michiexile | Week 1 in Stanford

Inspired by my beloved wife's

amerikabrev, I probably also should sit down and write a weekly journal entry, summarizing the latest events.

Traveling

The trip here went well. I was met up by David Green and his wife in the morning, and we packed all my luggage into their car and drove over to Weimar. There, Michael Hinz met up with us, and we were just settling for a cup of coffee when I discovered that the 20 minutes margin to the train departure we'd arrived with was gobbled up completely by waiting for Mrs. Green to park, for Micha to appear, and for everyone to order.

So I grabbed my cookie, my coke, and a few of my bags, Micha a few more, and David the luggage cart, and we raced up to the platform - arriving just as the train did. A hasty goodbye, and then off I went.

In Frankfurt, I was met by Markus Lilienthal, and we navigated - somehow - out to his apartment. Seeing the stairs, we decided to just lock my four trolleys to the railing of his staircase, instead of shlepping them all the way up, only to get them down again the next morning. Markus and I then cooked, watched TV-series, played computer games and chatted through the evening. The next morning, he took off for work early, and I went to the airport by door-to-door shuttle bus.

As usual, checkin was painless and easy. By some miracle, my bags all weighed in at about 500-1500g below the sharp weight limit, so I didn't even have to fuzz over my packing skills. And once the bags were gone, so was the need for me to hurry, at all. I leisurely browsed around for a while, went through security, and relaxed. Along the way, I got rid of the last of my Euros by eating an early lunch at an American-style diner, just before the gate entrance security check.

Once in London, again I had a bit of time to just browse around. I found a shop that wasn't only selling alcohol in insane amounts - but also giving some away! They had a promotional stand for Bombay Sapphire, giving away small drink recipe leaflets and mixing the drinks in the leaflet on demand. So, inspired by the lady before me, I asked for a Bombay Bramble: Bombay Sapphire, Lemon juice, Sugar syrup, Crème de Mure (blackberry liqueur) and blackberries. And all of a sudden I realized what hadn't been apparent when drinking Bombay Sapphire on the rocks: it has a wonderfully subtle, mintish, touch to the taste.

Then off over the Atlantic. After the boarding pass check, but before actually reaching the plane, I got picked out for a bag search, and had to open all bags up and let an airport official look through them. Once on the flight, I discovered that my middle-seat had MUCH less leg room than expected, and politely asked one of the stewardesses to be moved. Just before liftoff, they picked me up, and sat me just by one of the wing exits, in a row with just two seats, instead of three. JOY!

During the trip, I caught up on a few movies and tv-series I'd been meaning to see: Iron man, The Big Bang Theory, and rewatched a few I liked: Kung Fu Panda, and a few I couldn't bear watching through: You Don't Mess With The Zohan and All The President's Men (which I was watching when they rebooted the entire system, and didn't feel like restarting...)

And then I was in San Fransisco, late afternoon, figuring out the door-to-door transfer bus system, and getting billed extra for the ride because I had too many and too heavy bags.

Initial bureaucracy

Wednesday and onwards, I spent trying to get all my paperwork in order. This, it turns out, is a long exercise in dodging Catches 22. I seem to be required to acquire a California driver's license within the first 10 days. This requires a Social Security Number. Which I won't be able to even apply for until it's been 10 days after Bechtel International Center confirmed my arrival to the DHS.

Also, I'm currently on an AT&T prepaid cellphone plan. I want to convert me and my wife to an AT&T family plan. This, however, requires me to go through the hoops AT&T has in place - which include having a SSN. Even with an SSN, I can expect to need to deposit somewhere in the range $150-$250, but without it, I'd be looking at a minimum deposit of $1000.

Getting hooked up to the internet, though, was much easier. I ran into a Comcast sales agent in a WalMart. Five minutes later, I was scheduled to get hooked up with a 4Mbps/384kbps DSL plan, rented modem, student offer giving me a monthly fee of $28 for the first 9 months, and with no contractual obligations to stay on specific times.

I'm still working on the insurance bit. The web tools won't give me accurate quotes, since they won't accept a German adress as my previous lodging.

New lodgings

I got hold of an apartment! Wednesday afternoon, I met up with a salesman from Woodland Park, who manage a bunch of gated community blocks just on the Palo Alto side of Freeway 101. Formally, they're still in the city of East Palo Alto, which has recovered a bit from it's 1992 position as murder capital of the US (42 murders on a city population of 24k). My apartment - a neat small studio on the bottom floor of a two-story apartment complex - got its carpeting torn out and replaced by laminated floor tiles since Wednesday, as having an apartment without a wall-to-wall carpet is high among my preferences: my asthma really doesn't like wall-to-wall carpets.

And to my surprise, they agreed! It took a slight rent increase: instead of $1000/month, I'll be paying $1100/month - but it still stays within the parameters I was hoping for.

And so, I went to IKEA on Friday, to make sure I have furniture to fill the room up with. Queen sized bed, linen, quilt, pillow, table, chairs, bedside table, bookcase, drawers, kitchen utensils, and so on... One $800 shopping spree later, and I have a decently equipped home that'll be delivered on Monday afternoon.

Speaking of IKEA, it really shows that we're in the US. IKEA sells Swedish meatballs in their restaurant. Either with mashed potatoes (a pathetic little blob), or with Mac'n'Cheese.

Empty campus

The Quals start in a week. The academic year starts in two weeks. Hence, the campus currently is almost completely empty. Buses don't run on weekends. The special buses (Midnight Shuttle and Shopping Express) don't run at all. And all the social activities I'd have liked to join have yet to start. The Stanford Swing Kids haven't even updated their webpage to reflect the coming quarter.

And so I sit here, slightly starved on social interactions.

Finding my boss

To make the isolation seem even worse, my Professor was out of town all of last week. He did arrive in on Saturday though, and I got to - mainly - say "Hi" before his already scheduled meeting started. But at least I've shown my face. :-)

He agreed to help me move into my apartment on Monday too - he'll drive me and my insane pile of luggage from my motel to my apartment on Monday early afternoon.

And then I should get started with mathematics. My first scheduled collaborator is here already - and we should start talking over our plans in detail during this coming week. And my laptop should be arriving as well. Access to all computer systems is already settled - theoretically I have everything I need to get going.

The weather

I have yet to see a single day without glaring sun, clear blue skies, and yellow, wilting grass. Watching the news reports, though, makes for good distraction: hurricanes and tropical storms over the southeastern states. And an earthquake just a bit inland, in the East Bay area. Not that I noticed anything at all...

They promise fog (the closest we get to rain before december, it seems), and thereto connected drops in temperature from the ~100F/~40C we've seen all the time so far. I've come to value the AC unit in my motel room very highly.