I hate having my photo taken. I always look a bit awkward and messy, or my glasses reflect the flash and you can’t see my eyes. Given all of that, I still found myself at a photo shoot today for the School of Education. I wasn’t going to go. I didn’t think I really needed to be in the photo. I thought I was going to stick out like a sore thumb against all of the other people in the program, but since my afternoon was free, I decided that I should just do the opposite of what Kim would normally do and have my picture taken. I’m glad I went. Organized chaos would be too kind a word to describe the process, but I found a couple of the girls from my emphasis and we tried to make sure we were next to each other in the picture. It makes me feel better about all of the group assignments that is bound to come, and it makes me feel generally good about how hard the year is going to be.

Although I hate having my picture taken, the one thing that I am sad about is my lack of pictures so far in my journey. I carry my camera with me everyday, but feel like a tourist. There is beauty everywhere I look here, but I have yet to really capture it. I’m also not in any of the pictures. I miss my mom with her camera taking pictures of everything from the food to the hotel room (uggghhhh, now I am never going to hear the end of that). I would love to take pictures with me at the various places that I visit during the day. The view from the main library is amazing. I’ll go there just to get out of the cold and enjoy the view. The people that I come across also deserve to be chronicled as well. I seem to attract the Irish boys, and my R.A. (yep, I have an R.A. it is freshman year all over again) has blue and green dreads, and the girls here tromp around in itty bitty skirts when it is only 40 degrees outside. If I was at home, I would be busting out my camera or my phone to take pictures and mock the people around me, but here, I feel silly doing it alone.

Classes start first thing on Monday, and I am a little anxious to get started. I want to get in a routine and be busy, so that I will focus less on what I am missing at home. It will also make the year go quicker. I thought my program would be done by May, but it turns out it is  just the classes that end in May, and then I get to work on my dissertation. My program doesn’t end until late August, and graduation isn’t until November. This means that I would not be able to take a teaching job in the States, or start the EDD program at Fullerton.

I guess that means I will just have to finish my PhD here….oh darn.