Moving to the US

Before I went to Russia I had largely finished packing for the move, so when I arrived in Los Angeles, toting 7 cases on a trolley, and unpacked in my allocated room, I was surprised just how many enormous books I had brought. I guess there had to be some reason for there being 160kg of luggage!

I soon met my house/apartment mates, who are pretty cool, and explored the local area, though I have yet to sample the Pad See Iew of every Thai restaurant in town.

Last week was orientation week, which consisted in equal measure of procedural lectures (sleeping opportunities) and a series of quite excellent parties with themes like western, hawaiian, etc etc. On Friday I joined a group and climbed part of the San Gabriel mountains for a great view of LA. Photos may be updated shortly. So far it has been sunny every day, the last few days were very very hot as well - easily in the 40s.

Most other administrative boredom has been organised, I have a telephone number, a bank account, and so on. Tomorrow classes begin - I have 10 timetabled, but solid assurances that more than five will result in severe singeing and probably premature death. So I'll see what the tone is this week!

For those who are interested, an excellent website on earthquakes is http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/. The server is just down the road.

Almost time to begin work for the year! I auditioned for a piano part in a chamber ensemble - I'm pleased to report the resulting train wreck was entirely fitting given my abilities...