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!!!

address, house warming, farmer's market and... RSS Feed!!!

i am feeling pictorial, feeling graphic (well, that's not a good description ;) but not wordy)- so this one will be mostly pictures...
i really like my flat. and it has gotten the most positive reviews - though everyone says that the single room is just a tad bit small... though the bedrooms i have seen here are quite large typically, so in comparison it is small - but its definitely livable.
i hosted a house warming party saturday night, which was attended by about half the people i know in cardiff (that's either impressive, or pathetic, so i'll let you decide...). more interestingly is the collection of nationalities. there is a small international group that i have joined that consists of two polish girls, a belarussian lady, a peruvian guy (my new drinking buddy!), a sri lankan dude, a french guy (he has left meanwhile... no comment), and now me. and from the mathS department, there were three germans that came and an irish (if you are from ireland, no matter boy, girl, lamb, sheep - they call you irish) - and then we had to throw in the random english person, and indian lady that is friends of the flat owners and has my house keys. and that was essentially my party... and i made out with a bounty of alcohol at the end of the evening which is always nice!!! (of course, like any good party, it had to be broken up... by the downstairs neighbors. hmm. talk about first impressions, not going so well with them so far...)


sunday i went to the farmer's market here, well the larger one which is in what used to be an overrun area known as riverside. the farmer's market was a a historical first in the U.K. as it took what used to be a pretty bad area and made it much nicer. its not a large farmer's market, in davis terms, nor does it have much fruit and vegetables (i counted four stalls). it does have lots of ready food - lamb-burgers, persian food, egyptian food, cheese and non-prepared meat, olives. anyway, it was cute and nice. gemma was my guide - a very sweet girl i met at noelle's place (the girl from the flat that i went to visit). she explained things to me, recommended the french bread, the goat cheese and told me about bike trails. enough said.





noelle (on the left) met us for a cup of tea later on.

finally - my address is
51 Connaught Road
Flat 2
Cardiff United Kingdom
CF24 3PU

my phone number 07835 953 734 (44 is the country code i think, and i think you do not need to dial the 0...)
and, and, AND - i have advanced technologically to the point that i have managed to allow an RSS Feed!!! and i will not discuss the narcissistic nature of a person who puts an RSS on their own blog... oh forget it.

my house

well, before i get to the title of this post, let me just say that saturday was an incredible day here. and i know, you are now thinking, what could have possibly happened to make it an incredible day? did you meet a beautiful girl hillel? well, i did meet some girls, i think, on saturday, but nothing that dramatic.
maybe now you are thinking - hmm, some incredible food place? ehh, no. those are far and in between so far here - though i have found two good pakistani places which i am quite happy about.
so what else could it be? got another guess? let's hear it.
nope. that's not it either.
one last one? no? that's it? ok, fine i'll tell you. saturday, was incredible here because - it didn't rain! for the whole day!!! the entire day, no rain! not one single drop of water falling from the sky!!! and yes, in case you are wondering - the entire country stopped still! a national holiday was declared and everyone came out into the streets and danced the night away with a pint of Welsh beer (Brains) and pery (Welsh pear cider). anyway, i now must tell a story. so the English have obviously imperialized (almost) the entire world, and would they leave their little neighbors to the East alone? of course not. so often, very often, they crossed the Welsh border on their way to conquer the little Welsh land, full of lambs and leeks. yet every time the soldiers crossed the border, from grey England, into green Wales - the skies would immediately begin pouring. they would cross back into England where it was dry, and then again - a foot into the Wales border - and wham, rain. due to this the English soldiers decided that the Welsh king was a magician (there is some history there as Merlin, king Arthur's wizard, is based on a Welsh figure called Myrddin Emrys. have fun trying to pronounce that...)
anyway, just to finish that story - i want to mention that it has rained every single day i have been here (except for saturday, except for saturday!!!) but it has also been sunny essentially every day (minus two). so, the following weather forecast is quite accurate...



