The Start of My Fifth Year

It has been almost a month since the start of the new semester and my fifth year at UIC. I feel like a vampire now since many familiar faces are gone, and I am no longer interested in knowing new ones. There is no rise in RAs’ stipend and TAs’ have been halved while the rent keeps its 5% inflation. I feel more unwelcome as an international student, because of the proposed new F1 status policy and the lack of publication. People like casting “imposter’s syndrom” on PhD students, but you have to graduate to earn the hinder sight.

This is a photo of the Ice Cream Social Event of the Engineering College.

I felt so pathetic that I hardly talked to those students in my neighbour’s office until such an event. There seems to be a constant stress haunting our building, forbidding us from any socialisation.

On Sep 2nd, Zain K Aamer, an Alum from UIC, visited us and gave a presentation about his work on property tests. He was very popular that day, interviewed by students and professors like a star. Though he told us how humiliated he felt by other presentations in UPenn, his slides and website did humiliate me, as I had expected.

Quite surprisingly, we finally had another board game party of our research group on Sep 12th, with about 7 attendees! I hope this could somehow break the gloom covering our office building. On my way there, before stepping out the train station, I was very confident with my orientation, but embarassed by the map with left-facing north again. Yet thanks to Aresh, another student in the group, I was stopped before reaching the Red Line.

Today, I attended a workshop about reading skills, but honestly, my biggest take-home is this mug.

All I need is a large investment of time into reading, rather than any strategies – like learning swimming, driving, or DOTA.