This week we're back to hopefully more of a theme than last week.
Sorry about the delay too, I blame the Labo(u)r Day weekend (more on
that next week).

Jason

____

Several people have asked me if I've managed to settle into being in
Boston.  I really think the answer to that is yes, mostly because
I've got lots of things planned - that is, I almost have a routine
now.  I'm going to use this last week as an example.

It all started on Sunday which was our house BBQ (this really does
mean something a bit different in terms of the food prepared, but not
to worry).  The reason it was nice is that it was all the people I
live with, which has grown over the last little while.  Including my
lovely (but crazy) landlady there's Anders (who is Danish and very
tall), Angela (who was going to play basketball in Italy except the
paperwork didn't come through - even though she's only 5'4"!!) and
Jessica (who's studying to be a mortician).  So it was actually kind
of fun to have an evening just sitting out and chatting with the
people I lived with.  No photos ensued (as I went and took photos
beforehand and then forgot my camera), but below are a couple of the
porch to prove it was a nice evening, plus a photo you've all been
requesting over the last little while.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3393429&l=25be00abcb&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3393430&l=465ddf2124&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3393428&l=967469591b&id=570906321

My next regular appointment was dinner on Monday with the group (and
group meeting).  This week's group meeting proved to me two things.
Firstly, my boss here is great but thinks he's more hip than he is.
(For those of you in my group, censor yourself now.)  There was the
point where he was discussing that 'flu season was coming and his
wife (who works for Harvard Medical School, I think) was making a
video about hygiene etc for winter and he insisted on demonstrating
the encouraged replacement for a handshake or fist bump, that being
an elbow bump.  There is something just wrong with that.  The second
point was that the word 'sandwich' really does mean something
different here.  Back home, I'd say it means some filling between two
pieces of bread (or equivalent bread-y products ...).  Here, it's
about putting absolutely everything you can find between to bits of
bread such that you can barely get your mouth around it and the
greater the ratio of filling to bread, the more successful you've
been.

Tuesday is Taiko night.  As I think I told you last week, it's a bit
different to home but still there's a lot that's the same about it.
Now that I've been there two weeks, I can add the fact that the most
consistent factor about Taiko players all over the world is that
they're all a bit nuts.  (To those of you getting this who are Taiko
players, take it as the compliment it's meant - from me, it's hardly
a criticism.)  After a really quite fun drumming session (which
involved changing hands halfway through - effectively, doing
everything 'backwards' because it would be fun) I was taken out with
a group for what was clearly a regular after-Taiko meal.  The local
restaurant obviously knew them (actually, I think I saw one of the
staff *shiver* as we came in) and I can see why (on the shivering
too).  What followed was a very raucous evening in which I was
summarily accepted as (a) I am Australian, (b) I gave as good as I
got (particularly to/from the other Australian, who just got back
from visiting Oz and knew my Taiko instructors back home) and (c) I
drum so I really must be OK.

Wednesday was lab clean up day.  Now this might not sound like an
event but the fact that I was just included (and given a list of jobs
to do) made me feel like I was settled in.  It's actually a really
good indication of how well the lab runs.  There are a 'standard'
list of jobs that have to be done every six months or so - everything
from cleaning out rotavaps and changing pump oil through servicing
the instruments and disposing of glass waste to updating the birthday
list and sweeping the lab.  Everyone gets jobs and we do them in the
morning, the boss takes you out for lunch and then you clean up your
area at the end of the day.  I spent much of the day cleaning
rotavaps and also my fumehood (which hadn't been done well, for at
least six months and was disgusting).  To prove it, check out the
below ...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3394794&l=94b8f99d7e&id=570906321

Sidenote.  For all of you who complain about organic chemistry being
boring in terms of colours, you really should see the work of the
person who is on the bench opposite me.  Eric has brilliant
chemistry, which produces compounds of all the colours in spectrum (I
have seen a column which was literally a rainbow, starting with blue
eluting first and ending with red sticking on the column).  His two
major compounds, which we have dubbed "essence of smurf" and "extract
of barney" as they are blue and purple respectively are great but a
photo below is of one of his other cool ones - a weird pink orange.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3394795&l=b31cef2052&id=570906321

