8 weeks left... I thought it was less.

I've been telling myself I had 7 weeks left so that's a bummer. Well, school is all kinds of crazy right now. I'm even having dreams about it.

I turned in my portfolio a week and a half ago and have heard nothing from my advisor. I had to hang out in the hallways at school until he came walking by just so I could ask if he'd actually gotten the email I sent with the link to my portfolio (even though I specifically asked him to let me know he'd gotten the email). Grr.

Since then I've email, called, and gone to his office. He hasn't acknowledged emails, answered calls or returned, or ever been in his office. Argh.

He has to sign off that he approves of my portfolio (so I can GRADUATE) by this coming Monday at 5:00. If he doesn't approve it and wants me to make changes, there isn't much time left for that! So I'm rather on edge here.

The other night I had a string of dreadful dreams. One of them involved having to catch a ferry to work. The ferry was right there, 20 feet away, I could see it. But I had to buy a ticket first. The ticket agent was slow and rung up the wrong thing and then had to do it over. He finally got me the ticket but by then the ferry had left.
The same night I had a dream that I was in Guatemala in the middle of nowhere and I was due to fly out of there. I didn't know what time my flight was but I knew there was only one flight on that day. I looked up the information and found out it left at 4:00. I thought this was perfect because it was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. But then the people with me explained that we were 4 hours away from the airport and we'd never make it on time. I missed my only chance out of there!
Okay, so the truth is there were other ferries leaving later in the first dream (though I would be late to work) and there were flights leaving the next day in the second dream. But I'm sure you can all understand the frustration of just missing that departure.
I'm sure everything is fine and my advisor will approve the portfolio with no requested revisions. But until I find out I'm just trying not to stress too much!

Otherwise this has been...another week.

I helped lead my Wednesday class, Computing and the Developing World, with another professor from my school. He talked about participatory design, its background and definition and origins, etc. Then I talked about participatory design in developing countries, some specific examples and some challenges. Then we facilitated a discussion on the topic. It was pretty laid back and interesting.

My research methods class, I'm sorry to say, is a bit inane. I'm a little disappointed.

My Tools for Transformation class is always good. I've got a paper due this weekend that compares three contemporary social entrepreneurs. The first is Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. (I think I mentioned elsewhere that you should all go out and read his book Banker to the Poor.) The second one I'm looking at is Rigoberto Zamora who founded Probigua in Guatemala. The third is Beulah Thumbadoo "who has made it her life's work to get South Africa to read."

I've already finished Banker to the Poor (and started on the paper), and now I'm onto The White Man's Burden (a fascinating book), which I'll eventually be comparing with The End of Poverty.

It's weird to admit, but this development stuff lights my fire a bit more than the library stuff.