A very moist June

After a very dry spring we are having a very wet summer here in Gainesville! On Sunday alone we got 9 inches of rain at the airport. Not sure of the current tally but we at least got another few inches over yesterday and today. Debby has apparently now made landfall and we are all hoping she moves on soon!

Here are some photos from our on-campus lake, Lake Alice, that I took this afternoon while we had a temporary break in the rain

This is looking toward the Baughman center. It used to be a raised area of the ground where people would stand and look at the alligators. Looks like it basically collapsed and is now all flat.

This is looking towards the area in the first photo. Usually there is a lot of room between the water and this bridge (probably at least 1.5-2 feet!)

And this bench is usually not surrounded by water!!

My lab has also been partially flooded the past two days (just a very small amount all on one side mostly) and my field work has also been postponed. So I will also be quite happy when Debby leaves! We did need this rain though, and walking around the lake area while everything was fresh and green was really nice :)

Two fast weeks

So far so good for my research stay in Japan. After an amazing week of orientation: lots of people to meet, great food to eat three times a day, wonderful host family experiences, and quite a bit of jogging, I am doing the research I came here to do.

I want to acknowledge the amazing job JSPS (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) has done on welcoming this group of young foreign researchers in open arms. In addition, they have taken care of living allowances so that we are constantly worried what exactly the prices of daily goods, such as the bath towel I bought for ¥1500, are in terms of our usual currencies.

To begin the rest of the story here in Japan, I plan to tell a few stories in terms of food. For a while I wanted to be part of a food blog, but I did not think my cooking was that interesting for documentation. Here in Japan, the sheer lack of language and difference in basic ingredients will make it an interesting if not exactly instructive perspective. I will try to document my meager attempts at bachelor cooking in Japan. Tonight I am making some food in the combination gas stove, microwave oven I have in my family style apartment. The buzzer just went off so the results may will come later.

Take nothing for granted. One observation I had is that changing the language settings in programs, specifically web browsers, is extremely difficult. It is a catch-22 to change the language settings: I don't understand the language so I want to change it, but since I don't understand the language I can't change it. This is also true on many websites that do not have a conveniently placed link.

Brockmeier-san

Since Austin's been busy with his JSPS orientation, I'm serving as his blog proxy for now. He made it to Narita late on Tuesday night Japan time (delays in Atlanta) and the next day went with about 100 other students from the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Canada to an orientation in the Haneda region (about an hour from Tokyo via bus). He said the weather's been nice and he had a nice view of Mt. Fuji (and I'm jealous because it was cloudy when I was there next year and I didn't get to see it!). He's enjoyed the Japanese classes so far and I think he wants to keep up practice and learning the language after orientation as well.

I know this weekend he's doing the home stay but beyond that I'm not really sure what he's been up to. I got a weird email with the subject line "Went to beach, gonna do a load of laundry." When I asked what that meant (mostly because I didn't know how he'd have time to hang out at the beach during the orientation) he said "The ocean, no beach just some rocks with local fisherman." So I really don't know what shenanigans he's been up to now...

He'll be at the orientation until Tuesday and then will go to his host institution to start working in his lab. I'll try to bug him for an update when he gets to RIKEN!

Jaa matta! See you later!

After a busy few weeks of work, moving, travels, and wedding preparations, Austin's last "bachelor" weekend in Gainesville arrived rather quickly. Then amidst getting Austin moved and packed the weekend went by so fast! We took a trip to IKEA last weekend to get all of the furniture our new place needed, and after getting Austin's desk and other items moved in it finally feels like a little home (pictures to come after I clean it up a bit!). Thankfully we still had some time to relax, enjoy the cool and rainy weather, eat one last hamburger and steak before heading to Japan, and talk about how life's going to look in the whirlwind week and a half between Austin getting home and us getting married.

The first day apart is always the hardest, but soon after life settles down again and you get into a new routine. I'm excited for the many opportunities for work and play this summer: my first manuscript is almost done, I'm 2 weeks away from field work and 3 weeks from another experiment, I joined the church band and will continue to brush up on my piano skills with a new keyboard, and am looking forward to spending the summer in GNV hanging out with old friends and making some new ones as well. Austin definitely has a great chance to meet lots of new people and colleagues and I'm sure he'll come home with lots of great stories and adventures to share (and will hopefully share some on here as well! hint hint hint...).

Here's to summer 2012 and all the joys and challenges it brings us!