Monday 19 September 2011

Out With the Old and in With the New!

Hallelujah, my dissertation is in the bindery! I had the best of intentions on handing it in today, but then I got entwined in a vicious cycle of printing it, flipping through it and finding little things wrong with it that I just HAD to fix (i.e. reprint pages 7, 12, 37, 42 and 53). Why is it, that no matter how many times you've read through and fixed and adjusted and proofread and had other people proofread, when it comes to printing, things suddenly turn ugly and difficult?!

So, because I got stuck reprinting and checking and fixing, I didn't get to the bindery (which is miles away) until eleven o'clock in the morning. Now this doesn't sound bad, and I didn't think it was bad since at my old uni you just popped in, they did it for you on the spot and you walked away a happy bunny with a bound dissertation in your hands! Well, in Bangor things are a little bit different. Firstly, like I said, the bindery has been situated miles away.

I had to walk in a grey rain drizzle all they way, past sheep pastures and horses and fields to the damned corner of Bangor where the bindery is. I got soaking wet and my glasses became covered in rain. I get to the bindery, unable to see anything and unable to wipe my glasses due to the fact that all my clothes were damp as well. The bindery man was very nice, but apparently I couldn't get my dissertation bound on the spot. Instead I was to leave it with them and come back for it..... all the way past the sheep pastures and horses and fields and... you get the picture. So I reluctantly handed over my dissertation and walked back to civilisation.

I had a meeting with my supervisor and we already started discussing my project as well as potential conferences to go to. Straight into the deep end then. I haven't even registered yet. We did, however, also rearrange the furniture in my new office. I must be more specific, new office for me, but in itself an old office with a new coat of paint. Even though it's looking a bit fresher, I am still trying to get some brown filing cabinets out of it and I have to take bleach with me next time in order to really make it home. I mean second home.

Now, here is a minor misconception that I was under. I believed I would be moving into what would be a bustling hub of Ph.D. students with creative research ideas and unfathomable work morale. Apparently the plan was to accommodate 3 new Ph.D. students into the building that I am currently in. I am one of those three. Now, it appears that these other students share a second supervisor who seems to think they would be better off in another building. Leaving me all alone with a couple of Ph.D. students just finishing off their Ph.D.s. Sad times. Alas, I hope that by some miracle I won't be all alone in there, for I would feel isolated and possibly rebel by procrastinating. A lot. (As if I wouldn't anyway)

Well, only time will tell! In the mean time, I eagerly await my new computer!


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