some more firsts

some anecdotes from the past week. (i have lots of stories and photos but will save them till the next blog)

keys. so after about three weeks here, i have now received an office key. i know, i know, you are impressed with the british (welsh) efficiency, but hold on for a sec.
every day, the porter had to walk with me upstairs and open my office door for me. com'on, that's respect. and then in the evening, the second porter (there are two of them and they switch shifts once a week, so i've learned...) would go upstairs and lock my office door. i mean, that's service, right? and well, maybe they got tired of this a bit, so eventually the computer guy, who here is responsible for office keys as well for a very valid and logical reason, which i haven't figured out yet, decided that as an incoming postdoc, from the united states nevertheless - i do not deserve such regal treatment. so he came upstairs with a screw driver and a different lock in his hand and took out the actual lock in my door and replaced it with a different one. one that turned out to be unlocked by the key to the copy room. but shhh, let's keep this secret to ourselves, hee hee, only you know that the key to the copy room also opens your office, and hence anyone in the building with sufficient access can essentially get into your office, hee hee, but the joke is on them.
right.
so two days ago, mike the computer guy, comes upstairs again with a different lock in his hand and... well, i now have two keys. one for my old lock, and the copy room still, and one for my new lock... and of course the next day i proceed to lock myself out. of my home though... impressive efficiency here so far with regards to these things...

accents. accents. so much to say about accents. the welsh accent is more musical than the english one. it goes up and down and in a way is more cheerful, less proper. or maybe that's just in my head.
i have gotten a lot better at understanding the different accents of the british empire, and parts which the rest of the world considers the british empire (i.e. ireland). still, its quite hard at time. so the accents in descending order of difficulty:
scottish (ay = yes... chub him in the fuds = ahh, i am not translating that...) > yoga lady who spoke a form of english (i think) but had a microphone close to her mouth that muffled her words (i just looked at jo the entire time and did what she did. she was quite amused that i couldn't understand a word this woman said... ah jo, so little do you know) > irish > english (these vary amongst regions and classes, couldn't really tell identify them yet, but can definitely tell that they are different) > welsh (supposedly northern welsh is very different) > russian (most common accent/language spoken in the math department, sto?) > german (second most common accent in math dep, they speak american english for the most part though)
and if you ask me to imitate a welsh accent, i still can't do it. but they say wales by really opening their mouth on the W, a bit like as if from your lips open for a whistle, you reach back with your lips to scratch the back of your jaw. that's how the mouth moves anyway. then there is an H sound in there, so it's like whaaayles (and yes, i know this makes some of you very happy (i.e. canad) that they pronounce it in a way similar to whale). meanwhile, their language - i am learning a good number of things. gemma who has welsh roots has been teaching me a bit - the double LL is pronounced CL, with the C a bit dirty, kind of like a scratching the throat sound. the vowels? oy, the vowels. well, the Y is an 'A' as in car. the U is 'I' (let's have it with the 'put U and I together...) as in sink. so CYMRU (which is wales in welsh is pronounced CAMRI, with the I at the end trailing into an E a bit...). two DD are 'F', but in a more 'TH' kind of pronunciation...


anyway, i am planning on taking welsh lessons so eventually, in you know, three years maybe, i'll be able to truly pronounce things and then hope to 1) teach how to pronounce some of these crazy words 2) imitate a welsh accent...

social life. well - this past week and a half have been much more difficult. the excitement of the newness has drifted a bit. and now most days are filled mostly with office and white board, and then home, both of which for the time being are alone. so it's a bit empty. but i am finding fun things to do - found a yoga class with an impervious accent, a meditation class in a room with a giant wooden buddha, looking for ceramics class... so things will eventually pick up. i am optimistic! :)

meanwhile - tonight is new year's (jewish new year's... anyone know the name of the 'jewish' calendar? the 'christian' one is the gregorian...) and i am going to go to a welsh synagogue. and tomorrow i am invited to the falafel guy's place for a party. so that hopefully will be fun! and meanwhile - happy new year, whether or not you celebrate it! hope that this year brings happiness, health and peace to all. and if it happens to also bring you to wales - merry merriness!!!