What are you doing this winter?

[Page]

First off, winter is for family, hot chocolate, and staying away from campus!

Still, for those of us who have a long break (1.5 months for me), is anyone considering brief research/volunteering/language study/any other use of time that would be fruitful for your research (or your personal goals) in some way?

I am beginning to think about it and wondering if anybody knows any good programs/funding, and really if it is common to do anything in that vein at all.

So, what are you doing this winter?

[kyjin]

I think it's more common to do research trips/language study during summer breaks. I spent a couple months this summer in Tokyo doing research thanks to an outside grant I found for graduate students in my university. For funding, take a look at your graduate student association (they tend to have money stored away for things) or through the university itself. You may not find funding for winter specifically, but there may be grants that will award soon that you can use.

In my case I have a month away from campus. I'll be spending break catching up with friends and family, curling up with the dog, and doing some work on my thesis. (God knows how much that will actually be, but I'll try.)

[GreenePony]

My break is roughly a month thanks to a lack of finals (well, there's one but it's online) but a good week of it is being eaten up by my inlaws' insistence that we visit them for Christmas

I'm likely going to spend it continuing my volunteer work. It has a late start this semester since the volunteer coordinator got behind but I'm not sure how extensive the project will be so it may not even last the full semester. It doesn't directly relate to my research but it's a nice branch between my undergrad and grad classes. I'm putting off my internships until summer/fall because of this.

[MoJingly]

First of all... How do you have 1.5 months for Winter break?!

[Eigen]

I think I got 4 or 5 days off last year, between Christmas and New Years.

I don't know anyone that got much more than a week.

But then, this tends to be more the norm for the Sciences. I think some of my friends in Humanities programs took closer to a month.

[musichistorygeek]

Revising my MA thesis, sleeping, and (hopefully) recovering from comps.

And enjoying some of the aforementioned hot chocolate!

[MoJingly]

I think I got 4 or 5 days off last year, between Christmas and New Years.

Same here. And that will be the same for this year. What will I do? Fix things around the house, visit family, and NOT STUDY

[Eigen]

It's almost all family time for me.

Between my family and my wife's family, we've got a lot to fit in.

We usually do our extended families each over Christmas (5-day weekend), and then another 4-day weekend at New Years for immediate families.

Our anniversary is also the week before Christmas, so it's usually nice to take a long weekend and go do something for that.

[lewin]

I think I got 4 or 5 days off last year, between Christmas and New Years.

Yeah what does it mean to have time "off" anyway? Work at home instead of going to the office?