In Uni Land

Well, I'm now doing a full time PhD which I enjoy very much. I read, read, read, and type, type, type and also... think, think, think. The more time I have to do this the more I actually do. I'd do even more if I didn't have to sleep - pesky sleep. Consequently I have absolutely no spare time for anything else. I have no time to move the new bookshelves from the loungeroom, where they were initially constructed, to the 'office' where they are meant to help improve on floor space - by providing a vertical storage system for all the books currently in piles on the floor. Nor do I really have time to do food shopping, I just can't be bothered. Can't somebody bring it to me? The only reason I'm writing this blog entry is that I feel a little tired, haven't actually started my research work for the day yet, and am awaiting lunch to be brought to me (which doesn't always happen, usually I have the indignity of having to get it myself!). So, you can take it that I love researching and studying above practically all else. I've also been given a tutoring job at the university, although it doesn't start till May. I thought that was also nice and dandy, exepting that it takes time out of my research. But I always like to be entertained, and being paid to tutor seems a wonderful thing - especially as it is a lot more than I was getting for my last job. However, according to some fellow students, apparently I shouldn't be thinking it's so great, apparently I should be dissatisfied. Apparently the university takes advantage of Postgraduate labour. Well maybe my rose-coloured glasses will be smashed. I suppose I'll find out soon enough. Still, intellectual stimulation is a big plus for me, so I'm willing to weigh the pros and cons of being employed by the university and will decide upon it's 'goodness' or 'badness' when I can speak more knowledgably about it - in May. Meanwhile, I'm kinda having fun taking very occasional time out from researching to read classicist Mary Beard's blog A Don's Life, to see what professional academics in classics actually do - not that I am a classicist (although I do have a major interest in Roman religion). I like reading about universities though. From reading books such as Helen Garner's The First Stone and Mary Lefkowitz's History Lesson however, I'm getting the impression that universities are very weird places. But I don't want university to be a weird place - especially like in the latter two books. I suppose I am naive though, people are weird, so why wouldn't they be weird in a university? It's like a strange little city, or a big palace... the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul perhaps? Wonder if there will be any court intrigues, hierarchical struggles over rulership, conniving to get one's son on the throne, bagging up of harem women and throwing them in the Bosporus? OK, now I'm just getting silly...