Done

So... I've finished the thesis.

On Friday, I was having a helluva day. I met my dad for lunch, which was nice but I didn't spend too much time with him because I had to finish the thesis. It was frustrating, mostly because my mind was on money matters. I had a conversation with the Research Director the night before at dinner and she told me about some funds that I can access post-submission as an RA. I asked the admin people about it who told me that the funds are available to me PRIOR to submission. And she's telling me this 7 days before submission.

This information would have been useful in FEBRUARY. When I started.

Anyway, had a whinge about it to everyone. Everybody probably thinks I'm a whinger and a scrooge. I said to Rebekah, "It's hard enough getting a fee waiver for the PhD, I don't even know if a stipend is involved. What do they expect International Students to do? Teach 20 tutorials to make ends meet for the year??" It's so unfair. I've decided I'm quite big on equity. Hm...

Saturday, I went to work to keep working on the thesis. I worked for 5 solid hours and wrote the Discussion Chapter. By 4pm, my shoulders were sore from hunching over the computer for so long. I asked Damien to drive me to Rebekah's house so I could pass her the draft. She has a pretty, fluffy black cat, which Damien almost ran over. Yeesh.

That night, I met Damien's parents for the first time at Blue Smoke. It's a nice American restaurant owned by this black, American guy. The food there is delicious and the service is always fabulous. They make you feel very welcome and they're always friendly and warm. We didn't get to sit next to Damien's parents though. His brother and girlfriend were sitting between us. Great. I don't have a huge voice. There was no way I could talk to the other end of the table.

Turns out Damien was annoyed with the seating too.

Damien and I went out on Sunday. I was too tired and weak to work. I literally had to lie down all day cos I was so exhausted.

Monday I went back to work and Rebekah gave me back the Discussion chapter at lunchtime. There was no way I could finish it before 3.30pm when she was leaving, so I had to get Damien to pick me up at work at 6pm and drive to Rebekah's house again...

But it was done! The first complete draft of the thesis was done. It felt sooo good...

Tuesday, Rebekah came back with some more changes, but they weren't a lot and I finished at lunchtime. I printed 2 copies of the complete thesis and felt relief. I showed it to Rebekah and Dom and we were all quite happy.

I left the office at 2.30pm and went to get a pedicure for the first time in my life. Woo...