shadowclaw

Thankfully, I haven't encountered a Nigel yet. However, I did have a fellow student in my masters program who liked to monopolize social time and was constantly asking me for help with everything. She was pretty quiet in class, but could be pretty annoying outside of class. I really enjoyed the get-togethers we had in our department, but it was so hard to get a word in and this particular student seemed to always pick where we ate out. Even if I was just talking to her one on one about something, she would constantly cut me off to talk about herself. The worst part was her constant need to ask me questions about things we went over in class... I wish she would have just asked the professor for clarification on things instead of bombarding me when I was trying to do things like study or work on my thesis. After two years of this, I once asked her if she could do a quick favor for me and put some things in the dishwasher so I didn't have to drive an hour to do it, and she told me she was too busy (even though she was literally across the hall from the lab and it takes five minutes to switch out some dishes).

Don't get discouraged! Last cycle, there were ads out on OSNA, TAMU, and Ecolog through March. Sometimes funding becomes available last minute.

I don't think there's anything wrong with asking if you need to cover your tattoos or piercings. Generally speaking, if an employer has an issue with these things, they have the regulations specifically outlined in the dress code policy. I'm not sure if any TA positions come with a handbook that would have this information in it, so it would be perfectly appropriate to ask about dress code expectations. If you were getting any other job, I'm sure you would ask about the dress code before your first day if it wasn't specifically told to you... what makes a TA position any different? I also doubt that tattoos and piercings will really be an issue unless you have something highly offensive, but it probably depends on the program. I'm sure some fields are less friendly towards tattoos and piercings than others.

It is my personal opinion that you are stuck having to retake these classes, and getting a lawyer will be a waste of money and not get you anywhere. A lawyer may even cost more than taking on an additional semester to retake the courses, depending on the cost of your tuition. 
The information on the university's website is meant to be a quick and informative guide to the university's policies - not a complete rundown of every single detail of every policy. You are held to the policies of the official handbook, not the information posted on the website, which is why a lawyer will get you nowhere. This will sound a bit harsh, but it's really your own fault that you ended up in this situation. You alone are responsible for meeting graduate requirements and ignorance is not an excuse. Yes, graduate handbooks are long and contain a lot of information, but you should be aware of your graduation requirements and how failing a class will impact you. The purpose of taking a course pass/fail isn't so you can sit in a class and do nothing - the purpose is so that you can take a course that is difficult or perhaps outside of your field and not have to worry about your GPA being dragged down if you have trouble with it, but you are still expected to pass. Getting an NP is just as bad as getting an F in a graded course.
I also assume you did not communicate your intentions to your advisor or the professors of these courses, or they likely would have advised you to either just sit in on the class (without registering) or actually complete the course requirements so you could pass. Unfortunately, in the event that you did tell them your intentions and they told you it was fine, you still have no recourse because handbooks state specifically that you alone are responsible for meeting graduation requirements. However, it's possible that you could convince your department head to write you that letter on the grounds that your advisor told you it was ok to treat the course as if you were auditing it. However, because you already stated that you cannot get the letter, then I am lead to believe that you did not consult your advisor or anyone else about the matter prior to taking these courses.
My suggestion is to relax and learn from your mistake. You might not have to worry about graduate handbooks in the future, but there will certainly be times when you will be expected to be familiar with policies, and this should serve as a lesson to make sure you know those policies well. An extra semester isn't that bad, and it's only two courses. Since you are already familiar with the material, the classes should be a bit easier for you, too.

I don't think there's anything wrong with asking if you need to cover your tattoos or piercings. Generally speaking, if an employer has an issue with these things, they have the regulations specifically outlined in the dress code policy. I'm not sure if any TA positions come with a handbook that would have this information in it, so it would be perfectly appropriate to ask about dress code expectations. If you were getting any other job, I'm sure you would ask about the dress code before your first day if it wasn't specifically told to you... what makes a TA position any different? I also doubt that tattoos and piercings will really be an issue unless you have something highly offensive, but it probably depends on the program. I'm sure some fields are less friendly towards tattoos and piercings than others.

