क्या हुआ??

I can’t believe it. The overnight low in Travis county (Texas) is actually pretty pretty close to the low in Hennepin county (Minnesota). Somehow this doesn’t seem like something which should be happening.

Today went alright. I got to school at 11 to work on some Urdu for tomorrow. I had to give a presentation in Mughal class, which I was relatively nervous for. I wasn’t actually as nervous about this one as the last one. I wrote out word for word what I was going to say to avoid the disaster of last time. However, I my voice was still crazy shaky! I wasn’t even that nervous walking up to the front of the room but as soon as I started talking I just couldn’t control how my voice sounded. Silly silly. Anyway, in the end I got some really good tips from my classmates and a couple people told me that my presentation wasn’t bad. What a relief! I’m just glad to have that over with so now all I have to worry about is writing that paper and organizing my thesis research.

The weekend didn’t go quite as planned, but still ended up quite pleasant! It is now my mission to go dancing this coming weekend. Anyone who is interested in coming along should just let me know!

So I suppose it’s time for an update.

I’m still working on my thesis. I’m finally making some decent progress, I believe. I’ve put together a preliminary outline which will hopefully help me organize the research I’ve done thus far. My plan is to start doing some serious writing once I get back to Minnesota for winter “break.”

Other than that, I’m also in the middle of working on my foreign service application. I’m at the point of the personal narrative, which means I have to write some more things about myself in the hopes that the committee will like me and will invite me in for an oral assessment. Additionally, I’m going to take an Urdu proficiency test over the phone on Friday. I’m trying to speak as much Urdu as possible right now so I’m not completely rusty.

One thing I’m trying to do is forcing myself to get out a bit more. I’m pretty embarrassed to admit how little I’ve done in this city since moving here, especially since I’ll probably be leaving again in May when I finish my thesis and graduate. Anyway, so I think I’ve been making some progress. The gym membership has helped, though I’m still working on making a habit of going. That being said, I haven’t given up on it and I AM still going. I’ve also stepped out of my comfort zone quite a bit. For example, I’ve been wanting to go to this Nerd Nite thing for the last couple months but just could not find anyone else who was interested in going with me. Finally I just decided to get on a bus to downtown to go by myself. No one looked at me like I was some sort of loser idiot, because well, why would people care anyway. So now that I’ve faced that fear, I don’t think I’d have any more problems doing what I want to do just because no one’s with me.

I’ve also been working a bit on this whole dating thing. There have been a few stumbles here and there, since I’ve never really gotten how the whole scene functions. I sometimes make the mistake of focusing on the destination instead of the journey, which means that I develop so many expectations that nothing could ever actually live up to my expectations. I’m trying to look at things a little more casually now. I mean, all signs point to me being out of here in some months, so the odds are that nothing really substantial could happen in that time. (Not that I’m completely opposed to surprises!!) But anyway, so right now I’m just hoping to have some fun as experience more of Austin. After that, your bet is as good as mine.

Oh! And I’m going to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving to see my awesome relatives. Really can’t wait for that. Afterwards, I’ll be driving my car back to Austin. This sounds like a great idea now, we’ll see how I feel 10 hours into the drive! Hopefully it will facilitate my good-times having for the next semester.