or scribble things in my diary I then won't do.

I am still very sad that I missed Fasnacht but am hoping that my research in the summer will take me home to Basel and I will have the opportunity to catch up with more people then. I miss everyone a lot (even though it has been said that I have a heart of stone, pah, American bitch, you know it was you).

xxxxx