Freshie Week....^^

It’s the end of the very first week of my PhD life. I haven’t got anything done that really has something to do with my research project, but I would describe this week as being an overwhelming, inspiring and intellectually challenging one.

First day:
I was welcome by my supervisor’s brief introduction of the lab and his demands on his students. He placed great emphasis on the international level of scientific research and disciplines that he’s running in our lab. That really pressured me as I wonder if I could live up to that. But on the other hand, I was kinda excited when he told me that the lab is importing some latest technologies and I would be the one to master them.

Second day:
We had our regular journal club today. I have got the paper discussed in advance and read through it for a few times, but seriously, it didn’t make much sense to me. However, there had been immense discussion among my group members and I was really amazed by their competency, their ability to analyze and wide scope of knowledge.

Third day:
We had a lab meeting today where one of the postdoc presented her research work. Again, I witnessed how my supervisors and the other lab mates scrutinized critically each and every single piece of experimental results. Till then, I felt so defeated because I was nothing like any of them and I really wondered if I could be as competent as them.

Forth day:
My supervisor told me a “joke” today when I asked him how to apply for permission to work in the lab during weekends and non-working hours (which is a procedural thingy). This was his response: “Oh, just ignore that, you need only to apply for writing permission for not coming into lab during non-working hours.”

Fifth day:
Someone in the lab led me in doing some cloning experiments and the techniques used was so much more advanced than what I used to learn in the textbook. That really gave me a feeling of being at the forefront of scientific discovery and it’s awesomely overwhelming. And thanks to the long experiments, I missed my train to Hull by 3 minutes and had an 1.5hr-extra-journey. -.-

So, that’s it for my very first week….^^