Thank you very much Naf & Becs!
Becs, good luck with your grad school. Here are the answers to your questions:
1. I do not carry books to school anymore, I haven't been for the past couple of years, although I did in the first 3 or so years of grad school. I am long done with classes and have past my doctoral qualification exams, so for the last 3 years it has pretty much been research/lab work for me all the time. Anyway, even then I carried them in my tote, I personally seriously dislike backpacks. I like my totes big, so that I can stuff a lot of things in there: a bottle of water, books if needed, basic necessities, dance shoes, gym clothes etc. My current philosophy on the bag is big, cute and inexpensive, since they go through a lot of abuse, get thrown on dirty floors and so on. I find them usually at discount places such as Filene's basement, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or chain stores like Express and ATL. I do plan to start getting nice ones once I graduate and get a real job though.
2. I do a lot of online shopping, I guess I buy around 70% of my stuff online. I am typically at the lab at least 12 hours everyday other then Saturday, and a lot of my experiments have waiting periods ranging anywhere between half an hour to couple of hours. In the first half of the day I try to read scientific literature and such during those waiting periods, but then in the second half my brain is usually fried so I browse all of sorts of clothing sites. I look for interesting new arrivals, or stuff that go on sale, or whatever. I go to real stores once or rarely twice a month ( usually on Saturday) and either look for specific things I already saw online to try on, or try to go to stores such as H&M that do not show things online. I try on tons of things, so I can buy them later online when they go on sale or I have a coupon, and also to get a feel of my size in particular brand or whether it generally fits me or not. I usually ship stuff to my lab, so I try it on immediately in the ladies room and if it doesn't work it gets shipped immediately back without me actually having to drag it home, although I do that sometimes if I am not sure to take photos and get opinions from YLF members.
Phew, I was starting to write my own " War and Piece" I hope this gives you some ideas, and please do not hesitate to ask if you have more questions.
