Week 4

As we have received so many emails from people saying they don't think they'd like to visit America, we feel we should begin by saying some positive things about New Haven and the US in general:

• We have mobile phones now and they are great. The plans are much cheaper here. The same goes for internet connection.
• There is a Uni shuttle bus that runs even on the weekends. Whenever you are need it, you ring the shuttle, it comes and picks you up and takes you home.
• We are pretty privileged - Yale provides heaps of support and facilities that make our lives easier. Lots of things we are only finding out about like $10 season tickets to the medical school cinema
• Pete has found a great Uni course to sit in on that discusses one of the books he is studying for his PhD.
• Being a Uni town, it is fairly relaxed. There are very few women walking around in high heels and make up.
• In general the people are pretty cruisy too! It is quite easy to make friends.
• Internet shopping is fantastic. You don't have to leave home to buy groceries or any house type stuff.
• Pete was impressed that in the men's toilets at the ice hockey game there were two doors - one 'in' and one 'out'.
• The flats are always really warm, due to excellent heating and insulation. We have to have a window open in our flat to keep it cool.
• Good wine is cheap and so is beer.
• Health insurance is great, you don't pay a thing - if you work for a good company that pays for it.
• No one around here seems to have voted for George Bush. Not that have admitted to it anyway.
• You can sell your eggs for up to $50000 ($10000 on average)! Very tempting but I think a bit emotionally challenging!

Sometimes though I'd just like to put my red Dorothy shoes on and click my heels three times! I think the homesickness will wear off in time though.

Its been a busy week. As we've said before there is lots to do. Wednesday we went to a function for postdocs with free food and drinks. Being Australian we drank our share of the alcohol, but we rekon we were the only ones. Thursday night was a forum on race and ethnicity in the US. It was rather feeble though, didn't really touch on issues we needed to know about, and the free drinks were only orange juice - how terrible!!!

Saturday night we went to the play - the one CSIRO people got us the tickets for. We loved it! The theatre was lovely inside. We are curious as to how it was directed differently for a US audience. As it was written by an English guy we think there were more jokes, but they just weren't emphasized. We will try to get an English version out on video to see.

On Sunday we met up with our new Australian friends, Steve and Tracy, to watch an ice hockey game. We don't know the rules but it was good fun. It doesn't seem to involve a lot of skill, just a lot of body slamming. One player even broke his hockey stick. It is much like Australian footy and they have a water truck in the breaks just like at the speedway. Yale won 4-3 to to Uni of Connecticut. Apparently Yale isn't very good at sport. Someone told me it is because Yale takes students on academic ability not just sporting prowess. Then again maybe they are poor losers. We then spent the rest of the evening in the pub with Tracy and Steve. We know it is bad form to go to another country and then hang out with Australians, but it is a relief to be around normal people every so often. (See later post on language problems.)·


Tomorrow we get cable TV! Then we can watch Oprah and such. For the moment we are watching a lot of DVDs. We have also discovered that we can listen to Australian radio and watch the ABC News.

For those that asked about the fashion here - We don't think New Haven is the fashion capital of the US but we can tell you what seems to be different. Women are wearing 3/4 slacks. Not casual ones, but formal slacks with knee high boots underneath. It looks a bit odd. Hipsters aren't as low as they have been - which is a relief. And there seems to be a new trend for tops. You wear a long top and then a long sleeved bolero type top over it that does up just under the bustline. Pete says that it doesn't seem to matter what you wear as long as you are talking on your cell or looking preoccupied and rushing somewhere you're OK.

Pete has put in his application to work but it will take at least 2 months to process. Keep an eye on it if you like. Pete is under I765 - All other applications. The present applicant being processed sent theirs in on the 29th October. When you see the 25th January - that's Pete.

We have also made an appointment to take a driving test. The next available was the 23rd May, so we have plenty of time to practice.

We have joined the library (where you can borrow out new release DVDs) and the Yale library which has 3.5 million books (and a card catalogue to search if you can't deal with computers).

Jaci applied for a credit card today. They are giving us a 'pretend one' so that we can build up a credit rating. That is, we pay a deposit of say $500 and then we can have a card with a $500 limit. I don't see what part of this allows them to call it a CREDIT card. But anyway apparently the IRS doesn't know that it isn't a credit card and so we can get a credit history which makes life a lot easier and cheaper. Car insurance for example is about $1600 for 6 months on a $2000 car if you have no credit history.