install packages to home dir?

[Ozone Hole near South Pole]

Hi,

I've just picked up Python in the last couple of weeks.  At home, I
use Linux (Mandrake 8.0).  Everything is fine.  I've downloaded and
tested out quite a few useful packages.

However, when I go back to university, problem arises...  Being low in
the pecking order, our sysadmin does not respond well to our request
for package install.  As we do not have write access to
python2.0/site-packages, I can only copy all the files in the external
packages into my own work directory...

It is sort of working.  But, it is very confusing. I wonder if there
is any option that can allow us to intall the extra packages into say
~/lib/python/my-packages or can we do sth like 'import
~/supportpy/usefulstuff' ?

Thanks in advance