Three

Three years ago today, I arrived in England to begin life here as an expatriate and a job at the University of Oxford.

Three years? Wow. As resourceress likes to say: "Time's fun when you're having flies!"

Really, though, three years? That's a fairly long time! More than half of this journal has been written since I moved to Oxford. Indeed, I have lived in seven places -- New York City, Amherst (MA), Long Island, Japan, Phoenix, Chicago, and Oxford... and, by now, I have been in Oxford for longer than I spent in half of those places! Longer than the two years that I spent in Japan and the two years that I spent in Arizona, longer than the two and a half that I spent in Chicago. Wow.

Indeed, in another year, I will surpass the four years that I spent in Amherst, Massachusetts... and if I am still here a year after that, I will have been here longer than the five years that I lived in Lawn Guyland... making Oxford second only to New York City in terms of how long I have lived in a given place. Growing up in NYC means that I spent nearly eighteen years there; I don't think it is in danger of losing the top spot any time soon.

One other item worth mentioning: Being here for three years now means that I am at the halfway point between my arrival and the point where I can apply for citizenship. Three years down, three more to go.

Almost at work now, so I'd best post this. Will try to update later tonight about what has been going on in this fairly productive week...

Three

Three years ago today, I arrived in England to begin life here as an expatriate and a job at the University of Oxford.

Three years? Wow. As resourceress likes to say: "Time's fun when you're having flies!"

Really, though, three years? That's a fairly long time! More than half of this journal has been written since I moved to Oxford. Indeed, I have lived in seven places -- New York City, Amherst (MA), Long Island, Japan, Phoenix, Chicago, and Oxford... and, by now, I have been in Oxford for longer than I spent in half of those places! Longer than the two years that I spent in Japan and the two years that I spent in Arizona, longer than the two and a half that I spent in Chicago. Wow.

Indeed, in another year, I will surpass the four years that I spent in Amherst, Massachusetts... and if I am still here a year after that, I will have been here longer than the five years that I lived in Lawn Guyland... making Oxford second only to New York City in terms of how long I have lived in a given place. Growing up in NYC means that I spent nearly eighteen years there; I don't think it is in danger of losing the top spot any time soon.

One other item worth mentioning: Being here for three years now means that I am at the halfway point between my arrival and the point where I can apply for citizenship. Three years down, three more to go.

Almost at work now, so I'd best post this. Will try to update later tonight about what has been going on in this fairly productive week...

Homeward Bound, I Finally Am Homeward Bound

On the Oxford Tube right now, heading home. Yes, the timestamp on this entry is correct. It is indeed after 11pm. I should be home shortly before midnight; plenty of time to microwave a quick dinner, grab seven hours sleep, then head in to do it all again!

Work has been really picking up of late. I don't think I've left the office before 8pm this week! This means that I have been to no extracurriculars at all. There has been something going on every evening... but I have had no time for any of it.

Whilst I am obviously becoming a very boring human being -- "all work and no play..." -- this is actually not a particularly bad thing. Progress is being made, and being productive feels good. After all, I like my job; I enjoy being a physicist. At the moment, I am directly supervising two students, getting ready to supervise a third, and have my fingers in four different pies (i.e., projects).

All in all, not bad... just somewhat time consuming.

One particularly memorable part of the week was yesterday. I am a convener of the T2K Super-Kamiokande UK group. Over the past few weeks, RT[*] and I organised a T2K SK UK meeting. Once it became clear that said meeting would be held at Imperial College, most of the organising naturally fell to me. This is the first time that I have organised a non-local meeting -- we had participants from as far away as Lancaster and Liverpool. It is also the first time that I have chaired a meeting. I will confess to being a tad nervous at first but, not surprisingly, everything went rather well. So well, in fact, that one of the Imperial faculty suggested today that we do these particular meeting two or three times a year. So... go me!

Tomorrow morning, I have to finish writing a talk (or perhaps two) for the T2K UK analysis meeting. Then I have plenty of other things to do before the weekend hits.

I realise that I am indeed becoming much less interesting a person to know when all I do is work. However, that might not be the worst possible thing for some time. During our Oestara ritual on Sunday, we did some tarot work. One of the cards I drew, advising me on how to get where I need to be, was the Eight of Pentacles. The image features a man working hard by himself. In the distance, we can see a city. I think that there is a good lesson there -- I can easily fill my life with hobbies, people, and activities. There is always more that I want to do. However, I need to bear in mind that sometime in the next couple of years, I need to stop being a post-doc and move on to a faculty position. The work I am doing now -- both the physics analysis as well as the supervision of students, organisation of meetings, et cetera -- is very important if I am to make that next step.

---

[*] The other convener.

Homeward Bound, I Finally Am Homeward Bound

On the Oxford Tube right now, heading home. Yes, the timestamp on this entry is correct. It is indeed after 11pm. I should be home shortly before midnight; plenty of time to microwave a quick dinner, grab seven hours sleep, then head in to do it all again!

Work has been really picking up of late. I don't think I've left the office before 8pm this week! This means that I have been to no extracurriculars at all. There has been something going on every evening... but I have had no time for any of it.

Whilst I am obviously becoming a very boring human being -- "all work and no play..." -- this is actually not a particularly bad thing. Progress is being made, and being productive feels good. After all, I like my job; I enjoy being a physicist. At the moment, I am directly supervising two students, getting ready to supervise a third, and have my fingers in four different pies (i.e., projects).

All in all, not bad... just somewhat time consuming.

One particularly memorable part of the week was yesterday. I am a convener of the T2K Super-Kamiokande UK group. Over the past few weeks, RT[*] and I organised a T2K SK UK meeting. Once it became clear that said meeting would be held at Imperial College, most of the organising naturally fell to me. This is the first time that I have organised a non-local meeting -- we had participants from as far away as Lancaster and Liverpool. It is also the first time that I have chaired a meeting. I will confess to being a tad nervous at first but, not surprisingly, everything went rather well. So well, in fact, that one of the Imperial faculty suggested today that we do these particular meeting two or three times a year. So... go me!

Tomorrow morning, I have to finish writing a talk (or perhaps two) for the T2K UK analysis meeting. Then I have plenty of other things to do before the weekend hits.

I realise that I am indeed becoming much less interesting a person to know when all I do is work. However, that might not be the worst possible thing for some time. During our Oestara ritual on Sunday, we did some tarot work. One of the cards I drew, advising me on how to get where I need to be, was the Eight of Pentacles. The image features a man working hard by himself. In the distance, we can see a city. I think that there is a good lesson there -- I can easily fill my life with hobbies, people, and activities. There is always more that I want to do. However, I need to bear in mind that sometime in the next couple of years, I need to stop being a post-doc and move on to a faculty position. The work I am doing now -- both the physics analysis as well as the supervision of students, organisation of meetings, et cetera -- is very important if I am to make that next step.

---

[*] The other convener.