The horrible trip was soon forgotten. It is beautiful here in Ann Arbor and my jetlag was completely gone after one day. Thanks to sunshine, lots of apples, and blissful sleep.
I’ve made a slow start in the lab. Prof. Jamie is setting me up and showing me everything. He is incredibly nice and friendly and helpful. It was a bit “back to the future” to unpack the samples that I send here myself, recalling the stress in NZ to get them all ready and all the people involved in sending them off (“Robyn, where are the packaging slips? – Allison, how do I courier something to the US? – Karen, have you ever shipped dangerous goods? – Gordon, how much will this cost me?”). Other than that I have been working on the awful paper I’m writing with Ian and Sarah about what I think is pretty boring plant nonsense, but they’re thinking will change the world. I have a desk in Jamie’s office, and he’s been showing me around town, the best lunch and coffee options and such.
I’m staying at prof. Joel’s house while he and his wife Cindy are mostly at their new Lakehouse, doing all sorts of do-it-yourself stuff. They lend me an old bicycle so I can cycle to work, which takes around 10 minutes. Fabulous. I don’t even have to wear a helmet and am generally acknowledged as a human being partaking in overall traffic, quite different from the NZ approach of systematically ignoring cyclists. Even Jamie was stunned when I told him N-American drivers are such a relief after the Kiwi-jungle.
It isn’t nearly as hard to switch from driving on the left side of the road to the right side as it was the other way around. Which proves the left side is STILL the WRONG side although I got totally used to it by now in NZ. Today here I managed to not get killed by looking over my left shoulder before crossing, automatically. Easy as pie.
I’ve made a slow start in the lab. Prof. Jamie is setting me up and showing me everything. He is incredibly nice and friendly and helpful. It was a bit “back to the future” to unpack the samples that I send here myself, recalling the stress in NZ to get them all ready and all the people involved in sending them off (“Robyn, where are the packaging slips? – Allison, how do I courier something to the US? – Karen, have you ever shipped dangerous goods? – Gordon, how much will this cost me?”). Other than that I have been working on the awful paper I’m writing with Ian and Sarah about what I think is pretty boring plant nonsense, but they’re thinking will change the world. I have a desk in Jamie’s office, and he’s been showing me around town, the best lunch and coffee options and such.
I’m staying at prof. Joel’s house while he and his wife Cindy are mostly at their new Lakehouse, doing all sorts of do-it-yourself stuff. They lend me an old bicycle so I can cycle to work, which takes around 10 minutes. Fabulous. I don’t even have to wear a helmet and am generally acknowledged as a human being partaking in overall traffic, quite different from the NZ approach of systematically ignoring cyclists. Even Jamie was stunned when I told him N-American drivers are such a relief after the Kiwi-jungle.
It isn’t nearly as hard to switch from driving on the left side of the road to the right side as it was the other way around. Which proves the left side is STILL the WRONG side although I got totally used to it by now in NZ. Today here I managed to not get killed by looking over my left shoulder before crossing, automatically. Easy as pie.
