All the news that's fit to type

This week has been a rather unremarkable one, with one delightful exception: presents from Gran Mere! Highlights included a very-cool license plate for my bike.

All I need now is a baseball card to clip to the spokes.

Jersey Shore has made its way into Kiwi cultural consciousness. Hopefully, with my "Shore to Please" license plate, I can be a better representative of the Garden State.

I thought I had landed myself a job earlier in the week, but I may have counted my chickens too soon. I talked to my histology professor about lab tech positions and told him my experience. He said that, serendipitously, the histology department upstairs was set to lose one of their technicians that very week. So, I printed out my CV and waited outside the relevant office until I found the right person. I asked if he had a minute, and he said "Yes, but not five or ten." So I quickly made my case and handed him a CV. I was encouraged when he didn't just wave me out of his office, but perked up and asked me some questions about my experience.  I ended up getting more than my minute of conversation, which was encouraging. But, he emailed to say that, while he liked my CV (and he made some comments to prove that he had read it all the way through,) he would have to wait for a budget meeting before he could make any hiring decisions.

Que sera sera, I suppose. Maybe word will get out that an anxious young American is on the hunt for gainful employment and I'll wind up with a good position anyway. I've got another lead to follow; a neurology researcher who gave a couple of lectures to my anatomy class. I'll email her this week and see what she says.

For the next two weeks, I am in self-motivated study mode. Something analogous to spring break is upon us, so I have two weeks to catch up with all my classes and really get a handle on the material. I think it will help a lot, so long as I can just keep up with the schedule I've set myself.

The weather has been improving, since the snow. We've had several sunny days. On a few occasions, while panting and pedaling up a hill, I have even considered taking off my jacket!  Here is a neighborhood cat on the roof of our garage, on one of the nicer days.

Cat on a pleasantly warm tin roof.

That's all for now. A very special thank-you to Gran Mere for her package, and to Aunt Denise for sending it. Stay tuned, possibly (though improbably) for more exciting updates!

Better late than never

It's been a long time coming, I know, but welcome to my first blog post.

I haven't gotten myself into the habit of carrying my camera everywhere, so I don't have very many photos.  I'll get more, soon enough.

The big news in Palmy lately was the snow.

Our front yard is full of lavender bushes. Flowers blossom continually, here. Snow on flowers earns a photo or two, in my book.

 Snow happens pretty rarely here. They say it comes to Palmy about once every fifty years. My flatmate, Kim, was pretty excited, and she had to do everything possible in the snow:

Astute observers among you will have noticed the laundry on the line, covered in snow. The laundry situation is a bit of a catch 22. Dryers are not common here, since electricity isn't subsidized and dryers use a lot of it. Most people hang their clothes to dry, but it rains all the time! I keep my clothes on a drying rack in my beautiful sunny bedroom! That's a bit of a mess right now, so no photos until later.

Aside from the cold, I'm living in a very pretty town. This is my bike ride to class.

And this is the ride home

Beautiful, right?

And people are very nice. Gone are the days of rude, gruff construction workers:

Honestly, I can't understand what they're so fussed about. It takes 15 minutes to drive across town. There aren't even enough cars here to create what I would call a traffic jam.

I miss you all!