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Quote From sleepyhead:

Whooop Whooop! After everything that has happened to you over the past few weeks, and also the work you have had to do with your research job and struggling for cash, I can honestly say that I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge kisses and hugs from Manchester



What a truly, truly, lovely note Sleepy.

Hugs and hugs...Bug

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======= Date Modified 16 15 2009 20:15:27 =======
======= Date Modified 16 14 2009 20:14:53 =======
Hi y'all

Just to say I upgraded from Mphil to PhD tpday (yes!!, at the end of 8 months) after an hour and a quarter long viva this morning following a near 15000 word doc.

I was given no corrections/edits/changes to anything and was told by one member of committee that it was one of the most intellectually sophisticated texts they'd examined!!

I am soooo thrilled, there was a bit of an anti climax moment right after for a couple of hours (I'd just finished organising a 300 people one day international conference on Thursday), and then the upgrade so it's like everything came to a halt...

but then to be told it was a 'truly thought provoking, intellectually sophisticated, methodologically innovative doc' on which they are 'waiting to read the thesis' and sup said 'you were so confident, and articulate and excellent with your responses to all the questions'....I am chuffed!!

Plus won two tiny pots of money for my fieldwork proper (this summer and autumn) all in a day :-)

Thought of sharing the good news with you!

Backlog of work - few weeks to do it
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Quote From sinead:



my bp was checked last wk was 165/95, feeling pretty bad when its up, alot. nobody understands


Sinead, see the difference in mood between your two last posts... first you are upbeat (which is brill!) and then 'nobody understands'... pl pl do go speak to a counsellor. It will help things.

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Sinead, if you would be willing pl do a forum search for a person who came here in dec-jan with problems similar to yours. I'm afraid they have since then deleted their posts but the advice given by many on this forum may indeed be helpful for you. I think this was around december or jan and the person was called Masters2008.

In your case too, please do see a counsellor and take it from there, don't try to plan a conversation.

Cheers!

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Quote From sinead:

======= Date Modified 14 Jun 2009 19:00:33 =======
======= Date Modified 14 Jun 2009 18:58:19 =======

I think I'm coming to the point of dropping out

I'm truly on my own - nobody will help me

I've nobody to turn to for social, emotional or psychological support - don't think you'll understand

my brain is so fogged, and upset, some days I can't think at all

I could just go die somewhere

I'm sinking really quickly



Hi :-)

I quoted these few bits from what you wrote below on purpose. I think, you need to immediately go and see a counsellor. These are symptoms of depression, and while many have been there, many have also realised on time that they need some support. Please see a uni counsellor ASAP? A forum is helpful but I don't think forum/friends/family could 'really' help when you're having these thoughts like you say here.

This is exactly what counsellors are for. To help you get back on your feet. Do that immediately.

Best,

PhDBug

francophones: help with this phrase....please!
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Hmm not a francophone but have learnt, loved and done moderately Ok in French! Literally the second part "on ne peut le voir sans rire" is exactly "one cannot see it without laughing!" i.e. if you see it you gotta laugh!

Il est de fait is perhaps "it is a fact"

of course the "que" is "that"

Therefore my throw would be this : it's a fact that you must laugh when you see it/ it's true that you can't NOT laugh when you see it...

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======= Date Modified 04 Jun 2009 13:11:16 =======
Anjel1, you are sweet, aren't you! Bad Spacey, Bad Sleepy, making fun of you! (Glares at them). You are the saviour, you are the blessing in our lives. When, on when will people get to realise that?

I am going to use all your homework help now, Ok?

Flatmate driving me mental!
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Quote From frenchtut:

======= Date Modified 01 Jun 2009 12:00:53 =======
Hi! You can find french tuto for GCSE and Pre GCSE Students on this french courses

http://myfrenchtutor.co.uk

frenchtut016



Bien! Je pense que vous êtes un idiot complet. Partez svp. Avez-vous rien d'autre a faire????

Sharing a shock
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Thanks all. I havent been to India in a long time now, and it's eventually going to decrease I guess... but they say it's been bad... of course nobody in the heart of an elite middle class metropolis was *really* hit by this... it was just another family holiday by the sea...holiday turned nightmare..

There's hardly any point in discussing that a holiday by the sea after disturbed weather conditions was not a good idea, but there's no point in saying this.

I think the kids around there are completely shocked. My cousins (the one in Year 10 had her results declared yesterday, she returned home waving a marksheet with 99 in physics, and 97 in biology, just a little upset that history was an 80....and entered the playground to see her friends's dad lying there and her friend screaming).

So you know, it is like... 5 mins ago she was sad that her grades in history were not a 90 percent. And then as the car entered the area, it was like "grades?? what??"

Phew.

Sharing a shock
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Last evening, I called my mum up to ask her something and heard sounds of wailing and howling in the background. My mum's voice was choked too.

Her neghbours, who have two daughters, one 17, the other 12, had gone for a holiday for two days by the sea. The country where I am from has recently seen a cyclone. Anyway, it was a perfectly calm day yesterday and the four (mum dad and the two girls) were standing splashing around in ankle deep water. Suddenly they saw a huge wave approaching and ran a little further back.

When the wave receded, the mum and two kids saw that the dad was nowhere in sight. They screamed for help, but nobody was around. The day passed, searches went on. The body was retrieved around the evening by people around.

