Life in Estonia, part 2: Surviving the first week as a PhD student
How do you recognize a German doctoral student at an Estonian university? Well, fortunately, in my case, it is not the accent. 1. She wants to do a PhD (academic career) but considers going back into practice afterwards (How? Why?) 2. Whatever the weather, her footwear will be inappropriate 3. Smiles at strangers (obviously from Southern Germany, too!) 4. Has difficulties addressing professors by their first names from the beginning 5. If you ask a computer-related question, there are three possible answers: “No”, “Yes, but never used it” and “What is that?” “So you think you might work as a farm veterinarian once you have that PhD title? That is very unlikely” says Tarmo, my supervisor. “In Germany, that is actually how most people do it”, I reply, “but we’ll see, maybe I like being a scientist or teaching so much that I’ll stay on that career path.” I proceed to installing the four applications on my work computer that I will need t