My first week as a Visiting PhD student!

I’m not going to do these every week

• So I don’t think I’m going to do these every week of course, but certainly, recording my experiences in my first week, I think, is useful. I got in really late on Sunday, after my flight was delayed to SFO in Detroit, and fifteen minutes before boarding my backpack completely split apart and I had to get a new one last-minute and repack in a hot second. It worked out, and even better, there was an empty seat between myself and another passenger (who took the window seat) for our 5 hour 28 minute trip.
• When I got to SFO, it was late and raining, so I tried to get a Lyft and one kept circling for a while (5 minutes away then 15, then 28, then 33…thanks tech layoffs!), until I got switched to another that picked me up within 5 minutes. Once I was settled in, I got up the next day, a little tired, but ready for the first day.
• I have to say, it’s been an incredible experience. It started with our being welcomed to the first week of our Error-Correcting codes bootcamp, and it took me a good five minutes to realize it was Shafi Goldwasser herself welcoming us, and my mind suddenly thought “no way. That’s Shafi!”, as I had only really ever seen her speak, and not in-person, and there she was, 3 feet in front of me, saying “Welcome Fellows”. If ever I think back to times where I wondered if I had made the right choice coming to grad school, I think this experience alone justified it lol. I checked in, so warmly welcomed by the people with whom I had been conversing for several months now, and they gave me a package of a t-shirt and cup, and told me about getting my student ID. During our first lunch break, I was not only able to grab lunch, but to also get my student ID pretty quickly. This was useful because any access to the building to work outside of the typical hours meant I would need a card to get in.
• Within the first week, we were given the opportunity to sit in on a Berkeley professor’s Coding Theory class, which was starting that Wednesday, I got to give a speed talk (which was well-received! A lot of people said I gave them a lot to think about, and that I was a good speaker, which was surprising given how nervous I felt throughout the entire break before the talks), meet some incredibly kind and fun people who are at the top of the field, have access to a fantastic and collaborative space with any and all the amenities I could possibly need, go out for lunch each day with old and new friends, explore the campus and talk to undergrads about the different clubs on campus (while a Cybertruck was randomly on campus), engage in several receptions with faculty from all over the world, meet postdocs and other visiting scientists in my area (I have never seen so many overleafs open on screens in my life!), experience my first happy hour open problem session, in which there was food and drink, but also, people were working on problems, and finally, go out to happy hour with friends from the workshop and hang out with a past PhD friend over the weekend who now works as a Rust developer..all in the first week.

My assessment

• I’ve been trying to process everything, and how wonderful this experience has been in only the first week of being here, and one of the things that immediately comes to mind is how organic it feels to just do work here. I feel like I have all the things I need to be supported to do actual work, which feels…strange, but for the first time, “comfortable” (if that is the right word to use).
• I honestly don’t feel like going to conferences, or that sort of stuff as much as I do just going to the lab and getting work done, because it just is the kind of space where I’ve felt (at least so far) I could be really productive and I have all the things I need to do what I came to grad school to do. And it also feels a bit bittersweet that I didn’t really feel like I had that as much before. I had a realization sometime during the week where I thought “oh, so this is what it feels like to be supported.” It all feels so comfortable, and foreign at the same time.
• Being here has put me in the mood of “why would I want to do anything else” with my life besides research, in a way that has just been refreshing for me. In the evenings, we talk about music, people play music, we socialize, and during the day we work hard on things we care deeply about. And being a part of that is just fantastic.

So

• While I’m here, I’m making the most out of everything; it’s just been so fantastic, and I’m so thankful and happy to have had the opportunity to be here!

Some photos from this week!

• my new bag, courtesy of the airport on my way to SFO.

• beautiful sunset on the way to SFO just as we were boarding.

• I took the long way through the back of campus on the first day. Yeah, never again it was too long lol. Beautiful buildings though!

• Our welcome present!

• Okay, just random.

• Lunch on one of our days during the workshop, I think at a place called Mezzo.

• Walking home one evening with my friend, Chris, we passed this tree.

• And this ball.

• So awesome! I had a thought this week where I was like “well, maybe I should just do visiting positions for the rest of grad school” lol

• Is me!

• talking to undergrads during club rush on campus

• We went out for Happy Hour at the end of the first week, after the open problems reception, and I saw this! It warmed my heart because clearly someone was in the know about my country, and that we make Angostura bitters lol.

And that’s it!