Yaaay! I m a grad student too!!

Yeah, I know the topic is weird... you'd think I'd know that I was a grad student for the past 2 years almost... But not quite... In my first year here, I was surrounded by the VLSI junta... who couldnt stop touting how difficult their course was... how many projects they had to complete... their deadlines... lack of sleep... lack of appetite... their weightloss... their cool (actually hot - that place was sweltering!) 800 Rhodes Lab nicknamed 'FishTank' blah blah...

Both my roomies were VLSI... Consequently, I saw little of them in the first year... They came home (if they did) at 3 am or so n though I am a self-proclaimed insomniac, I tried to sleep by then so I could be up and gone early.. Around the time I rose was midnight for them and none of our classes clashed etc, so I practically never saw anything more than their sleeping forms next to me! I am in MEMS and even with 4 classes a quarter, I seemed to have more time than them to do most stuff -- cooking, laundry, even steal a movie or two here n there... And I pitied them... Till not so long ago... The VLSI track basically drops after the first year when you have a ton of coursework from insanely high amount of work to practically nothing in the second year when all you have to do is research... As for my track, well, the first year was comparitively all dreamy n nice... with no great amounts of anything... from work to study.... To like a huuuge amount of time in the cleanroom and lab doing some form of research work..

Only the past few weeks, I've felt like a REAL grad student... living on coffee n cookies, sleeping practically in the lab... and up till 3-4 am writing abstracts n what not... And for a change, it actually felt nice! I know that sounds weird... but then atleast you know that something is happening in your research... hehe... And thats a totally different feeling... This past week, I have almost felt disjointed from myself... Theres been too much that I've done... And now that today is my deadline... I have NOTHING to do... Which consequently is reflected in the fact that I have written 2 blogs in one day!