Sweaty Palms and Awkward Silences

Wow, what a busy week. Again, I apologise for having to post last weeks and this one at the same time, but please read both.

So Sunday night we got together for a small reception to get a chance to mingle and meet one another over drinks. The thing that's great about physicists is that we can spot each other from a mile away. It's incredibly easy to spot one another when trying to figure out where to go. Everyone was really nice in that awkward, uncomfortable sort of way. We were given name tags with the name of what university we would be going to. The academic year technically starts 1 October, so I'm the only PhD student who has already started. This was a chance to try to find people we would be working with (or alongside) for the next three years. There's only one other Glasgow student here, but he's doing experimental so we won't see much of each other. He seems nice though. Interestingly enough, it is split into about 50/50 girls and guys and there seem to be about fifty people there. We hung out in the university building for a while and then got lead by a group of former St Andrews students out to a nearby pub. The pub was quickly taken over by a horde of physicists all trying to socialise over drinks. We stopped by a chip shop on the way back and had some atrocious, greasy chips. Needless to say, everyone woke up today with bad hangovers.

We had some interesting planetary and solar system talks today. We have five lectures over the day with a break for coffee at 11 and lunch at 12:30. We're done by 4 so there's still plenty of time to go out. It's really bizarre though to be back listening to lectures, even though they are really informal. One of the lecturers told us specifically to not remember anything from this week except the people we meet; it's a pretty laid-back week. The students from St Andrews again organised a get-together. We decided to go have a bonfire on the beach of the North Sea. Seriously. It was so Scottish. We went to Tesco's to pick up some beers and then headed down to the beach. We set up at the base of the ruins of a castle and hung out until about 11. It was absolutely a fantastic, beautiful scene that took everyone's breath away. I took a few photos, but they can not even do it justice. It was pretty difficult to wake up the next morning, but I had a nice breakfast of haggis and fried eggs to wake me up. The lectures were a bit slow (it was stellar physics...no pun intended) but there was plenty of tea and coffee to keep us all (sort of) awake.

The thing I really appreciate about this conference is being able to meet (almost) all the students in the UK who, in three years, will be receiving PhDs in astrophysics. It forms a nice little club, knowing we're all in the same position. We've had some great advice and lectures from professors all over the UK who are welcoming us into the field. They have been reminding us to keep in mind that we can do our own research, to collaborate with colleagues, basically finally treating us like peers. A great thing about being in the UK is that they are easily able to bring professors who are experts in their field to give hour-long lectures; something that would be difficult to do in the US. Everyone has given us fantastic advice and information that they have learned either during their PhDs or since. I've been really pleased with the high-profile researchers they've been able to get. This has definitely been a great induction to the career.

Wednesday night was our big conference dinner with a ceilidh. The organisers put together a bulk kilt order for the boys so they could be properly dressed. It was really nice to see so many physicists get properly dressed up, even without their mothers there to keep them in line.Everyone looked really lovely and we all had a great time. We had a really fancy dinner in a beautiful hall before proceeding upstairs to the ballroom for a proper ceilidh. It's essentially a mix between a hoe-down and a formal, Edwardian dance. The band taught everyone the dance before we did it so everyone could keep up. Half the fun though was completely buggering the dance up. We had a little after-party back in a hotel room with a few students and lecturers, some beer and the Big Bang Theory. We are physicists, after all, that's how we party.

The lectures continued the next two days with little excitement. They went out to play pub golf on Thursday night, but I (thankfully) passed on that. It's where they print out score cards where each pub is a different "hole", you have a specific drink to have in that hole and your score is the number of sips it takes you to finish that drink. For example, hole number three is The Raisin, you have a pint of ale in par 3, so you have to finish it in 3 drinks or less. It was absolutely insane.

The rest of the lectures were fantastic. They focused on cosmology and observation which are my favourite topics. After the lectures, I went straight home because my 2nd supervisor was throwing a huge dinner party. I really love commuting in Scotland. You just hop on a bus, and 2 hours later, you're across the country. The countryside looks a lot like the farmlands of Colorado, just more "rolling". It really was beautiful though.

