Ethics submitted, Tickets Purchased, Mississauga Visited

Greetings!
So anyone who is familiar with my old blog knows that when I say I'm going to try to update once a week (when I'm not actually travelling) that this promise tends to be a bit of a stretch never the less here is a new post.

Airline Tickets:
So I guess 2 Thursdays ago now I booked my plane tickets from Toront to Geneva to Johannesburg and back to Toronto. Having looked at prices online I was expecting to fly with British Airways for around $2300 CDN which was already significantly lower than I had predicted. This was the price quoted to me online, however, for whatever reason the prices were different when I showed up at Travel Cuts on Dal campus, where I had to buy my ticket because I keep a low balance on my credit cards so I don't over spend. It seemed the travel agent I was speaking with was having difficulty finding a price which was even comparable to what was quoted online but was pleased to offer me a flight on Air France for $1600. While the price was tempting the recent tragedy over the Atlantic Ocean involving an Air France plane was a major turn off. So the travel agent looked a little harder and found me a flight with Switzerland International Airlines (Which is apparently a different company than Swiss Air) for $1750. So I reserved a spot with that flight and went home to secure my funds and think about it over night. I returned to pay for the ticket the next day which I did after making sure that I did in fact want to travel with Swiss International Airlines who I have never flown with before. The flights are booked (with a few stop overs) Toronto to Geneva Sept 7-8, Geneva to Johannesburg Sept 21-22, Johannesburg toToronto Dec. 16-17. With my purchase I also secured full travel insurance given my past experiences travelling, which hopefully I won't have to cash in on unlike the last time I crossed the Atlantic!

Ethics Proposals:
Although I think I had already submitted it when I created this blog I just thought I'd briefly mention the submission of the ethics proposal for my research. The policy at Dalhousie is that anyone performing human research, which of course I am, has to submit a proposal of said research to the Ethics Committee before undertaking it. For me this involved two steady weeks of writing and the submission of a 16000 word proposal which included 3 separate consent forms in addition to 3 sleepless nights while my thesis supervisor was taking his time signing off on the proposal. The reason ethics proposals tend to be problematic/irritating is that your proposal is most often reviewed by someone outside your field of stufy (so someone from History or Economics might review my proposal). This can lead to required revisions based on their understanding of your proposed research topic which may not always be accurate. Also some departments take the ethics proposal process far more seriously than others, for example students in the Economics Department are not requried by their department to submit proposal while students in other departments such as Sociology and IDS are. In any case I should get a response to my proposal tomorrow which will be in one of 3 forms. First they may just accept it hands down (which is extrmely unlikely), second they might request minor revisions which would require me to make the suggested revisions and resubmit one copy of my proposal at my convenience (I'd say this is most likely), or third they might require major revisions in which case I have to submit a whole new stand alone proposal and submit 11 copies of it within 2 weeks. While I feel the third possibility is unlikely given the meticulous consideration I gave to my proposal and how much time went into planning my proposed research, 8 months and at least 3 near mental breakdowns when people from all corners started giving me advice on where and how to carry out my research which was conflicting to say the least. So I hope you all pray/wish/whatever for me that my ethics proposal goes through without too much of a hitch.

Okay so I'm done with that rant for now.

Mississauga Visit:
So I've been in Mississauga since last Sunday. This trip wasn't really planned but my mom, whose been facing some health problems and a very tough year at school, found out that she had to move classrooms for the second year in a row which is particularly rediculous considering she's retiring next year! Naturally she was very upset and anxious about this so I volunteered to come home and help her move. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this week I found myself at Champlain Trail Public School, packing and moving boxes in addition to occassionally interacting with students who were either curious about their Teacher's daughter or needed assistance of some form. This process was largely uneventful so I won't bore you with the details, however I will note that one of the little "darlings" gave me a cold which I've been suffering with since Friday and I sincerely hope goes away soon!
Also during the week I had the opprotunity to meet up with a few friends which of course is always an important component to visiting Mississauga. One of the things I miss most while I'm in Halifax is having many good friends close at hand to hang out or go out with or really just to talk to. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts.

This brings me to my last point. Upon an invitation to a friend's cottage for reasons I cannot currently divulge (see later posts for an explanation) and the development of my cold I decided to extend my trip to Mississauga for 6 days (now returning on June 28th). While I am definitely excited to be going to the cottage, I also was unable to visit with all of my friends and take a little bit of necessary down time in the short period I had alotted myself so staying a few more days makes a lot of sense. In addition, the extra time should also give me an opprotunity to help my mom out a little bit more and get over this nasty cold (I could totally see myself being quarantined for swine flu in my current state) (okay its really not that bad)

In any case you can probably expect a more detailed account of some of my Mississauga Adventures in the near future. If you're in Halifax and reading this (Soneia) I'll see you soon!

Until then,

Cheers!!
-K.

My New Blog: Innaugural Address

Greetings!
So as many of you know I'm currently working on my Masters Thesis in Halifax Nova Scotia at Dalhousie University in International Development Studies and am increasingly finding myself bored out of my mind and exhausted from a year of hard work. So I created this blog both to keep myself occupied over the summer and also to keep in touch with everyone while I'm on my upcoming trip to Switzerland and South Africa from September through December of 2009.
For those of you who don't know I'm writing my MA thesis on the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and am seeking to identify demand factors which contribute to the continuation of their acquisition and use in the ongoing violence in the DRC. It is this research which be taking me first to Geneva Switzerland to visit the Small Arms Survey and then on to Pretoria South Africa where I will be interviewing Congolese Diaspora in addition to other individuals with a specialized knowledge of the topic. I was initially hoping to go to the DRC but this proved to be a bit to controversial for the faculty of my program and perhaps a bit to dangerous for a novice traveller such as myself. I will consider ranting about this further at a later date. In any case preparations are well underway. I picked up my business cards today which I will be using on my trip and am soon to buy my plane ticket. I will try to update at least once a week and then probably more frequently once my travels begin in September.
See You Soon!