2007-04-10

decisions, decisions

So, LA is weird, like everyone says. Paddy and I walked around Westwood eavesdropping on people, which isn't hard because all people seem to want to do is talk very loudly about either themselves or movies. And eat ice cream. Like everywhere in California, people were very in touch with their emotions and talking about their *needs* and *relationships*, but there it mostly revolved around how their significant other should have considered their feelings more before getting such an ugly haircut. It's funny, because I've met a lot of people from LA that I have really liked, but they must be few and far between. And in other parts of the state.

Anyway, the department was ok, I'm still not entirely sure what I should do. Basically, I told them that they needed to give me a TAship for me to consider going there and they said that they would see what they could do. Each prof that I talked to mentioned that funds were really tight, which does not bode well. After McGill, I am frankly not interested in a "prestigious" unfunded grad school. They are doing really interesting work there, but I think they may be overburdened. It has its pluses: better name, dynamic, many visiting professors...

I'm thinking I may go to Davis after all, because I would rather go somewhere that took the time to send me an email after accepting me. LA wouldn't have sent me anything at all had I not gone in, which I find strange. Like they might screw me over. Davis's "We take care of our grad students" gives me a much better feeling than "it was a bad year to apply because no one graduated" that I heard there. Also, it might be stimulating to go somewhere that has people working on disparate things and concentrate on a time period instead of a national literature (because you take fewer boring renaissance and medieval classes). It would be much better to TA lit classes instead of teach language. It is also not as far away, nor as expensive. But I've already been there. Although not as a grad student. The big issue I really see is that I don't have a clear supervisor in mind if I go there, although that could work itself out. So, I'm leaning in that direction, but still unsure that I should let my dream of big prestigious uni in big fancy city go or not.

We drove the rest of the way to San Diego on Saturday, so Paddy met my mom and some more of my brothers. It was nice, not freaky. She gave him chocolate eggs and a card for easter.

xanthium at 7:56 p.m.

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