I made it back for the party and now I'm really starting to feel at home in Glasgow. It was excellent to get off the bus stop, see the royal concert hall, drop my stuff off at my flat, buy a bottle of wine and run into friends all on our way out to dinner. It's home. We had a great time with great food. We drank a lot of wine and whiskey and had some great laughs. Myself and 2 other girls left at about 1:30am while I heard later that the last to leave left around 5am.

Yesterday I woke up very late with a very bad hangover. I met up with a few people to go to the Auchentoshan Whiskey Festival. I defend my actions on Friday night of drinking half a bottle of Auchentoshan in preparation and respect for this festival. Anyway, this festival was absolutely fantastic. It was basically a little festival just outside of town at the distillery at the base of the highlands. They had booths from various farmers and butchers selling their produce and really good venison burgers. They also had a great kid's area with a bouncy castle, a creepy clown and face-painting. They premiered their new Ale and gave out lots and lots of whiskey samples along with classes on whiskey making and tasting. They also had tours of the distillery, a chainsaw sculptor and a chance to bottle your own whiskey out of the barrel (for a considerable amount of ££ of course). Oh and they also had a free dram with admission, which was only £5. It was an excellent family festival, motivated by whiskey...only in Scotland. They also had a beautiful backdrop of the highlands.

After our massive whiskey consumption, we took the train back into town and went to our favourite curry place, Mr India's. They made me a great Chicken Tikka Madras that was just at that border between spicy and tears streaming down your face. I'm eating the leftovers as I write this. Today was, of course, slow. I did my laundry, practiced some sewing and cleaned my room a bit. Here's until next week!

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!

Men in Kilts

Sorry to disappoint, but this week was far less eventful than the previous weeks. It has mainly been filled with lots of cleaning and working and planning for future weeks. Also, Autumn is completely on it's way. It has been cold, rainy and windy almost every day. Not that bad though, I actually quite like the cool weather and for a place with a high amount of humidity, I still feel that crispness in the air.

I was walking down the street the other day and saw a man that I see regularly walking around my neighbourhood. He walks around wearing a fishing vest, a kilt and boots with his sheepdog walking along his side. This particular day he was holding an open wine bottle at nine o' clock in the morning :) I love seeing him. He's got long hair and a beard as well and is about in his fifties. So classically Scottish. Also there's this boy at the grocery shop who I think has a crush on me. However, I can't understand a WORD he says. It's a complete foreign dialect. Absolutely crazy...I think he just rambles on about having to stock shelves and stock groceries. I basically just follow the inflection without actually knowing what he's saying. He seems satisfied with it. Slowly I'm getting used to the dialect, but I still can't passively take part in conversations. I still have the occasional conversation where I only know part of what is being said because I've missed a few words here and there. I definitely cannot just sit back in a pub and indirectly insert my opinion into the conversation because I lose it as soon as I stop actively listening. It's a bit frustrating, but there you go. One day it will click.

***Skip the following paragraph if you don't want to hear politics****
It's funny to see people get so involved with the healthcare debate. When I first came here and it wasn't really an active issue in America yet, I heard people occasionally ragging on the NHS and it's few problems. However, once America started discussing and insulting the NHS, people here jumped to it's defence. They are actually really proud of it and I think the people here realised that it is actually nice to have free/inexpensive health care, even with the private options that some take. Anyway, it's been interesting to watch and I wish all of you Americans good luck in dealing with the crazies that I've seen "bearing arms" on the streets. Also, in case you haven't been, start watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC; she's doing a great job of summarising everything
*******Done with politics*********

Yesterday I went to the Worlds Piping Championships. It was so fun to watch. It was like a giant, Scottish version of marching band competitions (obviously). Simon Fraser University in Canada won it again. It was really fun to just wander around and see all the groups there rehearsing and performing. Really amazing skill. Speaking of bagpipes, I love living next to the Oran Mor, but I've decided that it's a bit depressing sitting at home on Saturday night with a bottle of wine and Star Wars and hearing a bagpipe wedding party going on just outside my window. Ha ha.

