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