Catch-up recap, part two

My month-long visit to Slovenia is coming to a close. I fly back to New York tomorrow. Yay! Since my first flight is at an ungodlily wee hour of the morning, I opted to book a room in a hotel near the airport. A 2.30 AM wake-up call to get to the airport is NOT happening, thankyouverymuch. 

So, as I lay in bed all excited to get back to the lab and to my apartment and to Gotham himself (duh!), let's reflect on what's new since I left New York. 

1. My pants feel way tighter than they did when I flew in. Bless the holiday binge and my mother's amazing cooking skills. But I should definitely rectify the situation. Eating good food is one of my favourite activities (duh!), but...

I guess my awful spartan housekeeping skills and the crazy life of a postdoc will help get back into those skinnies. Wish me luck!

SOTD: REM - Leaving New York. Because it's the other way around!

2. I donated 400 mL of blood for the 30th time. Which made me quite proud of myself. Due to the law, I am not eligible to donate in the US (I tried, but failed miserably), so donating back in Slovenia felt even more special, and, I admit, sort of payback-y to the weird rules in the US. Not the most noble of me, I admit, but not much I can do about it now. On the flip side, a few people will benefit directly from the donated tissue AND all the evil that got drained out of me this time around will make life easier for the people who are forced to interact with me on a daily basis (insert evil laugh here). 

3. My hair is 2 inches shorter in the back and about 1 inch shorter in the front. I am  a proud wearer of a cool bob that on a VERY good day looks something like hers (wishful thinking) and allows me to pay even less attention to hair styling. Which is magnificent. 

4. Fitness-wise, I'm in the worst shape of my life. I don't like it. And this, too, shall be rectified. 

5. My tolerance for ignorance, especially among students, is even lower than before. I firmly believe that in the 21st century, in a developed country with almost 100 % literacy, being ignorant is a choice. And it's a despicable one. Dear students, get your shit together and open your eyes. Slovenia needs you!

7. Friends and family are the coolest and I am freaking spoiled.

8. I'm such a dork for having felt labsick for the past 14 days. Amid all the good things happening to me in Slovenia, and all the cool stuff about New York I could be missing, the lab was firmly in first place. Awful. 

9. Europe is great. In the timespan of a few days, I managed to touch down in 5 countries: The Netherlands (layover + first coffee on EU soil), Italy (landing+a few visits), Slovenia (duh!), Austria (drove through) and the Czech Republic (Prague!!!). Each with a distinctive culture and language. 

10. Euros are waaaaaaaay prettier than US dollars. AND, they actually have numbers on coins, which is more user friendly than "dime" and "nickel" and whatnot. And paying 1 € for coffee is awesome.

11. I still can handle booze very well. I got shitfaced a lot this past month. It was great, and so so so funny. Obviously, since I'm past my prime in terms of tissue regeneration my liver now needs a wee vacation. But that's details.

12. I HATE PACKING! 

That's about it. Better go catch some sleep. 

Talk to you after the jet lag.

Jules

Sunday. Slavnik.

If I don't count half a day of sunny weather last week, the weather was at it's absolute worst since I touched down in Europe: soggy fog alternated woth rain. All at unseasonably warm temps. Yuck. 

(Yeah, total opposite of all the #freezeyork and #chiberia going on in the US). 

Today, blue skies finally decided to make an appearance, so it was only natural for me to take advantage of the clear balmy day and go for a hike on a nearby "mountain", Slavnik. 

Pano view from right under the summit.

I've been a regular on the paths to Slavnik since I can remember and my love for that lump of terrain is unmeasurable. At just a little above 1000 m (roughly 3000 ft), it barely fulfills the criterion for being called a mountain. And it's a pleasant and easy hike. Bonus: the apple strudel they bake at the hut at the summit is to die for. 

There...
(on the way up)

... And back again
(on the way down)

As usual, I took the steep path up and the gentle, curvy one down. On the way up, the real extent of my outofshapeness showed itself in all of it's glory, since I had to stop to catch my breath more often than I originally planned to. And don't get me started on the humiliation of getting surpassed by 60+ year old poppas with beer bellies. Mental note: move that ass more and get back into shape!!!

But it was worth it. 

I returned home happy, refreshed and just a bit tired, my cheeks finally gently sunkissed (although I did wear SPF, duh!). 

