You 2013 guys getting excited to start?

[kyjin]

On a whim decided to lurk back here, and what do you know! A thread for the 2013 crowd. How's everyone doing?

 

The semester doesn't start at USC for a couple more weeks, but I've been out in LA for the past month at a workshop organized by my advisor, so it feels like I've started already. Spending the rest of my free time before classes start furnishing the apartment I found during said workshop. (Currently only have a bed and internet ^^; Lots to do.)  I'm very excited to see the rest of my cohort out here, and really get started with classwork and such. Orientation is tomorrow, so hoping that will go well.

 

Good luck to everyone!

[Andean Pat]

I've received an e-mail with all the cohort contact details and I'm travelling tomorrow! 

[annieca]

I've been bored out of my mind sitting here in my apartment so I've been volunteering at the American History Museum in DC a couple days a week. That's definitely helped keep my "Oh my GOD I'm going to graduate school" panics at bay.

 

That, and a family friend is taking me to the Delaware beaches for a long weekend right before orientation "week". 

 

Otherwise, I've quietly been starting some pre-reading for my thesis and checking out a conference or two that sounds really interesting. Unfortunately I can't get to UCLA in mid-October for their Human Rights and Archives symposium but it gives me ideas for next year. So doing that, and freaking out about money because Maryland is still "processing" my financial aid information - as they have been doing for the past four months. Luckily tuition and fees are paid but if I have any chance of paying rent until January when I hope to have a GA position... I need those loans!

[Katzenmusik]

I'm thrilled to be starting my new program soon!  There are so many resources to take advantage of and so much going on that I'm interested in, it's a bit overwhelming.  But I think I did end up in a place that is right for me.  The all-consuming mental torments of last year were worth it!   

 

[Edited to add:  I've prepared for this semester by doing glorious amounts of nothing.  I'm just reading really fun books, like biographies of mysterious failed priests and collections of surrealist Polish stories.  I have a project I really do need to finish, but I thought it was important to simply enjoy life for a few months before plunging back in to the academic guilt-complex.]

 

Czesc, what is Cornell's academic calendar like?  Hopefully you will get to spend generous chunks of time with your girlfriend until you can both live in the same place again.  (Perhaps Syracuse would work?)  Give Ithaca and its environs a chance to grow on you -- though if there's anything I've learned from all the anti-grad school articles I've forced myself to absorb Clockwork Orange-style, it's that it's okay to quit down the line if you feel miserable. (And the academic career path seems to demand relocation to random places for most people...so think of this as practice?) 

Edited August 28, 2013 by Katzenmusik

[Andean Pat]

Need to vent: miss home

[CageFree]

Need to vent: miss home

Aww. I know the feeling. The first year can be rough. Make sure you build a network for the holidays... other international students who are stuck too... even if in other disciplines. I know those in my program found those networks super helpful.

[czesc]

Czesc, what is Cornell's academic calendar like?  Hopefully you will get to spend generous chunks of time with your girlfriend until you can both live in the same place again.  (Perhaps Syracuse would work?)  Give Ithaca and its environs a chance to grow on you -- though if there's anything I've learned from all the anti-grad school articles I've forced myself to absorb Clockwork Orange-style, it's that it's okay to quit down the line if you feel miserable. (And the academic career path seems to demand relocation to random places for most people...so think of this as practice?) 

 

It's kind of on the long side unfortunately - we began the third week of August and go til deep into May - but yes, my girlfriend and I are looking forward to the breaks. Summer's a new obstacle though since research/language related travel will take me even further away, so I guess we will have to figure out a way to minimize that without compromising my work. Of course we'd love to be living in the same place, but I kind of get the sense that by the time she figures out what she's doing, I'll almost be at dissertation phase anyway, and can hopefully wind up closer to her instead. 

 

Ithaca itself hasn't turned out to be that bad - it's really the isolation that's most annoying. Since it can't be airlifted closer to NYC, all I can do is pray some transportation company realizes that there's a huge market for travel between the two and provide a better service. Currently, there's the option of a normal bus at "only" $88 round trip (that's with the weekend student discount) that takes 6+ hours to do the trip each way, and an unnecessarily luxe Cornell-owned bus that does it in 4 - for a whopping RT cost of $160+. If anyone here feels like abandoning your PhD to become an entrepreneur, there's a huge number of people waiting for some competitor to roll in and provide the option everyone wants: a low-frills bus that does the trip direct for a reasonable price. 

Edited September 8, 2013 by czesc

[TMP]

It's kind of on the long side unfortunately - we began the third week of August and go til deep into May - but yes, my girlfriend and I are looking forward to the breaks. Summer's a new obstacle though since research/language related travel will take me even further away, so I guess we will have to figure out a way to minimize that without compromising my work. Of course we'd love to be living in the same place, but I kind of get the sense that by the time she figures out what she's doing, I'll almost be at dissertation phase anyway, and can hopefully wind up closer to her instead. 

 

Ithaca itself hasn't turned out to be that bad - it's really the isolation that's most annoying. Since it can't be airlifted closer to NYC, all I can do is pray some transportation company realizes that there's a huge market for travel between the two and provide a better service. Currently, there's the option of a normal bus at "only" $88 round trip (with a weekend student discount) that takes 6+ hours to do the trip each way, and an unnecessarily luxe Cornell-owned bus that does it in 4 - for a whopping RT cost of $160+. If anyone here feels like abandoning your PhD to become an entrepreneur, there's a huge number of people waiting for some competitor to roll in and provide the option everyone wants: a low-frills bus that does the trip direct for a reasonable price. 

 

czsec, that can be your Plan B!  You can operate out of NYC with your girlfriend.  Just wait for the fall foliage... so beautiful there.  My graduate colleagues have already thought up a bunch of great ideas for our locale and joke that they're their Plan Bs.