halfway there!

Sometime this week, I hit the halfway point of my research in the Former Soviet Union. Woo hoo!! Actually, knock on wood, it's not been so, so painful so far.

Here' s a little recap of my life as a dissertation researcher so far:
Miles logged: 42,000 (not all on the same airline, alas)
Books read: over 250
Archival files read: too lazy to count, but that's also in the hundreds.
Pages of notes taken: over 600
Photographs of books and documents taken: 1200
Wipeouts on unsalted, unshovelled icy sidewalks: none, again, knock on wood
Near wipeouts on said sidewalks: circa 20
Times slapped on Kiev subway by irate commuter: 1 (maybe 1 1/2; another woman got mad at my sharp computer bag this morning and pushed me around a little)
Weight of the bag that I lug all day: at least 10lbs
Contents: lunch, snack, gallon of water, toilet paper, hand wipes, purel, camera, numerous scraps of paper with stamps all over them that serve as "passes" to various archives and libraries and give me permission to work with my computer there, tissues, Aleve (needing it more and more these days).