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...!