18 December 2005

Mistress

Yes, it is definite. I defended my thesis on Dec 7th, successfully. It was not as difficult as I thought, although there were awkward moments.

Such as when I couldn't think of the word in French for "streamlined." I stopped, searched around, euhh-ed for a couple seconds, stepped out of my body to think "God, I must look like an idiot," tried to find a different way of saying it, and finally just stopped the sentence and started all over again. Not exactly what you want to do when trying to impress a panel of four unsmiling French people with lots of letters after their names.

(I later asked Frenchy what the translation was, and he couldn't think of one. It appears that this concept doesn't exist in France. I should have known!)

Afterwards, I asked my advisor if one could say maîtresse instead of maître, and he got all stumbly and red and fumbly and said "well, no, not me, uh, well...." and then, a moment later, asked if I knew what I was really saying. Hello? Did you not just consider me fit to hold an advanced degree in French Studies?

I announced the news in my Christmas cards. Yes, now that I am free of guilt when doing un-thesis-related tasks, I actually wrote Christmas cards! And I'm knitting! Totally guilt-free! Guilt-be-gone! Now with two-thirds less guilt!