Blog post on a snowy day

We woke up to a winter wonderland here in Calgary today. It's been snowing all day and I've stayed inside, catching up on my studying.

I finally got my scholarship applications in, as well as a draft of my ethics application done. My research will focus mostly on publicly available documentation from university English language programs, but if I want to interview anyone for my thesis, I need to get approval from the research ethics board at the university.

This is a relatively new requirement, instituted in the past few years. It is an incredibly rigorous process and I don't know of anyone whose application has been approved the first time they submit it. The committee is notoroious for demanding changes. You submit revisions and then they demand more changes. It can take months for them to approve your application. But if you go ahead and start your research with out their approval, apparently it can be declared null and void and you don't graduate. So, I got the first draft of the application done. I'll wait for the revision requirements to come back and then go from there.

I've been cutting back a bit in my running lately, as the taper begins for next weekend's half marathon.

Now that the snow is here, I think it's high time to look at buying some winter running gear! Anyone know of a place that sells petite (as in, for short people) running tights? I went into one running store and the sales girl said, "Just buy an extra small."

Needless to say, I left the store shortly thereafter.