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