Maikutlo Aka - My Views
The Ups and Downs of PhD Week 1
Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Feeling a little... scatterbrained after a pretty full day. Still meeting so many new people, struggling with names & faces & places & what I should be doing from minute to minute, getting a work & break & sleep & social schedule...
This week has had more formalised times for the final part, and we're all still expending emotional social energy building relationships. So rather than the social being a good outlet for stress, it's actually one of the biggest causes at the moment!
I'm signed up for a required introduction to geography class (with all 8 other new students) plus ones called political ecology and technology & sustainability. I'm really looking forward to both - not least because they're taught by professors known for their work in Africa.
I also feel like my last email might have been a bit of a jinx. After writing about this great situation in which i thought we were all comfortable, two of them (China, then Peru) have decided to move out! Turns out the United Nations living situation seemed like a great idea, until the former got homesick & decided to live with Chinese students, and the latter recalculated his budget after confirming he couldn't get legal employment, and decided to find something cheaper. Both of which could have happened to locals, but are much more likely to have become problems with international students.
Such are the ups and downs of my first week of orientation & class at Clark!
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