Not all work

[liv]

Now I finally have a username on the university system, I can use the wifi there. This should make it a bit easier to stay connected, even if it means writing emails and posts at home and then logging on after work to upload things.

In general, I am continuing to settle in at work. I'm getting plenty of opportunities to observe and help with teaching, and a few chances to actually do some, which I'm enjoying just as much as I expected. I have to run a seminar on my own on Monday (on Graves disease and the thyroid system), and I'm slated to give a lecture on the multi-stage model of cancer in a couple of weeks.

Teaching medics is odd, simply because they are so keen, and so mature; for them, this isn't an undergraduate course, this is a vocational apprenticeship and they know they are being held to professional standards from day one. So the element of teaching which consists of motivating students and keeping them interested is practically absent. Not completely; obviously they find some stuff more interesting than others, but generally they're polite and engaged even if the material or the teaching is dull.

The research side is a lot of bureaucracy and setup, but I am being good and pushing when I have to. I have arranged meetings with the Dean who is supposed to be giving me some startup money, and with the research manager who is going to help me apply for grants. So things are moving, though I am not exactly doing experiments yet.

Even though I'm a bit isolated in a new place, I'm not just working from dawn to dusk! I have been hanging out with AF a bit, and met his parents who are absolutely lovely. Getting to know both the community and the uni Jewish society. Pleasingly, I was briefly introduced to a scientist when I went on a tour of the labs, and she saw me on the bus the other day and was friendly and chatty and we agreed we should get together, so I have some hope that she will be a friend who is not a direct colleague.

Also I've had a few nice chats with my housemate when she's around. Unfortunately from my perspective, she is considering moving out and just commuting from Birmingham and using a room in the hospital when she's on call. This makes sense for her; it's silly to pay rent for a whole flat if you're just using it to sleep a couple of nights a week, but I just hope that her replacement is equally nice and easy to live with.

Most excitingly on the social front, I went to atreic's party in Coventry last week. That was brilliant, because nearly all the cool people came up from Cambridge and settled down to play geeky games in a place that is easy for me to get to. (Fast, cheap, direct train, yay.) There was a kahlua cheesecake, a very fun game of Articulate (numberland and I should not be on a team together, we don't think the same way at all!), a spontaneous ceilidh band with kerrypolka in it, and lots and lots of interesting conversations and admiration of atreic and emperor's excellent New House.

jack was very sensible and organized and booked us a hotel for the night, conveniently just round the corner from the House and the station. It was a lovely chance to get some time with him, and even better, on Sunday we met up with his friend J, whom I've heard loads about but who inconveniently lives in Croatia most of the time. Coventry is pretty and interesting, though on a fairly small scale; a couple of hours of wandering the streets was plenty. I had heard lots about the cathedral, especially because of To say nothing of the dog, but I wasn't quite prepared for how quirky yet impressive it is.

Plans for next week: officially joining a GP, meeting up with mathcathy, and P'tite Soeur coming to visit (yay!).

Comments

[emperor]

I'm glad you enjoyed our party :-)

[nanaya]

Ooer! Glad to hear it's going well. The deep-end stuff is probably good in the long run from a skills acquisition point of view.

In conclusion: go you!

[liv]

Thank you for hosting, and sorry I didn't end up talking to you much.

[emperor]

I failed to talk to quite a few people for very long - it was quite a large party, and I played Mao for too long! atreic has talked of dragging you and J to Cov for dinner, which might be fun :)

[liv]

I think you're right there, I am definitely learning a lot quickly. Some of the skills that people expect me not to have I do have, from my lefty peer-education youth movement background, but lots of the heavily medical stuff is new to me, and I shall soon be thrown into things like marking papers and filtering application forms. I do really love learning new things, though!

[nanaya]

I suspect it's a wishlist. I doubt they ever expect people to come with all the skills they'd like, and prob aptitude and enjoyment of learning them is part of the on-the-job assessment, IYSWIM. Ability to learn is prob far more important overall.

As long as you're getting a lot out of it, it's all good.