apartment???

So alex, a French Canadian postdoc with whom I might live (read later) took me around for a tour. He shared some of his Cardiff experiences, some nice and pleasant, even gentle, some – not exactly. He told me about getting a pint, an empty one albeit, thrown at him in a pub, and of some other drunkard behaviors he saw here. The british have a way about them when they drink. Man, they get belligerent!

Anyway, alex(andre girouard!) took me into parts of the city that are a way from the centre. This included a very nice park with a lake with row boats, a street with many trees on it – not that common of a scene amongst the residential areas, and the house, on that tree-street, on which we might live. Now for the people that haven’t heard this story, I’ll repeat it cause its kind of funny. And because I like telling stories.

So, my first connection to Cardiff from the states was through a Hungarian lady that my mom set me up with. She was really nice, pretty, sweet – but turned out to be 40. Further, it also turned out I was quite unready still. But we did go to the possibly most expensive dinner I ever paid for (well halfies…) Anyway, she told me of Hungarian friends of hers that live in Cardiff, and gave me their email. So I emailed, asked how Cardiff is, what is it like for foreigners here, which areas to live at, etc. Magor emailed me back (is this a common Hungarian name? does it mean something like ‘giant goulash eater?’) and said that they are actually leaving and that they are looking to rent out the flat they bought. Two bedrooms, in Roath, a good area near the uni. Sounded good except that, where was I going to find a person that I wanted to live with? At about the same time, I started emailing alex, Michael’s (the Russian advisor who is here in Cardiff) postdoc. I asked similar questions, some more university based and math department based. Anyway, he then mentions that he wants to leave his apartment and move into a bigger place. So if I want… so we skype it up, I interview him, make sure he is neat around the kitchen, that he has hobbies outside the math department, and that he doesn’t sound totally weird. He passes. I send him to check the apartment… turns out to be 2 min from his place and he loves it, says its one of the best he saw in Cardiff. Funny like that, I felt like a mafia boss!!! Hilleletto!!

And you know when you talk to a person you never met you imagine them in a certain way? And then its funny to compare what they really look like to what you imagined? So I imagined alex as tall, skinny, dark hair. Totally totally wrong. Short, pretty short, red hair. Somewhat skinny, maybe stocky is the right word. And a very very nice guy. Seems like a good match. Problem is, he is doing a job interview in Switzerland (after only 1 year of postdoc!!! Gives some hope…) this Friday. So if he doesn’t get it, we’ll be there. If not, I have to figure something out…

Bristol

Uzy suggested we go to Bristol, a near-by city, yet in a completely different country… (England rather than Wales) where he would take us around on a tour. He claimed to prefer Bristol to Cardiff due to its higher cultural value and its nature - it has a large river going through its city centre. Cardiff has a river as well yet it’s not as an integral part as it is in Bristol where there are taxi boats and a similar feel at times to Venice. Ok, that is a huge exaggeration, but still, anything or an Italian connection.

Bristol turned out to be very cute. Very hilly, lots of small streets, many small piazzas with fountains and statues, a large cathedral which was closed due to some special ceremony (still went up to the door to look inside and waved at the attendees, they are quite shocked by this type of behaviour, its funny… - and I just spelled behavior Britishly!!!), many small pretty churches and museums. Britain’s largest suspension bridge built by the famed engineer Brunello (there’s a university in London named after him). It also claims to have a great music scene. Didn’t get to experience this, but maybe next time around. There is a good quantum chaos group there, so I am sure I’ll be visiting it somewhat often. Already talked to a couple of professors there who said I should come give a talk, so… interestingly though, Uzy didn’t tour with us as we missed the train. Well technically, we were literally 20 seconds late. But he didn’t wait. We then proceeded to miss the next train as well…. Ahh…. It was a strange turn of events. Anyhow.

Ok, back to Bristol. Its really cute and seemed to have a higher cultural value than Cardiff (it wasn’t bombed as much during WWII). Yet it turns out to be a somewhat controversial city. It was a major port city back in the days. Especially for ships going from Africa to the new colonies (i.e. the U.S.). Hmmm. What were those ships carrying, anyone remember their US history? Bananas? Nope. Corn? Maybe in the opposite direction. Did I hear it? Yeah, over there, in the cheap seats. Yipe, slaves. So lots of the money spent in the city’s cultural centers came from the slave trade. In fact, Fabien, the French Swiss who is joining Uzy’s group next year and is finishing his PhD in Bristol, told us that many of the statues are in fact of people who were quite involved in the slave trade and hence many want to take them down. Further, one of the main parts of city is called ‘blackboy hill’. No need for explanation there, I think…

So yeah, I prefer Cardiff. But I did have my first fish n chips for this trip, and it was quite good.

