D to the R Update

I received another email from my doctoral advisor and we finally have a plan for the coursework that I will be starting this fall. Although I cannot take the core courses with the rest of the cohort in Portland, he is teaching several courses in Curriculum & Instruction (which is my area of focus) and he is willing to help me take those courses through an independent study. His proposal was 10 credits, but I am entertaining the idea of taking two more online courses, mostly because I had already registered and ordered the books after not hearing back from my advisor for awhile. I may end up canceling one or both of those and just go with his recommendations because I am sure the books will still be interesting to read and/or I might end up taking those classes at a later date. I am guessing that taking 16 credits would be borderline insane but I have been known to do worse. During my first year of teaching, I took 21 credits one term while working full time. Not all the classes met each week, so it was doable and I got all A's while still managing to bestow lots of important knowledge on my little first graders.

It has been quite a project trying to order books considering they take between 3-6 weeks to arrive. Apparently everything takes a long time to get through customs here, not to mention the delivery time is extended anyway because of the international shipping. I was very jealous of the free shipping on Borders.com and Amazon.com because I cannot take advantage of that from Germany! I am experimenting with ordering from Borders.com (because Amazon did not have one of the books I needed and I had a coupon and some Borders bucks that basically negated the 13.00 shipping fee) and Amazon.com which charged around 18.00 for a somewhat expedited international shipping fee. That was the first batch of books for the online courses I registered for over the holiday weekend, but now that I heard back from my advisor, I have a few more to order. My husband said that a co-worker of his is going to be traveling to Germany in two weeks, so we are thinking of having the books shipped to his friend in OR who can bring them to the co-worker who can then bring them on the plane to me. This will be the cheapest way because I can avoid the expensive international shipping fees and I won't have to wait SUPER long to get the books, but I always feel bad asking favors like that. I would also like to try Amazon.UK, but they did not have all the books I needed the first time around. I did however enter in an order for the second batch and it seems that shipping will be much quicker from there. The prices are listed in Euros, but they do have a function that converts the purchase into dollars and lets you pay in USD which is cool.

I am really excited to have a plan that I can move forward with. I have no idea how much work this independent study stuff will entail but working part time sure affords me a lot of extra time. Rather than watching TV or just reading for pleasure (current read is The Time Traveler's Wife), I can be working on my doctorate! Woo Hoo!

More Dr. T updates to come once I get more info!

Given my initial reservations about moving to Germany and the tears that were shed (sorry mom, I know you hate to hear that part!) over my job situation, small German appliances, not being in Portland, and the fear of the unknown, I do have to say that so far being here is fantastic. I am in awe of how cool it is to work at an international school where I come into contact with people from all over the world every single day. Although some Germans can be a bit stern, like the secretary in the office who was very hesitant to give me the key to the supply room because she did not know me (even though I have been working there for three weeks now), I can tell that my husband and I are on the journey of a lifetime.