Vienna has the best weather of anywhere I've lived. It's a shame we didn't have more snow in Winter, apparently that is down to global warming as there was a lot of snow a couple decades ago. But still, there was more than we got in the UK, but it's not so insanely hot or humid as it was in Boston or Chicago.
I worked really hard trying to get the grant out last week but we didn't make it. There are like 10 little stupid forms to fill in for US funding, everything is just worse than doing UK grants. But the material we are writing and I am reading about is very interesting and I have no doubt I will reuse a lot of the text in real publications one day. Also, I am excited about thinking about human cultures, and to have found a problem that seems accessible to my techniques but also very useful and important both scientifically and for diplomacy. Still, it is just frustrating to spend so much time on something that may come to nothing if it is not funded. Papers you always know will eventually come out in some form somewhere once you have learned enough to make them useful. But funding can just never happen. But trying to raise funds is a big part of what you have to do if you are an academic. At least in biology or computer science -- my officemates are philosophers and have never had to do this, and Dan Dennett told Will he'd never written a grant back in 2000 (I don't know if that's still true!)
It was hard to work long the last couple days, working all the way through the weekend makes it harder even if the work is fun. Anyway, Saturday we did very little except wander around a little more of the town, including finding a great new place to eat lunch. I should say also, that Wednesday night we went to the contemporary art gallery, the ESSL. It is both free and open late Wednesdays. It took us forever to find it and find the door, but it was worth it once we got up to the third floor and found the art.
Today I am doing a little more on the grant applications / form filling front, but also will hopefuly finally straighten out all the papers in my flat. I need filing cabinets here, but don't have anything like that. It's hard to spend money on furniture when you don't know whether you will ever move it back with you. Although I hear moving is cheaper out here.
I've started flustering a bit about the month ending -- not only because I have a lot to do in terms of papers and presentations first, but also because Will and I are just really back to being settled in happily together, and now we are already planning what to do the last Wednesday he's here and such like. Next month we will be together most of the month (but not one week), but only a few days of our time together will be in Vienna. Then September I suppose he will have to go back to Nottingham, although I hope he just stays here another month. Courses in the UK (and Europe generally) don't really start until October.
Friday night we saw the movie Control about an 80s band called Joy Division. Actually, they played mostly in the 70s, but since they were British and I was in the Midwest I didn't hear them until 1982 when I went to university. The movie totally reminded me of when I used to be a guitarist and I have had lots of dreams about Chicago since then. The movie was shown outdoors in a park across the river from where we live. They show movies every night for two months, it is a shame we don't go more often (this was our first.) It's just hard to fit everything in.
I worked really hard trying to get the grant out last week but we didn't make it. There are like 10 little stupid forms to fill in for US funding, everything is just worse than doing UK grants. But the material we are writing and I am reading about is very interesting and I have no doubt I will reuse a lot of the text in real publications one day. Also, I am excited about thinking about human cultures, and to have found a problem that seems accessible to my techniques but also very useful and important both scientifically and for diplomacy. Still, it is just frustrating to spend so much time on something that may come to nothing if it is not funded. Papers you always know will eventually come out in some form somewhere once you have learned enough to make them useful. But funding can just never happen. But trying to raise funds is a big part of what you have to do if you are an academic. At least in biology or computer science -- my officemates are philosophers and have never had to do this, and Dan Dennett told Will he'd never written a grant back in 2000 (I don't know if that's still true!)
It was hard to work long the last couple days, working all the way through the weekend makes it harder even if the work is fun. Anyway, Saturday we did very little except wander around a little more of the town, including finding a great new place to eat lunch. I should say also, that Wednesday night we went to the contemporary art gallery, the ESSL. It is both free and open late Wednesdays. It took us forever to find it and find the door, but it was worth it once we got up to the third floor and found the art.Today I am doing a little more on the grant applications / form filling front, but also will hopefuly finally straighten out all the papers in my flat. I need filing cabinets here, but don't have anything like that. It's hard to spend money on furniture when you don't know whether you will ever move it back with you. Although I hear moving is cheaper out here.
I've started flustering a bit about the month ending -- not only because I have a lot to do in terms of papers and presentations first, but also because Will and I are just really back to being settled in happily together, and now we are already planning what to do the last Wednesday he's here and such like. Next month we will be together most of the month (but not one week), but only a few days of our time together will be in Vienna. Then September I suppose he will have to go back to Nottingham, although I hope he just stays here another month. Courses in the UK (and Europe generally) don't really start until October.
Friday night we saw the movie Control about an 80s band called Joy Division. Actually, they played mostly in the 70s, but since they were British and I was in the Midwest I didn't hear them until 1982 when I went to university. The movie totally reminded me of when I used to be a guitarist and I have had lots of dreams about Chicago since then. The movie was shown outdoors in a park across the river from where we live. They show movies every night for two months, it is a shame we don't go more often (this was our first.) It's just hard to fit everything in.
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