ok, now house. note that i haven't said home. that will take sometime for sure. but for now its nice. its very nice no longer having to live out of a bag and to be able to use a kitchen. the kitchen at the other place was just nasty. so after cleaning it every time i wanted to make a sandwich, i got a bit sick of it. i also realized that yes, i brought too much stuff. for instance - too many books. ok that may be excusable. but too many shoes? that's not like me. and too many nice shirts, like buttons and stuff? strange, very strange. this was the byproduct of not knowing how to dress in europe and well, too many nice clothes being gifted to me. and that's my excuse.
so i still haven't said much about my place. well, let me start by saying that my room = orange. yipe. orange.

and right next to it is the guest room, equipped with a sofa-bed, a desk, a closet and .... - a Winnie the Pooh lamp!!! yipe, you know you want to come visit.

from there, a very narrow and yellow hall leads to the front door. right above it - there is an excitement! yes, excitement! this excitement is a small door in the ceiling, that when opened shows a folded ladder, that when unfolded leads into a very large attic!!! large enough for a family to live in!!! ok, now that's not that nice of a reference considering the history of people hiding in attics. but the attic is cool. trust me.

the hall turns to the right, where immediately on your right there is the bathroom, nice compact and simple. then a couple of stairs up and another narrow hall on your left,


which will lead you into the living room - a very large, spacious and well lit living room. definitely one of the selling points of the place. right before it, on the right, the kitchen invites you in (hopefully with a variety of yummie aromas and sizzling sounds).



the building houses four apartments. it probably was a big house that was divided into four - i say this based on the narrow hall in my place. here it is from the outside, 51 Connaught...

one day, home... hopefully soon.

New beginnings, once again...

disclaimer: this entry lacks a thread. its more of a mishmash of stories with the connecting piece being, well, me. and since blogs are by nature somewhat narcissistic, i guess this is ok, but still, i apologize...

so here i am, back in cardiff. and of course, it rained today and yesterday. this means that every day i have been here, it has rained. so far it has not bothered me, but the brits constantly apologize for the weather - i find this quite amusing. i mean, shouldn't they be used to it by now? besides, outside of two days, it has also been sunny every day.
my trip back to the states was really nice. i tried to learn how to surf in san diego and while i caught lots of sun, i can't say the same about waves. i did learn how to wipe out quite well though... i saw lots of friends. said goodbyes again - this time, for a longer period most likely. then it was of to the east coast, for a quick day of quality time with the best neighBERGS of all time and to the wedding of david and frances. it was a beautiful wedding, from a to z (or maybe alef to taf...). and i was glad to be there. we even prepared a little surprise for them in their room, partially x-rated, but mostly innocent and fun...






it was really nice to see old friends from diego and davis, and the wedding was quite fun. and outside of the difficulty of having to see LAH and the repercussions of it, mostly in my head, everything went super smoothly.

the airport again proved serependitious to me. the past few flights i have met an iranian journalist who is in exile from her homeland, a gay israeli professor in liverpool, and a german girl who was photographing in wales. this time around, i didn't met anyone on my flight (except for a really drunk belgian guy who really really wanted to snuggle with me. hmmm.) instead i met a girl i knew in italy and haven't seen since. there i felt like she was my sister in a way. she even brought me a box full of baklavas back from a trip to syria, sweets that i then shared with my cooking class instructor which later led to him asking me to make them... anyway. i ran into her while checking in and we immediately recognized each other. we both were way early (very untypical of me...) and had plenty of times to sit over coffee (hc for me) and talk about life - but mostly about love and its ups and downs. it was a nice reprise from the airport air and the anxiety of leaving, that hangs in it.