I'm currently getting ready to do a bit of travelling now. I'm heading off to St Andrews next Sunday for a week-long "summer school" for incoming PhD Astronomy students in Scotland. I'm really curious to be going there as I also got an offer to go to that university. It seems like a nice place to visit, but from what I have heard, I made the right decision. It still should be fun to go and meet people. We have a proper ceilidh on Wednesday which I'm really looking forward to as I haven't been to a real ceilidh here yet. (ceilidh = scottish dance/party...sort of a classier hoe-down :) )

In a month I'm off to Budapest, Hungary for the LIGO/Virgo meeting. I'll be gone for a full week and I already have my room and flight set up. I'm really excited about it and should be updating more on it as the time approaches.

That's all for now, folks! Read the information on Health Care and fight for Public Option! Believe me, it's really nice to walk in and out of a clinic without paperwork or money being exchanged.
See you next week!

Scottish Cuisine and Gandalf

This week started out relatively uneventful, which was good as it prepared me for the excitement of the ending. On Thursday night, eleven of us from the department went out to Roastit Bubbly Jocks and no, I didn't have a stroke, that's what it's name is. It was great walking to the restaurant as I ran into four people I knew on the street during my twenty-minute walk; I'm beginning to belong! That's also indicative of how small a little area of a big city can actually be. I may live in a city with almost 800,000 people but I feel like I'm living in a town the size of Boulder.

The restaurant is a traditional, Scottish restaurant with fancy cuisine like venison casserole (like a stew), shellfish pie and beef shin with black pudding. I chose the latter for my meal as I haven't had proper meat in a long time. Oh, did I get my fill. The shin was so well-cooked that I didn't even need a knife to eat it; it just fell apart. Now, I love black pudding. I've had it here on a number of occasions. All the times I've had it have been at relatively cheap places; chip-shops and cheap breakfasts. I had it once with a meal where it was broken into mash potatoes and was really good. But this was a slab of black pudding underneath the meat. Now if you are eating or have a weak stomach, skip the italicized sentences while I explain more. Black pudding is also known as blood pudding as it is a sausage that is made from blood. It is primarily blood with a sort of filler that allows it to congeal when cooled. Most places use oats. I have usually had no problem with black pudding except this time as it wasn't congealed/cooked completely and was not so much black as a dark red that was a bit runny. Yeah, I had a hard time finishing it...though I finally suppressed the gag reflex and finished it. We had a few bottles of wine and a three-course meal for pretty cheap, all things considered. After our meal, a few of us went for a pint at the pub Tennents, near the university then even fewer of us went to the Oran Mor for whiskey before finally going home with full, full stomachs.

The next day was Friday and unfortunately, work was required. Though I did get quite a bit done. I followed the CreoZerg online where PZ Myers took the Secular Students of America to tour the Creation "Museum"...I really appreciated their efforts as they went completely respectfully; they dressed professionally and critiqued the exhibits to themselves. If you're interested, read PZ Myers' blog, Pharyngula. It was really interesting to follow. Anyhow, after work, we met up and went to the Common Rooms, a pub on Byers Road (noticing a theme?) where I had the opportunity to experience another, almost more, famous cuisine in Scotland, HAGGIS. Haggis is basically sheep innards that are minced and mixed with lots of spices and cooked in the stomach for about 3 hours. It was served with blended turnips (neeps) and mashed potatoes (tatties). I actually thoroughly enjoyed it and plan on having it again in the future. I can imagine it would be fantastic with chicken. I've realised that for the most part, the Scottish spent the better part of the previous century perfecting really disgusting foods that were readily available in the highlands. So, as long as you are able to forget what you're eating, and as long as it's cooked well, it's actually really fantastic. I really enjoy the Common Rooms as they tend to thumb their nose at the upper-class west enders. They charge £8.95 for a latte with an exclamation of "bloody west-enders" and with all their fancy salads, they include the "Glasgow Salad" which is a large portion of chips :). I left at about 10pm and wandered home and crashed on the couch to watch a film with my chips from downstairs.

