Happy Holidays

Well, after about a month, I've finally returned home (my "real" home) after a whirlwind of a time down in Texas.  It feels really good to come home.  It only took me half a day before my seeds of doubt were planted in my subconscious as to whether the last month actually occurred or not.  Did I really move down to Texas or was that just a very long dream?  Everything looks normal and "same old" here in Richmond Hill...what's the date?  Then I look around my room at my empty desk, re-organized and nearly empty closet and remember that most of my stuff is indeed a 3-4-day drive southwest from here.  Luckily I flew back this time...the first of many 1-layover trips I'll be making, since there are not direct flights between Lubbock and Toronto.  This time, I flew with American Airlines involving a 1-hour flight to Dallas and then a 3-hour flight to Toronto.  The layover isn't too bad.  Dallas' airport isn't that monsterously huge and it gives me time to have some nice BBQ'd food...they even have a nice pub there - maybe next time I'll plan for a longer layover!  One thing I noticed at the airport is that although they sell cheap liquor there, there is pretty much NO wine there...kind of disappointing because I wanted to bring some cheap wine back this time when I came back.  Weird indeed.

Anyway, it's great to be able to see some friends while back - even already got to invite some over for poker the other day!  And for the first time, I had 2 tables going!  My kind of entertainment!  I also had the chance to have a family dinner and it was nice being able to see relatives since I'm not really sure when the next time will be before I can return to Canada.  With them, I tried this game called Monopoly: The Card Game - an abbreviated version of Monopoly that involves collecting properties and trying to make others pay you and preventing other players from collecting properties.  The game ends when someone collects 3 sets of properties (i.e. Boardwalk and Park Place) either by chance or by stealing/trading (via action cards as opposed to free trading) from/with other players.  The game is fairly quick and is probably over in about 20 minutes.  I think it could be a bit longer, but it's a great short game that can keep you entertained for hours.  Sure, a game like Puerto Rico or Settlers of Catan may require a bit more planning and strategy, but they both have their good points.  For one, the quickness of the game may prevent some from getting confused by having to think and asking "When does the FUN begin?" out of boredom, in reference to games like Puerto Rico.

While I'm not as lucky to get to go to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve like some (again), I hope to have a great time spent with good friends, one of whom will soon be giving birth to triplets!  I can't even imagine what a process that must be like!  My admiration goes out to both the mother-to-be, who has to deal with all this, and the father-to-be, who must deal with the mother-to-be in these last weeks...

I don't even really want to think about having to return to Texas...cause then the work really begins.  My supervisor is a really nice lady and took the lab out to lunch.  To my relief, I think so far I'm meeting or exceeding her expectations as to my being competent in the lab, but I'm not so sure I'm meeting my own expectations because I feel so sluggish doing things around the lab...sure, I'm doing things that I haven't really done before and in a setting where I don't know where things are kept and how the standard way of doing things are, but I really do hope I (continue to) keep my end of the bargain and keep that learning curve from appearing to be too steep! 

A few more days of relaxation for now...then it's back to Texas.  And when I get back, I'll have to start trying to explore the city.  It's so spread out and things are so hidden to me because I may not know of certain places (say restaurants or bars/pubs) that it almost seems easy to just lock myself in my apartment and just watch episodes of Fringe that a couple of my cousins were generous enough to give me for Christmas, but alas, I shall try to get out and explore a bit more in Janurary...and I guess I won't have the excuse of not wanting to shovel my car out of the parking lot or it being too cold, cause apparently it's still about 17-degrees Celcius there around now.  I'm sure this will be a main topic of my blogs in the immediate future...how I'm "finding" Lubbock to be...so make sure you check up on me every now and then!

Thanks to all the friends and family that are making my holidays so enjoyable.  I will surely miss being in Richmond Hill.  And so with these last several days here, I shall watch as much Leafs and Team Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championships as I can...Canada vs. Sweden on New Year's Eve at 4pm for top spot in their group and a bye to the semi-finals.  I'll have returned to Texas before the finals, which I'm glad will be streamed on tsn.ca because I doubt they'll broadcast it on TV there (unless maybe it's the final gold medal game and the US is playing, in which case I hope Canada can take revenge and get the gold).

