p.s.

Both people living here now are Environmental Studies majors and both drive SUVs.

Also, I saw a cop car parked outside a Dunkin' Donuts today while one of them ran in for donuts.

Americans!

No Longer Homeless!

So, as of today I have signed a lease and have a home. Hope it works out. I am sharing with Dustin (from rural Iowa and so far very sweet) and Captain Wilson, a wire-haired fox terrier. Like Snowy! Unlike Snowy, he doesn't bark (not even Wooah). There is also a super-hyper Corgi running around at the moment. He is supposed to be moving out on Friday with the people I'm subletting from. Captain Wilson is like a robot dog. He doesn't say anything and doesn't shed, just comes and hangs out. Five minutes after I moved in, sitting on the floor booting up the laptop, he wandered in and unexpected sat down on my lap. I think Captain Wilson and I will get along just fine.

We have the main floor of a house, two bedrooms, sharing with Dustin and one yet-to-be-encountered housemate (both guys). The house is in a nice quiet neighbourhood (kinda far from work, but there are FREE shuttles). I talked the outgoing housemate into leaving me the bed/furniture, so should be quite comfortable here. It's not the cheapest place I looked at, but I had a good feeling about Dustin and Wilson so fingers crossed it was the right choice.

at the airport

At Pearson Airport, making use of their free wireless! Awesome. So I'm on my way down to Connecticut to do an Ivy League practicum. Crazy stuff. I got hammered HARD with baggage fees at stupid Gatwick (didn't have my luggage scale, bad call) on Friday, so have managed to pack for six months in the States using only one checked bag and one carry-on (plus the allowed laptop bag and "small purse"). I had it exact to the pound this time around, and of course they never even weighed anything. However, travelling light has its own rewards in terms of actually being able to move everything by yourself without dying. The old couple in the Redcar on the way to the airport had three bags EACH. The woman told me, "Well, it's difficult, dear, when you're going away for two months." I almost one-upped her by mentioning that I'm going for six, but stopped myself in time. Nobody wants to get into a travelling-light oneupsmanship contest at four in the morning.

That's right, Air Canada bumped my flight twice, from a nice 2pm flight to an 11.30am flight to a stupid 7.55 am flight. I am TIRED. I am also wearing a million layers because I was worried about luggage weight. I've got a dress over jeans and a long-sleeved top, plus boots, plus two belts, one scarf and one jacket. I also got to try out the new US body scanners. Anticlimactic. Also got through customs just fine, which is a big relief. They sent me my visa paperwork, but I was worried I had missed something or they would grill me. But nope, all is apparently well.

I'm also not sure what to expect when I get there. Spent yesterday running around like a mad thing when I realised that my bank "can't guarantee" I can access my money from the States. Tried getting travellers cheques at CIBC, but they were incredibly slow and couldn't debit my account. They sent me a travel money place down the road, but they could only take $1000 by debit and needed a cheque for the rest. So I ended up calling and BEGGING my housemate to bring my chequebook along on his way to the gym, so I could pick it up, so I could run for six blocks and get to the place before it closed. (I also didn't have a bus pass - they didn't give me one this semester, so this was all on foot in -20C). I also found out at 4.30 pm that there is a form I was supposed to fill out for the university, which of course had to be signed by seventeen people. I think it's all good now - but if not, I'll be trying to sort it out by email from Yale.

Yikes, the next few days will be crazy. This time last week I was in the UK, chilling at Del's house. Next week, with any luck I will once again have a fixed address...

Zooming Around the UK

Having a lovely time in the UK. I am now in a place called Upper Tadmarton, which makes me laugh every time I hear it. It has been a super busy week. Flight went fine, no major delays, and Del was waiting for me at the airport. Drove straight up to Edinburgh and spent Hogmanay there, although we didn't do much since everxyone but me seemed to be suffering from a stomach bug. We went up to Calton Hill to watch the fireworks, but then everyone else had to go home and lie down, so I soldiered on alone and went out to a house party with a friend I knew from living in Edinburgh. Much drama ensued, but made it home all right in the end.

Spent a few days in the city, staying at a furnished apartment type thing (staying on Del's friends' floor was getting to be a bit much after a few nights). Saw Matthew and Jen, went to a lot of gorgeous pubs and generally had a nice time. I cooked Del's friends butter chicken using the recipe Judith put on the Badgers' Grub wiki and it went over extremely well! Then we drove down to Liverpool to visit Del's friends Pauline and Gary and their little girl, Chloe. She is nearly two and took a huge shine to me for some reason. By the end she was howling every time I left the room, which was a bit awkward! I got a big tear-stained farewell when we left.

It was snowing when we left Liverpool, but pushed on to Bangor to visit my former supervisor and my friends Ralph and Thandi. R and T are both doing their PhDs and it was great to catch up. We stayed with Ralph, who was the soul of hospitality and brought cups of tea in bed in the morning! We stopped by to see Thandi's house in the morning, which is miles away in Porthmadog, making it the first time I've ever driven 30 miles for a cup of tea! She has a lovely house with amazing views, but I really can't imagine doing that commute every day.

