Alec's Tavern : The Frost Blast

[Defiance]

^ .

Me? I stopped writing for metalicos, I got really mad at the web-master, the relationship was too tense, so well fuck him. :Smokin: But it's good to finally not write for that web-page, it got to be more like stress than fun, as it was at first.

 

[Naglfar]

Me? I'm going to be unemployed!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Just be a grad student forever, like me! Employment is overrated.

 

[Elvina]

Just be a grad student forever, like me! Employment is overrated.

whahaha how true!

 

[Ond]

Just be a grad student forever, like me! Employment is overrated.

When I was a little boy and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I always answered: "Retired, like my grandfather."

But that sounds like a nice option as well.

 

[Naglfar]

When I was a little boy and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I always answered: "Retired, like my grandfather."

But that sounds like a nice option as well.

I'll never retire, my goal is to get tenure and teach until I'm 102 (or until I get dementia, whichever comes first). Retirement is for n00bs.

 

[Defiance]

I'll never retire, my goal is to get tenure and teach until I'm 102 (or until I get dementia, whichever comes first). Retirement is for n00bs.

Haha yeah, what do you teach?

 

[Defiance]

*la li la, dum de dum, bumps*

Oh hi! There was a big fight or something in front of my house, some guys yelling and making lots of noise with their cars. Then someone started ringing bells in the neighbourhood in several houses, asking to come in. My sister saw a guy ring the bell and then just run away, but my other sister (12) did hear the noise and was scared as hell, she didn't stop shaking .

Damn, why is this country so insecure? (I can give you the reasons actually , I'm just being poetic.) Lovely I can't sleep now, so I'll continue working on my thesis. Nice way to start your Sunday I say.

 

[Naglfar]

Haha yeah, what do you teach?

Assorted history classes. Usually as a teaching assistant but I've taught a writing seminar. Almost always in my field, U.S. foreign relations history, but sometimes I do more eclectic stuff because that's where they need assistants, like World War II and the Great Depression.

Hopefully next year I'll get on the job market and become a professor finally, but the dissertation... it's going to take so long... lol... so far from finished...

 

[Defiance]

Assorted history classes. Usually as a teaching assistant but I've taught a writing seminar. Almost always in my field, U.S. foreign relations history, but sometimes I do more eclectic stuff because that's where they need assistants, like World War II and the Great Depression.

Hopefully next year I'll get on the job market and become a professor finally, but the dissertation... it's going to take so long... lol... so far from finished...

Nice, you've got a very interesting profession, I've always wanted to study history actually. As a matter of fact, there's a very good career of Latin-American history in my Uni. Still, I'm kind of pissed because there's no career of European history .

Really, dissertations are a lot of fun to make, but they sure are hard to make. I think that your body really takes the toll, I've been quite sick because of my thesis (well, more because of the stupidity of other people). I'll finish everything in two weeks (I present it orally 20th November), and I just want to get bloody over with everything, I'm really tired.

Oh and I'll start a English-Spanish translation master's next year, I'm very excited and looking forward to it :Smokin:.

 

[Naglfar]

Ever thought of doing a Ph.D. instead of multiple M.A.s? If you spend four or five years doing graduate work, might as well go for the whole banana!

 

[Defiance]

Ever thought of doing a Ph.D. instead of multiple M.A.s? If you spend four or five years doing graduate work, might as well go for the whole banana!

Of course! I want to do a PhD in literature, hopefully in Oxford or Cambridge. I'm thinking of going somewhere after I finish my translation MA. I've been thinking of going to a foreign Uni for some time now, but I love my girlfriend a lot so that's keeping me here. However, I now believe, unlike two years ago, that our relationship is strong enough too survive something like me going to Canada or England or wherever. I want to do as many PhD as possible, I'll be old and still doing a thesis hehehe.

I like Penn State too, a professor came for a congress and he was good (dunno about the rest though).

On another note… I'm speechless. I might actually see Devin Townsend and Cynic, they'll be playing in Toronto on January 27th. This is a dream come true.

 

[Naglfar]

Welp, if you can't get into Oxford or Cambridge, most top U.S. universities pay better than those two schools for Ph.D. students (although Oxford and Cambridge are obviously two of the ten best schools in the world). I don't know much about Spanish lit / romance languages dept, but if you're willing to go to Penn State, I'd recommend you do a little legwork and see where else you might apply to. My school has a pretty good languages / lit programs, but can't tell you anything other than that they pay good.

 

[Ond]

In Portugal the universities don't pay anything to the students, it's the students that have to pay.
Amazing world of corruption and greed.

