Some impressions

Hi again!

It's been quite a while and so much has happened since I left. I won't try to tell you everything. Instead, I'll just opt for writing anything that pops up in my mind.

First off, everything here in the US is big. And I mean really big. And I mean everything. For instance, the shampoo bottles are at least twice as big as those in Europe. I'm not going to say anything about the boxes of cereal. When I got an icecream yesterday I asked for one scoop: 1 American scoop corresponds to roughly 6-7 Dutch scoops. It's not so much overwhelming but I can't help being surprised at the sizes here.

Which neatly brings me to the subject of New York City. Actually, I didn't like it at all! It was so crowded! I liked the financial district, though. Times Square also was worth a visit, despite the incredibly number of people trying to prevent you from reaching it. The best of my stay was my cousing's company, though! I even learned quite some things about the US system and NYC in particular.
To be fair, maybe NY isn't so bad when the tourists are gone and the temperature drops, but I wasn't convinced by it!

The temperature.. not only is it hot & humid here (30-40C), which causes you to sweat like crazy all the time, but they use Fahrenheit, which is just a ridiculous scale. Also, they mostly use the British system, which means I'm stuck with ounces, feet, inches and I don't know what else. Some things are based on steps of 12 (i.e. instead of 1 unit corresponding to 10, 2 units to 20 3 units to 30, etc. things are different: 1 unit corresponds to 12, 2 unit correspond to 24, and 3 units to 36, etc.) but some other things (don't ask me which ones) have a 16-base scale (i.e. 1 item equals 16, 2 items equal 32, etc)!

Finally, I'm going to leave you with an interesting bag that I got in the airplane:


They don't look so special, these pretzels from Snyder's of Hanover, but they have some interesting information on the back:


Not only are they explicitly "not connected with Snyder of Berlin" but they also list a lot of things this package does not contain, such as fat, vitamin A, C and Calcium (these thus also form 0% of your Daily Values).

It was by far not the only weird thing in the plane: we arrived at JFK (airport) around 7.30pm local time but at 7pm (evening yes) we got served breakfast -- trust me, that really confuses your system when you soon afterwards land and you interpret the dusk as dawn! However, I met a nice Italian on the plane, which made the trip a lot of fun! Oh, and I found Gran Torino quite a good movie, definitely worth watching!

Now, I'll leave you with this update -- next time I'll tell you about the campus and the introduction days!

Take care,
Beata

First post

Dear all,

As some of you may know I managed to get a PhD position at the Linguistics department at the University of Connecticut (UConn) in the States. As during my semester in Edinburgh as an exchange student (see Edinblogh), I will bravely attempt to keep up a blog. (The title is a pun on the fact that UConn is situated in the middle of nowhere.)

Topics include the American dream, campus life, and some linguistic stuff. Feel free to skip these last posts, though :)
I hope you'll enjoy reading, and if you have any comments, please don't hesitate to tell me!
On a related note, at any time you can sign up for an e-mail alert list for new updates: just mail your e-address and I'll add you to the list (alternatively, if you have a gmail account, it seems you can become a follower of my words!).

For now I can tell you that I will be flying to New York on August 13th, while my phone contract expires on the 14th, so please don't try to call/text me. I'm not too sure yet when exactly I will arrive at my room just outside of Storrs (= university campus), but when I do I hope to find an internet connection. I'll post pictures of the room before I unpack.

Finally, a picture taken seconds before my M.Phil defence:


Cheers,
Beata