guys, am thinking of spending some time in the U.S. during my thesis. Mainly because I have never been and I fancy some travelling and a break from UK unis during my second year. Has any of you been on a visiting fellowship before? How did you manage to get your supervisor to allow you to go? & what did you say to get accepted on the other end?

you're all so boring..........is there no adventurous person out there?

Well, normally people visit another lab for a few months to learn a new technique that they will then set up at their lab for their work. Normally this is a lab that your lab is collaborating with or a lab that is specialized in this technique. If you can convince your supervisor that you must absolutely learn something he/she should have no problems funding it. If this will be in the USA or in France/Netherlands/Japan will depend on what you have to learn/who can show you and not so much where you want to go.
So start looking out for something you can only learn in the US of A.

Lunch_man: why don't you put on some pics of you base jumping or cave diving so that we can see that it's worth trying out....

There was a really amazing bbc documentary about a year ago about the yucatan and divers who are trying to map the network of underground caves there. It was one of the few things I've seen recently that really stirred my imagination, but, yes, extreme. Can't remember the name of the pits they were diving in ("xxxxxx pit"), but one of the things that stands out was an especially deep, empty, lifeless one where the divers eventually reached an acidic layer of rotting plant life, and also the way the water is in layers - clear above cloudy or something? That was a bit of personal nostalgia (about a documentary!!!?)

where's yucatan guys?

i'm going next week :D

amerika! :D

am jealous..