 

[Defiance]

Welp, if you can't get into Oxford or Cambridge, most top U.S. universities pay better than those two schools for Ph.D. students (although Oxford and Cambridge are obviously two of the ten best schools in the world). I don't know much about Spanish lit / romance languages dept, but if you're willing to go to Penn State, I'd recommend you do a little legwork and see where else you might apply to. My school has a pretty good languages / lit programs, but can't tell you anything other than that they pay good.

Well the payment is not really what's important, it's where I go and what I study .

Why did you say that about Penn State? Which is yours, and what others do you recommend? I don't think I'd like to go to a Uni in the U.S. though, I prefer England or Germany.

@ Ond:Well most Unis are like that, unless you have a scholarship or something.

 

[Ond]

Well, in many european countries it is for free. And in scandinavian countries (at least Finland), the students get money for being in the university.
I wasn't sure how it was on that side of the world. :Smug:

 

[Thidrek]

I pay like 1400€ a year.

 

[Defiance]

I pay like 1400€ a year.

That's not so bad, much cheaper than in the U.S. I pay $1000 + ca. $300 of books per year. That's a lot of $$$ in books for Costa Rican standards because 99% of the people make photocopies ("clones") of the books. So whilst I spent more than $30 (more because of the shipping to CR) for [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Assessment-English-Language-Learners/dp/0201591510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257392141&sr=8-1"]this book[/ame], most people here (e.g. all of my classmates of this course) will pay ca. $4.66 for a normal photocopy and around $7 for a "clone" (this would include binding and colour copy of the cover and stuff like that).

There's a huge debate on this lately (since the approval of the CAFTA) because publishing companies obviously don't want people to make photocopies, but photocopy shops (places? Stores? I've heard so many different names) would be out of business and so many people won't have a mean to get food.

I think that photocopies of books should be allowed, but only of some parts of it, not the entire book in "clone" style. Prices of photocopies should be (shrug) raised so there can be more control.

Aaaaanyhow, I paid ca. $1000 for the MA per year, $2000 in total to get a (I must admit, besides the thesis) very good MA (a woman from the US said that the stuff I was studying in my first semester was at a doctorate level in the US).

In the BA I would only pay $208 (140&#8364 per year to the Uni, i.e. around $832 (560&#8364 in TOTAL for the entire career, which is unbelievably cheap. I still find it hard to understand how some people cannot afford that because I've never been poor, but there's a lot of poverty here so $10 is a lot, a lot, a lot of money for many people. Heck it's a lot of money to me, but I see it more in the sense of how many CDs I can buy with that p), not if I will have money to eat or not; I'm very lucky.

Sorry for the long rant lads and gals .

 

[Thidrek]

Our profs often just scan or copy the stuff which is essential for the lessons and put it online. You will never have to buy books except for those needed for language lessons. And if you copy or scan in the library you have to pay live 0,05€ per copy/scan which then again goes to the companies. So everyone is feeling lucky Students genererally don't buy books here cause there is no need to if you can copy, lol But I myself sometimes do, because I like the smell of books and their geekiness =)

There is also a big debate going on concerning the dues one has to pay to the universities each term. Most students are against it, alot of profs aswell, but the conservative governments prefer it. So in most states (Bundesländer) you have to pay. Blabla, damn have to leave for the uni. Will write on later

 

[lefay82]

here you have to pay....A LOT....

 

[Defiance]

Our profs often just scan or copy the stuff which is essential for the lessons and put it online. You will never have to buy books except for those needed for language lessons. And if you copy or scan in the library you have to pay live 0,05€ per copy/scan which then again goes to the companies. So everyone is feeling lucky Students genererally don't buy books here cause there is no need to if you can copy, lol But I myself sometimes do, because I like the smell of books and their geekiness =)

There is also a big debate going on concerning the dues one has to pay to the universities each term. Most students are against it, alot of profs aswell, but the conservative governments prefer it. So in most states (Bundesländer) you have to pay. Blabla, damn have to leave for the uni. Will write on later

Hmmm interesting, Unis in Deutschland are always so weird (IMO) . Ah yea nothing like the smell of a new linguistics book, I can feel the knowledge being passed on to me through the smell….

here you have to pay....A LOT....

For what? Books, copies or both?

EDIT:

I'm printing a draft of the final version of my thesis: Amazing. I can't believe I wrote so much hehe, I thought it was going to be quite short, but it'll be more than 55 pages plus around 300 of appendices, quite good considering I did it in one semester. I'm proud of myself .