Well, time flies (slowly).   Technically, this is the end of my first year at the Transatlantic History Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I say technically because I am also doing two summer independent studies and therefore my year will not actually end until August, but nevermind that.  The year has been good and productive.<\/p>\n

I finished my first two semesters with a 3.8 GPA, presented at three conferences and one symposium, and I have been accepted to present a two more conferences in the fall (more on that later).  I have met a number of really great people whom I enjoy talking with and who challenge me intellectually.  Also, I have made progress toward my dissertation, which is the reason I’m here.  All in all, not a bad time here in Arlington, TX.<\/p>\n

Money is always an issue, however.  Living on the $15,000 a year stipend is a continuous financial juggling act.  Thankfully, any expensive tastes i may have once had were beaten out of me long before I came here.  Nothing like poverty to prepare you for poverty.  I think the first words I ever learned from my mom were “We’re on a budget.”  For nostalgia sake, and because it fits my budget, I still sometimes dine on sliced bread and sliced cheese, if the electricity is on I might just grill it.<\/p>\n

To stretch the budget further I moved into a cheaper apartment than the one I first rented here in Arlington.  Also, I gave my car to my brother in Orlando to save on gas, insurance, and tickets.  This means that I walk everywhere, which makes me late to things, but is very healthy. <\/p>\n

On that particular healthy note, I should add that I’m down to about 290lbs, from 354lbs last summer.  And that is good. Additionally, I joined the department’s softball team, the Wayback Machine<\/i>.  Which is, at least, the best softball team on the second floor of University Hall, and no one can take that away from us.<\/p>\n

More updates to come… Chao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, time flies (slowly).   Technically, this is the end of my first year at the Transatlantic History Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I say technically because I am also doing two summer independent studies and therefore my year will not actually end until August, but\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaeldeliz.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}