The tortoise without the hare

The mad hatter

Cute couple ;)

Slow and steady...? Not so much. The past few days have been a marathon of CVs, letters of motivation, applications, research deadlines etc.

 Bristol with J and friends has been lovely. Highlights include my birthday Bristol style and two theme dinner nights: Japanese, Turkish. :)

Ze german!

Cute couple!

Other than some lovely evenings in Bristol with my wife, I've been working away at trying to find a job or a project. 

How is that I'm unemployed and feel like I have a full time job?

Shark attaaaaaack!

Allow me to explain. I was given my first deadline by my research supervisor for the GIFTs research project. She flies to Doha, Qatar tomorrow and I needed to start by sending her an annotated bibliography of the research subject. Being me, I started with a "meager" list of 5 pages of books, articles, journals and associated texts that are all related to our project. That in itself has taken a few days to look up and sift through. I also received an urgent email from the head of the project, asking me to sign an NDA. NDA? Eh? Wassat? Apparently an NDA is a non-disclosure agreement that I had to sign to confirm that anything I am sent from them remains confidential. Speaking with my supervisor, we began plotting different ways for me to get a grant or funding. She will be meeting with the man behind the mission to discuss possibilities of setting me up with a small stipend or something. That would be very nice.


Other than the project that I can't talk about, I've been applying for more jobs all over the world. So far, I've received a positive response from only one language school. A well-renowned school in Quito sent me an email asking me about my teaching experience, methods and philosophies. I obviously explained that I hate teaching, dislike people and like my classroom to live in constant fear of physical harm. I should get the job offer tomorrow ;) As of today, I believe I have applied to (alphabetically) Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy and Spain. That is just for language schools. Most of the applications were cold calls of me sending CVs to language schools that are in cities where there seems to be some interesting environmental issues happening.

Nelefunt hugs

On the environmental track, I spent most of today sending out applications for internships with big organizations... internships that I am severely under-qualified for. The problem with a lot of the really interesting ones is that you need to be enrolled in a university program to even qualify. bummer. I applied for a few that sounds fascinating... one with the World Resources Institute, that would be a dream! I'm also looking into some that are outside of the direct environment field and more in the women's rights realm. The organization that would be funding A's Nepal documentary has some fascinating projects all over the world.

Last week, I felt like I was starting to narrow down what I want to do over the next little while... the problem is that the more I think about it, the more I want to do!

I sent in my application for the Media Plus job, after having V look it over and give me the go ahead. I sent it to the recruiter that she had set me up with. The recruiter emailed me back yesterday saying that he had looked over my resume and was sending it off to the next level... don't really know what that means, but it sounded positive.

Other than the serious stuff, life is good. I'm doing all of this from a very cozy Oxford nest, where I'm able to feel useful by helping out with very fun "babysitting" duties, that basically involve hanging out with a sassy 12 year old. Heading to Bristol for the weekend for a show at a club on a boat.

I just received a phone call from the love of my life! Gotta go!