Happy holidays and cheers.

A Month of Experiences

Right now time seems to be going a little slower than it really is.  The month I've spent away from "home home", i.e. Richmond Hill, seems as if it were about twice as long.  Again, it's probably due to the amount of stuff I had to take care of just getting to where I am now.  Someone has also been doing minor and moderate repairs to my apartment ever since I've moved in (upon my own request)...most of that's done now and I'm much more satisfied...especially the guest bathroom toilet leaking water and thus causing the tank to have to refill ever so slightly every 10 minutes and as a result making noise all the time...quite annoying and now the problem's fixed.  Tomorrow however, Sears has to come exchange my mattress because a little while ago I realized they had sent me the wrong one.  Luckily they'll do this for free, but I'll have to stay home tomorrow morning to let them in.  Sears actually used this computer system to make an automated call to my number to confirm the details and 2-hour window of delivery, which I thought was pretty neat and technologically sophisticated...do we have that back in Canada?  Anyway, at least I can plan my day this way.

So this weekend my car became more Texan because having registered my car with the State of Texas, I received new license plates to put onto the car...something that I've never done before because cars in Canada always appear to already have them on and never gets taken off.  I did this exchanging of license plates not without a sense of sadness...I feel as if my car and my life are slowly being swallowed up by the enormity that is the United States...American phone, phone number, address, work, health insurance, car insurance, currenty, bank accounts...and now I'm even forced to start using their weird way of spelling things, like "color" instead of "colour" and "neighbor" instead of "neighbour"...and even more nitty gritty things like using mm/dd/yyyy instead of dd/mm/yyyy, the latter of which I had convinced myself was the more systematically logical format to use years ago...and now I have to change cause that's how it's done down here.  Thank heaven that science is done in the metric system...that's right, grams, meters and Celcius....not pounds, quarts and Fahrenheit...that would have driven me insane.  English and the Metric system are god-sends that have been adopted by the scientific community - that I am thankful for.

A little over a week ago, I may have mentioned that I've finally obtained an American "checking" account (that's right, no more "chequing")...but would you believe it, the same bank that I signed up for that account with denied me a credit card!  It's something I took for granted in Canada...having too many of them.  I think ever since the recession hit down here, banks have been much more stringent of who they give credit cards out to...finally, I guess and understandably so.  But it's just not something I'm used to.  Luckily the debit card I got, which they call and "instant debit" card...actually has credit card-like methods of usage on it, such that it's linked with "Visa" and can be used as if it were an actual credit card (you sign for it and can use it online even), but the money is instantly debited from your account rather than have you pay for it at the end of a month's time.  So it's basically a debit card...but a little different.  There are a lot of American tendencies that I don't quite understand fully.   Ah...here's one more...they don't recycle here.  OK, technically you do, but there are only 3-4 places in the city you can drop off glass bottles and cardboard etc. off at...and not in very conveneient places.  I'm at least used to returning glass beer bottles foa a deposit back, but nope...not here...and they still use plastic bags at the grocery store (though interestingly enough some places ask you each time if you prefer the traditional brown paper bags you see on TV but never in real life).  I may try to collect some recyclables in the future, but it's a huge hassle without road-side pick up to recycle...they don't recycle, compost or pick up old furniture.  Heck, styrofoam is still a common material at fastfood joints...even in the cafeteria where I work!  Wow...there's something I haven't seen in a long time!

The holidays are coming up though...it'll be a nice "recharge" back in familiar territory before the long haul back down in Texas.  I'm not sure when I'll be visiting Richmond Hill (or Canada for that matter) in the near future.  In April, I have a wedding to go to but that's in Boston...there's a wedding back in Toronto I'd like to attend in the summer, but I have no idea how my work schedule will be...and flights aren't a little more than a few bucks in the bucket. 


