I thought it about time I updated. I've been pretty slack about keeping my journal updated lately.
mea culpaI graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours on the 17th of July. It was a good day. My parents flew up from Tassie, I got to wear the funny hat and the robes - very Harry Potterish. I should have taken my wand along! I was a bit nervous about the walk accross stage to receive the certificate, but I managed not to fall down, which was good.
I was awarded Upper Second Class Honours, which is what I was expecting, but my overall grade was only 71%, which was disappointing, I was hoping to be a bit closer to 80%. I read the two examiners' reports and I kind of wish I hadn't. While most of the criticism was fair (at times I think that they forgot I had a word limit), the way the criticism was given by one of the examiners was not. I was so angry after reading it that I developed a migraine and went to bed at 7.30 pm.
The tone of the report was really blunt, and bordered on being offensive, at one point vaguely suggesting plagiarism. You can imagine how I reacted to that.
The funny thing is, students doing honours are not meant to ever know who marks their theses, but I was told mine by the course convenor. I told him that I had one 'mean' and one 'nice' examiner, so he told me who they were, I guess because he was one of them and wanted to figure out whether he was the 'mean' one or not!
I thought he was the 'nice' one, as he doesn't strike me as being capable of such bluntness, but my friend has him as her Honours supervisor and says that he is.
So, even though I have graduated, I'm still at uni, finishing off my Psychology degree, which should be done in November (fingers crossed). Then I am planning to work for 6-12 months before maybe attempting a Masters degree. Maybe do that Part-Time so I can work and study. Universities I am looking at include University of Tasmania, the University of New England, various N.Z unis and am searching for a Brisbane uni that offers Classics courses. UTAS is top of the list right now, simply because I would like to go home for a few years, and Hobart is only a few hours away from where my family all live. But we shall see.
Anyway, I recently turned 30 (although if anyone asks, I'm 21, ok?), and, as a gift, was taken to Queensland for a week and a bit to celebrate. It was great! I loved Brisbane and Stradbroke Island was just beautiful. I saw whales and dolphins, and the weather was lovely. It felt really weird swimming in the ocean in the middle of August, I can tell you. And it was hilarious seeing Queenslanders all rugged up in jumpers on 21 degree days. "Chilly day!" they'd say. No, a chilly day is one where the temperature barely gets over 10 degrees.