It was going to be another themed week but I find it's Sunday night
(and well past the time that I normally write these e-mails) and I've
only just gotten onto this.  Sadly, I think this might be the pattern
in the next month as this is the last weekend I'm in Boston until the
end of November.  So this week is going to be further accounts of
going on this week in Boston.

Jason

___

My rather busy time in the US continued this week with lots of stuff
around Boston.  Of particular interest was my visit to Tufts
University on Wednesday.  I had gotten an invite from someone I had
never met but who was really good mates with a person I went through
undergrad with at U of Adelaide and who now works in Boston.  He
(Charlie Sykes) is a physical chemist and we suspect we passed each
other in the corridors at Cambridge (he was finishing his PhD when I
was a postdoc there).

The visit was a bit odd for a number of reasons, not least because
we'd both heard a lot about each other through people we know in
common.  On that note, we do seem to have an overlap of a lot of
people we know - weird.  Then there's the fact that even when I put
an incredibly physical bent on things, I'm still an organic chemist.
Charlie on the other hand does single molecule imaging at 5 K in
ultrahigh vacuum and has built a 'quiet room' (<20 db) so his
instruments will work.  So while we had interesting chats, we do come
at things from very different perspectives.  His group were somewhat
bemused by my talk in that I think they spent the entire time
wondering how Charlie knew me.  (This may not have been helped by the
fact that Charlie, being Irish, took me to the pub before my talk ...)

Tufts itself is a nice university but is very much an undergrad
institution.  The faculty is quite small (about 15 staff) and the
graduate intake is approximately the same (15 per year).  The point
that I noted that was a little unusual was that for a hardcore
physical chemistry group, Charlie's is virtually entirely female.
Nope, I'm not being sexist, I'm just pointing out that this
definitely isn't the norm.

It is worth noting that apart from having a very fun day and being
taken to an Irish pub for lunch, I also got given a gift for going
there.  Now, this follows on from my 'college pride' discussion last
week and reminds me that I should send a picture of what the guys at
UNH gave me when I visited there.  So, from UNH I got given a UNH
Chemistry pint glass (very cool) and Tufts gave me a Tufts Chemistry
laser pointer (also very cool).  Frankly, I'm liking visiting these
places for the souvenirs alone!

Pictures can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3548468&l=375fa27179&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3548469&l=a1dde2508a&id=570906321

I also had a couple of classes to teach this week for Larry while he
was still away.  Nothing too exciting there (the occasional chuckle
about my accent, and the fact that I use kJ - what is it with kcals
anyway!) but it turned out I was lucky I didn't have a class on
Friday.  "Why?", you might well ask - because it was parents weekend,
starting Friday.  Apparently (on asking one of my colleagues) this is
not particularly unusual and parents (particularly of the freshmen)
tend to visit to see how their kids live.  I can't imagine my family
ever 'coming to Uni with me' let alone travelling a distance to do
so.  But it does happen.  And they're encouraged to go to lectures
with their kids.  One of my colleagues (who is a little younger than
me) said he freaked out when he walked into a class and there were
all these adults there.

This weekend also saw the AFL grand final.  Now, this isn't something
that you necessarily think about doing when you're in the US (and
don't have cable) but fortunately for me the Boston Demons (yes,
they're actually supported by the Melbourne football club) hosted an
AFL football party.  So for one afternoon, an Irish pub in Cambridge
became a little part of Australia.  The club had recorded the final
(which was played on one of the sports channels on direct feed from
Channel Ten - with Quarters, Malcolm Blight, Robert Wahls and all
...) and replayed it in its entirety.  It was _fantastic_ - I've
never felt so Australian in my life.  Not only did almost everyone in
the bar (about fifty people - you felt sorry for those who'd just
walked in for a pint) join in for the national anthem but they pretty
much did for a sing-a-long with John Farnham.  (By the way, have
Australia failed to produce any new talent in the last 20 years -
this years grand final entertainment did seem to have an 'old fogey'
element to it ...)  The MC was called 'Damo'.  His second was called
'Macca'.  There was a handball competition and prizes included
Vegemite.  The bar served Coopers and meat pies.  I wore a Swans
shirt and got harassed by the guy in a WC Eagles jumper, only to be
defended by another guy in a Swans jersey.  We all pointed at the
Collingwood supporter.  There was much cheering and whooping at the
football (which was a fine game in the end, though the side I was
supporting lost ...) and much merriment was had by all.

To finish with this week, just a note that the timing of these
letters will be a little sporadic over the next little while.  There
will still be one per week but when it gets written and sent will be
somewhat dependent on goings on.  But it does mean that there should
be interesting travel adventures.

Next week:  A short one on the joys of the postal service.
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