Week 3

Hi,It's us again!

We have decided to post to a blog site so you can read our updates when ever you want to.

I finally have a computer on my desk and am transferring all my CSIRO work on to it. In typical Jaci style I had the computer only for about half an hour beforeI broke it. It seems to be working now though.

Last weekend we went to an Australia Day BBQ. We met another postdoc and her trailing spouse husband. Pete was happy to find out that he is not the only male trailing spouse. They both had strong QLD accents which were refreshing to hear. The other Australians had asian accents and one had a very distinct private school twang. We ate Tim Tams which are $7 a packet over here. The BBQ was a bit disappointing as they don't have sausages in the US, just hot dogs which just aren't the same. We really enjoyed the half a glass of Crown Lager that each person was given. I didn't think I'd miss Australian beer so much. Good wine is quite cheap though.


As we've said before, there is heaps to do in New Haven. On Wednesday we have a social night for international students, Thursday is a free dinner and discussion panel on race and ethnicity in the US (it is for international people, to provide a forum for them to ask politically incorrect questions) and on Sunday we are going to an ice hockey game.

On Saturday night we are going to the theatre thanks to the CSIRO people who bought us tickets. We are really looking forward to it - we love the theatre. We went down to the Long Wharf Theatre on the weekend to check it out. We were expecting something like Elizabeth Pier with a few restaurants and bars etc. Well there is a restaurant. But there isn't any water as the land has all been reclaimed. Most amusing though is the fact that the theatre is situated in the middle of a meatworks. The smell is not too bad though. That is typical New Haven - nothing is what we expect.

We were also told about a street that they call 'Little Italy.' We were expecting something like Lygon St in Melbourne. It is actually just two dingy pizza joints. But we're told the pizza is the best in the US. New Haven suffers terribly from trying to be New York.

Pete is able to sit in on any lectures in Yale that he wants to. He has found two courses that interest him in Philosophy that relate to his PhD. He has been working on Americanizing his resume with the help of the international office. He is thinking about doing some volunteer work in schools in the meantime.

Jaci's Work talk:
There are some really great aspects of working in a University, but some things I miss about CSIRO. There is more bureaucracy here believe it or not and certainly no staff credit card! Today I tried to get paper for the photocopier. You have to go and get it from the secretary one ream at a time. Apparently if they leave it near the photocopier, people steal it. There is also a lot more travel funding at CSIRO but this may be because we have to travel further. I think the idea is that you have to try and source your own extra funding (hmm,not sure if my creative efforts will be appreciated here).

I'm really enjoying the work. It is great to be employed to sit and read textbooks and papers. I am on a steep learning curve about climate in the past 3 million years. Rather different to considering decadal variability!!

The camaraderie is great though. I think it may be due to all the free food and drink. Wednesdays there are seminars followed by free beer (Australians are known to skip the lecture and just turn up for the beer). Every day there is free coffee and cookies at 3.30. And Fridays it is all you can drink from the keg for $2. Thursdays there is a meeting where we take turns to present a paper or some of our work. So lots of socializing if you are up for it.

More quirky things about Yale:
In the graduation ceremony, when they get up to the PhD awards, they switch to speaking in Latin.

Week 2

HI again,

We are now into week 2 of our US adventure, though it feels like we've been heremuch longer. I had a 'new staff day' on Monday where I learnt just how patriotic Americans can be. The more interesting things I learnt are listed below.

We are slowly figuring things out and getting ourselves set up. We have found edible bread though I think we will give up on baked beans till we get back to Australia. On the weekend there is an Australia Day BBQ which we may go to. Apparently they have Tim Tams which are highly sought after in the US. They are only available in specialty shops and are usually sold out.

There is a great support system at Yale for international people. They are helping Pete Americanize his resume and organise lots of social events. That is the advantage of being at a big institute I suppose.

We had our first experience with the US Health system last week. I cut my finger on the new kitchen knives and had to have five stitches. Not that any of the staff cared until they had established who would pay the bill! Luckily I managed to miss the major nerves and tendons. I have now be banned from the kitchen (damn).

We now have Internet access at home as there are so many cafes nearby with wireless so we can just hook in for free. We still have a couple of weeks to wait before we get TV or a phone though. We are on MSN and skype if anyone wants to chat.

For those who care:My job is looking pretty good. I'm going to be working on the energetics of ENSOas my first project. That is the potential energy of the thermocline and how that varies and dissipates. I'll also have another project that is a bit less concrete looking at the possibility of a permanent ENSO. There is a research assistant who is supposed to be setting up a coupled GCM at Yale for me to use but she is having trouble getting it to run on a Linux cluster. I've been asked to help her (hahaha). Hopefully it is just a problem with the gridspacing and time step she's chosen. I still don't have my own computer yet.

