2 days before advisory committee meeting, someone decided without notice that all the grad students were to move to a new room. My first annoyment obviously immediately moved into happy procrastination as I moved all my stuff, and threw away lots of the garbage that I totally had no need for, and installing myself into a corner by the windows in the ex-4th year lab. It's interesting how a new location can trigger lots of inspiration! All of a sudden yesterday's anguish was gone (there's still some anguish left due to the meeting of course, but at least it's not the mega-"whatamIthinkingdoingaPhD-Iamstupid"-anguish).
That's it for today. I have a talk to prepare. ugh.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Culture clash again
Grr! (hm. it seems like this forum of mine has been some kind of vent for occasional frustration, making it look like I'm constantly annoyed. However, I pretty much only write here when I vent, so the frequency of my writing should be a good sign.. ;)
Anyways, today I really have no reason to be annoyed at all. It's 26 degrees warm outside, beautifully sunny, tomorrow we expect a high of 31 (SWEET), and I'm even inspired writing on a paper (how often does THAT happen?). But, the grad student office I'm sitting in is pretty much unbearable. The reason is that the AC is broken, so the air is totally non-moving, about 30 degrees warm, and it feels like the oxygen is disappearing. Now, had I been in a civilized country (most of the world except for northamerica, according the standards I'm about to present), I would simply have opened 2 windows in opposite directions and created a draught. Simple. Who needs AC really (and I actually totally detest AC, since it makes tha air dry and artificial, and usually way too cold). Now, do you think this kind of window (openable) exists in a building on this continent? right. So the effect is that, I'm slowly suffocating, thinking back on the hottest day we had at the observatory in sweden, when it was 30+ degrees. The air was flowing through the building, making cosy ruffling noises through the piles of paper. Of course, I'd sit there, nicely cooled down after the lunch-time dip in the ocean, but that's besides the point. The observatory didn't have an AC, simply because it wasn't needed. And I don't see why it is needed in Winnipeg either. Grr.
It's not only the window situation that makes northamerica uncivilized. Banking too. Who uses checks these days? I have to pay my rent with checks...!!! How do you transfer money to Sweden without getting ripped off? won't happen. According to my swedish bank, it's only Canada, US, Australia, UK. So much for british conservatism (ha, yeah, it's not only northamerica that ends up on my private axis of evil) that takes out horrendous fees for doing simple money transfers. I ended up sending a cheaper so called "money order", but that was so ancient, so instead the swedish bank had to take out a fee to handle it.
Would I like some cheese with my whine? :) (well not american cheese for sure) So why do you live there then, you donkey, you might ask. Well, priorities, right. And no, everything is not good about Sweden either. Just one example: People who sell you stuff, they must meet really nasty customers all the time. Last time I bought stuff (train tickets, groceries etc), both in Sweden and Holland, I felt like I was imposing on the sellers valuable time, I was a bug not worthy of a smile or even look. That felt weird after all the awesome conversations I end up having with all the sellers of stuff (there's got to be a word for that, but it's too hot for my brain to function right now) I meet in Canada.
Blablabla. there's no point to this rant, that's for sure. I wonder if I can find a place in my life, where all the best parts from all the countries I've visited are brought together. Perhaps that is found by the attitude with which I meet rather unimportant details of specific nations...
Unopenable windows are NOT unimportant details though. It's just plain dumb. Grr. (although, I'll admit that it's nicer to have the heat indoors than the cold).
Anyways, today I really have no reason to be annoyed at all. It's 26 degrees warm outside, beautifully sunny, tomorrow we expect a high of 31 (SWEET), and I'm even inspired writing on a paper (how often does THAT happen?). But, the grad student office I'm sitting in is pretty much unbearable. The reason is that the AC is broken, so the air is totally non-moving, about 30 degrees warm, and it feels like the oxygen is disappearing. Now, had I been in a civilized country (most of the world except for northamerica, according the standards I'm about to present), I would simply have opened 2 windows in opposite directions and created a draught. Simple. Who needs AC really (and I actually totally detest AC, since it makes tha air dry and artificial, and usually way too cold). Now, do you think this kind of window (openable) exists in a building on this continent? right. So the effect is that, I'm slowly suffocating, thinking back on the hottest day we had at the observatory in sweden, when it was 30+ degrees. The air was flowing through the building, making cosy ruffling noises through the piles of paper. Of course, I'd sit there, nicely cooled down after the lunch-time dip in the ocean, but that's besides the point. The observatory didn't have an AC, simply because it wasn't needed. And I don't see why it is needed in Winnipeg either. Grr.
It's not only the window situation that makes northamerica uncivilized. Banking too. Who uses checks these days? I have to pay my rent with checks...!!! How do you transfer money to Sweden without getting ripped off? won't happen. According to my swedish bank, it's only Canada, US, Australia, UK. So much for british conservatism (ha, yeah, it's not only northamerica that ends up on my private axis of evil) that takes out horrendous fees for doing simple money transfers. I ended up sending a cheaper so called "money order", but that was so ancient, so instead the swedish bank had to take out a fee to handle it.
Would I like some cheese with my whine? :) (well not american cheese for sure) So why do you live there then, you donkey, you might ask. Well, priorities, right. And no, everything is not good about Sweden either. Just one example: People who sell you stuff, they must meet really nasty customers all the time. Last time I bought stuff (train tickets, groceries etc), both in Sweden and Holland, I felt like I was imposing on the sellers valuable time, I was a bug not worthy of a smile or even look. That felt weird after all the awesome conversations I end up having with all the sellers of stuff (there's got to be a word for that, but it's too hot for my brain to function right now) I meet in Canada.
Blablabla. there's no point to this rant, that's for sure. I wonder if I can find a place in my life, where all the best parts from all the countries I've visited are brought together. Perhaps that is found by the attitude with which I meet rather unimportant details of specific nations...
Unopenable windows are NOT unimportant details though. It's just plain dumb. Grr. (although, I'll admit that it's nicer to have the heat indoors than the cold).
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