SOTD: Mumford and Sons - Lover of the Light.

It was the most perfect kind of giddy tired only a hefty dose of fresh air and a gentle hike can make you. 

Here's to the outdoors. 

Jules 

P.S. This year's version of winter on this side of the Atlantic:
primroses in bloom on Jan 12th at 1000 m above sea level.

Catch-up recap

Oh boy, having a social life is exhausting. So are the holidays. So is rain. And so is jet lag. And cookies. Well, maybe not cookies, because cookies are not exhausting per se, but you get the jist. I am munching on them cookies now and they are sublime. Cookies are awesome. 

So far, this visit to the home turf has been quite kind to me. I have mostly gotten over the jet lag and the weather is supposed to improve tomorrow. Christmas is over, so half of the madness is in the past already. For which I am quite thankful. As much as I love Christmas strictly as a family holiday, it is stressful. So booyeah that it only comes around once a year. Other than the big holiday being over, let's see what have I been up to since coming back. I have hardly had any time for myself or not-yet-alotted for some reunion/visit/errand/nap. A bit mad, yes, I agree.

The "getting shitfaced with my girl M part" on my first evening back, which was awesome, was already mentioned. Gin tonic was good, not having to get through a hangover was almost as good. I have this superpower, you see, I am hangover-proof or something. My liver might start objecting at some point, but for now my head and my stomach are being great sports if/when I decide that one drink is just not enough.   

The next day (Sunday) did not exist. I literally slept through it, woke up around 6 pm and went back to bed a few hours later. Which means I can scratch "sleep deprivation" from my list. Yay!

SOTD: R.E.M. - Daysleeper

On Monday, I went for a very much needed haircut and I love the very subtle, but cool change. Feels awesome. And yes, there are plenty of hair salons in NYC, but I still feel reluctant about changing my hair person yet. Maybe someday, but not just yet. After the pamper session, lunch with mother and roadtrip to Ljubljana to catch up with some lovely friends from there. The reunion, the beer and later the mulled wine on the bank of the river all felt so familiar and good. The day ended with a dinner and a bottle of wine at an old friend's (and I do not mean she is old, it's just our friendship that is a senior citizen already) house. 

Tuesday was Christmas Eve, a day meant to be spent bickering with my mother, laughing with my brother, making cookies (duh!), trimming the tree while eating said cookies, having a delicious fishy dinner and having a good time. Oh, and we watched Home Alone for the umpteenth time, all three of us sprawled on the couch. Talk about family time. 

Christmas day was spent in the countryside visiting relatives. As usual, it was tipsy, loud and yummy. And there was a visit to the movies later on, since The Hobbit is in town. It was way better than An Unexpected Journey, which felt like a bloated bore, although my man Gollum was in that one (thumbs up for Chapter 1!) and absent from this one (Booooo!). Smaug was a good enough drama queen, but no one beats Gollum at I-do-alone-crazy-in-a-cave-like-a-boss-so-I-am-a-better-crazy-than-you-precioussssssssssssssssssss.  

Thursday was another holiday and another rainy day. And another day of meeting good friends. I could easily get used to that. Lively chitchat, catching up with life events and developments, drinking coffee (from an actual cup!!! It still fascinates me how much I missed actual cups!!!) with a view of the sailboats. I did some work in the afternoon, since I had to submit a peer review of a paper. Which also made me fish out the huge stack of papers I brought from New York. Time to start catching up with my reading as well. Oh. I love science. I love science. I love science. I love science. I love science...

Regardless, I miss New York.
This one is from 72nd & Madison. UES at it's finest.

There's still a lot of people I want to see and a lot of things I want to do and A LOT of papers I HAVE TO READ, but I am being quite efficient, so I am confident there will be time for a siesta and for doing my nails at some point. 

Cheers to manicures!

Jules

Ocean? Re-crossed!

Roughly six months after crossing the Atlantic, I did it again. 

Sunrise over the Atlantic in Miami.
Next stop? Africa. Close enough to Europe, I guess.

Touched down in Venice around noon yesterday, had a lovely catch-up with my brother, then lunch with the fam and a nap. Then I managed to get shitfaced with my girl M. All in all, first day back was successful. 

