Christmas Tree Adventures

Last week, in the midst of getting my dissertation ready to send, Jenny and I decided to get a Christmas tree. We found a small, live tree in a pot at a flower shop at the bottom of our square. The lady at the store was helpful, and soon we had a tree!

Then we had to get it home. The lady at the store had an ingenious solution: the tree was sitting in a plastic crate, and she had a metal rod with a handle at one end and a hook at the other that we could use to drag the crate. So far, so good. You can see me dragging the tree to our building in the picture.

Next, we had to get the tree into our flat. This was a bit more interesting. The picture of me with the tree in the wooden box is in our tiny (wooden) elevator. That tree has about the sharpest, pokiest needles I've ever felt (right through my pants, ouch).

Finally, in the flat and set up, we decorated. Now, we just have to figure out what we'll do with it after Christmas. Maybe it will live on our balcony with the pigeons. :-)

Dissertation: OFF TO THE COMMITTEE

Please pardon my SHOUTING just then. As of a few minutes ago, I have sent my dissertation off the my committee.

I actually started sending it off yesterday, by sending it by email to my mother-in-law, Jill, who graciously agreed to print it out and get it to the two professors in Claremont. My third professor is currently on sabbatical in Germany, so I just took a copy to the Post Office to mail it to her there. (The smaller print version I'm sending her still weighed 0.775kg or 1.7lbs.)

At the moment, I don't feel any great release, although it is nice to see the 1 1/2" (4cm) printout I made of it for myself sitting here. I suspect it will take a bit of time before I really relax. I plan to take it easy this weekend. First, however, I'll probably do some cleaning around the flat, because in the final push, I let my part slide. Jenny's also had a lot going on, so between us things got a bit neglected, let's just say.

Of course, this is not over yet. Once my committee members have the dissertation in hand, they may find things for me to revise. Then, hopefully sometime early in February, there will be the oral defense.

I asked my dissertation chair last night about the possibility of doing it via video conference. It would probably save a lot of money over flying to CA, plus I'd feel better not leaving Jenny alone in the middle of winter. She, my chair, was open to the idea and will float it with the other committee members. I just emailed the assistant dean to see if there are any problems with the idea, school policy-wise. You could pray for all that.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Today is St. Nicholas (Sv. Mikulas) Day! If you're in the US, you may not have even noticed, but it is hard not to notice this day here. Last night on the way back from a full day of meetings and dissertation work at the seminary, I was treated with the Czech-eve-before-St.-Nicholas-Day sight: trios of children and youth dressed up as St. Nick, a devil, and an angel (see the photo). [You can even buy chocolate St. Nicks and devils in the stores; I haven't seen angels.] This is what they do:

St. Nicholas walks around finding children, then gives them either some candy or a lump of coal. The angel and devil lobby with St. Nick regarding which the child deserves based on this past year's conduct. Some of the trios really get creative with the costumes. I really like this tradition, although many of the youth particularly get into the devil character. Last year I saw one group with extra devils, just for fun.

On the dissertation front (since that is my life these days), I should be sending it to the committee either Wednesday or Thursday. I'll let you know.