1 week down, just 155 to go...

As I wrote the title of this post, a little déjà vu hit me. I then realised that I wrote a post with a very similar title at the start of my Masters, 51 weeks ago.

If you haven't (re)read it, I talked about the work (heinous amounts of reading), the personal side (life with new housemates and, oddly, netball) and the joy that is the Cambridge Lindy Exchange (CLX).

So what's new this time around?

The path along the River Ouse in Autumn. Pukka.
Photo by AndrewB47

Personal life first. I have a new crop of housemates but I'm in the same house - the first time I've had an address for longer than 13 months since I lived at home with my parents. It was sad to see so many fantastic people leave at the end of the MA, but a pleasing amount have stayed on in various capacities, and with an abnormally large crop of 17 PhD students, I'm not in danger of being lonely too soon. I'm also increasingly at home in York as a city - it is undeniably beautiful, and is showing all its stunning colours in this chilly autumn, which is a joy to see. I think it has taken me longer to settle in York than in other cities, for example Cambridge or Belfort, but I think that's because it is the first time in a while that I have committed to one place for an extended amount of time - for a military brat like me, it's not easy to keep still. But I'm slowly getting used to it (train trips most weekends notwithstanding).

I don't entirely agree with the framework here, but the
example is still a classic. If you don't recognise it, you can't
honestly call yourself a linguist.
Image from Wikipedia

I think the greatest difference between this year and last is the work, both in terms of the amount of it and what it entails. It's a strange feeling, the start of a PhD...this is my first year of non-taught study - I have been cut loose...maybe a little too loose. My answer to "so, what's your topic?" usually starts "well, it's very vague at the moment...", though reassuringly, my supervisor's not too concerned about this, and doesn't think we'll even look at it too much until the Spring term. In the meantime, I am reading around (lots of reading, but self-selected this year) and teaching myself semantics (just hoping that I understand it properly). Luckily, though, I have one bright flash of timetabled joy on my horizon - I am taking one seminar group for the first year undergraduate Introduction to Syntax course. It's a bit nervewracking to imagine teaching 16 first-years about something I was only learning 6 years ago, but it'll be fantastic experience, and hopefully at least some of them will be sober and compus mentis at 9am on a Wednesday morning. What's more, having something set in my timetable to work around will really help me prioritise and organise my time better around those sessions.

Oh, and CLX? Coming up this weekend, and will be a glorious whirl of polka-dot bepetticoated dresses, good friends, and fairy wings...!

Feeling fresh for a fifth Freshers' Week?

Technically, this is my fifth Freshers' week (it's my sixth year in tertiary education, but one of these was spent working in a high school in France, so I missed out on the revelry that year).

I'm feeling fairly fresh, in that late September/early October always signifies a new start for me, be it a new city, a new home, or a new course - this year, shock horror, only the last one is true, as I embark upon my PhD. As soon as the leaves take on a russet hue and the light jackets come out, I feel like something new is starting. I also have three new housemates, a new haircut, and a renewed vigour for York post-holiday to Germany and France.

However, it's a raggedy kind of start to a new year, seeing as there's quite a bit to mop up from the MA - I've spent today writing a summary of my dissertation to send out to all the parents and schools who were so wonderfully helpful with lending me their children, and I am now exceedingly motivated to turn my and Samir's dissertations into one entity, as our joint talk at the MancSalFiL is now officially on the program, and as such is officially just 33 days away. I've also had the pleasure of a little side work in doing some style editing for the journal Iberia, as a result of meeting the excellent Ángel at last month's LAGB conference.

As for the start of the PhD, it's currently enshrouded in a haze of unknownness. To be fair, term hasn't officially started yet, so I'm not exactly behind before I've started. But for the first time, I really don't know what I'm getting into - my days of taught tertiary education are now firmly behind me, and research is my future, but I don't know where to start with my (fairly vague) proposal, whether I do have any lectures or training sessions, or when I'll next interact with a colleague face to face.

I guess that, for the moment, I just need to focus on the projects I still have to do, and not worry too much about the PhD just yet. After all, I'll have three years to worry about it, starting at the welcome meeting on 10th October...