Empty corridors

It is pretty quiet around campus now.  

I know I’ve posted my tiny Christmas tree before but he is cute enough to get a second outting. I’m looking after him well and hopefully one day he will be a slightly bigger Christmas tree.

 So while all the undergraduates are busy writing about finishing deadlines and heading home life is a bit different in PhD land, mostly because I am still here at my desk on campus. A PhD is much more like a job, I usually do 9-5 (often more, like today where it is 6:30pm and I’m still at my desk, nearly done though!) which I don’t mind – I used to have a “job job” before starting my PhD. In PhD land we don’t have the same holidays as undergraduate and Master’s students either, we have a holiday allowance of 24 days/year which we take when we need to, just like with a job. The University is officially closed for some days and these are called closure days and in addition to our holidays.

This week has been a very busy one. Deadlines aren’t my issue, bar a few very important ones dotted throughout the 3/4 years we just get on with our work and check in with our supervisors (formally at least once a month, but my team meets every week to catch up on what we’ve been doing). This week however things have happened/arrived/need to be completed, ideally before Christmas, so I can get on with data analysis in January. On top of this I was the Christmas party organiser! On Monday night I managed to sucessfully get 29 people to a restaurant on time, receiving the right food and paying the right money! It was a victory 🙂 and everyone seemed pleased with the night, although it did mean Tuesday was a bit of a struggle for us all after the late night the night before.

Meet Lab 121 from the Department of Genetics

So what happens on campus now the majority (well at least half!) of students have left? The University is noticably quieter and much more empty, BUT we don’t stop around here. I’m sure the undergrads think we are a dull boring bunch but when they go away we do fun things like Christmas parties (the one I organised was for our lab only, this was for everyone in the department of genetics). There was a lot of food, games and a certain head of department dressed as Father Christmas, naming no names here Professor Julian Ketley! Unfortunately Wednesday was my busiest day this week so I didn’t get to fully enjoy my first Department of genetics Christmas party, but I promise to plan better for next year now I know what an event it is.

Monday I got a shipment from some of our collaborators, this is great but I don’t think this week is enough time to do everything I need to do with it! I have managed to get quite a lot done (hence the *checks watch* now 6:50pm desk sitting) but the companies we send samples out to for analysis will be shutting for Christmas soon as well. I think I’ve developed a plan, it does involve working while I’m meant to be on holiday but I can live with that. It means I can get samples to companies for the days their staff return to work (and my samples won’t sit in their post room for 2 weeks!). I had planned to be off from this Friday 20th – 6th Jan, greedy I know but it’s my birthday on the 4th! In my defence the majority of my team aren’t from Leicester so are returning home to their families for these 2 weeks. BUT the shipment means that I will be spending a few days here, probably the 2nd and 3rd of Jan to grow some bacterial cultures and prep the DNA to be shipped. They definitely won’t be full days so that’s a bonus!

Spending some of my Christmas holidays here isn’t what I had planned for these 2 weeks but that’s the life of a PhD student! The huge upside of living near Leicester means that, unlike others, I will be around for Christmas and can pop in for an hour or two if needed, this means I won’t get held up and end up twiddling my thumbs next month! Not all PhD students will have this advantage, but it’s one of the rewards I get in return for my daily commute. I am guaranteed a week off though as I will be heading back to Jersey where my parents live, and I’m originally from, this Sunday on a 10 hour boat trip (cross your fingers for calm seas for me please!).

One final note to leave you with, my friend Emma and I send each other little things all the time and the other day she sent me a link to this with the message “need to do a PhD in Finland Meg”:

Image from http://tilfacts.com/. It has been all over Pinterest so I think it is safe for reposting, if not I apologise and please let me know!

Unfortunately after reading Cameron’s posts from Finland I told her I think I’d freeze before I actually got to the sword and top hat.

Merry Christmas Everyone