Happy St. Paddy's!

We are having fun in NYC. I went to see part of the St. Patrick's Day parade today, but everyone else went shoe shopping. Figures. It seemed to mostly consist of soldiers and marching bands again, so pretty much the same as the New Haven one, I guess. Also got to see the Brain exhibit at the Natural History Museum, which was so much fun! Mom and dad went through it twice. They had a good bit about the anterior cingulate - my favorite brain region! Like seeing an old friend :)

Now everyone else has gone to a show and I have hunkered down to get some work done. We will see how that goes.

Anyway, happy St Patrick's. Here is a very Irish video (warning: also includes very Irish bad language!)

Ivy League!

Made it to New Haven okay, not without some drama - at the beginning of my flight, they announced that the runway at Hartford was not clear, and if they hadn't cleared it by the time we got there we would turn around and go back to Toronto. A bunch of faint-hearted businesspeople on the flight wimped out at that point and got off the plane. However, we were delayed by de-icing, and by the time we actually made it to Hartford they had just got the runway clear and we landed fine.

By this time, I had missed my shuttle connection and had to wait two hours for the next one. There was an ice/rain/snowstorm going on, so the ride was slow and poor Helena got stuck out in the weather waiting for me for 45 min. But in the meantime the pushy American guy on the shuttle had convinced the driver, on the basis of the terrible weather, to drop us all at our houses instead of at the central dropoff location. (In true American style, I gave the driver a big tip.) In the end I got ahold of Helena, who met me at her place, and all was well.

Helena has been wonderful. She's insisted on giving me her room and sleeping on the futon, and has been making me innumerable cups of tea. I've spent the last few days dealing with paperwork/visa stuff, frantically searching for a place to live, and trying to get set up in the lab. I looked at four places so far: one totally gross student slum, one tiny but super cheap place, with a housemate that (despite being home) would not come out to meet me, one nice room in a grand mansion, but in a bad area of town, and one place where the housemates made me tea and actually had a conversation with me. So I've put in an application for the last place and we will see what happens. It's not the cheapest, but I've talked them into including at least a bed, and it's a nice area. I hope I find something soon - don't want to impose on Helena too much!

I met some people in the lab (which is huge), and have discussed the project. Everyone seems quite excited about it, so that is good. Going to be a huge amount of work, but looking forward to seeing the data. Also got to see a very good talk by the lead singer of The Amygdaloids, complete with a showing of their latest music video. Neuroscience meets Rock and Roll!