Speaking of money, this is the first time when my cell phone bill with taxes will come to about $90.  The first month was ~$140...Sprint charged me all these fees and some options we didn't agree to...I cancelled them, but that'll only take effect next month...so it'll still be like $100.  However, I must say that 4G speeds are really nice and I'm using my phone as a wireless router, i.e. I get high-speed internet access anywhere I take my phone and am using that at home instead of cable internet...so I guess in the end, I'm either saving money or at least getting to use a smartphone instead of a regular phone...and I do enjoy technology...I can finally use FourSquare!  Haha...I've also found a way to make free long-distance calls throughout North America using Google Voice (Google Voice and Video in Canada...slightly different).  Ironically, when I come visiting to Canada, I can't use this service because it goes through my internet usage (unlimited right now), which will be unacceptably high while roaming in Canada.  Ah well, at least I'm making the most of it down here.

Now to enjoy some R&R back up in beautiful Canada...darn, I'll have some winter clothing back...and airlines charge $25/suitcase one way...let's see how well I can pack a carry-on...

Almost Settled In

Well, it's been a full three weeks since I've left Canada - it feels longer than three weeks however, since I've had to get so much done...the drive that was spread out 4 days already felt like a week.  Looking for housing only took a couple days, but felt like 3-4.  I've also had to buy a lot of things for my apartment, of which they've finally all arrived (with the exception that I need to get my mattress exchanged cause they gave me a slightly different model)...but all in all, things are starting to come together.  I still have yet to organize my study/guest room, where my desk and a few boxes are still laying unorganized in a corner...I guess using my office has been a lower priority with work and going out shopping for things for my apartment recently, added to the fact that I've been sitting in my work office a lot these past weeks getting settled in at work and doing a bunch of safety courses...of which I have more to do (next up: radiation training...fun).  I am glad though that at least I finally have a couch for my body to relax on (as apposed to sitting on the floor, which is at least carpetted) when watching TV.  Oh, and I finally have a bank account here...just need a credit card, then my life will be much simpler!

I'm a bit anxious to do some "real" work though in the lab...get my hands wet doing some experiments.  It's still a little disorganized on that front cause a third of our lab is moving next door and I have yet to really claim my spot in the (main) lab...some of the benches are a bit messy and if I'm gonna work, I'm going to have to clean and organize it!  Of course, some may say it's already "fine", but you gotta know where everything is that you need and that will already take some time for me apart from my own lab bench.

The people at Texas Tech University Health Science Center are nice, as are the people in my lab.  I do notice that most people are a bit more friendlier than I'm used to in Toronto.  They don't exactly stand there and hand you free beer, but I'd say at least 6 out of 10 people will smile or say hello to you (even if they don't know you), 9/10 people will do so if they've seen you before and as apposed to in Toronto, where I think about 1/10 people would say hello to you if they didn't know you and maybe 4/10 would do so if they've seen you before (i.e. a co-worker in another department).  People are also courteous on the roads...there is no road rage and people would rather wait a full minute before making a left turn into oncoming traffic rather than rush into traffic and expect others to let them in...then again, there isn't much traffic in Lubbock.

Although there are a few things that will take a little while getting used to, like how spread out everything is, one thing that I'm finding easy to get used to are cheap booze ($5/bottle wine, $6-8/6 bottles of beer) (I guess cost of living is generally lower too, especially with only 8.25% federal tax) and the warm climate...Again, the swings can be more than I'm used to, both within a day and between days.  Today, it's -3 degrees Celcius to about 8 degrees...a bit chilly by Texas standards.  But just a couple days ago, although the low was also around freezing, the high got above 20 degrees!  I guess you really have to dress in layers cause you never know exactly what the weather's going to like!  But hey, I'm not complaining, I can still see green outside as opposed to snow.

Now to get on track at work...which will be hard to do with the holidays coming up!  I can feel the urgency to get going...and I'm sure January will be a busy month for me!

