Monday, August 29, 2005

Outside my front door:


Curse you Katrina! Power was also out here for about 7 hours. Cable tv still not back, which is a bit annoying.

Yes, I'm alive and well. Hurricane Katrina hasn't hit land yet, and almost certainly will only lightly skim Baton Rouge about 10am-midday tomorrow.

However, New Orleans has pretty much a zero percent chance of escaping unharmed, which is incredibly sad. I had planned to go down there either this coming weekend or the next, but I guess not for a while now.

Classes have been cancelled for Monday and Tuesday, and probably a bit longer too, depending on what happens.

The rain is starting to lightly fall again. Apres moi, la deluge.

Friday, August 12, 2005

I can't believe how difficult it is to buy a bed here. Oh well, hopefully soon.

So I've been here 4-ish days now. On Tuesday, I got heartburn on the way to the airport through nervousness. This was about 9am, and lasted until about 4pm, 4 hours into my flight. Needless to say, I wasn't Mr Fun Bunny with the giving of smiles on my departure, though I tried. Beset on all sides by the loud Turkish students during my flight. They seemed vaguely put out when I wouldn't swap my aisle seat for a window. No, sorry, I have legs, I need the legroom.

Finally got into New Orleans about 7pm, got driven to Baton Rouge, and dropped off luggage at Neyna's before heading out for food at Louie's. I got me the exact same thing I got last time I arrived in BR, a 'Mitchell'. Omelette filled with hashbrowns, sausage and cheese. Tis teh yumx0r. Then slept.

Wednesday, signed my lease, got my key for my shiny new apartment which looks right out over the pool. Now I just need to move in with stuff. Once I get a bed.

I've bought a bookcase, a desk, and a whole bunch of stuff including cutlery, plates, mugs, etc etc. Standard home set-up junk.

Yesterday I had my first taster of uni life. International student orientation. Me and about 500 other foreigners. Met some other Brits, but they're all just here for a semester or a year. I'm the only full-timer. They look at me with something approaching a look of disbelief and amazement.

Had today off, so Neyna and I went bed hunting. One nice one, but not sure about the place. Another one wasn't really clear about what $299 covered. Plus they wanted another $50 for delivery, maybe more depending how many stairs, etc. Sod that. More looking tomorrow. I want to get moved in really soon. Enough couch sleeping.

On Monday I have to be at uni for 7:30am. Because that's the day about 3000-5000 other freshmen turn up and you need to get there early to not be at the back of the queue. These are the regular homegrown n00b students. Wheeeee.

At Neyna's family home today, I saw her mum, gave her a big hug, because it's always nice to see her. Family member Vinnie came over to see her too. He travels a lot. St. Kitts, England, other places. We were chatting about the fun of international flying and the sort, and then he detoured and suddenly we were taking about Big Brother. The UK one. He'd left England about a month ago and he was missing it. So I filled in as best as I could. There was a wonderful moment of surreality as I realised I was sitting in a Baton Rouge kitchen discussing Big Brother with someone who knew exactly what I was talking about, pondering whether Makosi or Anthony will win...

Big Brother... the universal languge?

Wednesday, August 10, 2005


Global Frequency Central Operations is now online.