FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF SCHOOL

Well, today is the first official day of the Michaelmas Term, and Cambridge is filled with undergrads scurrying about, trying to distinguish their classrooms from the rest of the buildings (everything is jumbled together here). Come to think of it, Ray is also scurrying about, trying to distinguish his classrooms from the rest of the buildings. Never mind, we are learning quickly.

While Ray is off getting started on his PhD, I’m poring over the job ads looking for administrative type work. There’s nothing much happening on the animal front here, and we don’t have a car, so I’m left with finding something directly within Cambridge (and within easy cycling distance, at that). I think this is the first time I’ve actually really had to look for a job, and I keep thinking that the position descriptions sound so intimidating that I could never do that. And then I meet some of the people doing whatever job it is, and am reassured – I am not so far down the heap after all. Just keeping my fingers crossed that some future employer out there will recognize my stunning brilliance. (Or is that stunted brilliance – not sure which it is yet).

Did meet the downstairs neighbours – a German girl and her Pakistani boyfriend. They seem very nice and it sounds like they have had the same sorts of problems we have had so far. We have decided to join forces and keep our bikes inside, no matter what the college has to say about it, and Biede has even decided to take it one step further and install a showerhead in her flat. I am not that brave but perhaps shower-lust and her chutzpah will inspire me this winter when I can’t stand a single more bath. In any case, it’s nice to start expanding the social circle. We miss our friends and family back home!

Nothing else too spectacular to report, which is a pleasure as that means we are starting to settle into a normal life. It’s been a while coming!

P.S. “Mad as a hatter” comes from way back when hatters used mercury in the hat-making process. Over time, the mercury would build up in their systems. Now for those of you who were sleeping during physiology/toxicology, it might be helpful to point out that mercury is a neurotoxin, the effect of which is to make affected folks seem a bit kooky. So hatters usually ended up in the loony bin, and a saying was born.