I recently read a magazine article (or perhaps it was a blog post) about key phrases to teach your daughters to use to help them avoid being pushed out of conversations/ignored by men. I think they may be useful to you. They are: "stop interrupting me," "I just said that," and "no explanation needed." Ok, that last one might not be applicable, but the first two should be. Don't be afraid to call someone out if they're interrupting you or ignoring you. You don't need to be rude back, but something as simple as waiting for them to finish and saying "now that you're done interrupting me, here's what I had to say" will help them realize what they're doing. If they don't take that not-so-subtle hint, then I might start getting rude and interrupt them back. You just need to be loud enough to be heard!
I've had issues with other people interrupting me in the past when trying to talk about something. Not in an academic setting, but definitely when talking to people, I've been pushed out of the conversation by others. The worst was working at my job over the summer... I was responsible for training several people in some field techniques. There were two projects going on that overlapped somewhat, but I was training everyone in techniques specific to the project I was leading, and the leader of the other project (who also knew the techniques I was teaching) decided to just jump right in and add some commentary, which would have been fine if she stopped after adding her two cents, but then she just kept going and took over the entire training session and I barely got to say a word while I was demonstrating the techniques. I ended up being very frustrated throughout the field season because she kept making her voice heard above mine when we talked to our supervisors and to our field crew, and if I had just told her to cut it out early on, things would have gone more smoothly. So please try to make yourself heard! You can do it!

I think you should give it some more time before you do anything. I think a lot of people have some regrets when they choose one school over another, plus living in a new place and being in a new program can take time to get used to. Plus making friends isn't always easy as adults, and two months isn't a very long time!
I can also relate to scant graduate offerings. My masters program was a general biology program, so course offerings could be all over the board, from neuroscience to ecology, and there were typically about 5 courses offered each semester. Some semesters I got lucky and all the courses were awesome, during others I was glad I only had to take 6 credits, because the course offerings were terrible.
Your PhD program sounds a lot like mine! I'm in an interdisciplinary program that isn't really its own department... it's more like professors from a variety of departments advise students and we take courses in a bunch of other departments. It doesn't really have a home and there's no space set aside for us, unlike the majority of programs that have whole buildings devoted to them. At least I have a mailbox, but it's in a weird place. It's also a bit scattered at times... our director quit in October and no one will step up to be the interim director while the dean searches for a replacement, and our requirements are so loose. We have track sheets with appropriate coursework to take to meet graduation requirements, but it's not considered an exhaustive list and basically any courses within the partner departments will work. There's a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of freedom and flexibility. I guess you need to have a certain personality to really be comfortable with it.
So I don't have a lot of advice. You might just be experiencing the graduate school version of buyer's remorse and you'll be ok in a little while. I recommend trying to find friends outside of your program if you can. You can't force you peers to be friends, but there are lots of people on campus who would probably love to get to know you. Join an intramural team, go to campus events, check out the local music scene... just get out there where there are people! I'm in a similar boat as you... I haven't made friends in my program yet because we haven't had any core courses so far this year and since we're interdisciplinary, everyone is taking classes all over the place and working with advisors in different departments. We do have an email list set up though! Maybe I'll make friends with them, maybe not. But there are lots of other people in my classes that I could befriend, plus a ton of other people I might meet just doing different things.

Let's try this again in bigger letters.
You are in danger of being expelled from your university for plagiarism. Not for this assignment, because your professor has given you one pass. But since you don't understand what you did wrong, you are going to make this same mistake that you had two professors object to, again. 
Would you like us to help you? If you have any instinct of self-preservation, please see the questions in my previous post, and answer all of them. If you don't figure out your problem (whether online or offline), you are DEFINITELY GOING TO BE EXPELLED FROM YOUR PROGRAM BEFORE THE YEAR IS OUT.

Undergraduate publications don't matter for many fields.

