Originally Posted by Solarmoon
Save your money. Invest in a pair of webcams and use the phone. Or, if you are feeling particularly romantic, write letters by longhand and pretend that you are living 50 years ago.
As a graduate student, your time is important and it might be better for you to not take off every 4 weeks on personal business.
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Having just finished my PhD, I thoroughly disagree with you! The time of a graduate student is worth much less than the time of someone "in the real world." Also, graduate school can be (and often is) very stressful and isolating, and trips away, especially to see one's romantic interest, are very well justified, IMHO.
Alex