hippyscientist

@Need Coffee in an IV yikes. Red flag and then some! Landlords can be really difficult to navigate. But your style sounds awesome I'm more of a modern rustic boho. Kind of like if you combined a lake house with an english cottage with a surf house. I like the industrial stuff too but not for my house. I need cosy and snuggly and zen!

Turns out there was some issue in the system and it all messed up. She thought I was being stupid because it was right in front of me, but I didn't have the link! All fixed and I'm now enrolled. This is happening (short of something going bad at the embassy)!!! @Need Coffee in an IV decorating. Oh decorating. I cannot wait. My entire downtime at the minute is pinning ideas to my pinterest boards. I've found a sofa, and bedding and a mattress and all sorts. I just want to get started and move Puppies are adorable. I want to cuddle one now.

Agh so of course nothing is ever straightforward. The holds on my account that means I can't enrol and the way I'm meant to remove the holds is not clear and I can't do it and I swear the admin lady for my department thinks I'm stupid already. Such a stressful day.

@Danger_Zone aww thank you! With a note on the visa, it depends what you get issued but if you're F1 you can't enter the US until 30 days before the start of your program. @Need Coffee in an IV woohoo! YAY for the house. Pups are fantastic and give you something to look after beside yourself, but equally it's nice to get settled, figure out the pace of things and find your feet before having their needs added to your own. My mum offered to get me a pup for Christmas, and for these reasons (and more) I've said I'd love one, but about this time next year, after my first round of exams are done. Gives me time to find my feet (plus taking him out to pee won't be happening in the snow...hopefully). I have finally figured out which classes I'm taking in the fall. I have to say that I'm not thrilled about them. 2 classes are repeating things I've done in my masters, just with slightly different software and one is a new one just looking at methods and theories and optimisations. The offerings for my field are pretty slim this first semester, but my advisor says they'll get better as I go through. At least it should be relatively unchallenging in terms of content presented. Just need to enrol in them - but I have a hold on my account and what I need to do to remove my hold is not available to me right now. AGH!

Yeah you do It's natural to feel a little bit of missing the family and that living situation doesn't sound the most conducive to good work! But exciting times ahead I'm pretty envious of people moving too. I'd love to get started on everything I need to do once I get to the US, and catch up with some of my best friends over there but I gotta finish my degree here first. I'll be sad to say bye to my friends, and there's certain things I'll miss about the UK (mainly food-based, not gunna lie) but this next step is the exciting one. This is the "I'm finally an adult, I've achieved what I set out to do aged 18, and I'm gunna make the science world know who I am" step. The previous steps have warmed me up and made me ready to take this one and I couldn't be more excited or prepared.

@Cat_Robutt I left off the books that are embarrassing haha. I learnt long ago that I have eclectic taste in many things - from music, film, TV, books to food and fashion. I happily own it, but tend to hide the more quirky side from randos! I thoroughly recommend Brent Weeks - I love his work. Check out the Night Assassin series it's a fun standalone trilogy that wraps up nicely at the end. A little too YA for serious fantasy readers but it was a fun, fast-paced story which was easy to get lost in - perfect criteria in my opinion. @sjoh197 yeah I've been followed home a few times too. It's not a pleasant experience and living in a gated community sounds perfect! I recently was walking home from a friends house, about 9pm, and a group of three hooded youths were behind me. I later found out 4 people got mugged that night and ended up in hospital. I've never walked/run home so fast in my life. Unfortunately I've only ever lived in ground floor apartments which means I'm pretty cautious about leaving a window open at night or anything like that. I'm hoping state college is as safe as it appears! @Neist I'm pretty envious of that. I grew up in a relatively nice neighbourhood, but travelling I ended up in some sketchy situations. I've been mugged twice (actually both times in LA) and followed home more times than I care to remember. The town I live in now isn't scummy but it's also not as safe as some of the places I've lived. Just a lot of petty crime and a few stabbings here and there. Can't wait to move into my own apartment - first time living truly by myself. There's going to be so much space! And not having to wait for a bathroom to become free, and being able to cook when I want and being able to decorate how I want and space. Oh the space It's only 450 sqft but that 450 sqft is mine. MY bathroom. MY kitchen. MY living room - I'm gunna have a place to hang out that's not my bedroom!

