Sweat update

It hit over 40C I was informed yesterday. I was running about Houston searching out furniture for my new place and ended up having quite a heated discussion with my bank on the phone when my debit card was rejected at Ikea (all is well people so no nee to worry, Ikea just doesn't like debit cards!).  So whilst sat in the car as I was not driving the air con was struggling to cool the car and at one point sweat was dripping off my eyelids. Outside was slightly cooler than the car but I would go with sweaty eyelids as this weeks sweat update. Bring on July!

Office policies for one?

The last fews day have been so exhausting I have not had much time to reflect on and account the actual experience.

As you can gather from my last post, I started work on Wednesday.  I popped on my best (only) suit and drove in early in the morning. Rush hour traffic is something to behold here. But I'm accompanied in the traffic by over enthusiastic radio DJs and a cheesy pop music with a splattering of country, oh I can't wait to get an aux cable! Upon reaching work and managing to park (more about my incompetence at parking later).

I started a day that most consisted of admin and health and safety briefings. For someone who hasn't had a real job in a long time, it was exhausting. With regards to the work and other related thibg, there is little I'm allowed to say due to contracts and confidentiality so I'll leave out all the boring geology details from the blog (I bet most of you are glad about that!).

There is one thing I think I'm allowed to mention is that I have an office to myself. That's right...no sharing! This is very strange to me as I have never at work or at university been in an office to myself. And it's an odd experience. There is no one to talk to, no noise (well that's not strictly true as I leave the door open), and lots of space! Still don't really know what to make of having an office to myself but I think it could be good, better not get to used to it as I know I'll be returning to G44 before I know it!

Don't dream it...see it!

Since I was introduced to the Rocky Horror Picture show by a friend in my early teens I have always enjoyed watching the film, singing the songs and doing the time wrap.  But I had never seen it in the cinema nor the theatre. I have always wanted to but never had the chance, until now. It seems that one of the local art cinemas plays it every 2 weeks over the summer, how amazing that the cult following is so large in Houston that they show it that often!

The red lips were a MUST for Rocky.  Sadly, I didnt dress up...*hangs my head in shame*

I managed to persuade a few friends to come along to the showing with me. Two of these people had no idea of what they were in for but I thought hey could cope with the oddness that would ensue, luckily I was right. There was a shadow cast (who mime to the film and act out what is going on) and there was a huge amount of audience participaaaaaaaation! 

It was so much fun that I might even try and go back another time this summer.

Arguing with Sean

Who is Sean, I hear you all ask.  Well Sean is the irish male voice on my tomtom app and we don't really get on! I've never driven with a sat nav before and I can't say I'm enjoying the experience thus far. 

Initially I had a few teething problems with actually getting the app to actually work but I think that is more my inaptuded with my new iPhone than anything else. Now I've got him running and there has been mixed success. I don't like driving at the best of times let alone in a forgien car on the other side of the road in heavy relentless traffic where the majority of the drivers don't indicate and/or are on their phones. It's so bloody dangerous.

Anyway, back to mine and Sean's adventures on the road. So he has a tendency to want me to go on the large ring roads and interstates which for those who have not been to the USA are large motorway style roads which are often much larger (went on one yesterday with 7 lines in either direction). Up until yesterday I have been resisting this as they scare the bejesus out of me. So everytime we head towards one I start screaming at Sean in the car asking him what he thinks he is doing (but in more colourful language). Obviously I get no reply. Once we are on the larger roads he is not help with lane choices as the next instruction is slow to be given which has lead to quick and quite scary changes between lanes. It's a real adrenaline ride that's for sure.

The frustrations don't just head in one direction, am sure if Sean were human and could feel emotion he would be exastabated by my sheer lack of distance awareness! I do not know how far 400yards are and to be honest it would not help if it were in metres. I just have a mental blank at distances. This has lead to me turning way before my alloted direction from Sean. This causes him to furiously recalculate and me to keep asking him where we are going, again in quite colourful language!

Although our relationship is improving we have a long way to go until it is harmonious!

Tomorrow is the beginning...

After waiting around, biding my time with important stuff (house hunting and eating cupcakes both constitute important stuff!), tomorrow I start work officially.  I'm very excited and yet quite nervous at the same time as its been a long time such I have worked and even longer since I have started somewhere new.  Bristol University has been my home for so long, I know the corridors (and dread the social awkwardness they bring) and people pretty well.  Now it's a whole new set of people and corridors but hopefully less social awkwardness!  Who knows what my new "office policies" maybe?!

