9.25.2006

Getting the fuck lost: a proud tradition

As you can see here, UCSC is kind of a magical forest faerie-land as much as a major research university. It's surrounded on three sides by woods and the roads and paths between the 10 colleges on campus do a lot of meandering. I've quickly established a proud tradition of getting off of the bus and then getting the fuck lost. Today's magical faerie journey took me up to some apartments (I think they were upscale dorms of some kind) right on the northern tip of campus. I sort of stumbled down the hill a ways behind some big white buildings full of pottery until I finally figured out where I had ended up (i.e. Canada.)

In other proud tradition news, I had my first gut-freezing panic attack of the year after talking to the head of the graduate committee about my plans for the next two years. The short version is that my having a M.A. counts for precisely dick (no big deal; I like being a grad student, so I might as well stay one) and I have a lot (again in bold: a lot) of work to do. Like, perfect my French, stat. And read everything ever written. And write two major research papers. And somehow keep myself fed next summer with no money coming in.

Gut-freezing panic attacks are part of what this business is all about, so it's no big deal.

3 comments:

Kungfukitten said...

Sometimes I'm happy I just took the GRE twice, applied for PhD programs everywhere, then took my MA and sold out for the money. Sometimes.

kungfuramone said...

See, if there was extant offers to sell out, I'm not sure I'd be here...

Anonymous said...

do what you love and you will be happy. but securing summer funding is a must, too. look at your situtation and think about the summer now, not later. At least you don't have to shelp sections, anymore.
Is there a store like the Kiva there?