SOTD: Chris Rea - Driving home for Christmas

Sunday felt victim to jet lag and a bit of unpacking. The weather sucks anyway. 

Here's to reunions!

Jules

Danes, ko postajam pionir...*

On this day 25 years ago, I became a pionir. 

It was 1988, Tito was long dead, Yugoslavia was on the verge of an economic and political collapse that would cause a decade-long turmoil and various wars. But one of the most important rites of passage in a young Yugoslavian's life still claimed a lot of attention from teachers, parents and said young Yugoslavian. 

I was six and a half years old and in 1st grade, bored out of my mind in school because I already knew how to read and write and reading and writing was basically what I was supposed to be learning at that time. The annoying insufferable knowitall in me was having a smug moment, while my teacher was kind of furious. 

Joining the Pionir organization was a huge deal and almost as big a milestone as starting school. It blows my mind how much things have changed since then. 

Source.

A pretty navy blue pleated skirt, cool red neckerchief, a pin, a solemn oath and delicious cake were involved. Parents were proud and there was no homework that day. It was so cool.

"Danes, ko postajam pionir, dajem častno pionirsko besedo: Da se bom pridno učil in delal, spoštoval starše in učitelje, da bom zvest in iskren tovariš, ki drži svojo obljubo;

Da se bom ravnal po zgledu najboljših pionirjev, da bom spoštoval slavna dejanja partizanov in napredne ljudi sveta, ki žele svobodo in mir;

Da bom ljubil svojo domovino, samoupravno Socialistično Jugoslavijo, njene bratske narode in narodnosti in gradil novo življenje, polno sreče in radost."*

So tonight, I'll briefly celebrate. 

Cheers.

Jules

*The Pionir oath. In Slovenian, obviously. The message is actually pretty positive and there's no brain washing. Google translate to learn a piece of our history if you will, my dear non-Slovenian readers. 

Anže is adorable!

Anže Kopitar, hockey superstar, on Ellen. Being awesome. And cute.

"It sucks to be me"

For the first half of this month, I had two sweet visitors from home taking over my apartment. 

Although it sometimes felt crowded, it was lovely having them around. 

The lobby at New World Stages.

We didn't hang out much, but it was very fun having somebody to boss around the kitchen or fill their heads with info about New York. My favourite part was listening to their daily impressions of the city, their awe and excitement. I was only a couple of years older than they are now when I first visited New York and I still remember how I felt walking the streets, completely smitten by everything around me.

Bonus: they brought over half of my winter wardrobe, for which I am extremely grateful. An one more bonus: they treated me to another Broadway show. They chose Avenue Q, a Broadway veteran that  has moved off-Broadway a couple of years ago and audiences still don't seem to get enough of.

It was AWE-SOME.

The show deals with a lot of issues linked to "real life", adulthood and the quarter-life crisis. With puppets. Of course, the Bad Idea Bears will be my favourite kind of bears forever and ever.
And this:

"The internet is for porn. Why you think it was born? For porn, for porn, for porn. Grab your dick and doubleclick..."

Thank you, N and G for the treat.
Jules

A wise hot beverage

Oh, the smell of coffee in the morning.

Nothing beats that. NOTHING.

As someone who grew up right next to the European capital of coffee, loving it is no brainer for me, really. In my world, coffee is the sweet smelling, dense concoction that comes bubbling out of a caffettiera or slowly flows out of a big-ass espresso machine. Well at times, if made by someone highly competent, I also love a cup of turkish, but that's the trickiest. 

At home, I still make it like I did back in Slovenia, in my great-grandmother's Zanzibar caffettiera that is more than 50 years old and looks all battered and bruised. When away from said legendary caffettiera, coffee still remains a ritual. It might be 3 minutes or hours, but you are supposed to stop whatever you're doing and you enjoy your coffee. 

SOTD: Amy Winehouse - Back to Black. Although I rarely take my coffee black.

The American way of doing coffee on the go took a lot of getting used to. Travel coffee mugs are still an unacceptable concept to me and whenever I go out for coffee (here or here, both are actually good), I sigh silently because I'd give anything for an ACTUAL CUP and I do sit down at the coffee shop and stop for a minute or two. Or 120. Also, it took me a while to perfect the way of tailoring the classic american watery yuckiness they try to pass for coffee to my VERY mediterranean personal preferences. 