Thursday morning is my bike ride, that I still go on with my friend
from BC Cycling.  This is kind of fun because, like the Taiko people,
he's not a chemist and so conversation is on stuff other than work
and the like.  It was really amusing this week because all of Karl's
friends who were away for the summer break came back and so he had
been having a big week (read: I suspect he was out for a 55 km ride
with a fairly big hangover).  It's scarey that he still kept up with
me comfortably.

Thursday night is trivia night with some of my labmates (and their
friends) at Joey's, a pub that is near where I live and that some of
the group stumbled into (not drunk, just needed a pub after orals, a
qualifying exam about a year or so into their PhDs - the difference
in difficulty of PhD programmes is likely to be the subject of a
whole another e-mail).  I've mentioned this briefly before but it
really does need further elaboration.

Point the first:  Joey's was described as a pretty 'dive'
establishment to me by the members of the group.  It still ranks
above the Reg as is - they would be shocked by the old Reg, or
Churchills.

Point the second: Trivia night at these places is a social event.
The same people (well, a fairly significant core) come each week.
You're actually encouraged to bring snacks (I stop at an Irish chip
shop on the way each week and one of the girls in the group often
bakes).

Point the third:  It's run in kind of a weird fashion (well, compared
to how we do it).  There are thirty questions, and you get about
three minutes to write the answer to each one and hand it in.
Typically much drinking ensues.

Point the fourth:  The questions get harder as you get drunker.  This
not just perceived difficulty by the person being asked because they
are becoming drunk but difficulty as judged by the person running it.
This is indicated by the fact that the first ten questions are worth
5 points, the second ten questions are worth 10 points and the last
ten are worth 25 points.  So an early lead is not always useful.

Point the fifth:  Not having a TV, I get all more current affairs
knowledge here.  Concerning given the number of times the National
Enquirer is quoted as the source.

Point the sixth:  They don't skimp.  Third prize is a free round of
drinks.  You expect them to be slightly watered down so when we came
third two weeks ago, I expected my gin and tonic to be mostly tonic.
I think it may have been waved in the rough direction of a tonic
tap/bottle but that's it!

Point the seventh:  Last week we won and it was me!  No, seriously,
we won by one question and I managed to answer a question that noone
else in the room did (not just the rest of my team).  The hilarious
thing was that it was on American History and the Australian got it.
The reason?  Well, it was all because the answer was Teddy Roosevelt
and I had wiki'ed him extensively to write LfA, Part VII.

Finally on the scheduled front was my weekly organic staff lunch on
Friday.  The neat thing about this week was that many of the senior
people were away but I was still invited to go out with the others.
Made me feel included - insert warm fluffy statement here! :-)

So the bottom line is that I'm settled because I have a schedule.  I
feel like there are things for me to do.  And I'm not sure I really
expected it, but I'm pleased.

Finally, the leftover portion from last week as I now have my camera
cable back.  Before I left DC, Becca thought that it would be a good
idea to check out a Lego exhibition that was being held in the area.
Now we were expecting something more along the line of large exhibits
(a la Legoland or even James May's Lego House
(http://starcasm.net/archives/13574)) but it turned out to be more of
a Lego club event.  Now this is all well and good but neither Becca
nor I had much desire to sit around with 45 year old men discussing
Lego once we've seen the exhibits, such as they were.  However, there
was one thing that made me incredibly amused - see the photos below -
the aim is to see if you can see what I'm talking about in the first
photo before clicking on the second.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3393371&l=dcd5b1d4a7&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3393372&l=cbdff392c8&id=570906321

Next week:  The undergrads are back ... a focus on college pride with
an emphasis (probably) on football.
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