Danger_Zone

I'm looking into a chiropractor as soon as I get into the US, it sounds like they can be pretty cheap with decent health insurance. It isn't something covered under OHIP (Ontario health insurance). I'm also excited to (hopefully) get some kind of dental and prescription drug coverage. I've been without these for a year since graduating (and haven't been working, either) so even getting cleanings at the dentist has been pretty expensive (my university's health insurance wasn't great or anything, but it was definitely better than nothing.)

Well damn, everyone is off doing cool things but me.

That's really good! I love the colours. It would definitely be a lovely Mother's Day gift if you were to give it to your mom!

I won't be working in a lab so, this might not be very helpful but I thought I should mention it. I don't think you will know how much time things take until you actually get into the work and research. You may find some weeks you don't need as much as 40 hours, whereas you might during others. As for TAing, unless you are teaching a class yourself I do not think you are going to need a full 20 hours a week. I'm going to be TAing for 20 hours as well, and was told I'd just have to attend classes, hold an office hour or two (which you could use to work in between students showing up), and grade papers. The latter may be especially time-consuming at first, but I think once you get into a routine you should become more efficient at grading. If you find this takes up too much time, I've heard others mention that it is helpful to time yourself when grading papers (to make sure you don't spend too much time on one paper.) So I would advice to see what happens, and try not to worry until you actually get exposed to the work load.

I haven't started my program yet, but I've been working on learning a foreign language and will be continuing to do that over the summer. I'm also trying to read up on a lot of grad school-related things (thesis/dissertation writing, public speaking, teaching, etc.) so I guess I'm kind of doing research on grad school?

I want to do roller derby so bad! It looks really fun! But I am so clumsy, ugh. I think I can skate fairly well though.

Awww they're gorgeous! I'm totally down for sharing cat pics.

My old cat was like that. He was about the most chill living creature to ever exist. I have two cats at the moment (family cats), and my older one has gotten much more relaxed over the years, but my younger one is the complete opposite. I don't know how much can be said about cat breed "personalities" but I'm sure there are probably certain breeds more known to be relaxed. My boyfriend's cat is apparently one of the most "wild" of breeds and she is definitely living up to this! But all cats are different, I hope you end up getting what you're looking for.

You guys have really great research topics! I enjoy hearing about what other people are interested in. @Cat_Robutt I would love to be able to read/research comics all day! Maybe I chose the wrong field.

Well now I'm scared! I wholeheartedly love the idea of going to grad school but I need down time. I already have a cat (it's my boyfriend's but he will be bringing her) and have been dreaming of getting a dog for years, so I hope I have time for that! Dogs definitely need more attention. I don't know if this would help at all (might not if the cat you get isn't playful/easily entertained) but there are a lot of automated cat toys out there that you could invest in. You could either leave the toy(s) on during the day to keep the cat busy while you're not around, or you could leave them on at night to tire him/her out so he/she will (hopefully) sleep during the day while you're gone. I think lots of toys in general are helpful, so you don't have to worry about not being around sometimes (at least once the cat is used to the house), and they seem pretty good at amusing themselves.

Thanks for the input. I definitely don't know a lot about the process, I just thought that you would be given a visa for the duration of your program, then if you need more time you can renew it.

I'd definitely love to! I didn't have the means or money to travel until now, so I will probably start taking vacations during the summer or whenever I have time away from school. But I'll probably be spending a lot of time going up to see my family (although I think I'm finally convincing them to get passports to come visit me occasionally instead.) I've loved traveling to the US even though the places I've been don't feel very different to me than Canada. But there are so many places I'd absolutely love to go to one day (Germany, England, Scotland, Finland, Japan, Australia.. etc.) Too bad my research isn't on any of these places, though I'll probably get an opportunity to travel for that anyway, even if it's just in the US.

My mistake then! I'm sure it's true that food isn't the same as it is from the original source. I have never traveled outside of Ontario and a few states in the US, so I can't say I've had the opportunity to try many foods this way. But I'd love to travel to Europe and elsewhere eventually. There was an awesome shop near my undergrad university which sold British food and candies, but I don't think it's there anymore, sadly.

Yeah, I decided to e-mail them again. I'm hoping it's just a mistake, I definitely don't want to be dealing with visa issues during the last couple years of my program!

@hippyscientist Are you from the US originally (if not ignore me)? I think they might sell crumpets in the US. Not sure about popular grocery stores, but if you can find an imported/global/international market then I'm sure they would be there. Either way you can find a lot of cool stuff there! (Also, if you like peanut butter you should definitely try a crumpet with peanut butter. It's delicious. )

I am currently waiting for my F-1 visa documents to arrive in the mail. I checked on the website where I filled out the initial information and find that it says that my visa will last for the next 4 years.... but my program is 5 years. I contacted them and told them this and was told that "if I need another year" that I can file for an extension. But I know it will take more than 4 years because it's a 5 year program. I just don't want to have to deal with that in a few years. Why wouldn't I just get a visa valid for the duration of my program? I still feel like they've screwed up but I did e-mail them to tell them it's a 5 year program. So I don't know if I'm supposed to e-mail about this again or if this is normal.