Gee, this professor kind of sounds like a jerk. From professors I've talked to (plus what I've read here on the forum), all he needs to do is write one form letter and change a few details for each time he submits (plus click a few things on the online form for each school).
However, if he doesn't want to spend the extra 10 minutes it takes to modify his letter, upload it, and make a few selections on a form for each of the other schools, then you really are stuck finding a different person for half of your schools. Is this professor your thesis advisor (or are you not doing a thesis)? Your thesis advisor is the person you want most to write your letters, but if you aren't doing one, then I guess this professor is the best choice because you've worked in his lab. So, in that case, I recommend using him for your top 3 choices and finding someone else for the rest. I know you said you have to real backup, but surely you've taken courses with other professors. Did you work on any class research projects that you did really well on? Is there a professor that was really impressed with your work in his/her class? That might be difficult to determine yourself, but if you ask someone in the know (like maybe the program head or even this professor who won't write enough letters) if they have a suggestion for a potential letter writer, they might tell you that somebody had good things to say about you and to seek them out.

Let me break this down for you. People are trying to help! But you are being too vague and brief for us to assist you. For starters, you keep trying to explain in two sentences or less. That's just not enough information! It would help if you tried again under the following criteria. 1) Make sure your description of the situation is at least two hundred words long. Twenty words hasn't been doing it, and we can keep reading twenty-word posts for infinity and it still won't be sufficient. 2) Having trouble writing a longer summary? Try answering the following questions. All of them. Other posters, this is just a start, feel free to add more.
What sort of program are you enrolled in? A research PhD? A master's degree? A more professionally-oriented program, like something in education or business or public policy? Please give a general idea of your field: I don't need to know that it's economics, but "a PhD in a social science that runs experiments with people" would help. Are you enrolled in courses? Do you also have internships? Will you be required to write a thesis for graduation What's your educational background? Was your undergraduate institution accredited and in-person? Was it in the United States? Was your major the same as the subject you're in graduate school? Have you ever done independent research before? Have you assisted in a lab before? Have you written any papers over 500 words? Have you written any papers over 1500 words? Have you ever had to write a paper where you had to cite a source you found on your own, rather than writing a paper from a pre-set list of sources? What on earth is this paper? You have managed to describe a type of paper that nobody here recognizes. Please try again. Is it a course assignment? Will you be graded on it? Is it a research proposal? If so, what is it a proposal for? What's the deadline? Who supervises and/or evaluates it? What objections have your TWO professors communicated to you about this paper? When you asked why you had to meet with them about potential plagiarism, what did they say? I don't care if you don't think it makes sense, or if you don't think their objections count as evidence. The closer you can reproduce what they said, both at your meeting and in any relevant emails, the better we can help you.

I don't actually know how many students are actually in my cohort! We didn't have a program orientation (just attended the campus-wide graduate orientation), and we won't have our core courses until the winter and spring terms. Outside of our core environmental science courses, our program is pretty much open to any coursework in biology, botany, fisheries, wildlife, forestry, zoology, etc. so there isn't a high likelihood of bumping into other members of my program, let alone other newly admitted students. So maybe starting next term, I'll get to hang out with my cohort when I figure out who they are.
Looking back to my masters, I met up with the majority of the program's students about once per month, and hung out with a few select people more often... generally ecology people (our program was in general biology, so we had a variety of disciplines represented). It would be nice to do that here, since I moved across the country and don't have any friends here!

That's funny, you responded to one line and ignored the entire two paragraphs that follow it. 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