Now I know my coffee, both at home and when I'm out and about the UES. 

I do, however, own a travel mug. But coffee has never touched it. I use it for tea. Because a morning dose of hot smooth caffeine is not enough and there's nothing better than sipping a hot beverage while going through emails and experiment plans for the day.

This little thing surprised me today*:

  *I know, I know, you can hardly read the quote. Blame the crappy camera phone and the fact that I STILL haven't bothered with buying an actual camera. 

The quote actually reads: 

"Live for something higher, bigger and better than you."

Well, let's break it down:

• Higher I can do, especially in these babies (arrived today - and I am a woman in love). Or in these (dream, dream, dream, dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaammmm).
• Bigger I will definitely do if I contnue living off of crunchy french toast and almond - sea salt chocolate. 
• Better than me?

Modified just slightly from here.

Stay wise.

Jules

Bragging rights

I know, I know, things have been quiet and boring around here for the past few days, but I've cooked up something to break the silence. Yay me… Then...

Although I had something totally different planed for today's post, a late afternoon call from mommy dearest changed things a bit.

AND NOW I GET TO SHAMELESSLY BRAG ABOUT HOW AWESOME MY BROTHER IS. 

Ha! My baby bro is (bragging points as following):

Karlo.
Source.

• my absolutely favorite person,
• a person who gets along extremely well with the wind and the sea (Olympic-level well),
• annoyingly headstrong/tenacious/stubborn, which is often good and sometimes a bit less so,
• a great, complicated, passionate thinker,
• author of mindblowing poetry*,
• this year's winner* of the Veronika award for his second poetry collection, Krčrk,
• a cutie,
• brother of me, myself and I - amazing gene pool, no? ;)

Bravo, bratec. Tvoja sestra je neizmerno ponosna nate in na Krčrk.

Jules

*Slovenian only, but I guess some GoogleTranslate torturing of my mother tongue will likely allow Slovenian non-speakres to at least understand.

 

A very Slovenian weekend in New York

Which, by all means, started Friday around 6 pm. 

Here's a step by step recap. Trust me, it's SUPER exciting and you really shouldn't miss it!

Friday, 6 pm to 7 pm:

Instead of leaving work for a beer, I had this EPIC fight with my homeboy Ž via texts. Excessive texting is dangerous indeed, my friends. Of course, the fight was in Slovenian, so that kind went along with the theme. 

Friday, 7.30 pm to 8 pm:

Subway ride to Long Island City (Queens). Thank the heavens for air conditioned subway cars. Talk about cooling off… ;)

Friday, 8 pm onwards:

Meeting a bunch of Slovenians for a drink at this awesome speakeasy in Queens. Fantastic cocktails, bartender was a bit cranky, but nice enough. And did I mentioned the cocktails were fantastic? 

Gin and vermouth are quickly becoming my very close friends!

…zzzzzZZZZZzzzzzz…

Saturday, 8 am to 9 am:

Coffee and Skype. Good times.

Saturday, 9 am to 12 pm:

Some easy peasy work at the lab. No biggie, but unskippable. 

Saturday, 12 pm to 1 pm:

Post office. Oh yeah, the pink slip finally appeared in my mailbox meaning that a nice care package from Slovenia was waiting for me at the local USPS. This time, it ALMOST arrived smoothly. Huge improvement and, yeah, I managed to successfully retrieved the package this time.

Saturday, 1 pm to 2 pm:

Greedily opened care package. Šljivov pekmez, a vast assortment of homegrown herbal infusions, "fleur de sel" salt from my home turf, which REALLY makes food taste better, a few beloved pieces of clothing, my favourite swimming goggles AND a huge 1 kilo pack of lemon Cedevita (I am old fashioned that way and only ever choose classic old school flavors for my artificial vitamin drinks).  

That should keep me going for a while!

I LOVE YOU, MUM!!!

Saturday, 3 pm onwards:

Binge watching a White Collar marathon while downing painkillers, clutching a hot water bottle and feeling really miserable. No, this particular case of feeling miserable did NOT have anything to do with cocktails. Let's not talk about that again…

…zzzzZZZZZzzzzzz (not peaceful at all!)…

Sunday, 11 am:

Coffee and painkillers. Who would have thought? Coffee DOES help with that kind of pain. But if ever given a choice, I'd take coffee and Skype over coffee and painkillers, no discussion.

