Keele Diary #1

I am settled in to my office at the David Bruce Centre at the University of Keele. The trip over was extensive: Flights from Midland to Dallas to Heathrow; Heathrow Express to Paddington Station where I caught the tube to Euston Station, train from Euston to the nearest town, Keele on Tyne, where the head of the Bruce Centre picked me up and got me settled. After some confusion regarding where the key was, they got me into my faculty flat on campus, which is more than suitable, and I was able to get settled in. Campus is largely self contained because it is somewhat isolated, being a couple of miles removed from the nearest real town. I'm sure there is a dual-edged sword to what must at times feel like a hermetically sealed environment, but for my purposes here for a month, it is great that the student union has a grocery store, news agent, post office, pub, cafe, and places to eat.

One of my main adjustments, even after all of these years of international travel, is dealing with jet lag. Largely because in many cases my way of dealing with it is not to. But because my flight arrived at mid-day yesterday, rather than at the more common 8-9in the morning, I did not have to kill a full day. By the time I got to Keele it was in the aternoon, and once I got settled in, and after a nice pub dinner with the centre director, I only had to stay up for a little while longer in order to fight off really screwing with my sleep pattern. And as a saving grace, my flat has a television! It only has the five basic channels, but it's enough to provide background noise and entertainment. I had to be up this morning for some more introductory stuff, so while I could have slept another three or four hours, at least I will make that time up tonight rather than by sleeping in late and never quite adjusting.

Anyhow, sorry for the rather pedestrian reportage. Hopefully I will have something more clever to report in the days and weeks to come. Until then -- cheers!