Hillel has arrived in Cardiff, Wales. Hillel was quite worried about Cardiff, the food, the people. Anxious to get there, anxious to see that it’s a livable place for him, that there is food to eat, people worth meeting, and that it doesn’t rain all the time.

Hillel arrived in Cardiff on the train Friday evening with his maybe large bags of things and relatively large sack of worries. It was warmer than in Nottingham, and the sky was somewhat blue (which in the UK means extremely good weather). He arrived in the dormitories, where the conference goers are staying, to discover cute little rooms with small beds, sheets of navy blue and a carpet of a similar tinge. The window looked out to a park, very green, and was intimately talking to a tree in the yard. The ethernet cable required a password, and hence did not allow for online access, yet Hillel circumvented this trouble to get onto skype and notify his mother that even though he hasn’t blogged for two whole days, he in fact, was still alive.

In the evening, Uzy took the group for a tour of Cardiff. Hillel discovered people in the lively streets, restaurants that were packed and with food that looked edible and even, gasp, good, and shops that carried vegetables – in the right colors (tomato – red, cucumber – green, carrot – orange, etc.) and with the right odors. Cardiff seemed like a possibly hospitable place. Uzy then proceeded to explain a variety of things about the city, detailing the castle in the city centre (=downtown) and the 20^th century renovations done to it by a rich family (under the so claimed influence of opium…), to the exact details of which supermarket to shop at. To Hillel’s contentment, Uzy knew where the outdoor market was and which area of the city centre carried gourmet/ethnic foods such as humus and Italian cheeses. Hillel was feeling better and better.

Soon the group noticed funny colored cowboy hats that worn by various people. The ladies out were all dressed as if to weddings, fully decked out in heels and fancy, yet fashionable dresses, the men on the other hand were not. Yet both genders were wearing these awfully colored hot pink, spicy red, cowboy hats. Rami, one of Uzy’s most advanced PhD students asked a man who tried to sell him hats about this. The man, who turned out to be a Romanian immigrant, remarked that the British are strange. He even proceeded to call them a name and gestured with his hand, implying their sexual preferences. Soon the group realized that everyone around them was getting quite quite drunk. Typical for a weekend night, maybe, Hillel wondered.

Soon, an epiphany hit Hillel and realized that he has been capitalizing words at the beginning of sentences and writing everything in third person… It might be a strange three years!!!

last eve in nottingham...

nice conference. enjoyed it for sure and met some folks from bristol which is the nearest english town to cardiff. everyone says that bristol has a very happening music scene. cool. not as cool - most people from bristol haven't been to cardiff. mates, its 20 minutes on the train - and its a different country!!! i know, i know, the english think of wales kind of like what america thinks of canadia (bring it s!), but com'on, how can you resist that dragon?

took a nice walk yesterday into a park right next to the uni. the park is completely walled because, ready for this? - there are deer in it. they want to keep them in the park. it is a huge park and it has a castle (i was corrected and told it was a hall- huh? no idea what that means). very cool. so we played frisbee there, taught some europeans and isralies the beauty of ultimate. sweet!!!

and then tonight we had the conference dinner right next to the park in a place named Mr. Man. now you know, that kind of place is gotta be either an immigrant's restaurant or a strip club. well, it wasn't a strip club... but chinese food here is way way less spicy. and the funniest thing of the night - i got asked by the other participants to thank the organizers. you know, get a glass of wine, get everyone's attention and say a few words about their great organizational skills and incredible choice of food. the reason i was asked? they decided i spoke the best english...