First, stop worrying about being "shiny." There will always be someone shinier, no matter how awesome something thinks they are. Chances are that some of these really shiny people feel very insecure, too. This perceived shininess is also pretty irrelevant... you were accepted to the same school as these people, so clearly you have something to offer and you belong there just as much as your peers. Just because someone has traveled internationally, had the opportunity to read seemingly endless numbers of books, and speaks well doesn't equate to being a better student than you. Moving up from a state school to an Ivy is also irrelevant. You are the same person. You might get challenged differently, but no one expects you to magically be transformed into some kind of super student because of a jump in prestige. This relates back to shininess being irrelevant... you shouldn't be judging yourself by how you perceive others to be. 
Now that I got that out of the way, my first question for you is: do you bring any type of notes with you to seminar? You might have lots to say, but it's easy to forget things, especially if you're nervous. Having some concrete thoughts written down is really quite helpful when your head empties itself. I've also found that when I suddenly forget what I'm saying, it helps to try to keep talking, because it's easy for the thought to come back.
My next question is: do you interact with your classmates outside of class at all? If you don't get to know these people beyond classroom interactions, you're going to put them up on a pedestal and it's going to make you feel even more inadequate. If you talk with them outside of class, you'll probably start to feel more comfortable around them and that will probably help with some of the anxiety. Getting to know your professors a bit helps, too. Especially when you find out about some of the dumb things they've done, or the time they almost failed a class, or that you're both into early Metallica but can't stand their newer stuff.
I think talking to your professors about your concerns is always a good thing. Professors usually understand this sort of stuff. I had a wonderful professor who taught using the Socratic method, and he knew that students' minds often went empty when put on the spot. So he gently tried to lead them in the right direction by asking more questions. If your professor knows you need help articulating yourself, he/she might be willing to help pull it out of you. Whether or not you want to share your life history with them is your business, but just talking with them about your struggles in class can only help you.
 

I would strongly second rising_star's advice against annotating everything. This is how I started reading in my first year of grad school too and it didn't help me at all. Summarizing in your own words and maybe even presenting a 5 minute summary of it to a colleague is what really helps me understand material.
There are still maybe a handful (less than 5 papers) that I've read every single word, annotated the margins, and can recite full equations from. These papers are the ones that form the foundation of the methods and ideas behind my main research questions so I think it's important to know that at this level. But you should not be doing this for every paper. Also, for the papers that I did annotate everything, I did the quick thing rising_star and telkanuru's PhD comic said first, I just "went through" them and after going through a lot of papers, I was able to identify the key foundational works and then read them more deeply.

The quick answer is not to fully read and annotate everything. Read for what you need, rather than just reading in general. For example, if you're trying to understand different methods used to study a topic, then you'll want to focus and take notes on the methods sections. If you're concerned with results, then focus on that, making sure to pay attention to any figures and tables included.
Also, stop trying to annotate everything. You're better off writing a brief (1-2 paragraphs, 300-400 word max) summary of the article and its key points in your own words, so you can easily do a search to find the relevant stuff later. No one really reads every single article carefully from first page to last page. 

I recently read a magazine article (or perhaps it was a blog post) about key phrases to teach your daughters to use to help them avoid being pushed out of conversations/ignored by men. I think they may be useful to you. They are: "stop interrupting me," "I just said that," and "no explanation needed." Ok, that last one might not be applicable, but the first two should be. Don't be afraid to call someone out if they're interrupting you or ignoring you. You don't need to be rude back, but something as simple as waiting for them to finish and saying "now that you're done interrupting me, here's what I had to say" will help them realize what they're doing. If they don't take that not-so-subtle hint, then I might start getting rude and interrupt them back. You just need to be loud enough to be heard!
I've had issues with other people interrupting me in the past when trying to talk about something. Not in an academic setting, but definitely when talking to people, I've been pushed out of the conversation by others. The worst was working at my job over the summer... I was responsible for training several people in some field techniques. There were two projects going on that overlapped somewhat, but I was training everyone in techniques specific to the project I was leading, and the leader of the other project (who also knew the techniques I was teaching) decided to just jump right in and add some commentary, which would have been fine if she stopped after adding her two cents, but then she just kept going and took over the entire training session and I barely got to say a word while I was demonstrating the techniques. I ended up being very frustrated throughout the field season because she kept making her voice heard above mine when we talked to our supervisors and to our field crew, and if I had just told her to cut it out early on, things would have gone more smoothly. So please try to make yourself heard! You can do it!

I'm not very deep into the funding scene yet but I have run into the opposite problem.  I am an MS student and the only substantial funding sources I have been able to find for soil science based research is the NSF GRFP and Borlaug Fellows and the rest appear to be for PhD students and post-docs.  I suppose its really depending on the field of study though. 
 
It'd be worthwhile to ask some PI's you are interested in working with what graduate students in their labs typically do and/or cold call them yourself.
 
