Curry and cigarettes

First of all, I'd like to apologise for this being late, but I'm at the STFC summer school and there is a severe lack of internet access. I'm writing this on Sunday, as usual, but I do not know when I will get a chance to post it.

So my last week in Glasgow was a lot of fun. Mostly quiet, of course, but I made significant improvements at work. I've been manipulating this code for our group for some time now and this week I had to present my results to the weekly telecon. The most they've heard of me to this point was simply hearing my name when doing roll call. Now that I've begun interacting with everyone there have been onslaughts of communication, keeping me extremely busy. They are all nice and easy to work with, but there's the definite clarifications, suggestions, etc that have come non-stop since they found my email and now know who I am. I am extremely less experienced than everyone else, but they're willing to help me out and they seem pleased with my contributions. I will be meeting them all in a month in Budapest.

Aside from work, there was a flurry of curry trips this week. I did not participate in any of them, thankfully, because we were all going out for a dinner on Friday in the city centre to celebrate one of the girl's birthdays. We went to a restaurant called Stereo down a rather salubrious alleyway near Central Station. It was fantastic because they were a complete vegan place, with none of the arrogance. It was not advertised at all that they were vegan. It took us all a second as we looked over the menu and realised that there was no meat or dairy in any of the dishes. It was quite varied, too, as they served gnocchi, fajitas, paella as well as ice cream and pistachio cake. Very pleasant. The food was incredible and we all had a blast. It was a great environment that I wouldn't have known about at all. The walk home was absolutely crazy. Autumn is definitely setting in as it has been pouring rain. I mean absolutely poured. It has been really nice but even walking home, I couldn't believe how rainy it was. There are still the occasional days (hours, really) of sunshine, but I do not think the ground every properly dries out.

The next day was extremely lazy but I finally went to The Doublet which is a bar just a 10 minute walk from my flat. Lots of people from the department frequent it and it has come highly recommended. It was a bit bizarre because I walked in and it was tiny and my compatriots were nowhere to be found. I walked to the back where the toilets were and just kept going as there were stairs leading up. I thought it would be worth a shot and an adventure at the latest. Indeed, at the top of the stairs was a doorway leading to a whole other bar. Everyone was sitting there chatting it up and having some beers. One of the things I love about this group of people is that they started planning Halloween far before I did. If you have ever experienced me with costume planning, you know that they beat me to the punch by about maybe a week or two. I love the fact that not only do they plan out Halloween months ahead of time, like me, but also they actually get properly dressed up! We have decided (at least, barring any unforeseen change of plans) to go as the incredibly non-pc theme of dead celebrities. Even better, they pick costumes for each other. My classy American charms and style have landed me with the role of Jackie O. I hope that theme lasts, she would be fun. After the drinks I wandered home and in the spirit of my new life as a Glaswegian, I stopped by the curry shop, ordered far too much food, shared a cig with an old guy who was also waiting for food, had some laughs and parted ways. I am now one of them.

Today I got up, packed my clothes, cleaned the place and headed out for the summer school. Basically what it is is a full week of various Astronomy professors from around the UK presenting their fields to new UK PhD students. It's basically meant to be a bit of a networking event (as each university only has about 2-5 PhD students) and a chance to get up to speed on new advancements in the research. I only had a vague idea of where the bus station was in relation to the underground station. I basically followed busses until I found their source. It was a valid method and it (eventually) worked. I did find that it was actually a great (and cheap) way to go around the country. I got the express bus to St Andrews. It only was about a two-and-a-half journey through lots of little Scottish towns. I finally made it and again, only had a vague idea of where I was going. It was, of course, pouring rain and I wandered in the general direction of the university. I finally realised that the pile of rubble that was where I thought my building was actually the back of where I was supposed to be. I figured that, since this was part of the university, we would be staying in dorms. It turns out that this place is a university-sponsered refurbished conference hotel. I don't know if it's also dorms elsewhere in the building, but it was great to walk in to a proper room with a proper bed with towels and linens. Unfortunately, the access to internet is only through ethernet cables, which I don't have with me, so I'm writing this on Sunday, but I won't be able to post it until the end of the week. I'm off to the welcome reception and meet lots of new PhD physicists. Cheerio!