Ugh over the past two days we've had bright sunshine, gale force winds, hail, snow, and rain. It's ridiculous! Just make it nice already. @Need Coffee in an IV HGTV shows are amazing and I can't wait to be able to watch them all and house-hunting sucks. I keep a list of "will not budge" items, "willing to compromise" items, and "would be amazing but a bit of a pipe dream" items when I'm looking for places. It helps me sort my criteria out.

Yep I feel ya. I've compromised on a fair few things this year - no dishwasher and no in-apartment washer-dryer are my main ones- in order to have heating included and to live on my own. It's pretty damned stressful, but then if it's awful, it's only for a year. Good luck

@fernandes I was talking about reading for pleasure. In my discipline, books are a reference where you go to double check a method, not to really learn anything from. All that comes from journals. If it's in a book, it's past being useful (unless you're trying to remember a method). So all my reading is for pleasure. @Cat_Robutt I have a very embarassing taste in books. Growing up I lived off The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, so they're in the box. My favourite book of all time is Dolphin Boy Blue by Felice Arena. Moving away from children's books, I've also got a selection of Feynman books, Science: A History and a few other physics ones that I love to dip in and out of. I'm currently reading The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan, with books by Brent Weeks, Joe Abercrombie and a few others lined up for afterwards.

Joining in on the book conversation - I use my goodreads account to keep track of everything I want to read, and how long it takes me to read each book (yes I'm nerdy like that). I am basically 100% ebooks now due to moving around all over the place for the last 6 years but I really miss having a collection. I'm making my mom keep a box full of favourites in her garage until I'm settled somewhere and she can ship them to me. It's my absolute dream one day to have a home library that doubles as an office. All dark wood, chesterfield sofa, roaring fireplace, old & massive desk and walls covered in bookshelves filled with books. Right now I've got 4 book series lined up which should hopefully take me until July. The book thirst is real!

I already have a short list of labs I want to do a post-doc in. My current advisor and my new advisor have contacts at both so I'm hoping over the next 3 years I might interact with their contacts and try and make myself known. I found a grant-in-aid thing that only ~ 200 people are eligible to apply for, and I too am in a niche discipline, so no clue. But my attitude is you don't get what you don't apply for. It's worked pretty well for me so far

This is why I did a taught MSc, and now doing a PhD and then there'll be a post-doc, and I'll never leave the academy....

I mean I already have my courses organised. The conferences are so challenging though! So there's 1 big one every year. 2017 it's in Australia, 2018 it's in Ireland. Hopefully I can get funding to attend those because they'd be amazing to go to. I'd also like to keep in touch with an interest group in the UK. Haven't got the foggiest clue about where to start looking at funding opportunities, think that might be a conversation for once I'm in my program. It's all so exciting! My whole body is basically vibrating with knowing that going down this path is right for me (sorry living up to the hippy part of my name again). This just feels right. #nerdsforlife @Pink Fuzzy Bunny dude, hopefully that's a case of just people complaining and you'll be lucky. If not - at least it's only for the lease length and no longer.

Ohhh I like your thinking. I'm going to start compiling my PhD plan spreadsheet.

@rhombusbobus drop me a message with all your questions I can talk about this for days! I'll lift in chucks for deads but need a heel for my squats as my mobility is shocking. Working on it though. I'd told myself I'd get a belt when I hit over 100kg for deads and body weight on squats which has happened so I want an IPF approved belt (lots of monies). Stronglift 5x5 is awesome and horrid simultaneously. Prepare for DOMS hell for about 2 weeks. And yes we gotta pay for the gym but it's super cheap so that's cool. Plus access to the pool & fitness classes too for that dreaded cardio. Checking out the gyms was one of the first things I did when I visited...they'll do. Just wish we had access to the footballers gym. That's more like what I'm used to haha

I need to invest in some nerdy t-shirts. Physicists always have epic ones. There's a guy on my current course who did his first masters in Physics and got to work at CERN so he wears that shirt around all the time. I'm pretty envious haha.