upon arriving in cardiff, i went straight to work. i got my new office,

(and it has an extra desk + computer in case anyone wants to visit, hint hint) and even more exciting i got my new computer - a beautiful piece of machinery, in dreamy silver encoded with black keys (that can be lit up!!!), and equipped with a camera for those who want to skype it up! as you can tell, its my new baby. and i have welcomed it into my one-person family with a huge hug. i have also finalized an apartment - which in a twist of fate that was somewhat obvious that will happen in some fate/destiny kind of way, is the first apartment i was thinking about. that is, the one i was going to take with alex. i will get to move in there on monday... it was offered to me by them for less, much less (20% less!) till i find a roommate. i accepted on grounds that i pay a bit more, one to be fair, and two so that i can feel more comfortable taking my time looking for a roommate.

this blog entry felt a bit like writing in my diary, after a long time of not writing, summarizing different things, not truly exploring hidden corners. well, there will be some new corners soon, i promise (mostly to myself... again, blog = narcissistic).
ciao' for now...

Prague

Some photos from Prague...
Conference was nice, very nice. Bruno gave a great talk!!!
Place your mouse arrow over each photo and look at the bottom of your web browser for a brief explanation...

housing housing housing....

a good home is tough to find. that's what i have learned. but before i jump to this big conclusion, let me start earlier. alex, the guy i was going to live with, received a fantastic four year postdoc offer from switzerland (which by the way essentially pays with pure gold, or maybe pure saffron...) and hence will not be staying in cardiff next year. this is quite unfortunate for from a variety of angles two of which are that he is an awesome guy and we have become good friends, and that it means i need to re-figure out the housing situation...
so with these news i began my longest stint so far in cardiff. i have been regularly checking the equivalent of craigslist.org here, gumtree.com (note the .com at the end... in fact, you have the option of paying when posting an ad to make sure that your ad is always at the top of the searches!) and i have been visiting a few houses (essentially) every day. now this was quite interesting at the beginning as i was learning new things about this country. for instance i found out that i was meeting the landlords, the homeowners, the managers of the property - and they were interviewing me, but i was not meeting the flatmates. it turned out that this is quite common here, that people are simply placed into a house with the hopes that it all works out. strange.
so i began looking for houses where the flatmates interviewed me and see if there is chemistry, if i'm a good fit.
i went to see a couple of these, known as social houses, where the gender is maintained half male half female, and the point of the house is to socialize, to hang out, to be friends. three guys, three girls, all living together (or essentially together...) in a new city, hmm, sounds like a tv show i like. anyway, i went to a couple of these, and the first one i thought could be good, it was clean. a huge kitchen with two stoves and two ovens (not that i really know how to use one of those...) and a dining table in the kitchen. it seemed that the socializing in this social house was taking place in the kitchen as opposed to the tv lounge. i like. didn't like as much that as i arrived, the dude that opened the door for me decided to remark that i was ten minutes late and that this is not a good way to make a first impression. in actuality, i was two minutes early. no idea about that one... anyway, i decided to see maybe about that house. feeling tentative, i emailed the landlord/manager - who deals with this stuff at the end. he politely replied that the group decided that they want to see more people... bastards. so 0-1 in housing.
now another thing about the houses here, a lot of them, i'd say 50 percent plus, are 4 bedrooms or more - which means a minimum of 4 pepole in the house. after that 6 person house and a few more, where the living room was quite small, and always centered around the television, i decided to go for smaller houses. at most three people i decided. preferably with a garden - i want my herbs. still, there is a favorite garden here which is the concrete garden. they just concrete-ize their backyard to eliminate weeds, and hence eliminate gardening. me not like.
i began wondering, maybe i should take the place that i was going to take with alex. that house has a very nice living room and a very nice kitchen. the only perceivable problems i had with it were the fact that the stove was electric and that one of the bedrooms was quite small (hence possibly difficult to find a flatmate who would take it) and really near to each other. it turns out almost all bedrooms here are really near to each other. and also, surprisingly, the electric stove heats up amazingly fast.