Today I had a quick lunch in the cafetiere at the offices and managed to see some friendly faces of people I have met from the company over the years.  It set my mind at ease a little and it was just good to feel like I already knew some people.  However, I did have a tour of some of the offices and saw the endless corridors. As I am not known for my sense of direction feel like I might get quite lost.

Oh well, better run off now and sort out the deposit for my apartment and sort out my sewing up my work skirt (it got ripped) and get myself prepared for tomorrow-Wish me luck!

Cupcake delight

I've managed to walk about the supermarkets here and so far being very health. Lots of fruit and veg and no diary or gluten, very healthy.

Check out my mini aubergines!

But I knew this wouldn't last. With so much temptation everywhere I had to cave. And what better way to cave then with a cupcake. So with this in mind I went on the hunt, and found a peanut butter chocolate cupcake with a mini Reece's cup on the top. For those who know me well they know I LOVE Reece's cups so knew this was the cake for me.

It was worth breaking my good behaviour for. Tonnes of icing and lovely crumb (thank you Mary Berry for teaching me the joy of saying something had a lovely crumb). I will leave you with this image, it's enough to make your mouth water!

House hunting

Most of Saturday afternoon (with an encore on Monday afternoon) was spent looking for an apartment (not a flat, its an apartment, you get funny looks when you say flat over here).  I didn't think this would be particular hard but I was wrong.  It wasn't that hard just very fast paced and a bit like being trapped in a some sort of twlight zone where everything looked eerily similar.

The apartment blocks I was looking at were in various locations near and far from my soon-to-be office and although very beautiful far from being uniquely designed.  I looked at three and to be honest I don't think I could tell one from the other in the end.  The experience was the same at each location and went a bit like this.  In the entrance we (I had a Realtor with me guiding me through the processes which I'm very grateful for because otherwise I would have been totally lost) were greeted by a well made up young lady with a wonderful smile and sunny disposition, eager to show us around the beautiful and classy apartment block.  Some searching ensued on the computer system to find me an apartment for a short term lease, this proved difficult but not impossible as I was told repeatedly.  The floor plans were shown of studio and one bedroom apartments and square footage was discussed at length.  "Ms Cooper, is 750 sq. ft going to be enough room for you?" to which my response was always "I think so" with a look of total confusion.  Who knows what a square foot is- I'm from the metric generation, work in metres and then you will get a proper response smiley woman!

Then the tour of the apartment block began.  Gym, games room and lounge were all lovely and beautifully finished (a word I have never heard so much in my life until this experience).  Then to the pool areas, and this is where the beautiful people resided.  It was like a snap shot from a American tv show set in LA or somewhere equally as warm.  People using the grill (not BBQ, this things are far superior to our BBQs back in the UK), drinking iced tea, throwing the ball about in the pool and generally have a jolly good time.

I would show you some images from the apartments themselves but I am sure it would be an infringement of copyright or something so I thought I would wait until I moved into one and then bombard you with photos.  Needless to say, the finish was beautiful and for those who can either do maths or already know how big 750sq. ft is, its bloody huge!  Not sure what I am going to do with all the space as the walking in closet (oh yeah) is nearly as big as my kitchen at home.

After deciding on a location, Monday afternoon was spent trying to secure the apartment.  The one I really wanted was signed for no more than 10 minutes after I told them I was interested, damn them.  But never fear, I signed for another flat in another building in the end.  This process involved getting a money order, which is like a postal order, from a pharmacy.  This alone was a strange experience.  A lady named Fallon served me and just kept telling me she loved foreign money it reminded her of monopoly money. Hate to rock this girls world but...

So after all this, I now move into my new pad on Saturday and get to hang out with the beautiful people in the wonderfully finished apartment block.

How to deal with jet leg? Go to the Mall!

Luckily with most of my trips away they have either been so full on in the first few days or so short that I have never really had much of an issue with jet lag on the out going leg of the journey.  However, despite the busy Saturday afternoon things have been relatively slow paced, which is good as it was manic before I left.  However, this has made adjusting to the correct time zone more tricky than normal.  Waking up early is destroying me for anytime after 5pm!

To battle this, I decided to take advantage of the location of my new "home" and have a trip the the Mall!

The front of the mall

Well, it was definitely stimulating if not a little over stimulating.  The place is HUGE and there were so many people.  The oddest thing about the trip was that there were young girls wearing large my-fat-gypsy-wedding style dresses walking around being followed by a group of young boys wearing suits with waistcoats of a matching colour.  It was odd...but it did manage to keep me awake until the late hour of 9pm.  One step at a time...

