My 15 minutes of Fame....

I have been here for over one month now and each day I am falling more in love with the UK. Work is still going well and I've pretty much settled into a routine now. The post docs don't really have to tell me how to do anything, unless they are explaining a new concept. One thing I like is that I don't really have set times of when to come and when to leave. I am expected to work roughly 9-5, but I wouldn't have to be in that early, unless I had a baby to run. But like I mentioned previously, everyone works so much here. I do usually work 9-7, but what is very nice is that the lab often goes out to dinner/a pub together directly from work. My typical work day consists of running x number of babies (usually between 3-6), coding for where the baby's eyes are looking, a 45min- 1 hr lunch with lab people, and various other tasks delegated to me from my two post-docs.

Yesterday was a fairly exciting day for lab (at least I thought so). Some TV people from Spain came to tape our lab. The show is on the TV channel equivilent of BBC, in Spain, and it's called TVE. They are doing a special on babies and they were given permission from our PI to tape. Natalia, one of my post-docs is from Mexico, so naturally, she was chosen to be interviewed. They did, however, also tape two of our babies being run on our study, so I got to help out with that and as a result, I will probably end up on some TV program in Spain!

I have also taken up a new sport - coxing. Rowing is the biggest sport at Oxford and every boat has someone called the cox. The cox does not row, but sits at the front of the boat and yells out orders and steers the boat but holding two wires on either side of his or her body. My PI and Nivi, my other post-doc, row for our college, St. hughs, and they needed a cox. I offered to do it, even though I've practically never been in a boat! They were eager though and I have a coach to train me, so every Tues. and Thurs. I'm on the river from 7:45am-9:15am!

I have also been doing more social events. I went to a Garden Party last week and met some people and one of the Ph. D students in my lab is taking me to another Garden Party on Wednesday. Basically, it's just a lot of strawberries and cream, sun dresses, hats, and Pimms (the staple alcoholic beverage of Oxford). However, my lab is still like a family, as in we go to London together, eat dinners, and pretty much everything else. It's also nice because a lot of people from Emory are now arriving to London from the Psych Research program so I will be getting to see some of them in the upcoming couple weeks.