17 March 2005

The Practice Trip to England (II)

I woke up Wednesday morning after ten hours of sleep finally feeling in-step with the local time. Morning talks were good, and I was much alert than I was on Tuesday. When I woke up I had the sensation of only hazy recollections of part of the previous night, but it had been due to sleep deprivation instead of the more typical excess of alcoholic consumption.



By lunchtime it was becoming increasingly awkward that I hadn't yet spoken to Lon. Until that point there just hadn't been a good opportunity (e.g. I bumped into him while he was on his way out of the bathroom and I was on my way in — "Oh hi, Lon, can we talk about my studentship while I take a piss?"). I was going to try to sit with him at lunch, but there weren't any seats at his table. Fortunately I saw him after lunch getting a cup of coffee and I had a chance to say hi. That hurdle cleared, I talked to him and one of the guys in his lab about places that might be good for me to live and Lon and I made plans to talk about my finances on Thursday.


We had some free time from about 3:30 until dinner at 6:30, so I poked around in the Natural History Museum (including exhibits on opium smoking and betel chewing equipment from around the world). Then Shaun, Jules and I walked over to Brasenose for me to have a look at my future college. After that we went off to a hole-in-the-wall pub and had a couple of pints, then to another pub, then to the conference banquet.


By the end of the evening, as the calendar turned over to the 17th we were toasting St. Patrick with some Jameson's (ugh, that's twice in a week). On the way to bed we found a kebab truck where I got the English equivalent of Moishe's: some lamb and lettuce and french fries in a pita. Pretty tasty with the hot sauce.


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