Interesting about the red pen thing! Over here, I've only ever had stuff marked in red. In fact, at all the places I've been it's been ruled to only mark in red. Good to know before I made that mistake in the US! I know the gym stuff - weightlifting kit is more specific shoes and belt. Most of the makes are US brand so it makes sense to buy once I move. Wasn't planning on setting up my own gym (yet). A pair of weightlifting shoes will set me back over $200 in the UK and I can buy the same pair for $70 in the US. I'll check out the airbed situation - thanks for the advice

Wow that hike is one I've always wanted to do. That'll be incredible - taxing but incredible. So great that you and your dad are going together. That chocolate peanut butter lasagna needs to be removed from my knowledge immediately because there is no way in a million years my coach will ever let me eat it. But, yum!

oh that all just sounds amazing and incredible and please can you cook for me?! The chocolate peanut butter lasagna just sounds like heaven. Upcoming climb? Big one? Good luck @Neist in my country, conferences within my discipline are very small - in fact there's 2 each year worth going to. But the US is amazing and has lots more organisations and collaborative councils so I'll be spoilt for choice! But that's awesome that with such interdisciplinary research you can take bits and pieces from all over - that's my hope too. Crossing the divide between engineering, orthopaedic surgery, sport and physical therapy means everyone can learn stuff from everyone else, but no one is willing to invite you to their conferences

My planning is less academic and more house decor...oops. But I have figured out the classes I think I want to take. I also know that my current supervisor is pushing for this research i'm doing to be presented and published so that will be happening over the next year. My new advisor is the man in charge of a HUGE conference in 2017, and when I visited he mentioned that his new graduate student would be quite involved with that so I guess that's going to be on the list. A lot more of my planning is immediate - visa stuff, moving out of my current place, selling all the crap I don't need, finishing masters, flights, car hire, driving license etc. But now you've mentioned conferences I'm going to stop looking at couches and move to conference investigations!

@rising_star thanks for helping me justify my clothing habits! Grad school where I currently am is not at all smart and we all live in yoga pants and hoodies. Where I'm going is a lot smarter and while I have a base wardrobe a few more nicer pieces to tie everything together will be really beneficial. Also thanks for clarifying buying in person shouldn't take too long. That definitely makes life easier. The reason I was looking at sleeper sofas is I will have my own apartment, but know that a lot of people will come and visit me so wanted the living room to double up as a second bedroom for those times. But I'd want it primarily to be a comfy couch. I don't know. I think that's going to involve lots of sitting on things and figuring out the best option. The futon may be a good call...ahhh all in good time. I just want to get house decorating. In terms of grad school itself, I can't wait for stationery shopping. Pretty highlighters, notepads, pencils, red marking pens Already in possession are the external hard drive for my laptop and folders of previous notes (synthesized). I can't think of anything much else that's going to be different from Masters to PhD in terms of kit. But wow it's going to be a lot of fun shopping for it!

Haha yes we have Prime. It's amazing. That's an awesome idea actually thank you! Post makes a lot of sense - but then I am on a tonne of pain meds right now so maybe it's just meds making sense to meds.

So I've saved for a mattress - a proper orthopedic one - which I will be purchasing upon arrival. Anyone know how long these things take to be delivered? Over here, ordering a bed and mattress will take like 2 months to make it to your home and I really don't want to be on crappy things for that long. I'll be in the states ~ 2 weeks before I move into my apartment, so if I time it right I could be able to avoid floor sleeping. Also sofas that are beds too. Why are they all so ridiculously expensive??? Is it bad I've put some new (professional) clothes, and some weightlifting kit into my moving budget? It's SO much cheaper in the states haha.

damn allergies! I've started taking digestive enzymes and they've made my food issues SO much less. It makes me very happy. Mind I don't have any major allergies to food, just intolerances.

@sjoh197 watership down is amazing. I was gifted it by a teacher back when I was 7 and it's remained with me ever since. @Pink Fuzzy Bunny protein powder, egg, coconut oil, unsweetened almond milk, oat flour and "filling"(be it nutella, almond butter, PB&J etc). The macros on that are pretty good. It might not taste like a "normal" mug cake, but my tastebuds have adapted to that being so ridiculously sweet. It's awesome