still thinking about this house. maybe find my own roomate. maybe take it by myself, which would be quite expensive at the end. not sure.
still, i went to see three more houses today. nothing too exciting, except the last house had an amazing garden with tomatoes, spinach, beans, rosemary and basil. the girl who was taking care of it and showed me around was quite cute and sweet, with a thick irish accent (which of course i didn't recognize, but managed to understand just fine!!!). now i remember my friend big - O's story from davis. see, he came to see an apartment in davis, and thought that one of the housemates was quite cute. he later called and found out that they found someone else to take the room. good, he remarked, cause i wanted to ask katie out. now i always thought this was an awesome story, and i was wondering if i would ever face a similar situation. and here one was staring at me in the face. katie and him by the way are happily backpacking around and through mountains still.
i was invited for tea (somewhat common here...) so i stayed, to meet the flatmates better, get a feel for the place. i was wondering how to continue, as i am leaving the country tomorrow and i won't be back in another month. i figured i'd call when i get home, or maybe the next day to let them know that i won't be taking the place and take a page out of big O's playbook. the time arrived and i said my goodbyes and she walked me to the door. as we got there she suddenly said, well listen, even if you decide not to take the place, since you don't know anybody here (cardiff), we can meet up, hang out.

bitch. stole my line.

cheese race!

there is a famous cheese race in wales where a huge wheel of cheese is rolled down a hill and people glamorously run after it. there are often broken arms, legs, other limbs (?), well at least other body parts and other casualties in this race (later on i also heard that once every ten years or so, somebody actually dies, urgh...). when i heard that there was a group going to a cheese race friday, i was quite excited, i mean, run down a crazy slope with a chance to catch some cheese, who would not be exctied! who wouldn't want to dangerously chase cheese down a hill, following and being followed by a bunch of crazed welshies!?

unfortunately, i found out that the race we were going to was not the famed one at gloucestershire (look it up!) but rather a smaller one at a city just north of cardiff known as caerphilly. the city boasts a beautiful castle, well known in the u.k. - and, well, nothing else. this is their big yearly event and everyone in town was up for the occasion, quite excited, and some dressed up. in fact, people working there all had purple polo shirts that said in excited yellow letters - the big cheese!!! (packer fans anyone???)

so the race at caerphilly centers around (and through) the castle. this was pretty sweet cause usually it costs money to go into the castle, but this time, it was free. when we got to the fair, it was already quite happening. full of booths for young and old, games, amusements, etc., but as soon as we found out about the race - i wasn't going to 'not participate'. so we quickly formed a team. of course, we were the only team that was not prepared, i.e. not dressed up, not shoe-d up , and we needed to come up with a team name... we tried initially The Big Cheese, only to be told that that was the name of the fair. Last Cheese Rolling it was! we lined up with firemen, a sombrero wearing, mustache sporting group, four teenagers numbered 118, and some other groups. with hundreds of people watching, excitedly, the mayor gave some prepared speech (couldn't understand a word. and no, it wasn't in welsh). but soon it was over and wam - the mayor, well decorated in a variety of medals and gold linings, gave us the sign. joe and i waited (joe is a very nice lady from near london... full name, joanna) while alex and anna (my office mate joaquim is married to anna, they are the sweetest couple from barcelona, and whenever i ask them a question about why they do this or that, the answer is - well, that's the barcelona (read catalan) way...) started of. our goal, stated in our name, was to be last, you know, keep expectations at a minimum. anna and alex left joe and myself in a good position to accomplish this, coming in literally a second before the last group. we did a switch-arroo and five seconds later, we were last... people were quite nice, encouraging us, cheering us on in their funky accents. one 9 year old girl told us to move our knees higher, you know, good practical advice. we came in last, of course, and dropped the pretend wooden cheese down and prepared for a photo with the mayor...
in case you are wondering, the firemen (but of course) took first.

the evening culminated with a beautiful fireworks show shot from within the castle. electronic music accompanied the rockets to make sure they were on beat... it was quite astonishing, the castle lit up in different colors, sparkling in the dark sky. i of course provided my harmonies to the setting, oohing and ahhing along.

for those keeping score:
h 0 - cheese race 1
h 0 - cardiff housing 1
h 0 - cardiff girls 1

but one day...