After NYC I went to Portland (this is now 18 August we're talkin about) for the Fulbright Orientation at Portland State University. I had been looking forward to experiencing Portland, the indie music capital of the world according to some, but sadly did not get out to see any music. The programme was jam-packed with various briefings during the daytime, with scheduled events for two of the three nights. On the third the only gig on was way out east somewhere. The vibe of the place was really nice though, very laid back (yes the east-coast/west-coast division is noticeable) and people walk about 50% slower than NYC. My fellow Fulbrighters were from all over the world, meeting them all was pretty cool, and I was sad to miss the leaving dinner.
I left the leaving dinner early so I could get to Seattle to hang out with Grant. Almost didn't make it...but managed to beg the check-in staff to let me do a late check-in and the tiny prop plane was so empty that I got on just fine. Grant and I had a good stroll around downtown Seattle, drank plenty of beers of varying qualities at various establishments, and generally yakked on about a lot of our usual topics: sport, politics, music etc. This was all capped off by seeing the Count Basie Orchestra (minus the Count of course) live in concert at a jazz club there. Simply the best jazz band I've ever seen - they were so tight and the arrangements were great. Well worth the money.
After Seattle I began my voyage to Michigan, this time via Phoenix, Arizona (again, cheap flights in the US take you on crazy routes). Just after we landed my seat neighbour got a call from his mom saying "your connecting flight to Detroit has been cancelled" which sent the passengers around him on that same flight (myself included) into panic stations. Thankfully on exiting the plane we found the flight had only been delayed 1.5 hours, not in fact cancelled. So after walking all around Barry Goldwater Terminal at Phoenix airport I finally settled on some fast-food mexican that was actually not too bad, and sat down to wait. The flight out to Detroit left when they said it would, and so I got to Rob and Jana's house in Ann Arbor too late for the bulk of the farewell party they were hosting for a colleague, but just in time for a cold beer and some decompression. It was great to arrive in my new home of Ann Arbor AND be in familiar surroundings with nice people who knew me already (Rob taught me last year and I also stayed with them in April when I visited for recruitment weekend).
The next day I had my first US driving lesson and passed with flying colours - switching isn't really that difficult. Then on Monday math camp started (an exercise to brush up on high-school maths in advance of Michigan's legendarily rigorous political science mathematics training) and Rob and Jana left for a conference, so I had the place to myself, apart from their cat Lola who I was charged with looking after. The week went well, the math wasn't too challenging, and the all-important process of bonding with my incoming class ('cohort') began.
My cohort is full of great people. Within a few days of math camp we'd already made plans to 'tailgate' (that's boot party/bbq) before Saturday's football game, and organised a labour day bbq. And drinking after math camp, etc etc. I'll say it again - my cohort is full of great people, many of whom will become very important friends over the coming years I'm sure.
Saturday August 30 was my first football game - Michigan vs Utah. The stadium here is crazy, it seats about 110,000 people (yeah you read that right) at the moment, and probably more after the renovations are complete. I spent the first 30 minutes once we found our seats just speechless in awe of the spectacle. The amount of people and their collective energy, the marching band that moves up and down the field in a perfect M shape, and then the madness of American football itself. After only a few minutes I was already yelling at our quarterbacks to THROW BETTER PASSES MORE QUICKLY OTHERWISE YOU GET TACKLED. In the end we lost narrowly after a brave final-quarter comeback. Michigan takes football seriously (we're the winningest program in the country don't you know) but this season could be mostly about 'transition'...
When we got back home from football, Andy was waiting at our house, just having got in from Toronto. We immediately went back to Rob's house for the last night of house-sitting, drank duty free and played pool. Like all mediocre players, we improved as the night wore on and more topics of conversation were covered. Andy stuck round for the first week of classes and again it was good to have familiar faces (and accents) while making some pretty large adjustments to a new life. Two Sundays ago I handed Rob and Jana's keys back and moved properly into my house on Iroquois Place. It's really really nice, and my roommates (aka flatmates/housemates) Tim and Alex are cool guys, and very patient with my incessant questions about the intricacies of American Football!
Other than that, there's really not a lot else to report. Classes are going great, I'm managing to keep up fine and make intelligent contributions to the discussion here and there, and I'm actually looking forward to some more work piling on.
Not sure what will happen to this blog now that my travels are over and I'm starting to get busier, but if anybody reading this wants to get in touch with me, you know how. My new laptop will arrive in a few weeks and from then I'll be on Skype relatively often.
Ciao for now, thanks for reading.
Shaun
PS - remaining photos coming soon...
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