Sunday, 1 pm to 3 pm:

Work, same thing as the day before. This time, my level of enthusiasm was a few pegs lower than the previous day. No shit, Sherlock...

Sunday 3 pm to 3.15 pm:

2 (!) slices of pizza for lunch. New York's finest junk food finally found me. 

Sunday, 3.30 pm to 6 pm:

Slovenian picnic in Prospect Park. Thanks to some awesome Slovenian-Facebook-word-of-mouth, this little gathering happened. It was so cool to meet a few more awesome people, most of whom are in the arts and have been living in New York for years. Although I wasn't in the best of shapes, I had a great time and do not regret dragging my ass all the way to Brooklyn for this.

Here's to more events like this, Slovenians!

Sunday, 7 pm onwards:

Blue Jasmine and a beer with a cool coworker (not Slovenian, though - kind of spoiled the overall theme, but she's seriously cool). 

Cate Blanchett outdid herself. Woody Allen is a genious.

I loved the movie. Such a step up from the last, hugely underwhelming Allen I saw up north in freezing Tallinn last year.

Now I desperately WANT to go to San Francisco!!!

…zzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz (this time, peaceful)…

This post is really sort of weird. 

An hour-by-hour account of what I did during the weekend? Like anybody cares, right? 

All in all, it was a bumpy weekend and what I think ('cause I care, you see) made it stand out in the sea of all my NYC weekends is the fact that this one was chock full of Slovenians who managed to make a home for themselves here in New York. 

And I am seriously falling in love with the concept that I kind of am one of them, making New York my home.

Jules 

Of fireflies and memories

New York is definitely a magical place. Not perfect by a long shot, but it definitely has some magic going on. 

Let me explain...

After an early dinner yesterday night, I started feeling a bit restless and experienced a sudden craving for the best ice cream on the planet. Yes, my friends, Grom's cioccolato extranoir. Oh my! It was a lovely midsummer evening and the sun was just setting, which cast a marvellous golden light across Midtown. I decided to walk home through the Park, which sort of opened the floodgates and brought up many childhood memories. 

Video by Mary E. Allen

You see, when I was a little munchkin, I used to spend a lot of time at my nona and nono's place in the countryside. I had a blast milking Minka the cow, kneading bread, bringing colorful bunches of field blooms to my imaginary (boy)friend Rudi and, on summer evenings, grasping hay using tiny rakes that nono made just for me. Surprisingly, that was my favourite chore (kneading bread was a close second), and what made summer dusk in the meadows really special were the hundreds of blinking fireflies hovering just above the mowed grass, seemingly keeping an eye on us.

If you ever attempted to catch a firefly, you probably noticed that, despite the very cool glowing ass, they are not the cutest members of the animal kingdom (that would be baby goats) and they actually look very much like ordinary bugs.

Source

But from a distance, they are truly awesome, and it's not really hard to imagine that they are not bug-looking bugs, but tiny fairies holding their lanterns and rushing home for dinner. 

Source

My imagination used to run wild more than usual (see above) during those summers with the grandparents and I was truly having the time of my life. Then, things started to change one by one. First, nono left us way too soon, then pre-puberty rolled in and with it a decreasing interest in helping on the farm, followed by my beloved Rudi moving away without a word or even a note (if anyone has ever wondered where my trust issues around men come from, there you have it ;)). 

Of course, the simple fact that firefly populations have been steadily decreasing across Europe didn't help with maintaining the magic. "Biochemistry one" during my freshman year at university wasn't helpful, either, since I found out that the blinking light was not some sort of hocus-pocus ℅ Mother Nature, but a rather straightforward biochemical reaction involving luciferin, the enzyme luciferase, some ions and a lot of energy in the form of ATP. I guess performing firefly-light-enzyme-based assays to measure programmed cell death in cancer cells did not help, either. Way to kill it, science nerds! 

Source

Thanks to my bountiful scientific education, whenever I see fireflies nowadays, I can't help but think about how much energy some beings on this Earth are willing to waste just to get laid (male fireflies light up their butts to attract females). 

SOTD: Owl City - Fireflies. Because, d'uhhh.

