Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
I’ve been keeping seriously busy as the move approaches. It’s a curious thing how, no matter how many boxes you might fill, rooms never seem to actually start emptying. And now I’m working on things like the file cabinet and computer desk, which still leaves the furniture taking up just as much space as before but now results in a stack of boxes taking up more room. There was already too much in this space to keep things well organized. I’ve been planning ahead for a long, long time in terms of housewares and whatnot, and by this point I have enough to outfit the eventual house quite nicely, but far too much for my current place.
That, and I got my student visa application back from the consulate in Seattle with a helpful note about how the wait time had ballooned to 8-10 weeks and I should just apply at the border. Wonderful. (I’d applied with six weeks of time, which — given 2006-2007 historical data where 2/3 of all cases were processed in two days — seemed like massive overkill.) The problem with this: the movers need to see my documents before they load my stuff and my electricity at the house can’t be turned on without that official-like government number the visa will provide me.
So, I get to take a flight up to Spokane this week, drive to the border, fill it out ahead of time, drive back, and fly home. That will be one long day, if one that has some very pretty stretches of driving. (The other option was flying to Seattle and doing everything right at the downtown consulate. That had a very specific application time window of… 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. No, thank you.)
Hence the title of the post: I may be running under radio silence for a bit.
Or I may talk a lot more as I vent!
Let’s wait and see!
It’s an adventure.
Posted in Travel, Life | No Comments »
Friday, May 4th, 2007
And I am off to…
That’s right! Come late this summer I’ll be heading to the Great White North. (Though it won’t be white quite yet. After all, the people there only seem to talk about seven months of winter.) I’ve accepted a PhD program position offer at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton.
It seems like a really good match in terms of interest and support for consumer behavior research, as well as being a very supportive program for the students themselves.
Also, Edmonton itself seems like it will be a pleasant place to live for four years. If I wind up in the right area I can ride a train in to campus, completely avoiding the roads during the snowy seasons save for the quick jaunt to the park-and-ride. There’s plenty to do (metro area of a million people, after all) but it’s spread out enough that when I need peace and quiet to focus, I’ll have it. And the summers? Average high of 70, which is… something in Celsius. I’ll really need to learn that. (Yes, the winter temperatures are… something much lower in Celsius. It’s a lot easier to warm up in cold winters than it is to cool down in hot summers.)
Finally, even though I had no logical reason to do so, I had always sort of associated Alberta’s landscape with Saskatchewan’s. You know: wheat fields, and… well, wheat fields. Never mind that I knew that the Rockies fell neatly along the border between Alberta and British Columbia, or that I had been to Alberta (many years earlier).
And then I did some Flickr surfing and reminded myself. Oh, right. Within driving distance of my school is this.
Posted in Travel, School, PhD Hunt | No Comments »
Thursday, March 15th, 2007
I am officially an accepted PhD candidate! I’ve heard from multiple places at this point, and some of it is a little more fuzzy than others, but I will most certainly not be out on the street come next fall, left alone and unwanted.
…With a MBA, okay, the whole poor me picture doesn’t quite hold up.
But still! Terribly exciting.
Upcoming travel, some to visit schools and interview, some just to see the area and campus:
March 23 - 26: Syracuse, Ithaca
March 28 - 29: Edmonton
April 6-7: Eugene
I am going to be so very tired come April 7th.
Posted in Travel, PhD Hunt | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
The area around the UofU was, as I had heard, absolutely gorgeous. Mind, I was viewing it with bare trees and in the middle of an uncharacteristic and awful inversion that made the 10,000-foot peaks framing the campus barely visible. The Sugarhouse area (which is more affordable than the Avenues) had its own charm that was a little less immediately obvious, but no less present.
Unfortunately, the campus itself didn’t quite have the same charm as the areas around it. I now realize why the university website generally shows long shots that feature the campus’ position against the mountains, not the specific beauty of the school itself. I’m used to a state university setting, mind, but BSU has a very traditional academia feeling: heavily pedestrian, parking lots kept to the outside edges, no roads running through the campus proper. UofU is very much banded by roads and parking lots, which makes it feel less like “going to a university” and more like “going to a random building and talking about business.”
Now, granted: the program is very good, and I would happily attend. And the city itself is great.
But would it have killed the original architects to scratch in a few more spaces for lawns?
In other news, the more I read, the more impractical the iPhone seems for me and the more I want it.
Posted in Apple, Travel, PhD Hunt | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
I’m popping down to Salt Lake City this weekend to check out the housing situation around the university. I know Salt Lake is definitely near the top of my list for aesthestics — really — and the cultural scene — really — and just about everything else you would expect from a darned cool place to live.
Really! Shut up. Look at this if you need further confirmation.
(Okay, yes, it lacks good nightclubs. But I don’t go clubbing, but do enjoy art shows and film festivals and the like. And, well, if you like film festivals…)
Should be a fun little jaunt. A fun little cold jaunt.
Posted in Travel, PhD Hunt | No Comments »