@knp I've done some work with children and adolescents. I think even if it didn't help me be more conversational around other adults, it did help me get out of the house and push myself to do things. Plus it was fun (well, mostly.. teens can be a handful. ) That sounds really funny! I guess that's one way to get over social anxiety. @hippyscientist I've been considering signing up for a yoga class or something similar for a while, maybe I'll do that when I move down for grad school. I occasionally do meditation when I am stressed or anxious, and it does seem to help.

I'm not working at the moment. Back in high school/college I applied for some jobs when I was feeling "brave", but I think it really would have helped me if I actually got one. My parents were really against me working while I was in school, so I think I may have just used that as an excuse not to get a job. I was already really nervous about having to work in retail, fast food or something else which would require talking to strangers all day. I definitely agree about asking other people questions, as I would much rather talk about other people than myself! But at least history is something I really love so I'm happy when people ask about what kind of history I like or what kind of research I'd like to do. I definitely understand the tone/expression thing as well. I've been told quite often that I seem bored or even sad when talking to people, even though I'm most likely neither of those things. So I'm also trying to work on this, even though it's very difficult to consciously undo things like facial expressions that you might not even realize you're making/not making.

Of course! I think what has been helping me most is thinking of a long-term goal and how I can slowly work towards it. I would really like to be able to teach one day, so I'm going to have to work on being able to talk to and be around others more comfortably to do this (of course being more sociable is a beneficial thing even if I didn't want to teach, but I gave myself a reasonable long-term goal to work with.) So I do my best to just "put myself out there" more, even if I sometimes say silly things. I was always afraid that I'd say something stupid, so I'd never bother to try to talk in the first place, but the more I try to slowly work on this (i.e. trying to keep up small talk with cashiers, remembering to make better eye contact, smile, etc.), the more I feel like I have more things to say to people. I still get this "blank" feeling often (not knowing what to say to people), and I will probably always be kind of shy, but I love to be around other people and talk to them, so if I hold myself back I'm really missing out on things I want to do. I've also had professors/teachers tell me they used to be extremely shy, but are now completely outgoing! So knowing that other people can, and do, improve themselves is really self-assuring. I hope that helps even though this is more applicable to social anxiety than anything. This is what I have struggled with most which has partly contributed to depression (and the other way around.)

I'm sorry to hear you went through that. I think it's actually really common for grad students to experience mental health issues. If you aren't already talking to a professional about this, remember it's definitely an option and you should never feel ashamed. Take the time you need to take care of your mental health before something happens, whether this means talking to somebody or managing your time effectively in order to make sure you can pursue hobbies, spend time with friends, relax when you are feeling particularly stressed, etc. This is important for every student, not just people with mental health issues. I dealt with some depression and anxiety during undergrad and did not do anything I said above. My life and GPA ended up suffering, but now I'm going into grad school with the knowledge that sometimes these issues can resurface, so hopefully I am better equipped to deal with it. I think I am mostly better but still deal with some socially-related anxiety, but I've been taking this issue day by day. It's really helpful to make small, realistic adjustments instead of expecting myself to be perfectly better right now. Rambled a bit but I hope that makes sense and maybe helps.

That's great, who doesn't love a flashy gif! I created part of a wikibooks page for an American History class (mostly the movie stuff), but it isn't nearly as fancy: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_State/New_York_State_in_American_Popular_Culture I also spent a tonne of time editing the page, but people can just kind of come in and add whatever they want (which is great, but we had a lot of random people posting some rather inappropriate things while we were working on it.)

I feel like my PhD requirements aren't very structured, which is bothersome when trying to come up with what I want to take, but has given me freedom to take courses on things that are interesting to me even if they aren't technically History courses (for example, I will be taking a Sociology course related to my research interests). My program has a two-part required historical methods course for the first year, but other than that you need to take 3 courses each semester: usually one or two seminars and some kind of more independent reading/research course. I don't know if this is applicable to you, but one thing that was recommended to me while I'm starting out my PhD is to choose actual in-class courses which will allow you to meet and interact with other grad students, especially if they are just starting as well, since these are going to be people you will be seeing a lot for the next few years.

Good luck! I feel like I've never had my patience tested so much as I have by this whole grad school process.

When I first accepted I was told I should start looking at courses, and I was too excited not to anyway so I signed up as soon as I could. Although one of the courses is compulsory for your first semester, then a seminar is being held by my advisor/on my research subject so that was a given. So then I just kind of looked around until I found something else that sounded interesting. I'm actually taking a sociology course (not my field), but it's a good fit and my program is super encouraging of interdisciplinary studies.

Ok that is true. And now you can basically get it at every fast food place here. You definitely need good cheese curds for it though, or it just isn't the same (what's up with people using normal cheese!)