Summer plans before staring school

[bon to the jour]

Now that the stress of applications and whatnot is over, what is everyone going to do with their last few months before starting school? Any fun travel plans? Moving to a new city? Spending obscene sums of money on Swedish goods from Ikea?

Personally, I'll have a pretty boring summer. I live in the same city as my new school, so a big cross-country move is not on the books for me. I will, however, be finding and moving into my very own apartment which I'm super-excited about --- I've never lived without roommates and I'm one of those people that really likes to be alone. And of course, with the territory of a new apartment come new decorations and furniture (aka stuffing my VW with as much crap from Ikea as it can hold).

My advisor and I will be working on a few articles to publish by the end of the summer, but other than that I'm not really doing anything academic. Mostly, I just have to suffer through these last few months (4 months and 16 days, actually) of working in a restaurant to pay the bills, and then I will never again work a meaningless job where homework is banned and I'm required to pretend to be nice to people who think I'm an idiot because I work in a restaurant.

So in order to break the habit of checking the results page every 15 minutes, I thought we could all take our minds off accepts, rejects, and waitlists by sharing our summer plans. Anyone care to start?

[Nikki]

My summer plans are to:

- brush up on my French

- do some background reading in nautical archaeology

- hang out at the beach for a few weeks

- pack and move to the other side of the country! Eep!

I'm counting down the days until the last day of school (I teach high school history) - 31 school days left!!!!

[DJLamar]

My Summer plans probably include a bit more work than most people would advise, but it's balanced out by a great location.

First, a week or so after my graduation (so starting around the second week of May) I'm going to take a week or so long trip to Montreal with a friend of mine.

Then from the start of June to around the middle of August I'll be in Germany doing an internship somewhere. My top hope is actually a research internship (in the field I'm going to go into in grad school) in Munich. I'm not completely sure that I'll be able to do that just because the fellowship/internship program I got into offers a stipend that's not big enough for living in Munich and the PI in the group hasn't figured out yet whether or not he'll be able to convince his company to get me a big cushy stipend. If he does get me that big stipend though, then I'll be making a pretty nice amount of money (on the order of a U.S. technical field grad student stipend). Plus I'll be working in Germany where the work week is only 35 hours, and I'll probably be able to do what some friends of mine did during internships in Germany -- work 9 hours a day for the first four days of the week and then take trips abroad over three day weekends.

The empty weeks in there will be spent at home with family probably. Maybe I'll be able to sneak in a short trip to Ithaca in May to look at apartments before I decide on one.

[Phyl]

I'll not be hanging out at my usual beaches since MTV will be filming Jersey Shore 2 in the area, which is going to make doing anything all summer quite difficult. Plus all the fun people that will want to be in Seaside because of season 1 :sigh:

I will be working, put in for a nice seasonal library position which would be nice to get. I'll be going through the books I'd like to read but haven't gotten the chance to yet. Hang with the boyfriend and hope he gets a new job closer to Rutgers so I can move in with him and not commute. I'll probably look up the books for my classes and get to skimming them since I'm nerdy like that.

[JackieW]

Ooh, great topic!

-I will be working for the next two months at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition (random, right?)--- which is really the perfect job for me! It's a temporary exhibition, so it ends on June 13th, so I won't have any messy two weeks notices to give or anything. I was also just promoted to a full time management position, so I should also be able to collect unemployment for a month or so before school starts.

-I fully plan on being lazy. Read some crappy books, relax my mind...

-And then I'm going to Disney World for a week!

-...Followed by a trek from Connecticut to Milwaukee, WI to attend Marquette.

[pea-jay]

I'll be trying to finish work obligations up until June while prepping to move the whole family across the country by the beginning of August.

[ilikemoney]

Not too different than yours, my friend. I live in the same city as the school I'm attending (Baltimore--> Hopkins). My last day of work is June 30. I move into a new house with my girlfriend on July 1st. Which means I'll have a copious amount of time to worry about furnishing and burnishing. (Has anyone used that phrase before? I just made it up.)

My main focus is to get in shape again. I used to be able to run a 2:42 marathon and I weighed about 20 pounds less than I do now. So, twice a day running is priority #1. Included in that will be helping to run a summer running program for my Cross Country team. Otherwise, I suppose I'll read a few books on Sociology -- after all, I've only officially taken one course in it, when I was a freshman in college (say... 8 years ago?).

This will be the first summer without work obligations since I was 14. And with trying to make ends meet on a stipend, probably the last.

Edited April 14, 2010 by west

[Squawker]

Relaxing for a month with university friends I won't be seeing next year, then doing an intensive language program.

[Jae B.]

I plan to complete a paid media internship, so I can start next school year off with some money. I'll also get back to reading for pleasure (yes!) and try to brush up on my Spanish.

[tem11]

I'm moving to the UK! I plan to spend a lot of time brushing up on statistics but more importantly, I will watch all 6 seasons of LOST.

[Riotbeard]

Working my full time job till about a week before august (I graduated 09), Then I am moving August 1st, but going to DC for a week of August to be in a Wedding and visit my friend and his fiance getting married, before I am immobalized by intense workload and economic limitations of a grad stipend. Then I am going to spend two weeks getting acclamated to New Orleans before school starts in September. Also my Advisor and I are going to start working on getting a paper I have ready to send out for publication.

[matcha]

I will be finishing my current job (I work for a non-profit), moving across the country, getting a new apartment, and trying not to lose all my savings in the process.

