Enzjdee

Brilliant weather today, though cold: there was frost on the fields. In any case, it was Monday, so back to the grind.

Progress at work is slow. Before I came here and settled in a bit I imagined I would be working most evenings and weekends for want of anything else to do. Nothing could be further from the truth. This night is the scheduled outing of the EngD students to which I have invited myself through the intervention of Adolfo and Sam.

The Engineering Doctorate is a degree awarded to research done in collaboration with industry. The EngD (pronounced enzjdee) students are actually employed at some company, and obtain their degree at the university in part time, in the course of four years (the regular PhD takes 3 years in the UK, rather than the standard 4 years in the Netherlands). They have a course programme at the university consisting of 120 European Credits' worth of studying. That's two full years; I don't quite understand how this is possible given that it is a part-time thing and they also have to do research/development work to earn them their degree. Maybe the latter is supposed to be on company time.

Proof: He's alive!

It was a mixed and lively assembly, employed at diverse locations though the UK - about half of them live elsewhere and are here this week for course work. We went to a bar and (Indian) restaurant within 100 meters of the Barbican where I attended the Remembrance Festival on Sunday. Among other things, I got confirmation of my hypothesis that the bike trail from the university to the center is indeed a converted railroad track. I also picked up some more tips about where to go to enjoy the night life in York. I have to be well-prepared to show Elise around, she's planning to come over for a weekend mid-December, so I guess I am forced to check out the Evil Eye and the Trembling Madness one of these days.

I was also briefly in touch with Floris, if only because he wanted to know the wifi password at home. I forgot to ask him how he is doing with his exams, of which he had one on Friday and several more this week. Rather unlikely that I would have received a reply anyway...