some universities/departments offer funding which is irrespective of nationality/residence, but this can be very competitive. you will have to browse the websites... the bill gates foundation offers funding for PhDs at Cambridge. If you are a woman, you could try the international federation of university women IFUW. Did you check out the wellcome trust? Having lived in the UK before, a key question is, do you have a work permit (or can you get one?) because if yes, you could try to combine partial funding with part-time work and living very cheaply, and if at some point funding runs out, you could work more until the financial situation eases up again. however if you can't work, you don't have that lifeline and so it is either fully funded or don't do the PhD, which will give you less options.

so i was just wondering - could it be that it is this that is happening to you? perhaps a good serious talk with your supervisor, where you mention your worries, would clear some things up.

pinkNeuron, I have watched a supervisor with a student where the student felt pressured and rushed into doing a project she didn't really want (she had proposed several), and is now considering quitting, whereas the supervisor, I know her well and have had several good private chats with her, she was of the impression that she had simply proposed that perhaps this one project could be good, kind of as a thought experiment, and only continued with that line of investigation because the student immediately agreed and started working on it. what i am trying to say, i guess, is that sometimes there are misunderstandings due to a) the supervisor underestimating how authoritative (? spelling?) his/her comments might get across, and overestimating the student's independence/strength to defend their own position; b) the student not understanding that the sup is really just trying to make conversation; instead, taking everything as firm, directive suggestions.

Anyway, good luck with it all - don't let it get you down! It's a great experience, in the end. You get to inhabit this perspective on a place only once. Soon, you will be used to things so much that you will hardly notice them anymore, and be surprised when you go back "home" and not be used to things being "normal" anymore!

- that i was going to have to read the labels of all kinds of products in shops, instead of just knowing that "that there in that kind of bottle is orange juice, and anything packed like that is bound to be rice". that's hard work!
- particularly butter - what on earth got the brits to invent whole shelves full of different kinds of butter? on what basis are you supposed to decide which kind you want?
- that, however metropolitan london is, some of my staple foods are simply impossible to get here. amazing, that!
- that you can't just get a "beer" but get to choose between many kinds - on the other hand, you can always just order a glass of wine without saying which kind, beyond "red" or "white"!
- that you can only get on the bus through the front doors.
- oh, there is much more... little, unimportant stuff really, but it just makes every day life more exhausting, and knocks your confidence.

olivia, my mum is english, english is my "first" language, and i am an english citizen and have consequently been here often, visiting family and all. so, like you, i was not expecting culture shock. maybe this not-expecting makes it hit you all the harder!
i knew i was going to have to use adaptors for plugs, and was more likely to get good tea than good coffee. what i didn't know was, for example
- that buses don't stop when you are waiting for them at the bus-stop.
- that, even when i spoke plain english, people would have a hard time understanding me.
- that post-offices are red, not yellow, as they ought to be - accordingly, that i was going to only recognize that there is a post office in this street once i actually stood in front of it. the same counts for pharmacies.

feedback? well sometimes she acknowledges that she did, indeed, receive what i sent her. when it is unavoidable that we meet, then everything always seems to be "fine", or "excellent work", etc.

although i admit that i stopped sending her stuff very often.

i get the stiff back and shoulders, insomnia, depressive phases. some is more teaching-related than PhD (the teaching sometimes freaks me into insomnia, and marking essays should come with mental health warnings - it seriously messes my brain up!).
oh well. better do some work now...

olivia, your place sounds just like the place i lived at last year. except that we had a great group of flatmates.

lights of and no water: happened to my place, too. it was an electricity failure in one of the blocks, meaning that the other blocks still had light but not this one. the water stopped in all blocks because the central water pump was run on electricity and was based in the first block, where the electricity failed. that was fixed quite soon, but happened several times.
as for the heater, i first thought mine was broken, too, until i figured out how it worked. the same thing happened to a friend of mine in a different hall. it might be obvious for english people, but coming from abroad it's just not straightforward!

hey olivia, hope you are doing ok now!
your story made me think back to my own first few days/weeks. i think that to an extent what you are describing is "culture shock". little things that are different, which have always been so obvious to you that you never even realized you were taking them for granted... until they are not there anymore (or different). combined with the stress of travelling and the emotional stress of relocating...

try to make friends of your flatmates. that's what saved me, in the beginning. can be very valuable!

hi alvin,
are you talking about the UK? it would be different in other countries. as far as i have gathered, a research assistant is a job, so it is normal income, so it is taxable. you can be a RA at the same or at a different institution from where you are doing a PhD, or not do a PhD at all. if you are a full time RA, normally you won't be able to be a full time PhD student at the same time - your university won't let you.
in some sense being a RA is a job like any other, and brings with it the dis/advantages that any job will. most people who fund their PhD by working significant hours for money do take longer for their PhD than those who are fully funded, but not all.
if your RA job is very close to your PhD topic, you might be able to profit both ways. on the other hand you might have trouble distinguishing your PhD work from your RA work.

i really enjoyed my first few months. mostly because it was the first time i was studying full time since schooldays, and i really enjoyed being able to focus completely on my studies. i also had lots of fun with my research centre - finally i felt that i was where i wanted to be.
on the other hand - maybe that's not the whole story. i also spent most of the first term just getting used to being in a different city, different country, away from my partner. learning how (simple) things work, such as buses etc.
i'm well into my second year now and a bit nostalgic for that time when it was all excitment and the work seemed fun, not hard.
(then i started getting negative funding results, one after the other, which were real tough blows to confidence - so my outlook changed...)

the open university is frequently looking for tutors. you could try that. would give you some flexibility and the possibility to work from home.

happy new year from here, too!

ummh simbad did i get that right that you don't really mean the flu but rather that condition (which tends to strike men only) of not being able to wash up, vacuum clean, do all the little things that need to be done... thus leaving the chores to others (usually women)?
happens to me too sometimes (one of those rare female cases)... remedies? write a to-do list. get a single item on the list done. congratulate yourself extensively, give yourself a reward, and make sure you get lots of praise. ("Oh, honey, that was sooo nice of you to actually take the garbage out... I know it is your chore anyway and is nothing special really, but still, thank you for your utter abandonment of all personal preferences and very useful contribution to household management. What would I ever do without you?")