Easing In

Well, my first week of work has come and gone and I've started to get settled into my new apartment.  In terms of work, it was more of just getting settled into my office, which I share with two other PhD students, one of which works in my lab.  At least I my desk is next to a floor-to-ceiling window, looking out to what is now a dried-up golf course and then onto the expanse of northern Lubbock, plains as far as the eye can see, full of farms, most of which grow cotton.  I couldn't really "do" anything other than get settled in and start reading some papers pertinent to my project because a) I'm technically not allowed to do lab work until I complete mandatory safety classes/exams (only takes a couple days to complete), b) I need to find out more about my project and read up more on background information, c) I have to turn my brain on, which may take a little extra kick and d) I've been really busy getting my SSN, a phone and had many items of furniture delivered.  So anyway, it was kinda slow at work, but I got to meet many people, half of who I have already forgotten their names.  But it's interesting that somehow I feel as if I'm treated with a little bit more respect being a post-doc vs. a graduate student - or maybe that's just in my head...ah well, so far I'm really enjoying this transition.  I'm sure I'll have my struggles when I start doing lab work again, and learning lots of new things - let's just hope this learning curve isn't too steep, cause somehow I get the feeling that there are a lot of expectations (and justifiably so) from my supervisor and probably others.  But at least my supervisor seems supportive and really happy that I've joined her lab.

As for my apartment, I've just gotten my TV and a TV stand (which weighed a hefty 100 lbs!)...tomorrow I will pick up a cable box and at least will be able to watch TV!  This past week, I also received my SSN, which is like the golden ticket in the USA - without it, I couldn't do much...having received it yesterday, I was finally able to sign a cell phone contract.  These are a maximum of 2 years in the US, vs. 3 years in Canada, something, I'm appreciative.  And as I did at Queen's University throughout my graduate studies, I got a discount being affiliated with an educational institution...not much, but hey, I'll take the 15%.  So I got the HTC Evo 4G that's only offered by Sprint.  Yup, it's 4G, as apposed to "3.5G" in Canada because the network protocols used in Canada aren't compatible with these higher speeds and neither Rogers or Bell will likely be willing to put lots of money to do a network overhaul required to support 4G in the next long while.  The phone comes with an unlimited messaging and data plan (which is useful considering the speeds akin to high speed internet (lite) I'm used to.  I've since started using my phone as an internet source by connecting it to my computer via the provided USB cable and through downloading a free app on the phone and program on my computer.  My next step is to remove the requirement for this cable to use the internet on my laptop and turn my phone into a wifi hotspot.  However, in order to do that, I need to "root" my phone (give it administrative options, not possible with the iPhone) and install a bunch of things...it's actually quite complicated and I haven't mustered enough courage to try it, but I'm watching lots of youtube videos and reading lots of material to help me prepare for it!  That way, whenever I'm near my phone (i.e. it can be in my pocket), I can use my laptop and surf the internet at high speeds (where 4G is supported) anywhere...on the road, at work, at a coffee shop, at many major cities throughout the US...but then again, at worst, the cable can act as the internet carrier and a way to keep my phone charged.

What's next...well, although I can't do this on the weekend, I'll need to purchase car insurance (I'm still covered by my previous insurance purchased in Canada), then get my car serviced and inspected by a certified dealer (just testing to make sure the basic mechanics work - brakes, lights, wipers, etc.), which is required if I am to be able to officially register my car in the State of Texas.  This is supposed to be completed before a month past my arrival date...so as long as I get this before Christmas, I'm fine.

I've also received my bed frame, so hopefully I can get that built this weekend before my mattress gets here on Monday...I also received a toaster oven I ordered and expect a microwave Monday and a blu-ray player...all that would then be missing is a couch to sit on to enjoy my new TV!  I'm gonna put the Men's Final from the Olympics on and blast the Canadian National Anthem for all to hear!! (and then run and hide so I don't get beaten).

Eek, Monday and half of Tuesday I have to go for new employee orientation...I've heard it was boring to the point of torture - not looking forward to it, but I don't know what I don't know, so I can't imagine how bad it'll be until it's too late...let's hope I survive it!

