As I already hinted in my mail, I will be in the US for a bit more than 8 weeks. I was sent to Villanova University on a research assignment related to my PhD project. In fact my host, Prof. Amin, is our cooperation partner here in the US. He actually has the expertise, an experimental setup and many cooperations with industry and government. So I'm looking forward to a fruitful and interesting stay here.
The flight and arrival were fine and smooth. I am staying in a house in Ardmore (it seems that the name of the town changes ever mile here, but you can't tell the difference) with Zack, who is Villanova staff. He is a very friendly guy and he lets me stay in one of his rooms. The house is in one of these 100% stereotype American neighbourhoods. I almost felt like in one of the sitcoms like Alf or the Bundies. Everybody seems to have a small American-style house, surrounded by a small garden and has at least two big cars in front of the house. Quite funny is actually the electricity and telephony supply. Everything is connected through a big bunch of wires that run along some old, half-rotten, wooden poles. Quite like in China! :-) No wonder that the American power grid has the reputation of being unreliable...
I spent the weekend mainly with recovering from my jet-lag (it wasn't too bad) and getting familiar with the neighbourhood. I guess I walked further on that weekend than an average American in a whole year... :-)
The first day at University was fine. Everybody is very friendly and helpful there. I was given a small campus tour and I was equipped with everything I shall need for my stay. I got to know some of my colleagues already, who are mostly foreigners too. Most of them, however, have already finished their Phd degree. So Its gonna be challenging for me...The second day at University was not as fine unfortunately. But this will have to wait for the next posting.
1 comment:
Hey Michael!
good to see that you are still international! Good luck in US and hope to see some creepy pictures soon (like the "Ghost" one from Ubud, Bali with Alex's butt next to your head haha!) Take care and avoid all the "light" beers there by no means!!!
Michael (the other member of the Michael's group)
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