On Saturday (yesterday) I had some shopping to do (mainly for food) and so I headed out early and wandered up and down Byers Road. Then, I was walking past this coffee shop, Morton's, and I saw Sir Ian McKellen sitting out in front, chatting with someone! I was like 98% sure at the time and definitely didn't want to interrupt because I would never come back from being yelled at by Sir Gandeto (Gandalf/Magneto, for you non-nerds...though you probably don't know who those characters are. Hint: Lord of the Rings and X-Men) but he saw me staring and smiled with that look of like, Yes, I am who you think I am. I still wasn't totally sure because it was very surreal and he wasn't dressed in a wizard's robe or a helmet, but I saw a LOT of people on Byers Road who were wearing production shirts from other films (meaning, they were on the crew of various films) then one of my colleagues mentioned that there was filming at the university all day that day. So yeah, that was exciting. Also, I looked up and saw that he's filming a documentary at the moment with Jeremy Irons and Alan Cumming. I (as well as Sir Ian, Jeremy Irons and Alan Cumming) are incredibly thankful that I am no longer 15 years old as I would be out right now trying to track them down...whether they were actually here or not. Anyway, it was still really cool and exciting.

That evening I popped into the office to look up some stuff that I had been working on at home and met up with another girl who was not doing anything that night. We decided to go out for some curry and a goofy film. We tried The Curry Leaf on Byers Road which was REALLY good, but not enough food for the price :( then we walked along Woodlands Road to the City Centre. It was a really nice walk which I repeated this morning. I was able to see a lot of the pubs that people have been recommending to me, but haven't been able to find. We went to the cinema and decided to see The Hangover, which was actually really funny. I don't like those stupid comedies, but this one had some genuinely clever moments. Oh man though, you guys get frustrated with the length of previews in the States? You have nothing on the UK. Since a lot of people don't watch TV or if they do, just watch the few channels available, there's a big industry in advertising at the cinema. There's about 10 minutes of adverts then another 15 minutes of previews. It's unbearable sometimes. Aside from that, though, it was a great movie which served to simply entertain without any brain needed. I got back at about 11:30pm and went straight to bed.

Today was another slow Sunday (which I like) as I walked down Woodland's Road (again) to the City Centre and sat in bookshops all morning. I then came home via the underground, made some tea and hunkered down in my flat for the afternoon. That's where I shall leave you for now. Have a good week!

Edit: I should add that it's cold and cloudy out. Surprise, surprise.

Dabbling in Adventures

So this week was a bunch more "firsts" for me. On Tuesday I spent a few hours discussing Harry Potter with people during coffee and we decided to go see it at the IMAX that evening (we were excited). One of the girls went home first so myself and one other girl decided to walk to the IMAX after work. The IMAX is at the Glasgow Science Centre on the other side of the River Clyde. This was my first time going across the big, scary river. I always knew it was a bit rougher on the other side, so I was a little hesitant...but I was more than willing, especially with other people and to go see Harry Potter. We left right at 6 and walked to the Subway (mmm meatball subs) which was on the way to the theatre and then continued on. It took us about 25 minutes and the centre was right on the other side of the river. It was a really nice stroll and we got there in plenty of time. We got great seats and watched the film. Extremely entertaining was the reactions from Glaswegians, which I adore. One of the adverts before the movie was for this bizarre soda here in Glasgow called Irn Bru (Iron Brew) which was hilarious and can be watched on this link. There's one that is absolutely wonderful that is at this link. One of the girls leaned over and was like "Do we really talk like that?" Quick tangent, there's another Irn Bru ad from Christmas that is set to Nightwish music (with the lyrics changed, obviously)...how bizarre is that (if you're familiar with the fact that Nightwish and Scotland are two of my most favourite, most discrepant things out there)?! You can watch it at this link Okay, anyway, Glaswegians crack me up. There were two guys in front of us that were pretty tough looking, blue-collar workers...you know, picture scary Scots a la Trainspotting. Yeah, they loved the film. Also, so since it was the IMAX 3D, a staff member came out beforehand to explain that we had to put on the dorky glasses to watch the previews and the first 15 minutes of the movie. He was trying to get people excited and ended with "ENJOY HARRY POTTER IN 3D!!!!" and people did the sort of sardonic, snarky, sarcastic 'yay' in response. Not 5 seconds later a preview started in 3D and everyone seriously went "oooooohh" then burst out laughing at being completely contradicted for mocking the 3D. Good times.

