Golden like the sunshine

cardigan - Target / dress - thrifted / belt - thrifted / shoes - Target

The grand total for this outfit- including shoes, but not including underwear :P - was $16. I'm in love with this retro lace overlay dress, and even more in love with the price: $5.00! Oh thrift stores, how I love you. Sometimes I really wish I lived in a bigger city with lots of great thrift stores, but as you can see here, it's possible to find some treasures even here in South Carolina. Still, if I ever find myself in New York, you can bet I'll hit up every thrift store I can find....

This week, I have some exciting things coming up. Too bad not all of them are exciting in the good way :(  I've hinted before that I've been having some issues with my thesis/dissertation committee, and none of that has gone away as I had hoped. So tomorrow, my director has requested a meeting with me to discuss "options." Somehow that sounds really scary to me. I also have a meeting with the professor I work for in my research assistantship. Right now, I'm going through hundreds of transcripts of interviews that are part of the Appalachian Oral History Project. It's a huge series of interviews that were recorded in eastern Tennessee with locals who were mostly elderly at the time. There's really some incredible material in them, I wish I had time to sit down and really read through each one. It's so strange to read interviews with people who start out by saying they were born in 1890. It's amazing to me that I'm able to read the exact words of people who grew up so long ago, sharing their personal histories.

I also get to take one of my ESL students to a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream this Friday. I'm super excited about it! She is such a good student, and it was her choice to start reading Shakespeare plays last fall. She has to be one of the most ambitious students I've ever met-- to tackle Shakespeare as a non-native speaker takes some guts. We've started reading and discussing our third Shakespeare play together, and I'm very impressed with her. It really is rewarding to work with young teens and watch them grow into the people they will be as adults. 

As much as I'm enjoying the work I'm doing right now, and the classes I'm taking (Second Language Acquisition and Advanced Topics in Japanese Sociolinguistics- taught in Japanese! eek!), I'm already making plans for spring break. K and I have decided to take a few days and go down to Savannah. I can't believe I've lived this close to Savannah for almost two years now and I've still never been there! So, we're going to go down and do it properly and see all the sights, and hopefully eat at Paula Deen's restaurant!!  Have any of you ever been to Savannah? I'd love to hear tips and must-sees if you have.

P.S.~ Thank you so much for all the comments and follows lately :) I really appreciate it. You guys are so sweet!