Grad school Barbie...hahaha

The origin!

This comic is on our lab wall , rings true! :)

Welcome to Canada!

After those very long hours on the plane from Cairo to Edmonton, I finally arrive in Edmonton International Airport. Biiiiiiiiiiig sigh, this is the start of a journey I was looking forward to. A new country, a new work environment, new friends....a totally new life. Why Edmonton you ask? Well, I applied to University of Toronto and University of Alberta, didn't make the cut that year in Toronto and got that long-waited for letter from the University of Alberta. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, oh happy day! I received that letter in May and was supposed to pack my life in a little box in 2.5 months. Passport renewals, Canadian embassy appointments, resignation procedures and the dreaded goodbyes. Looking back, I barely remember how those 2.5 months passed, everything was happening too quickly and I wanted to treasure every moment I had left in Egypt. My friends threw me an AMAZING farewell party at the University where I worked. My mom and my fiancee at the time threw me another BIG farewell with many of my friends before I left..tears were shed, hugs were hugged .....and bags were packed.

 It was 5:30 AM Cairo Local Time, time to go. My luggage was carried to the car downstairs, my friends drove to my house that early, and we were off to Cairo International Airport. Over there, I ran into a friend that I didn't get to see in those couple of months I had. Spotted one of Egypt's top male actors, hugged family and friends, teared up, but as you know....big girls don't cry (yeah, right!)

So, what have we got here, 6 hours to London then 8.5 -9 hours to Edmonton. Piece of cake...sure , especially if you can't sleep on planes and even better is when you're about to, this adorable 70 something-year old German lady sitting beside you seems to be happy that a German-speaking person is sitting beside her and starts telling you her life story. To tell you the truth....it was pretty interesting and she was so sweet.

I researched (and by researched I mean googled) Edmonton before I left and learnt that it got really cold in the winter. Whatever, I grew up in Moscow, what's -20 C....oh, was I wrong. In Moscow, when the temperature hit -25 C, we wouldn't go to school and my parents wouldn't go to work. Here in Edmonton, we experience as low as -47 C, and there's no reason for you to not go to work (lab in this case). The idea is we're all in it together, this is the weather and we can't change it...deal with it! First snowfall was sweet, but that year it was crazy cold! Then it got milder over the past couple of years, the first day of snow doesn't bring joy to me as it used to, oh well........ big girls don't cry!

That's US according to the Simpsons...made me laugh so hard.

A "Real" Grad School Ad

Ninjas vs Professors

Myth #1

A supervisor's scientific status = Beard length X frown lines per square inch X grad student tears in litres

Or that's what I thought...

Tweets of Science

Finally, someone says it as it is! Blot, blot Western baby..

The number of times that one wants to hit himself with a stick for ever thinking about going into grad school varies from one person to the other. Usually, this thought is accompanied by deep remorse, blame towards all your friends who didn't stop you, compulsive, spontaneous sobbing and a whole evening in the fetal position. However, if you think back, you will remember one or two people who were being honest about their opinion and actually did try to tell you not to do it, but your brain totally dismissed that because you were too young and foolish, excited about research that is going to save humanity, earth and the milky way. 

I say that because I know it happens to all of us, based on conversations with past and current fellow victims, but to tell you the truth, nothing beats the high you get when your experiments actually work. 

So, suck it up and blot, blot, Western baby...figure one will be amazing!

PhD comics are a treasure for grad students! I learnt about them when I got here to Canada. The best thing about them is that you KNOW that you're not alone in that ..ehem...glorious path. How did that saying go?...Misery loves company? :)

Three years ago, I said goodbye to my family and friends in the motherland, Egypt, packed my bags and got on a plane. A 10,000 km journey to the other side of the world, hockey nation, land of the sacred Maple, Ca-na-da.
The plane took me from the heart of my world, Cairo, to very quiet Edmonton, Alberta after a gruelling 17 hour trip.
Not for tourism, not for sport competitions, but to start a quest for the shiny PhD.
I will share my past and ongoing grad school experiences on this blog, let's see how this goes ;)