Goodbye New Zealand winter, hello sunny California. Wait, what the hell is this? This isn't what we signed up for!












So we arrrived in California about a week and a half ago. We drove down from LA in the rain to find about 8 police cars in and around the motel complex where we are staying. We couldn't get a straight answer out of the guy behind the desk as to why they were there, but Tamsin and I were both wondering exactly what we had gotten ourselves in for and why we were there. Things picked up the next day though when we got a ride into my work with Rachel from the Chch med school, to sort out our immigration stuff. Hearing a familiar accent was quite welcome at that point. A lot of people here seem to have trouble with our accent, especially the ESL crowd. Tamsin confused a Latino car salesman when she asked about the specs of a car, which he heard as Spics. Not her fault though. We got an apartment fairly quickly, which is only about 10 minutes from my work, 10 minutes from downtown and two blocks from the local mall. The only downside is that the landlord lives downstairs and while he's fine, his wife has emphysema by the sounds of it and his 37 year old daughter spends a reasonable amount of her time crying, listening to morose songs on repeat, or snoring. She's probably pushing 400 pounds I think, which would explain the snoring. But the rent is cheap and its a nice enough apartment so its tolerable.


We still haven't got a car, which is essential here as the public transport is fairly atrocious. We've spent a lot of time looking around car yards and Tamsin test drove a Mustang convertible but being a big meanie I wouldn't let her get one. I've been lucky enough that a couple of people from my lab live very close by and I've been getting rides with them. The people in my lab all seem nice enough. They're from various parts of Europe apart from one Indian guy, who seems to have less trouble with the New Zealand accent than the Euros. The place I work (www.scripps.edu) is quite nice, and I have been able to keep an eye on the US Open golf this week as the lunch tables at work overlook the 9th fairway at Torrey Pines golf course. One of the girls in my lab has an Indian boyfriend and I played cricket with him and some other Indian folks this morning. The climate here is much more conducive to cricket than NZ, although the ground made the Lincoln Fortress look like a billiard table by comparison. Tamsin has been busy preparing a 1 hour seminar that she is giving at University of California - San Diego on Tuesday. She is then going in to San Diego State University to meet with someone else on Wednesday. She is missing the cats a lot and is not enjoying being home alone listening to the crying/snoring combo so the sooner she picks up a job the better. Other than that we haven't been up to much, or at least not much interesting, but as soon as we get a car we will be able to post a few more interesting pictures.