I love g-o-o-o-ld! The look of it! The smell of it! The way it drives!

Picked up my hire car for the next few months.  I'm so scared about driving in a big city but this car is going to make everything better because it is G-o-o-old! and I love it! Well strictly speaking it is metallic brown but to me it looks GOLD so that is what I am sticking with.  Check her out, isnt she a beauty!

I promise it's gold not silver like it looks in the picture

Strange thing happened when I picked it up.  I turned on the radio and it was playing the theme from the Neverending Story.  Singing along to that whilst driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road was a pretty surreal experience.

A short stint at being Alan Partridge

The hotel I am staying in is not quite the same as the Holiday Inn that the wonderful Alan lived in, thank heavens. Although the receptionist did refer to it as my new home (I'm staying here until I have managed to get an permanent residence sorted out) which creeped me out a little.  The rooms in the hotel are self catering  but a standard all american breakfast is included (which I have been going to town on in the mornings).  This means there is a little kitchen/dining room area as well as a bedroom and bathroom.  Its really nice, but don't take my word for it, have a little look at the front room, bedroom is already to messy to show you!

My front room and kitchen unit

I promise I'm not listening to the Black Beauty theme tune that much!

Business class, don't mind if I do!

Transatlantic flights is something I have kind of got used to over the years since I started my PhD.  In total I have been on 8 such flights in 4 years, that is a lot of time sitting down.  But never had I ever been anywhere other than cattle class, which is probably the best place for me when I am travelling in stinky field clothes and walking boots!

This time it was different, oh so very different.  I was flying Business Class. You know those seats that you always walk past when you get on the plane which look like little pods.  Oh it was amazing, but I will get onto the plane experience in a moment.  First I will try and describe amusement of the airport and the feeling of not belonging.

So when I arrived at the airport I had to use a real person to do the check in procedure instead of an automated machine.  As she checked me in she noted "You know you are in Business Class right?" but from examining her face I could tell she was thinking "How are you in Business Class?!?!".  I was not dressed in a suit, I had holes in my leggings and a "cool" (Rob thinks its stupid) hat on.  Definitely not the normal attire for a Business Class traveller.  In fact, I stood out so much that I was asked on four separate occasions to show my boarding pass to see if I was meant to be there.  Then I made my way to the Lounge area.

The lounge

Free food, drink (alcoholic), free newspapers, free wifi and a whole lot of comfort.  There were huge sofas where you could lie out on, a great view of the airport and london.  To be honest, it was pretty cool.  I think I mostly was walking around with my mouth open or stuffing it with food.  It was great.  The free food/drink continued on the plane with a glass of champagne before we set off!

Champagne before take-off

The seats were like futuristic pods where everything was controlled by buttons and there were secret compartments.  Well, it was more like the futuristic idea people had in the 1970s and popped into Sci-Fi movies.  Nevertheless it confused me so much that I ended up being signalled by another passenger across the plane about how to put up the divider between the seats. I also couldnt work the foot stool for the first hour of the flight!  But then I managed to get horizontal (oh yeah those seats go fully horizontal) and chill out to some bad movies.

The starter of my lunch

The lunch menu was handed around (yep...menu! There was choice and more free drinks!) along with a vanity kit for the flight (sample sized bottles of expensive face creams and the like).  All in all it was an odd but extremely pleasant trip and despite not sleeping much I was pretty with it the other end, the miracle of Business Class!

Back to blogging!

Hello blogosphere,

At the beginning of the year I had such high hopes with my blogging, but sadly life took over and I stopped talking in a huge amount of detail about my baking online.  Sad times.  But I have been lucky enough to be involved in another AMAZING blog called BetweenARock.  If you have not checked it out here is a link and I urge you to get on there and read some fun things about science and PhD life.  Its been great blogging with these guys, such media moguls!  Through my increased interactions with the world of social media, I have discovered a love for Twitter (shameless plug coming up) and would love it if you wanted to follow me on there are well! @Cooper_KT go on, follow me!

SO...why have I started up blogging on here again?

Well, it is because I am living in Houston, Texas, USA for the next few months and I thought that it would be the best way to keep you all up to date about my adventures.  I will try my hardest to give you the lowdown on how an English girl finds the strange ways of the USA and keep you up to date on the levels of sweating I am reaching (currently, I would say the sweat levels were similar to running up one flight of stairs).  Apart from that there might be the odd cross post about science from BetweenARock and definitely lots of pictures!  I hope you enjoy!