hi Ginga
Thank you for your post. I do have a right to feel annoyed!
Its so difficult for me, having been brought up not to be angry, to appease people , to be a nice girl etc.
It doesnt always feel nice to be a nice girl.
Thanks a lot.

hi everyone.
This is really silly, but here goes.

I rent a flat which comes with a parking space, it has the flat number drawn on the ground. OK I don't have a car. Everyday someone always parks in my space. My neighbor also doesnt have a car but NOBODY parks in her space. Its always my space (!!!)

I don't know why it always bothers me when I see a car there.

Sometimes I do have friends with cars visiting me, they park in my alloted space, but most of the time, I can't use it anyway and they don't visit me everyday.

I just don't know why I always feel unhappy when people use MY space.

Is it because:
1. I don't have a car, thats why I feel lousy
2. that parking space adds to MY ego
3. I used to have a car in my home country--and I used to drive.. now I walk everywhere..
4. I am depressed--and since february

Today I sat thinking about the times people parked in my place in my home country (where I had a car), it didn't bother me at all. I told the driver(s) to move the car, and then I parked my car. It was ok.

the truth is I'm really a nice person but I dont like people parking in that spot (???!!!!) There's really no harm in it, letting someone park there, and yes I dont even have a car, but why is it bothering me?
Why am I like this????

hi there! you are the first person (studying bacteria) I've ever come across that asks for login and passwords! Most of microbiology friends know exactly where to get what they are looking for and they always FIND IT!!! Have you visited your university library? You could ask the librarians for help accessing databases of which your university has subscriptions, thats how you get your password by logging in through your own university weblinks.

You could ask your supervisor or your postgraduate tutor.

hi there, I cant tell you about changing from the Early Modern period.. but I can tell you that is POSSIBLE for you to change your area of interest. That is what I did. Sometimes it is difficult learning a completely different subject, but it is not impossible. I am also lucky that my director of studies agreed to supervise me despite my different background.

Go for it if you want

hi LUH1983! I had EXACTLY the same problem as you, and sometimes I still fall back into my TV habits.
I watched lots and lots of it, and yes I still watch. Sometimes I just get lost in my tv and its running on my faithful computer, this sounds silly but I love my computer very much. I sit with it everyday, I communicate with my family on it everyday, I eat with my computer everyday as well!!!! AAAAAAARGH

But theres still this phd to do..so what I have done is to allocate a couple of hours (starting with 2hrs) per day to sit and write, or sit and work, and slowly increase that day by day.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! all the best

hi, perhaps you could search in other universities' websites--from the home page, click on the links to their institutes, for example School of Health or School of Medical Sciences, School of Allied Sciences, whatever, from there you can see what Masters courses they have.

cheers satchi

hi bettyspaghetti
I find your post very helpful :-)

hi! I had a bad flu during the easter weekend...............

hi. You say you dont have a direct background for the research area of which you are interested in! Its ok!
You can look for people who are already in this area; and if there are studentships available--email them and ask, they may be able to provide you with links of where to find articles to read about it. I know friends who changed disciplines; they were also offered studentships, it is not impossible to enter another area. For me, one way to go about the proposal is to communicate with the prospective supervisor. It is easier to think on the proposal working with someone whos already done something in this area.

You can search for phd theses online (sometimes these are easily obtainable), even if the topic is not the same, you will have some idea of what a thesis looks like.

After all that, you will defnitely get some idea how to narrow down the topic.

cheers, satchi

Oh dear. What will you do.

sometimes I get writing blocks; thankfully they are not permanent, but when it happens I do wish that my supervisor was the one doing the writing!!!
But then again, I know its my research and I have to write it myself anyway...

good luck

you can use www.sciencedirect.com or scopus.com etc.
Here is a search example:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleListURL&_method=list&_ArticleListID=900814345&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b1330f89d8f2062d5e31815245f30534

if you need to download it, get the web address, title and authors name, send it to your friends who are already students in universities (if their universities have access to these papers), ask them to help you download the papers you need

hi nisha
I think you should get in touch with your supervisor or some postgraduate tutor in your university to help you to find papers, get familiar with online databases. I'm very surprised to read your post. The Indian students whom I know, they are not only brilliant and hard working but usually know where to find papers, how to get them and come up with interesting research questions/topics. If you have identified the plant of interest, next step would be to find out what has already been done on it and expand it.

im going to read some papers and do some writing

hi! I have been through an erasmus, I did a joint european MSc. But not in France. I went to Espana.

Tips for your phd interview:
They could ask you about the project and what you thought about it; why you're interested, how would you do it and how would you expand it, and the possible future contributions..
..about your current academics; what you did before..
..what contributions would you bring to the Research Team (at Curie institut)

About the administrative side, there's really nothing to worry about. You wont have any problems navigating in the library.

Tips when you receive your offer:
Learn some basic french (at least enough for you to go to the market to buy vegetables, shoes etc.)
Learn how to count in french (thats very useful)
Learn words for directions (in case you are lost)

You wont face any difficulties in the university, but outside the university, you might.

When I was in Spain, at first the language was very difficult. Where I lived, even the policemen, doctors, dentists did not speak any english. I couldn't express myself effectively. I went to see a lady dentist to replace a filling, and simply trusted her.

In Madrid sometimes people short-changed me (!) because they thought I couldnt count. Even at Madrid (Barajas) airport, the guy wrapping plastic for luggage short-changed me (!!!), but I had learnt to speak words of colours so I told him I had given him a BLUE euro note and should receive more change. The pharmacist at Puerto Real did the same thing to me, I marched back there and told his colleague (in halting broken spanish) that he had charged me 20.10eur for something that cost 10.50eur. So you see, numbers are very important.

good luck, satchi