I wish I could get a vacation in, but its not in the cards this year. Or the next, or the next....

[Riotbeard]

<br />I will be finishing my current job (I work for a non-profit), moving across the country, getting a new apartment, and trying not to lose all my savings in the process.<br /><br />I wish I could get a vacation in, but its not in the cards this year. Or the next, or the next....<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Yeah I think that month before my felloship kicks in is gonna cut my savings in half...

[Switzerland]

I will be moving my current non-profit to a new location, moving myself across from the west coast to the east, finding and moving into a new apartment, reading up on the class for which I'll be a TA, brushing up on my French and Mandarin, saying goodbye to my partner, researching my tentative thesis and area interests, and trying to remember to have some last bits of fun before the start of school in August!

[red_crayons]

I'll be... working! But much, much less - half time. It's necessary to have some income for my peace of mind. I know this very well. Working 2-3 days a week and making enough to not touch my savings for fixed expenses - rent, food, etc - and having enough time to travel/loll around will be ideal for me. It'll be nice to be on campus a couple days a week, too, to meet with faculty, have lunch with working friends, get stuff from the library, mix up my running routes...

I'm not moving, not even to a different apartment, so I don't have to deal with that. I already know some of the people in my future program.

I'm looking forward to having time to myself, entire days to spend at the farmer's market and in the kitchen, places to wear pretty clothes, sunbathing - all those lovely summer things I didn't have time for last summer. Plus, I'll take the end of June and most of August off work completely.

[wordslinger]

I am also counting down the school days in my last months of teaching high school! This summer I have lots of reading to do, Latin to study in preparation for my language exam, a class to teach here in Charlotte before moving to a new city in August.

And yes to Ikea! I've already picked out the desk and shelves.

[hamster]

Well, I work full time so I will be finishing up here. and hopefully saving some more $ for the move to Philly. I'm going in June to find an apartment for 8/1. July, I will sell or give away all my worldly possessions except for sentimental or essential items. Then the cat and I will be flying cross country. I hope he does well

My sister is getting married 2 days before the first day of school and I am in the wedding so I need to figure that timeline out. I asked my adviser for a copy of her grant and started reading. I have a couple books on grad school. There is also a project I am doing from my volunteer RA position and I should get a bit more $ from that.

Hopefully, I will also get a chance to enjoy my current city and my friends before I leave.

[so47]

Graduating in June, then moving back to my parents, the Ft Lauderdale for a week

For July, my department actually has a 3 week long TA training program which I will be doing. They pay us, and it seems like a good opportunity to meet the other grads and get used to the area before the undergrads invade lol.

August I will have a couple weeks free, want to try and visit my friends at Duke, and probably spend some time at home bumming at home, hanging with my mom!

[breakfast]

I'm spending my whole summer working as much as possible to save up for the cross-country move. I don't have enough savings yet, and it's going to be a really tough first few months if I'm not able to get some more saved. Luckily I'm going to be doing the census this summer. It pays well and its temporary so I don't have to worry about hiding the fact that I'll be leaving in a few months to live in New York.

[tarski]

-Sleep for the first month or so

-Visting various relatives, 3 small trips

-Write my PhD SSHRC (grant) application

-Read some stuff (Phenomenology of Perception & others)

- LFG 2010 (conference)

Edited April 15, 2010 by tarski

[RNadine21]

I'll be back in my hometown, working and hanging out with family and friends until I move to my new city. I definitely need the money lol.

[Bumblebee]

I'll go back to my home country and renew my passport and my national ID. Then, I'll apply for my visa, attend my brother's graduation (he is just finishing his degree in Civil Engineering), and spend as much time as I can with my family before I move to the Midwest.

Oh, and I'll eat all that delicious Spanish food I love and miss soooo much: red beans, gazpacho, chorizo, Spanish ham, Manchego cheese with quince jelly, churros with hot chocolate, fresh fish, empanada, ... well, it's a really long list.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Bumblebee

[coyabean]

I will be doing some part time research work for play money. I'm thinking of Key West. I'd prefer the Bahamas but someone keeps slacking on getting her passport. :/ But I figure it's the same water! LOL

I say I'm going to do some foundational reading but it's more likely that I'll be reading trashy romance novels.

I have my first "revise and resubmit" so I'd like to get that done before school starts as it isn't inline with my doctoral focus.

Resting, planning my move and managing my excitement are also on the list. I'm so excited I can barely contain myself when I'm not too exhausted from this last push of my last semester at a school I hate!

[BionicKris]

Yay! Summer plans! I've been planning a cruise for a couple of months now with a few friends - Bahamas HERE I COME! I'm going to catch up on a few novels I've been meaning to read. Probably go out to California to see the family before I'm stuck having to say "nope, can't come, I'm in the lab." My two next biggest tasks are planning an EPIC going away bash and telling my boss where she can stick her crappy job.

Coyabean: I'll also be heading out to Ikea. I discovered that they've somehow managed to compile an entire living room set (book shelves, couch and tv stand included) for under $1000. My only issues are a. figuring out where to get the $ and b. how to transport!

[VUbrat08]

- working as many hours as possible at my lowly retail job

- looking for apartments (hopefully will have one picked out by the end of June)

- go on a cruise in July (!!!): this is probably be my last leisurely trip for a looooong while

- read

- write, write, and write some more

- get ready for the big move

- search for jobs in Chicago

Edited April 15, 2010 by VUbrat08