The tea stop meant we had to drive through Snowdonia to get to Oxford, which was insanely gorgeous but pretty tough on poor Del. All those tiny windy hairpin turn-filled B roads were pretty icy near the top of the pass, so fairly unpleasant driving. I had a great time looking at the scenery, however! Made it safe to Oxford in time to go out dancing and have an amazing night out with my friends Jo, Roxie and Aonghus, and have now collapsed in Upper Tadmarton for a much-needed rest!

Qualifying Exam

I passed my qualifying exam!!!! I think it went really well (all things considered) and spent the first half of yesterday being inordinately pleased with myself. It has been weighing on my mind for almost a year now - it is a long process, with two written and one oral component (plus supposed to be two meetings, but I only got one). I finished the initial written bit by mid-summer, but they couldn't schedule the meeting until September. Spent this semester stressing about the long written bit but got through it with the help of our postdoc, Alex. Then finally yesterday they got around to doing the oral exam. My labmate got pages of feedback to her written component (11 pages!), which the oral exam was based on, so that was what I was expecting. What did I get? Two sentences of feedback. So I was quite worried because I therefore had no forewarning of what to expect from the final. (I complained about the lack of feedback to the Chair, but he slapped me down with, "I can't believe you're complaining about NOT ENOUGH negative feedback!" He may have a point).

I felt like the meeting went really well. I DO know my stuff (thank you very much), and although I've never been a grade-grubber, I really like research and am therefore reasonably good at it. And luckily, that's what this exam was designed to measure. I definitely got more feedback from the meeting, some of it quite positive. There was one horrible moment when my supervisor asked me a question I had no idea how to answer, and there was a.... long.... uncomfortable...... pause......... while everyone stared at me. But then I just told him I don't know, said there didn't seem to be much in the literature on that point, and everyone moved on. At any rate, they only deliberated for a few minutes about whether to pass me (they send you out of the room! uncomfortable) so I guess that's good.

I'm proud of myself for how I am handling the pressure at the moment, too. Because I didn't know how to prepare for this exam, I was pretty stressed about it, and it comes during a week where I have to finish up all my work projects, mark 200 papers, and pack up and put my entire life into storage. But I've been trying hard to use exercise to manage the stress, and yesterday when I was nervous about the meeting I used my yoga breathing - sounds corny but works great! So I was able to walk in there feeling confident and somewhat relaxed, and paradoxically I think that always makes people go easier on you since you already seem capable.

Unfortunately yesterday didn't end as well as it started. I have a ton of papers to mark, and they're due in Monday (eek!), but I would have like to go out quickly to celebrate. My housemate was going out and said he'd text me when he got there. Needless to say... not a word (although I did get an apology text this morning). Guelph is reminding me more and more of how I felt in London.... NOT, I should note, a good thing. It's weird how some places you live work out right away, and some are just never going to be happy places. Generally speaking it comes down to the people. Fingers crossed Yale will be a good one (at least I already have one friend there!) and I can wrap up Guelph quickly. Getting past this exam is a huge step in that direction, for sure.

So on to the marking, the experiment-making, the paper-writing (we hope to have one ready to submit before I go!), the fMRI analysis, the packing, the moving and the leaving do. This is all going to be totally worth it when I get to spend an entire month with all my favorite people! (So screw you, Guelph.)

29 and counting

Officially my last week of being 29, holy crap. I wanted to do something awesome for my birthday (like get out of Guelph, for example) but unfortunately there's no time and money must be saved for my practicum*. Reggie has been hinting that she has something planned, which is awesome because true to form I have not planned a thing. I really wish I could spend the day with people who actually care about me (of which there are exactly zero in Guelph - luckily I'm importing Reggie, who moved to TO) but hopefully I'll have fun anyway and at least will get to see a huge amount of awesome people over Christmas and New Years.

Darn, though... if there was ever an excuse for a massive party or some kind of epic roadtrip... I just wish the timing had worked out! November birthdays are not ideal.

*Doing a practicum at Yale Jan - June, which should be pretty awesome, if perhaps insanely difficult. But exciting! Need I also point out, it's not Guelph...

busy!

Handed in my qualifying exam! So relieved. Sadly, I still have to do the oral defense, but I am very happy to be rid of the thing for now. I will have to do the defense sometime before Dec 10, so fingers crossed it goes well...

(The written component was a 10-page, five-year NSERC grant application: five years worth of experiments that are in my field but far enough from both my research and my supervisor's to be considered a unique line of research).

So this semester has been insane. Super intense. I've barely been keeping it together - I agreed to do an extra half-TA to try and save up some money for my practicum, but it's a lot of extra work (it's a stats lab, so lots of prep time and marking, plus the kids are constantly freaking out about something and emailing me). I've also been trying to get the qualifying exam done, of course, and have been auditing a Multiple Regression stats course as well. It's a subject I probably ought to know more about, but I don't need the credit so auditing seemed like a good idea... Also I'm supposed to be learning fMRI analysis, which has been stressful beyond words, and of course collect my data and do some writing to try and get some publications in. It's all important but I'm starting to flag a little.

But anyway, got a birthday next week (not that I've had time to think about it) and it's only five more weeks till I escape for Christmas, so I will just have to step it up and try to get everything done by then.

But! The written exam is handed in, so hooray!