rooibos

Yeah, I don't have an assistantship to worry about right now, and during the week (Monday to Friday, 11-6) I'm usually on campus, regardless of whether I have class or not!

So, I just started my first week of grad school, and in all my courses, there is required group work. Some of it seems to be kind of low-pressure, but others are a lot more intense, requiring weekly meetings. My classes are also mostly mixed undergrad/grad classes, and it's expected that groups will be mixed-level, too. I try really hard to schedule my reading and homework to leave my weekends free to spend with my wife, because we don't get to spend too much time together during the week. After spending a year apart from her, I feel that it's really important to do this, and in general, it seems to be a good policy. Even if I do have reading or homework to do during the weekends, I think that spending my weekends at home with her (rather than going to the library to study) works better for us. Do you guys feel that it's appropriate for me to make this clear to my group partners from the outset? I'm fine with people coming to my place to work, and I'm more than fine with working with people's schedules during the week. I just feel like a douchebag for saying that I really don't want to come to campus on the weekends if it can be avoided at all. Edited for clarity!

Oh, definitely! But I am the wussiest wuss that ever wussed, and I think that the $30 outlay for a decent place to rest my head is usually worth it.

My wife and I drove from PA to her mom's house in MS in preparation for moving to New Orleans. She really did all the driving, since I can't drive at all, and I would have been immensely uncomfortable driving the U-Haul even if I could drive (wooo, I come from a developing country where we don't have huge-ass highways!) so I really felt for her. I, however, had my hands full keeping the guinea pigs and hamsters safe and happy. To those contemplating sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots and the like, the wife suggests staying in hotels in the middle of nowhere, since they're usually a lot cheaper. Also, if you pull up at the Super-8 in Duck Hill, MS, at 11pm on a weeknight, they'll probably be willing to cut you a deal on a room. It won't be swanky, but it'll be a place to crash.

Thank you! It bothered me every time I saw it!

Ahhh, stupid typo in the title! Yep! I met with my graduate adviser to talk about courses a couple weeks ago, and he okayed my choices. I don't have to take the required pedagogy course until the spring, so I just chose three French courses and one history course, but I'm all registered! Your mileage may vary, though. My department seems really laid back-- I don't know about yours!

So...has anyone registered for their grad courses yet?

I don't know of any international student who got a student loan in the US, period! I assume that it would be difficult to do without a source of income and a SSN, which you won't have for a while. Is getting a loan from your home country a possibility?

I spent one January day in Chicago and decided that it wasn't for me! I had never, ever in my life been that cold!

But it wasn't the missing assignment that made you screw up your grade-- it was your bombed final. If the waiver only came up two days before the final, you should have been prepared for the final, anyway

Truefax: one of the reasons I chose a grad school in New Orleans is that I'm from the Caribbean and HATED the Central PA weather that I braved during undergrad. I'm all about the muggy coastal cities-- I'm in one, right now!

I'm a research assistant at a small, regional IGO. The job title is kind of misleading-- other than updating statistics, I do very little actual research and mostly do clerical tasks and some translation. But I occasionally get to travel, and I've learned more Spanish from being here than I did at school, and it pays for my relatively frequent (every six weeks or so) travel to see my spouse.

It's not that impossible-- honest! My wife and I are in that boat-- she's American, I'm Trinidadian, and we're married! It helps, though, that I have US permanent residency.

I'll be going to my partner's college commencement and moving all out things from Central PA to New Orleans, and then flying back to Trinidad to finish out my job contract. In mid-August, I'm moving back to New Orleans and hanging out with her until school starts! I'll also be enjoying my last few months of guilt-free pleasure reading.

Riotbeard, there's an amazing tea store in the Quarter called Bottom of the Cup. I have some of their teas, and they are suuuuper good. You should try it out sometime. They also do tea leaf/psychic readings if you're into stuff like that. It's a way cool place! katie67, my lady and I will be living in grad student housing precisely because we were kind of leery of just picking a place from Craigslist. I'm excited about being able to walk and bike and take the buses and streetcars everywhere, too! Hurray for cities! And yeah, the funding is pretty damn amazing!