Day Seven: Stratford-upon-Avon

Waiting.  Patiently waiting.
 This is how I spend the early days of my adventures into Stratford-upon-Avon, and the world of William Shakespeare.  I wait for approval from a UK landlord, and a UK credit check.  I wait to move in to my new apartment.  I wait for my program to start at University, and I wait to meet my new professors and peers at the Shakespeare Institute here in town.  I wait to get a mobile phone as they need proof of residency in order to acquire a month-to-month contract.  I wait to get a new UK bank account because they also need proof of residency.  I wait in line at Starbucks, so that I might get a tall coffee for here, so that I might enjoy their free internet.  I wait to have access to my own internet service, so that I won't have to keep waiting in line at Starbucks.  I wait.  I wait patiently.

So, school stuff.  Yeah.  I'm going to Birmingham this week sometime to pick up my ID card, and to see the University a bit.  Though I am not spending any time there at all (really), I'd like to at least see the campus of the University I'm going to receive my degree from.  I'm sure I'll end up using the University library quite a bit, as the degree I'm getting is most definitely a research one... however, I don't relish the idea of traveling a long ways to sit in a library all day, I suppose I'll have to get used to it.  Side note: Purchase train tickets online, always.  At the window they are not even trying to hide the extra expense (almost double.)

Last little stress point... my dissertation is supposed to be 80,000 words.  At 300 words per page, that works out to 266 pages, double-spaced.  It'll be the longest thing I have ever written, and according to every PhD. I have ever spoken to, it will be the hardest thing I have ever done.  On top of that, I am taking six classes in my first year that expect a 4,000 word essay for assessment at the end of each semester, and a pilot assignment to determine my eligibility for the actual PhD. that comes in at 10,000 words.  My first year here, I will be writing 36,000 words and I will not have even started my actual dissertation.

Polonius:
My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
What day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .
Hamlet, Act II, Sc. II, 86-92

He's talking about me, isn't he?

Year 1, Day -7 -- Words written: 0