Luckily, part of me is still capable of seeing the magic in the blinking lights of hundreds of fireflies. Thankfully, New York parks are choke-full of those cool little glowing bugs in the summer. 

New York is a magical place. I told you so.

Jules

Good sport!

For my little home turf of Slovenia, this past few days have been very very good in terms of sports. 

I generally do not follow sports too avidly, but some disciplines give me good reason to do so. 

One of those is sailing. Main reason is that it is kind of a family sport and I was raised in quite a close contact to it, despite not being particularly fond of the activity myself (Sorry, mom). And last week was glorious, since on Saturday, Vasilij Žbogar (best Slovenian sailor EVER) became European champion for the second time in his long career. First time in Finn class. Proving that he is BEYOND awesome. I bow waaaaaaaaay down, badass Vasko!!!

The second one is swimming. Which is kind of my favourite. Because who am I to skip on ogling half-naked fit men in the name of the Olympic spirit. 

Well, today, this ogling kind of paid off, as Damir Dugonjić (currently our best swimmer) finished 4th in Barcelona in 100 m breast. He missed the medal just by a smidgen, but he still pulled off a great final in one of the most competitive swimming disciplines. And he put together an amazing performance,  keeping our spirits high for the 50 breast scheduled for tomorrow & Wednesday. So happy for you, Dugi!!!

And in case any of you were wondering where is this sudden surge of patriotism coming from, here's your explanation. You are welcome. 

Vasko.
Source

Dugi.
Source

Vasko.
Source

Dugi.
Source

Need I say any more?

Jules

p.s. GO SLOVENIA!!!!!!!!

Lost & found

Oh. My. 

I previously mentioned that one of the packages with my stuff that mum sent me got lost in the mail. Remember? 

I didn't exactly go into the details back then, so let me just debrief you. There were two boxes, looking exactly the same and dispatched at the same time to the same address. One arrived ok, the other one was "undeliverable as addressed". WTF???!?!?! 

Since postage for each was around 70 euro (big boxes, people) and both contained personal stuff that I kind of love, losing one was frustrating. Especially since it actually arrived AT THE SAME POST OFFICE as the other, correctly delivered one. And was then dispatched away from said post office and supposedly back to Europe.

SOTD: Jace Everett - Bad Things (True Blood opening theme)

I spent one whole day and half of the next one trying to track it down, talked to a lot of people at USPS over the phone and in person and over the phone again. They were all nice, but don't get me started about their efficiency…

After a lot of effort, I just gave up, hoping that my mum's return address was in ok shape and the package would get back to Slovenia. That would mean that my stuff was not lost forever, just delayed for a couple of weeks. But that would of course also mean that mum would have to re-mail it to me and pay for postage again. 70 euros gone in vain… Not much we could do about it. 

This whole mess happened about 10 days ago. I tried a zen attitude and not think about it. But I'm no zen kind of girl. So this morning at work, I decided to check the tracking number, thinking that by now, the package would be back in Slovenia or at least somewhere in Europe. I found out that the "undeliverable as addressed" status was still on, no new info since July 5th. AT THAT EXACT MOMENT my phone rang. It was a USPS truck driver telling me he has a big parcel for me, but can't get into my building's lobby. My heart skipped a beat!!! Could that be my lost package?

IT WAS!

And I even managed to convince the driver to wait for me while I grabbed my keys and ran out of the lab towards home. 

Not a pretty, but still a happiness inducing sight.

The box was battered and bruised (despite the "Fragile" mark), but it was there. My favourite shoes! My big caffettiera! My Leprechaun! My pretty scarves! My "Beijing 2008" pillow! My Fangtasia glass! They found me!

Among all the thrill, sadly, two of my Wacky Woolies shot glasses fell victim to the battering and bruising. Only one survived. But I did pay them my respects. And now I will have to go back to Dublin and replenish my collection. It's imperative. 

Rest in peace, Wackies. 

All in all, I am a happy girl today!

May you be happy, too!

Jules

Business as usual

Oh, Monday.

You did not quite treat me right, did you? You were superhot and stuffy. Not cool, man.

