shopping!

On Saturday, Joandi, Lani, Urvashi, and I went to Dundee for some shopping. Dundee itself is rather industrial and not the awesomest of cities, but it is a city, and that's a pretty big deal coming from St Andrews. I think we only had about 4 hours of shopping time when you factor in the 30 minute bus ride either way and lunch, but in that small amount of time I managed to acquire the largest amount of goods ever. I know it's a fad, but I think I have jumped onto the Primark bandwagon. Shopping in there is so much fun because you can pretty much buy anything you like, since it will undoubtedly cost a humorously small sum. A nice little outlet for my hedonistic shopping tendencies.

Shopping in Dundee was my first venture out of St Andrews since getting here. That being said, there are lots of opportunities to get out of town and see some other parts of Scotland. This Friday, I'm going on a trip to the Edinburgh zoo organized by the undergraduate Psychology Society, and a few weeks from now there's a trip to the Edinburgh Castle which is looking mighty tempting. A bunch of the Psychology departments in Scotland have created a program together in which training sessions for first-years are conducted at a different campus every month. It's all paid for by the department, so there's really no excuse not to go - the first one's in Glasgow.

And then of course, there's the rest of Europe that requires exploring: France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Greece...

Sweet

So yesterday, I had a meeting with Tecumseh. I told him what I wanted to do my research on and he told me that, magically, that was the subject of a grant he has. So, by sometime next week I should be "employed". By that I mean I should be getting paid to do research work that I want to do anyway for my own thesis. Yahoo, free money!

As a happy side effect of this arrangement, I no longer have to pay my 8 billion dollar Overseas Student tuition, because student employees of the school working in excess of 18.21 hours per week are exempt from tuition. More free money!

I'm also excited about the schooling prospects in terms of the project I've taken on. It sounds like it's going to be really cool. It also sounds like I'm going to have to program things, ugh, but I think it's in Python, and I also think that Python is probably pretty easy. I would try to explain what I'm studying but my recent attempts to do so have mostly made people more confused.

Went out last night in search of hot guys slash potential marriage material for my flatmate. The mission was unsuccessful, largely due to the fact that all the attractive men here are 17 years old. Which is actually pretty okay by me.

P.S. I'm about 97% sure I saw Cedric Diggory walking around on South Street this afternoon. Not sure why he was in a Madras College high school uniform though...

This is so hot

My supervisor wrote an article that made it to the cover of Nature.

School

You may be wondering where I have been for the past few days. Has she been having brilliant Scottish adventures?, you may ask. Perhaps she has been attending so many merry ceilidhs that she has no time to update her blog? Or maybe she has acquired a handsome new boyfriend who bears a striking resemblance to Cedric Diggory and is taking up all her time? Well it turns out that the answer to that last question is a resounding "YES" - if by Cedric Diggory, you meant school.

That's right, I had my first couple days of school this week and am in the process of trying to figure out what exactly being a PhD student is all about. Cause here's the thing: they've given me a desk, a computer, and a supervisor. What they haven't given me is any classes, assignments, readings, projects, or other task that is easily identifiable from undergrad. I have yet to understand what I'm actually supposed to DO at my desk, on my computer, for my supervisor. I never realized just how vague of a word "research" is.

A few things have become (slightly more) clear, however. I've been reading a fair number of scientific papers and have come to the conclusion that I probably want to look at chimpanzees and their ability to learn syntax - using artificial grammars, statistical learning, eye tracking, and whatever else I can think of. I also have some inclination to look at their ability to use or produce grammatical phrases, rather than just learning them, probably using gestural communication, but I have no idea how one would go about doing that. I have also been informed that if I want to study chimpanzees, I can do so come February or so, in Texas. So if anyone wants to hang out in the Deep South in late winter...

Heading out for a walk on the beach. Cheers.