That's all, folks

It's done! Well, the thesis, anyway. I scrambled to finish the revisions and sent the thesis to the external examiner about a week and a half before the defense! Then I spent most of the time packing up to move out of the house...I think I probably spent less than 12 hours preparing for the defense! Luckily, it all went relatively smoothly...a few difficult questions, mostly on the philosophical/ethical side of things, but they passed me, so I guess my answers were fine. At least, I think they passed me...no one actually told me outright, when I went back inside, everyone was getting up to leave and shaking my hand, so I assumed that meant I passed. They only mentioned a couple of required revisions, and everything else was apparently "for [my] consideration"...whatever that meant. Basically, I did the major ones and then tried to do as much as I can with the other ones, given the time I had.

And I had very little time! After the defense, we all went out for lunch (and there was a huge group of us, most of the people from Keji/MTRI came out for my defense) at the Grawood, since it was the closest, then Jose and Peter took some of my things to bring back to MTRI. Laura and I then got a cab out to Dartmouth to pick up our rental car. By this time, I was still freaking out a bit about revisions, so we spent an hour at the coffee shop near our old house so I can go through the comments and calm down a bit. Then back to the hostel to drop off our things, then out for supper and drinks for a bit of a celebration. Laura and I went to Hamachi House near the hostel, ate a lot of food and drank some sake, then walked over to the Bitter End for some martinis. Catherine and Blair met us there later, so we chatted for a bit before we all parted -- at 11pm! We're such party animals! :P After getting back to the hostel, I looked over the comments again and actually started to feel better about them, which was good. Maybe it was the drinks?

The next morning we got up relatively early and set out for Sydney, in Cape Breton. We stayed with Sana for a few days, working most of the time either at Sana's place or at Cape Breton University (haha, stealing internet access). The plan was to finish revisions by Wednesday and send them to Tom, then print everything once I got back to the city on Thursday and hand it in on Friday. Except that on Wednesday, I found out that my ride to Keji was leaving at 7am on Friday! So I had a freak out and spent the rest of the day on fast-forward, trying to finish the revisions, send it to Tom, format it, and print it...all before supper, since we had agreed to go out that evening for our last night out in Sydney! But, it all got done, even with a relatively minor mistake at Staples -- good thing I checked before I left! Five copies and over $50 later, I had the thesis ready and we all went out for a nice dinner.

Except that it wasn't quite ready. We left Sydney at 7:30am and managed to get into town around 2pm (after stopping by Norm and Sue's to drop off my stuff), dropped off Laura's things at the hostel, then dropped off the rental car and took a cab back to Dal. It was 3:30pm by the time we got there, which I thought would be enough time to hand everything in. I did have to finish up at SRES, sign a form and return my keys, etc. which took some time. But I also got an email from Tom with a few more minor things to change, so I had to reprint a few pages, and also print out a form to sign and photocopy another form. Only I ran out of print credits and photocopying credits, so I had to run over to the library and put more money on my Dalcard, and print/photocopy and insert the pages into the thesis! I barely got it all done on time, I got to FGS about 5 minutes before they closed! Good thing they didn't turn me away, or I don't know what I would've done! There were a few people there ahead of me, doing the same thing, plus they did a format check on the spot, so it all took some time before it was officially submitted! But, it was finally done and handed in, and Laura and I went to the Indian restaurant near South Park street. Norm picked me up from the hostel after supper and I spent the night at their place, because we left the next day at 7am!

So, here I am, back at MTRI and doing the hatchling project again. I'm looking forward to it, it should be a nice break after the past few months, and I can use the time to work on papers for publication and apply for jobs! Speaking of which, if anyone has a lead on conservation biology jobs, drop me a line!