All change, all change

It's a grey overcast day here in Portrero Hill and I'm planning on reading all day intersected by either lunch or swimming (depending on if the Pirates go out or not). Not a massive to do list but this week has been the start of my MA and so I'm a little overwhelmed. Tea and pyjamas might just be the order of the majority of the day.

And when I say overwhelmed, it's not in a perjorative sense, because despite the shock to the system of being a student again, I'm really loving it. As you can tell by the photo of me on the front step on my first day of school. Keeping up the tradition and keeping the mums happy.

San Francisco State has over 30,000 students on a campus that doesn't look a million miles different from somewhere like Leicester Uni, but nicer with lawns and flowers and the like. This week I had a graduate induction where I found out that an alternative to writing a thesis is something called Comprehensive Exams - you get four questions and two weeks to do them in. Seems a bit of a cop out to me, and I think that if there is one thing my professional CV is lacking is a writing sample, so a thesis seems like a good shout at this point in time.

I had my first classes in two of my subjects - Research Methods and Urban Power and Politics. Although very different subjects, I'm actually looking forward to getting cracking in both of them. Which is good because it's not a light workload. Which I didn't think it would be, and I'm pleased to see that this will be a challenge. So far I'm not freaking out at anything I have to do, I know how to go about doing most things we've been set for this semester, so it's just a matter of getting going.

Yesterday I found the gym. Today I can really feel it. Thank goodness for tea and the ability to read from home...

In other news, the intrepid explorers have had an adventure elephant trekking and hungover cycling on a motorway. Keep up to date with Tom and Kelsey's Long Detour Home on their blog.

I'm going to try and stay working with both the SF Living Wage Coalition and the League of Women Voters of California, but it will depend on the workload so at the moment I'm being cautious and not taking too much on. Sensible. I know. I was surprised too.

So that's a little update on what's been going on. I really need to change the intro on this blog now...