On Wednesday I had a crazy busy day with tons of meetings that I'd rather forget about right now, but that evening I met up with the people from work and we went to the Hetherington Research Club which is a private club for university graduate students and staff. Excellent and cheap beer...hooray! We stayed for a few hours then bolted at 9:45pm so we could make it to Marks & Spencers Food Service before it closed...though I instead went to the chip shop.

The next morning I got up and got ready for my trip to East Midlands. I got the underground at 9am and went to Glasgow Queen Street Station. I caught the train to Edinburgh and shared a table with a giant family from Canada. At Edinburgh I got the National Express East Coast train (the one that goes from Edinburgh Waverly to London Kings Cross) all the way to Doncaster. It took about 3 hours and shared a table with a great older British couple who had a daughter who lives on the same street as me (which isn't difficult because I'm on a main street). The train was (of course) delayed, but I managed to catch the commuter from Doncaster to Lincoln. In Lincoln, I met up with my friend Patricia (the reason for the trip) and met her boyfriend, Will. We went and met his family (parents and brother) for lunch/dinner. I don't exactly know how to explain what they were like except maybe like Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) from Keeping Up Appearances. They were quite friendly in a sort-of fake etiquette sort of way. After dinner we drove to their village, Woodhall Spa. It was a nice break as I got away from the traffic and got a home-cooked meal. Though very interesting as this was the first time I really got a taste for racism against the Scottish. I didn't feel that uncomfortable, but a few things that were just casually mentioned were really hurtful...it's a little hard to go into off-hand comments so I can just generalise. I would like to point out, however, the fact that I know tons of English people here in Glasgow. Three of my four flatmates are English, the post-doc and the advisor with whom I work are both from England, etc etc... and I have never met a Scottish person living in England so I think that says something about how the cultures allow the opposite to feel comfortable or not. Ultimately, it was just an interesting social observation. I have never been happier, though, to see the Scottish border and I don't know if it's because I've settled here or because it's just a more relaxed culture.
Anyway, in Woodhall, we went to the Kinema in the Woods which was sort of a WWII cinema with low ceilings, no incline, coat hangers on the wall and an intermission where an organ rises from the front and a man plays while people go buy ice cream. Lots of fun. We did lots of small, english village things like spending hours in the pub and when we got back to the house, the town vicar was visiting for tea. No joke. I felt like I was temporarily in a BBC Wonderland. Glad to be in Glasgow again though.

Last night, I got back from the station and my peers from the department called me. They were getting together at my secondary supervisor's house (he's really laid back) for curry and poker. He lives just up the street from me and we were there until about 1:30am playing poker and drinking immense amounts of German beer. And today I cleaned the apartment and went to the Oxfam Bookshop for a while...that's where I will leave you for now! Cheerio!

36 Hours in Glasgow

The secret is out. The New York Times just released an article on Glasgow this weekend. The link can be found HERE Some highlights are:

"give Glasgow a little extra attention, and you will find that, like the famously inscrutable dialect of its residents, this understatedly stylish city is worth deciphering"

"Join strolling couples...reveling in the 40-acre grounds (of the Botanic Gardens), Victorian glass buildings and, adjacent, the River Kelvin walkway. If that doesn’t settle you, head across the street to Oran Mor...a converted church that houses a beautiful whisky bar with over 250 options, among them peaty Talisker, spicy Glenmorangie and smooth and sweet Macallan. Ahhh, doesn’t that feel better?" -- This next door to me as I, too, live across the street from the Botanic Gardens :)

"Edinburgh has a castle. Glasgow has a cathedral."

Anyway, the article is worth reading especially as it gives advice on cheap ways to get here. Glasgow really is a fantastic city and I grow to love living here every single day.