You see, today was my "pre-employment tasks" day. Meaning I had my hands full of paperwork and red-tape stuff. And for a person coming from a tiny university in a tiny town, all the structure and level of automation of the whole process was quite overwhelming. And made me feel quite the idiot on more than one occasion. Plus, it provided enough material for yet another superlong blog post. 

SOTD: Green Day - American Idiot. 

An important thing to note is that my new work place is HUGE. Not only does the main campus occupy 2 whole blocks on the UES, it also has offices and support services scattered around the neighborhood and way down into midtown. Yay. 

First up on the agenda was my medical. I passed with flying colors and got cleared for duty. But still I made sure to cause a moment of awkwardness, thanks to my ancient vaccination card. You see, in Slovenia, the nurse at my doctor's office refused to print out a fresh record of my vaccination history. It is all stored in my electronic file, but she just didn't feel like reading my insurance card and printing it out. Instead, she suggested I just take a copy of that cardboard card that I got when I was born. 31 years ago. With information typed onto it with a typewriter and dates of vaccines stamped onto it, some of them crooked, some faded. Needless to say the nurse who examined me chuckled a little and then needed my help deciphering the information she required. She had translations of the required vaccinations in Slovakian, Serbian, Croatian and Russian. But not Slovenian. Does that mean I'm the first PhD from Slovenia to go to work there?

My second appointment of the day was with Human Resources, 40 blocks downtown from the Employee Health Services. That went smoothly as well, but again, I managed to stir the routine a bit, since that's just who I am. And again, it's because I'm from Slovenia. A country in which every resident is required by law to have medical insurance. I'm covered until the end of this month, but after that, my current insurance will be suspended. So I need a letter form HR confirming that I will have said insurance and I need to send it back to Slovenia so they don't send rude letters to my mum demanding me to get insured. The nice lady at HR said that she will see to that, but still found my request kind of weird. 

My third appointment was for mandatory drug testing. 46 blocks uptown from HR and 14 blocks uptown from home. It was just the basic pee-in-a-cup thing that's required by law for all new hires. I was not the least bit worried about the results. I'm a good girl. What freaked me out was the whole pee-in-a-cup process. The test goes like this: you're given a cup and need to pee 60 mL of pee into it. But after you do that, you're not allowed to flush the toilet or wash your hands. You first need to give the cup to the lab person and only after she decants 30 mL of your pee into a fresh vial, you are allowed to pour the rest into the toilet, toss the original cup into the biohazard bin, flush and finally wash your hands. Needless to say, that was one of the grossest things I ever did. Can you imagine? Hundreds of people pee in those cups and then touch the doorknobs, taps, you name it with those pee-splattered hands. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Yuck! I went home and showered and then took a nap.

My fourth and last appointment of the day was later in the afternoon at the Security office. I was instructed by HR to to go there ASAP in order to get my ID badge. That is one of the things I am really excited about. I had a bit of trouble finding the Security office, as the building where it is located is some sort of maze. But when I did, the first thing I was asked was when was my start date. I said next Monday. The guy said "no can do". Then he kindly explained that HR insists on sending people over to him as soon as they're done with the hiring process, but for most of those people, their information doesn't get uploaded into his system prior to their first day. And uploading people's data is one of the things HR is responsible for. So, no ID badge for me today. Bummer. 

He was very nice and genuine and told me that he's been trying to talk sense into HR for the past 6 months, but to no avail. Actually, I felt like he was the only TRULY nice person I dealt with today. Everybody was nice and helpful, but mostly they were "professionally" nice, as being nice is clearly part of their job description. This guy was just plain cool. I guess I'll have a blast with him once we get to the point of getting me that ID badge.

Now I'm sitting at a coffee shop having a double espresso relaxing after this rather mad day. 

Tomorrow is IKEA madness (delivery + assembly day). And on Wednesday, my New York vacation can finally begin. Well, after I manage to apply for a Social Security number. 

Oh, well…

Jules

Cheesefest

Day -1. AKA I leave tomorrow. 

Which obviously means that my farewell party happened yesterday. 

And what a party it was. 

Beachside, rum-infused, and filled with an awesome soundtrack. And there was this fantastic dark chocolate+orange cake topped with an edible version of the Statue of Liberty. And perfectly thoughtful gifts. Small (due to shipping reasons) but nothing short of perfect. All completely in sync with the people who brought them, which makes them that more cherishable. 

