GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

I find that article really interesting. I completely get that it seems unreasonable for people to be contactable constantly, but I really don’t think that this is confined to academia, at all. I never switch my phone off, and reply to emails all evening, weekend, and on holiday. I would never dare not. And while I work in an unusual place, this is the situation most of my friends these days seem to be in. I think it’s more symptomatic of how crazily important work has generally now become to people, and how competitive all industries are now becoming to progress in.

Going to be at St. John's College for the next three years.

Of course an inferior college to a certain sauce-named college, but still pretty good

Nah, I jest. Congrats! A great college. So much money lying around St John's

Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant!

Thanks! Haha, my friend who's there already was like, "we use £20 notes as toilet paper". So extravagant!

Also, St. Hilda's is having a summer wine exchange with Worcester later in the term so I'll finally get a chance to see your college!

X

Ooh are you a Hildabeast?

Yes, I am.

Hooray! I think I might have known that, but I'd forgotten. Excellent college I was there for 4 years.

I don't think I'd realised that you'd been there! Were you there as an undergrad? And you're right, an excellent college indeed. It's definitely coming into its own this term- that picturesque riverside position is making me feel bad for all the times I wished I was at a college with the traditional quad layout! Plus, Hilda's certainly knows how to throw a good ball.

Speechless

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/04/overcrowded-off-campus-housing-boston-puts-students-risk-even-landlords-cash/mCsUmZ0FpocJoFrRBM99YP/story.html

Euugh. Yep, housing here is an absolute nightmare. Fires are shockingly common (to someone from the UK)...mostly, it seems, because of the amount of wooden structure housing around. Triple deckers are the classic Boston style, but they can be a serious fire risk. The student housing market is awful, the housing stock is low in Boston, because it's a mostly low rise city and there isn't much land on which to build anything new. Landlords have the pick of 250,000 students, and they can pretty much charge what they like.
I live in a less undergraddy part of Allston/Brighton, the neighborhood much of that article talks about, and I viewed some truly shocking places when I was trying to find a place at short notice last year when our apartment purchase fell through (another effect of the student rental market -the buyers market moves so fast and prices increase so fast that assessments cannot keep up with market value...actually we were buying an apartment in a triple decker, as the neighborhood we love is full of them).

Are students from Harvard/MIT also concerned by this problem? (I mean these unis maybe offer better support to their students).

It was really special to be back where we all met, including the happy couple

x

I have to say that I think it's this element of Oxford/Cambridge education that I'm possibly most envious of. That small collegiate feel plus knowing people, making close friends who remain friends and lead on to having wedding receptions back in college.

Don't get me wrong, I've got close friends from both my university experiences but I can count them on one hand, maybe a push two hands. That's partly due to how I did my uni life and choice of universities clearly. However, other friends and old work colleagues who have gone onto Ox and Cam, their friendship networks since graduating are much closer albeit bigger.

Whether that's the alumni network kicking in or just life I don't know...

I have to say that I think it's this element of Oxford/Cambridge education that I'm possibly most envious of. That small collegiate feel plus knowing people, making close friends who remain friends and lead on to having wedding receptions back in college.

Don't get me wrong, I've got close friends from both my university experiences but I can count them on one hand, maybe a push two hands. That's partly due to how I did my uni life and choice of universities clearly. However, other friends and old work colleagues who have gone onto Ox and Cam, their friendship networks since graduating are much closer albeit bigger.

Whether that's the alumni network kicking in or just life I don't know...

Talking of fires in Boston, my sister's apartment block caught fire (you may have seen it in local news, madamemerle) and was completely incinerated on the inside, as well as very wet (once the firemen were done with it). It's completely inhabitable, so my sister is homeless and only has 40% of her clothes (which had to be washed/drycleaned a few times to get rid of the smell) and a few other odds and ends