The kids weren't told. they were brought home on a bus being told that daddy was very very critically ill. They entered the housing complex and saw 200 odd people standing in silence. And daddy lying there, dead.


And they screamed. and screamed. And have been screaming since.


I got a scholarship yesterday, you know. It means just NOTHING to me. Just thought of sharing this with you guys. Happiness is so dreadfully transient.

ageism, feeling old and dealing with not making a 'famous discovery' yet as a 23 year old phd student
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======= Date Modified 27 May 2009 21:22:38 =======

Quote From eueu:

i have started to 'feel' old for the first time in my life and have confronted his stressful urgency to 'do something big' that will make me 'remembered'--it is stupid and egoistic, but i always felt i had that drive inside of me and that 'i was one of those people' who thinks outside of the box and people want to know and understand. for some reason, i have let myself go not only physically but also in terms of my ambitious visions of the person i would like to become. i almost feel as if intellectually, physically, and ambition-wise i have been leaving the track i have set out for myself only several years ago (in my 'prime' years).

.... yet feeling the pressures of acting 'grown up' in front of a 30+ year old phd student body and of course, much older department staff. bottom line, however, it saddens me that phd students do not get enough media attention on their projects.



OK, I'm returning to this above. I am exactly your age and same PhD situation etc etc. I just cannot find myself to be sympathetic to this discourse of "feeling old" that you have going on here. What is this? You know you are one of the youngest. I know that I am. What is this about feeling old? who are you comparing with? Ballet dancers who are 'spent' early? Or academics, where exeprience and wisdom count? So, I think much of the sympathies of people on this forum will disappear with this 'feeling old at 23' thing.

Second, pull yourself together. Accepting criticism is a normal part of PhD life. In being unable to accept criticism you are really demonstrating a need to "grow up". And 30 something isnt a huge difference, sorry. I am ur age and I work in a depatment where I have briillaint cross generational intellectual exchanges with my supervisor, who is precisely double my age and a little more. So? It's completely great. And I do not know why, but your thing about "acting grown up" is sounding completely weird to me. Why must anyone act grown up, when one is on an intellectual mission, in an intellectual environment where one is in ones twenties?

And please know that learning to accept criticism and harsh words is the biggest lesson to learn in academia. ANd very often, it's for your own good.

Dissertation writing help needed
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Brilliant. Many thanks. Also visit www.getoutofhereandshutyourtrap.com for they offer better services than you I think!

ageism, feeling old and dealing with not making a 'famous discovery' yet as a 23 year old phd student
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======= Date Modified 27 May 2009 19:20:49 =======
Hi I started PhD first year at 23, and am the youngest in my department and it's fine!! I hardly remember the age thungy until someone points out "Oh....you've got so many years to build a life in etc etc!"...

23 is a fine age to start a PhD, and I'm loving it. And why are you comparing with showbiz stars???

And there's no reason to feel presurrised to "act grown up". You ARE grown up at 23. It's a real shame if you have to put on an act!

Working part-time
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======= Date Modified 26 May 2009 18:39:37 =======
======= Date Modified 26 May 2009 18:38:34 =======
Hmmm, Benm this thread will have a long life I think, for whenever this issue comes up, everyone has some side of the story to share. Mine now. I am an intl student, and I am doing a very non-intl PhD. My work is with British people, has absolutely nothing to do with my 'home' country/continent anything LOL. The funny thing is, when I tell people at meetings about what I'm doing and they are interested and ask where is the study based, the moment i say UK, there is often a flicker of dismay...(implying Oh, so it's not in some exotic place somewhere!).

Anyway, that was a distraction, sorry. Funds. No, I am an internatioanl student who could "show" funds to the embassy for my visa, but I have not come with funding. I have applied for bloody EVERY scrap of money I am eligible to apply for, I have worked my permitted 20 hrs, almost every week, I have and am surviving on negligible NOTHING to make this work, for it was trmendously imp for me to do THIS phd at this UNI with THIS prof. And for that I gave up 5 funded places.


But alas my deicision happned on 19th june last year, and my uni gave me as much money they could. this year they gave me another scholarship. And I am working. I will take up another job, any job at all.

SO for 2009-2010: I have a 5000 quid scholarship, am applying for departmental aid (3k quid 4k quid??) and using savings from my first year's work (2k quid) to scrape together tuition. (NO money from "home"). OK rent... I am living in a student hall (my job will pay my rent). Ok food: I have no answer....another job? Where? How? And social life? HAHHA.

So you see, I was not a golden goose for my uni (which is apparently renowned for seeking out many golden geese). Of course it is also renowned for seeking out excellent PhD students, especially the renowned profs. ANyway, all I want to say is that I am struggling. I am tired. everyday.

I have intl tuition fees , rent and negligible living costs (just some meals) to organise for myself. And my home currency converts 82 units into 1 British pound, and I could technically wring their last penny. but would I (or anyone else)??

But to be fair, my situation is an exception. I see many intl students who are funded from home (not scholarships, but just FUNDS) and who breeze in and breeze out and write their phDs about their home countries and go back or do something else...

So, I would agree with sleepy below. And I would warn you, as a very hard working, non-home funded, non-rich intl. student, that what I am doing, is phenomenally tough, depressing and DRAINING.

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======= Date Modified 26 May 2009 18:09:59 =======
I wish good luck to BOTH MLord and CWilson79 on their future careers. Glad that both of you are happy with your respective choices.

;-)

As such, now I find this thread extremely interesting....