Like the tee pictured below, for example. 

You see, I have this HUGE girl crush for Tard, hence the deep love for this tee, designed by my homegirl M.

What's not to love, eh?

BEST. GOODBYE. GIFT. EVER.

Most of my people came to see me and the atmosphere was so bittersweet. My heart was on the verge of exploding. I love those guys and gals endlessly. 

It was a warm and fuzzy summer afternoon and night and I'm happy that everybody had a good time. 

Being the center of attention never truly bothered me, this time it was just plain awesome. I felt so loved in those moments. Hugging and kissing the ones that mean the most to me as they were progressively leaving was equal parts sad and gratifying. Now, this is going to sound really lame, but bear with me here, ok? You see, drinking in all that gooey fluffy pinky sweetness ℅ friends and family was the BEST possible kind of therapy in this weird time. It healed all those dark feelings that have been lurking around the back corners of my stupid brain. 

I feel relieved, happy and super excited for tomorrow and all the tomorrows in New York. And a bit sleepy, too.

SOTD: The National - All the wine. Because the lyrics are awesome. 

Well. Since this time tomorrow, I'll be in my new home city, let me just change the description of the blog. Up until today it said "Occasional musings from a soon-to-be transatlantic transplant". I'm dropping the "soon-to-be" and switching to "rookie" to honour the occasion. YAY NEW YORK!!!

Time to go to bed now. 

Sweet dreams, folks.

Jules

Closing the door.

My oh my, it has arrived.

MY LAST DAY AT THE OLD JOB.

Source

After gradually shutting down lab work, cleaning my desk and shelves in the office, clearing the paperwork and backing up all the data on my computer, that's it.
All I had to do today is cut up a giant goodbye apple strudel (℅ of my amazing mother) and feed it to my colleagues.

But first, a quick trip down memory lane… hmmmm… I've started my first job at fourteen, worked many different temp ones in between and then took this one in 2007. My first real, big girl gig.

This is the place where I grew up professionally, learned how to be a scientist and a teacher and figured out where I want my life to go. Six years, endless hours, wonderful people, eight SCI papers and one PhD, many funny happenings, the occasional "entitled" student that annoyed the shit out of me and whatnot.

Now it's time to turn the page. It certainly feels like the end of an era. And the beginning of a shiny new adventure.

SOTD: Dire Straits - Brothers in arms.

Cheers to that!
And thanks to everyone at work.
Especially my amazing boss. You rock, chief!!!

Pretty PINK flowers, chocolate, pocket money (both $ and € so I can come back) and a lot of warm wishes from everyone at work.

Jules

P.S. I'm wearing my official Lady Gaga "I'm a free bitch" t-shirt today. To work. Because today, I can.  

Well played, Monday.

Last week on the job. Obviously, a lot of wrapping up and not really much else are on the menu.

SOTD: U2 - Beautiful day. What else?

Aaaaaand... Today's view from the terrace outside the lab is just about making my day!

Gulf of Trieste and all the way to Grado, Italy, and the Alps further north.

How's your Monday treating you? 

Jules

Meteorological summer?

We all know that, officially, summer starts June 21st. Glorious day. 

But that's just one point of view, apparently. Astronomically, the summer solstice marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer and everyone's familiar with that concept. 

But meteorolgists, weather people, have their own way of saying when seasons begin and end. Well, they say summer begins June 1st. So, metorologically, as opposed to astronomically, what marks the end of spring is simply a calendar jump from the month of May to that of June. Which happens to have been yesterday.

SOTD: Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta - Summer Nights (Grease)

In my area (SW Slovenia, near the sea), the month of June always felt summery. Sunny, warm, balmy, nice, pleasant, you name it. Sometimes it was hellishly hot, other times dripping wet, but mostly pleasant and freaking SUMMERY. So pretty much, our area agrees with meteorologists. By the astronomical (ergo, actual) beginning of summer, we were usually sweating like crazy due to the superhot humidity. 

Not this year. Oh, no no no. No.

Take a look what the sky looked like yesterday afternoon:

There was a storm cooking up and temperatures were around 16 degrees C (60 degrees F). Not at all summery, June. Not at all.

June, you should really get your shit together!
Because apparently, New York and its surroundings are dealing with a major heat wave. Bless them.

Jules