I'm in Africa!

It's been a crazy two weeks for me to say the least. For those of you that didn't hear, I was offered a job interview for an assistant professor position at the University of Vermont just a few days before I was supposed to leave for Africa. I managed to get my flights bumped back a week, only to have my interview canceled at the last minute because of some poor scheduling on their end. Oh well.

I arrived in Pretoria on Friday and after 3 days of jet lag, I'm finally starting to feel like my old chipper self again (stop laughing Dee). I've moved into my apartment, but unfortunately I'm sharing it with a post-doc from the UK right now. He seems like a cool guy, but I'm not all that interested in sharing an apartment, so I'm trying to get them to move me into a single apartment in the same building. On the bright side, it's a short walk to campus and to just about any shopping I'll need to do. Everything on campus is going smoothly. Within an hour of arriving, I had been registered, had medical insurance, and got an ID...all from one office. They even set up my bank account, so all I had to do was run down to the bank and sign for my debit card. People keep telling me it won't continue this smoothly, but after the land of lost paperwork that is Indiana State University, this place is a well-oiled machine. I'm in a huge office that I'm sharing with one other post-doc (that's the picture). I'm slowly meeting people in the department, but there is a semester break right now so not too many people are around.

I spent Saturday at my advisor's house watching the Super 14 rugby finals (sort of a Super Bowl of rugby) and having a braai (barbeque) and biltong (jerky). The local team won, so town was a little crazy that day.

I leave on Thursday to drive most of the way across South Africa to a region called the Namaqualand where we will be chasing freckled nightjars (like our whip-poor-wills) for 3 or 4 weeks. I don't yet know how the internet access will be, but I should be able to check my e-mail at least.

I've gotten e-mails from a lot of you...sorry if I haven't replied, my internet access was a bit limited this weekend. I'll try to respond soon.