Last Saturday night I was home alone, drinking gin&tonic and chatting online to my friend Joe. We hadn't talked since before Christmas, so I was eager to find out what he's been up to. Unlike me, Joe remained at his undergraduate university, St Andrews, to do his Astrophysics PhD but... like me, his life has changed quite a lot from when he was an undergrad.
I myself moved from St Andrews to Preston for my postgraduate. Granted, it's a lot less in the middle of nowhere but I get the feeling that postgraduate life here is quite different from PhD life in the Bubble. I may have the option of going to a large range of clubs, bars and pubs here than Joe has in Saints but do I? The sad fact is there is quite a variation in age amongst the people I study and work with here than there is in Saints, and therefore many people here have their own lives and have grown up to dislike the partying lifestyle I miss so much.
So this has resulted in life becoming very slow and monotonous. I wake up in the morning, go to work where I sit at my desk for many hours and attempt to do some science which hasn't been done before. By 5 or maybe 6 on a busy day, I'm ready to go home, where I cook, watch TV and play on my laptop. On Monday nights I demonstrate an Astronomy Lab which can be fun, but tends not to be. Sometimes we go to the pub, which is always a good time and can lead to some quite funny stories, but we don't really want to do the same things over and over again.
I remember a shinty friend who was doing her Ph.D in St Andrews while I did my undergrad. She used to complain about how much work and marking she had to do all the time, but she was at the pub with us at least once a week and she was always so much fun! I guess being on a sports team helped, because she knew people who were younger than her who made her go out and enjoy herself. If only there was a shinty team in Preston...
I myself moved from St Andrews to Preston for my postgraduate. Granted, it's a lot less in the middle of nowhere but I get the feeling that postgraduate life here is quite different from PhD life in the Bubble. I may have the option of going to a large range of clubs, bars and pubs here than Joe has in Saints but do I? The sad fact is there is quite a variation in age amongst the people I study and work with here than there is in Saints, and therefore many people here have their own lives and have grown up to dislike the partying lifestyle I miss so much.
So this has resulted in life becoming very slow and monotonous. I wake up in the morning, go to work where I sit at my desk for many hours and attempt to do some science which hasn't been done before. By 5 or maybe 6 on a busy day, I'm ready to go home, where I cook, watch TV and play on my laptop. On Monday nights I demonstrate an Astronomy Lab which can be fun, but tends not to be. Sometimes we go to the pub, which is always a good time and can lead to some quite funny stories, but we don't really want to do the same things over and over again.
I remember a shinty friend who was doing her Ph.D in St Andrews while I did my undergrad. She used to complain about how much work and marking she had to do all the time, but she was at the pub with us at least once a week and she was always so much fun! I guess being on a sports team helped, because she knew people who were younger than her who made her go out and enjoy herself. If only there was a shinty team in Preston...
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