Everyday activities

As I promised, I will now describe the mundane, everyday activities of my life. Some of you expressed interest, yet I can’t promise to make it utterly exciting, given the topic… so please stop reading unless you really like me;) I also decided to adapt to the acceptable reading load of the modern world and split it in two, and start with the one I do most: work.

In short, I have absolutely nothing to complain about regarding that front. It can be further divided in two categories: classes and my research assistantship. I am taking 3 graduate level classes, which means about 20-25 hours a week, depending on the current workload. They are very diverse and I happen to greatly enjoy them all; the titles are as follows (if you want to know more, you know how and where to let me know, in the meantime, just use your imagination): Research Methods, Comparative Politics Core Seminar, and Professional Development.

The RA assistantship makes up the rest 15-20 hours of my normal weekly workload. It is both similar and different from what I did back home with PIL, under the label ‘research’. The group consists of 4-6 graduate students, led by two renown (and pretty cool) professors, John Hibbing and Kevin Smith. The best way to imagine it is a two-level system where John and Kevin coordinate a number of projects, which different graduate students are responsible for. The general rule of thumb is that everyone has their own, although there are some that overlap. We meet once every Wednesday to discuss everyone’s progress; the meetings are generally very laid back and efficient.

My project involves finding the universal underlying dimensions behind political thinking in an international context… not a small one to start with but I have a great feeling about it already.

All in all, I can say that I really enjoy both my RA stuff and my classes: I can finally do what I have always wanted to and I get paid for it; furthermore I have a clear direction for the future and many possibilities for development. I literally learn several new things every week, things that will greatly aid my career and self-development… plus they are fun!:) The environment is also quite inspiring: I am surrounded by many intelligent people from whom I can learn a lot, bounce ideas and, as I mentioned above, most of them happen to be pretty cool (we hang out sometimes with some of them, but I will leave that for my next post).

In addition to all these, there are a few activities and obligations which make sure that I have very little ‘free’ time… but again, I actually enjoy them so I don’t think I have any reason to whine;) The most important ones are working for PIL, which will hopefully manifest in articles besides the support and counsel I provide them (mainly Nori); and studying German. I wish I had a little more time for the latter, but it is what it is… and I feel like I am still making progress, however slow.

In my next post I will attempt to prove that I sometimes still manage to find the time to do some fun stuff…soon.

Have a great week, everyone!