Lastly, it got up to 26-degree Celcius today, while the nights get down to freezing - the temperature swings can be a LOT compared to 4-5 degrees back in Toronto...tomorrow the high will only be 13 degrees.  Geese are starting to arrive from probably Canada...that's right, they ARRIVE in the winter...I'm so used to birds leaving as winter approaches...they arrive now...so different...as are the tumbleweeds I see every so often and which I almost drove into this past week.  Apparently they get piled up high on fences at a certain time of the year...

Btw, did I mention booze are super cheap down here?  $9 for 1.5L of Yellow Tail wine (or $6-7 for a regular sized bottle)!  Alright...that was a lot of typing...until next time...hopefully my apartment will be close to organized soon!

Getting Started, But Not Quite Settled

Well, I've finally moved into my new apartment this past Monday.  It was also technically my first day at work.  Luckily work in an academic setting is more relaxed than what I would expect in a private (pharmaceutical) company.  There was some paper work I needed to get done at work, so I showed up nice and early to get that done.  My plan was to get all the nitty gritty out of the way that day and quickly go my new apartment to get the keys, sign the necessary forms and finally be able to dump everything that had been packed in my car for 11 days into my new place and spend the rest of the day trying to get things somewhat organized and figure out what necessities I had to buy that very day.  It turns out my supervisor had to show up late that day and I didn't even get a chance to see her before leaving!  Luckily she knew I was moving in and I think it was alright that I left early my very first day of work!

Anyway, the move went quite smoothly.  It was really nice to be able to turn around from the driver's seat and see all my blind spots perfectly and the car almost felt lighter!  But before I was able to organize my stuff, I needed to buy essentials...stuff you take for granted...like toilet paper, soap, shampoo/conditioner, a shower curtain...even a pillow - stuff you might be able to do without your own if you were at a hotel.  But this time it's an empty box of an apartment and that's all you have!

It's been two full days since I've moved in and I still haven't gotten around to unpacking my suitcases fully.  Even tonight, I'll have to spend some time picking up some used furniture that I've been able to purchase from people working in my current building (so they're legit and reliable)...that'll basically be my evening, and I'll yet again be left with stuff I wanted to get around to organizing/unpacking, but unable to.  Oh, did I mention that until yesterday, I didn't even have a chair to sit on?  That's right, and empty apartment with no table, no chairs, no desks, no food, no bed, no mattresses...just carpet and that's about it.  What I brought in my car was mainly computer-related (which have no desk to rest on at the moment) and some essential kitchenware like utensils, a few pots, a pan, a few inexpensive plates/bowls/cups, a coffee maker, toaster, kettle...stuff like that.  Clothes and other stuff took up most of the rest of my space in my car driving down.  But that still leaves me without any furniture!  As you may have read though, I did manage to buy some things via the Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Saturday Sale weekend online and in person.  Unfortunately most things take 1-3 weeks to arrive...and then they insist on calling me the night before/day of to confirm shipping when I don't have a phone number!

Other "luxuries" like a TV will come later this week; cable will be easy to get.  But until I have a Social Security Number (SSN), I won't be able to sign a cell phone contract, which will also act as my internet connection...so until then, I'll still be cut off from the outside world apart from when I'm at work or at Starbucks - I'm glad they have free wi-fi.

So admist all this and a lot more I won't bore you with, I'm also starting work...everything is pretty much new to me and I'm having to really start to dig deep, do a lot of reading and learning things trial-by-fire style...luckily my supervisor is a really kind woman and the rest of the people in the lab are friendly - I shall hope that things go smoothly and my learning curve is not too embarrassingly steep.  After all, I am a post-doc...I'm "supposed" to know everything about everything, right?  Haha...

Even at work, there's still a lot of inconviences to overcome, like not even having internet access - I need to get others to log me in until I complete an orientation next week...luckily I was able to get all the necessary keys and be registered with payroll.

Anyway, lots more things to buy, organize and do before I can truly feel "settled"...and then there be more inconviences I have to deal with, like insurance, registering my car, getting a bank account, etc...yikes...I wouldn't want to go through this every year (unless a jab was worthwhile!)!