The past week has been one of highs and lows and unfortunately, the blog suffered for it. The upcoming week will also be a busy one, so cannot guarantee many new posts but rest assured that the reading continues!
PhD Life
I don't know if any of the people following this blog are doing, or have done, a PhD so I would like to take a moment to reflect on just how hectic it can be. Take last week for example.
My days usually revolve around the experiments that I have to do in the lab. Sometimes these are pretty straightforward and only take a few minutes - weighing out reagents and preparing solutions for example. Other experiments need to run for a few hours, or doing them depends on the availability of a specific machine. Some machines get booked up weeks in advance. Unforeseen last-minute complications happen all the time. It's not always possible for me to fully pre-plan my work week. Most importantly, a PhD is not a 9-5 job. I am often still at work past 8pm and at least once a week I leave uni around midnight. Until January of this year, there were also times that I had to go into uni over the weekend but after my lovely boyfriend moved to Belgium for his work, we decided that weekends would be work-free, as these are the only days we see each other.
I have gotten used to this style of work. The fact that it's not a 9-5 job doesn't always bother me, especially this year when I have no-one to go home to anyway - I don't mind being at work late. And I genuinely like doing science and being in the lab. Last week, though, this was derailed by the task of applying for funding to continue my research past my PhD (which finishes in 3 months).
I'd never written a funding application before. The one I had to write was actually relatively 'easy' as it only required 3 pages. Nevertheless, it took up a lot of my time and I couldn't do as many experiments. The ones I did have time for didn't yield good results, which was a bummer. To make a long story short, I spent at least 6 hours talking to my supervisor about the project/funding/phrasing of the application, prepared 4 different drafts of the application and my CV. All of this culminated in the submission of the documents on Friday afternoon.
All this didn't leave much room for reading and blogging.
The submission of the application was a great way to cap off the work week - high #1. As we were leaving the house to go to Brighton for the weekend with the lovely boyfriend, I received an email that I was accepted to present my work at a conference in September - high #2.
Yesterday, however, came the low - I didn't get the funding for another year. I was, and still am, super-bummed and demotivated. I consoled myself with sushi and cross-stitching until 1.30am last night.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
That being said, I did read a bit on the bus on Sunday and am up to Chapter 5. I've been making notes and thinking about how to structure my review posts. I won't be able to do each chapter separately but I hope to do the first 4 chapters in two posts as a Dursleys vs. Weasleys comparison.
I would still like to do one or two more posts about Philosopher's Stone and apologize that it will be out of sequence.
As always, thanks to everyone who has visited our blog and I'm sorry it's been a bit lacking in new content the last two weeks. I hope to have more time next week to really delve deeper into Chamber of Secrets.
Until next time,
Lucia
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