 

Crock pots will seriously save your life. I know some people get worried about leaving them on while no one's home, but my family has used them for years without incident. You just put your ingredients into the pot in the morning, put it on the appropriate setting for how long you'll be gone, and bam! Food is ready when you walk in the door. Rice cookers are also amazing if you like rice. I have one with a timer, so I can set it to be done cooking just as I'm getting home. You can also make a wide range of food in a crock pot, too. I especially like making chili and thai curry in mine.
As for me, my husband,  two cats, and I left Pennsylvania on the 1st and began our road trip to Oregon. The first few days were boring, just lots of diving. Once we got to the southwest, it got more exciting because we had never been to that part of the country before. Our first major stop was Roswell, NM, but we got there at 4 and that's when all of the cool alien stuff closed, and most of it didn't open until 10 the next morning, which was too late. So I was really bummed about that. We went to Flagstaff, AZ next and went to a nearby national moment which was cool. Next we went to Moab, UT which is an amazing place and visited Arches National Park and I bought a nice rock containing a few pieces of red beryl at a rock shop. We went to Las Vegas, but didn't have time to do anything on the strip because we primarily were visiting friends. It's not terribly far from our new home and we can stay with friends for free, so we might head back at some point. Our last stop was in Reno, and we stayed at a terrible hotel and my bike got stolen. It was a very low note to end the trip on, and I was too angry during our drive up to Oregon to really appreciate the national forests of northeast California. At least the cats didn't act up during the trip!
Our apartment ended up being smaller than I pictured it and the appliances are old (but functioning). However, it was clean and they just painted it (which made it stinky). Our relocube arrived the next day and all our stuff was perfect. No smashed anything. We also found a cool used furniture store and scored some dining room chairs, a love seat, and a rocker chair for under $100. That leaves more in the budget for other things, which is awesome.
I'm not crazy about my new city. I don't live in the same town as my school, and honestly, that town is much nicer. However, we're in a nice neighborhood away from all of the stores and we have a yard and garage. Orientation starts on Monday!
 

Crock pots will seriously save your life. I know some people get worried about leaving them on while no one's home, but my family has used them for years without incident. You just put your ingredients into the pot in the morning, put it on the appropriate setting for how long you'll be gone, and bam! Food is ready when you walk in the door. Rice cookers are also amazing if you like rice. I have one with a timer, so I can set it to be done cooking just as I'm getting home. You can also make a wide range of food in a crock pot, too. I especially like making chili and thai curry in mine.
As for me, my husband,  two cats, and I left Pennsylvania on the 1st and began our road trip to Oregon. The first few days were boring, just lots of diving. Once we got to the southwest, it got more exciting because we had never been to that part of the country before. Our first major stop was Roswell, NM, but we got there at 4 and that's when all of the cool alien stuff closed, and most of it didn't open until 10 the next morning, which was too late. So I was really bummed about that. We went to Flagstaff, AZ next and went to a nearby national moment which was cool. Next we went to Moab, UT which is an amazing place and visited Arches National Park and I bought a nice rock containing a few pieces of red beryl at a rock shop. We went to Las Vegas, but didn't have time to do anything on the strip because we primarily were visiting friends. It's not terribly far from our new home and we can stay with friends for free, so we might head back at some point. Our last stop was in Reno, and we stayed at a terrible hotel and my bike got stolen. It was a very low note to end the trip on, and I was too angry during our drive up to Oregon to really appreciate the national forests of northeast California. At least the cats didn't act up during the trip!
Our apartment ended up being smaller than I pictured it and the appliances are old (but functioning). However, it was clean and they just painted it (which made it stinky). Our relocube arrived the next day and all our stuff was perfect. No smashed anything. We also found a cool used furniture store and scored some dining room chairs, a love seat, and a rocker chair for under $100. That leaves more in the budget for other things, which is awesome.
I'm not crazy about my new city. I don't live in the same town as my school, and honestly, that town is much nicer. However, we're in a nice neighborhood away from all of the stores and we have a yard and garage. Orientation starts on Monday!