Much to my disgust I think I'm getting a bit of an American accent. It means that people can understand me better though. We are even picking up the habit of saying 'Your Welcome' EVERYTIME someone says thank you. I am also learning to tone down my swearing. It isn't polite here, especially for someone of my 'station'. The Americans don't seem to use our intermediate swear words, its nothing or everything for them. No one knows what 'bugger' means and they don't even say 'Bloody hell'. You also have to say 'restroom' because 'toilet' is crass.

Pete has put his application in to be allowed to work but that will take a few months to clear. He is pretty busy though just getting our lives set up. I don't think he's even had a chance to start his PhD.

Our next challenge is getting a drivers license. You need to sit a test so we'll need to practice a bit I think.

Quirky things I've learnt about Yale:

1. Yale is the second US Uni after Harvard. It formed because of religious differences at Harvard. The final straw I'm told was the pronunciation of Amen,should it be Ar-men or Ay-men? So Yale University began.

2. It was named after a bloke called Eli Yale. There was another guy, but his last name was Dummer, which isn't a good name for a Uni.

3. The buildings at Yale look old (1700s), but most aren't. One was built bysome rich lady in the 1930s who designed it after Cambridge and Oxford in England. To make the building look as old as those in England (and therefore as prestigious), she buried roof tiles in different areas to make them age first. She then got workmen to climb on the roof after it was built and crack them up a bit. The windows also looked too new so she got the workmen to put cracks in them. They had a competition to try and see if you could get Y (Y- for Yale) shaped cracks, so there are many of those about.

4. The residential colleges are surrounded by moats. This is to symbolize that you are leaving the real world while you study. ???

5. Hamburgers and thin-crust pizza were invented in New Haven. The Pizza is good too!

6. George Bush junior and senior went to Yale. They are proud of this at Yale. I've even seen the house where little George used to live.

7. Apparently 'You don't just get an education at Yale, you become a leader..'They are a bit over the top sometimes!!

Lots of love,Jaci

Week 1

HI everyone!

We finally made it to the US after an extra night in Germany due to a missed connection. My new email is jaclyn.brown@yale.edu. We have a flat where we will stay for a few months until we figure out where we want to live.It is just a tiny one bedroom but is fully furnished which has saved a lot of stress.

This is my second day at work and have mostly been filling in forms and setting up. My computer won't arrive till next week and will be a Linux system.

We can't get mobile phones until we get a social security number which will be in March sometime I think. - On Feb 7th we will get a home phone and TV and internet connection. Until then we are feeling very lost!The first day we were here was quite warm ( about 10 degC). The next day it snowed and with the wind chill factor, got to -15 degC. Being stupid Australians we decided it would be fun to go for a walk in the snow. But then the weather got worse and we got REALLY cold. Lucky there are plenty of corner coffee shops to dash into. Our next stop was the mall to buy some sensible winter clothes and shoes.

The culture shock has been worse than expected. I thought the US would be much like Australia but there are lots of little things we miss already - mostly the food. It is hard to find fresh fruit and veggies at a reasonable price, especially ones that haven't already been pre-cut and wrapped in plastic.- Tins of baked beans come in bacon and/or maple syrup flavour. Eventually I found 'vegetarian baked beans' which are the only ones not cooked with pork.- Loaves of bread all come with extra sugar added. Our toast tastes more like cake! Hopefully we will find a good foreign bakery soon.-

We are yet to find a good breakfast cafe ie. something that does poached eggs on toast. So far everything comes with extra cheese and fat.-

Shopping is difficult cos we don't know where to find things. It seems everything is in mega-stores. If you want a computer you go to the computer mega-store etc. But without a car it is a bit tricky to find the right mega-store.-

I can't find an electric kettle. There are heaps of coffee machines but no appliances to just boil water. I don't think anyone drinks tea. There are no electric woks either. I don't think the asian influence is as big here as it is in Australia. Every block seems to have a pizza place and a Dunkin donuts though.

Joyous moments included finding an organic veggie shop and finding an asian supermarket (which has what we call normal food in it).

There is also lots of 'stuff to do' in the US. There are endless social groups to join and clubs and special talks and events. I was happy to learn that Yale University is trying to meet Kyoto targets, and I may try and join a greens party while I'm here. Can you be deported for that?

Our flat is feeling like home so we are pretty happy there. We found IKEA and got a few essentials at bargain prices. Everything except healthy food is quite cheap.

Our accents are proving troublesome! I took your advice Catia and use my TV voice and they understand me better. A lot of the time we need to fake an American accent to be understood. One thing we need to learn is how to say 'Peter' in American. Our pronunciation comes out 'Pee-da' I suppose whereas they emphasise the 'er' at the end. We also have trouble with our address which by the way is 80 Howe St Apt 305, New Haven 06511 for the next couple of months. Anyway we can't get anyone to understand us saying '80'.

I am able to take whatever classes I want while I am here. I will start with one on climate and learn about the northern hemisphere! Later I might take fluid dynamics with George Veronis.

Still don't know what I will be working on here, but will figure that out later.

Miss you all,

Jaci and Pete