sammeg95

Hi Everyone, So I recently got to grad school and joined a group that I was really excited about. I was really excited about the research, and the other group members seemed okay, so I made a pretty quick decision to join since I was also worried about not getting into one of the labs I was interested in, since my program is quite competitive). The group itself is not new, but recently moved from a different university, and so all of their instruments and equipment had to be shipped and reassembled. As a result, not much is going on in the lab, since a lot of stuff still hasn't arrived. Originally, I was shadowing one of my lab mates, and he would tell me when he was going to work on something in the lab. He stopped telling when he was going to be doing something though, although he will still leave the office for long periods (presumably to go into the lab). I am left at my desk wondering if I am supposed to follow him, or if he does not want me around. Everyone in the lab is very quiet around me, and so I feel awkward asking questions or trying to even make small talk with them. They are friendly enough and always say hi when they see me, but I haven't really been able to talk to them much beyond that, since I'm afraid of bothering them or interrupting their work by starting a conversation. So I pretty much sit at my desk all day and do homework. I do not have a research project to work on yet, my PI told me to just get to know the different projects so I could figure out which one I wanted to do. But although I have read about the projects, I have not gotten to see anyone working on any of them. Another first year student joined the lab at the same time I did, but he does not seem to be having this problem. He already has a project, and seems comfortable with everything and seems to know what's going on in the lab. I constantly get the feeling that everyone else knows what's going on, but no one ever tells me anything (like, when new equipment is arriving, etc.) I was going to just wait and hope that eventually I would figure things out and my lab mates would warm up to me, but right now I am so confused and miserable all the time. I feel like I'm missing something that I should be doing, but I don't know what and I don't know who to ask. I can't really talk to anyone in my cohort about this, since they all complain about how they are incredibly busy, while my problem is that I am bored out of my mind. I have been trying to keep up with reading the literature, etc, but I am losing motivation to do even that, since it seems like it does no good. Has anyone else felt like this? Any advice?