bring it!!! and tomorrow - back to the scene of the crime - cardiff... (picture is for my mom, so shut up all of you)

sleeping and food

so my first night here, i am jet lagged and all, so i wake up at around 5 in the morning. there is total day light, cause its england and its summer (sun goes to bed around 10:30). go back to sleep with a shirt over my eyes - manage till about 7. not bad for a first night. jet lag almost gone. so second night, i figure around the same. i got to sleep around 12:30 (went to a local pub, what else?). i had asked the guy next to me to wake me up when he gets up, around 7:15. i wake up around 5 again. so i go back to bed. i wake up again. check on my computer the time (of course i got no clock, especially no alarm clock...). it says 2:30 am. very nice. except that is california time. add the 8 hours. its 10:30. classes started at 9. and yeah, this is probably my first double digit night of sleeping of the year! but my new advisor is lecturing, and i am not sure this will impress him...

meanwhile i have been able to connect with the other foreigners by complaining about the food. i mean, the two catered lunches were sandwiches. sounds good, right? except they were awful. one was shredded carrots with shredded cheddar. that's it. some others - stuff that looked like meat (didn't tast much like anything). stuff that smelled like humus (not even talking about that). stuff that pretended to be egg salad. i mean, i was so desperate for somethign fresh to eat, i went back and ate all the green garnishes.
then today, they decided to give us essentially the same food, except let us make the sandwiches... at least there was fruit and tomatoes. i am getting worried.
but i did make friends with a guy from cypress just lamenting about this (hopefully i won't lose too many british friends... though the british girl that's here did say that the food was quite good... yikes.).

it might be a long three years...

the sheriff of...

Nottingham is a cute little city. the uni is very pretty and the maths department (notice the S!) is quite quite large. in the middle of the town there is a large rock where there are a bunch of caves dug (supposedly they served as shelter during world war II bombings) and on top a small castle. quite small. in fact, you wouldn't even guess it was a castle. yet this castle, is the famous robin hood castle. disney, mel brooks and kevin costner really embellished it...
there is also the so stated, oldest pub in the UK. 1189 they claim, when the crusaders returned from jerusalem (it is called Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem). it is in the rock as well. in fact, a piece of the rock that fell from the ceiling, prompted us to leave (yet there are no earthquakes here...)
just for tourists, there are a bunch of robin hood statues around the rock. there is also a target practice area in sherwood forest -or what's left of it... unfortunately, the conference did not take a tour in that direction, but rather...

we went to the Green windmill!! that's right, we saw a windmill. now, it turns out that a very famous mr. Green lived there - not the one from Reservoir dogs though (is there one?), but rather the same one as in Green's theorem and Green's functions (to be always remembered with the best of things...). and man, do they make a big deal about this guy at the windmill, comparing him to Faraday, Maxwell, even Newton. dudes, i mean mates, seriously, he did important stuff but let's not get overly excited about this. and yes, this is where a math conference goes on an excursion. the windmill of a famous mathematician.

England!!!

so i have arrived to the land of the english speakers! craziness. interesting that arriving here, you see the airport workers as truly an international group. i was greeted by an indian person and the person who checked my passport was chinese, then i got checked in customs by another ex-immigrant from asia...

weird thought as i landed, i was thinking, hmm, this is not a country i am just visiting, i am moving here. definitely a different sentiment. can't really describe it completely.

lost my voice as of friday evening. still hasn't returned fully. when it does return, maybe it'll be with a british accent or, gasp, a welsh one!!!

food so far - \ne good (for the non-latex folk, that means not equal)... and they definitely don't know what orange juice is supposed to taste like.

symbolisms???

first stop.  calgary i like.  some tidbits:

wearing clothes that have all been bought this year.  shoes though are old.

cell phone died today.  same one that stopped working in late september and then worked after the bobbo's cell stopped working for me a month ago.  i asked the cell phone to work for a month.  it did...

got a lucky charm (on a necklace) from my mom as i left.  i am wearing it.  its a 19th century persia insignia (a triangle).  pretty cool.

both packs were plastic bagged at the airport.  large pack arrived open with some stuff out of it.  this is the old pack...  

thanks for the comments peeps!  this is kind of fun so far...

day before leaving...

so i will try to keep up this blog with interesting tidbits about life in Wales and whatever else comes with it...  if you are interested, follow along but do not feel obligated in any way shape or form.  comments are always welcomed...  

Friday night/Saturday morning 20/06

holy crap - i am leaving tomorrow.  most of my things are packed into a huge 105 litter backpack and a smaller 60 liter one, plus a carry-on.  slightly apprehensive.  nah, i am fricken scared.  but this will be fine, and fun, and i want to see how the brits will react the first time i say 'dude'.