Monday 25th August 2008

We wake up at a very reasonable 7:00 am. Mrs G seems to have slept well so the limbs of our neighbours are safe. I put a pot of coffee on and have a leisurely morning reading, playing Kirby and eating Fruit Loops.

Today we are able to attend to some exceedingly important business: registering our laptop so we can connect to the internet. We toddle off to see IT support around 11:00 and are assisted by a very pleasant and helpful chap called Paul. To access the Yale network Mrs G has to enter her username and password. These were emailed to her some months ago. So to access the Yale network she has to connect to her email which she can’t do until she retrieves her information from her email.

Fortunately, this Catch 22 situation is resolved by visiting The Registrar’s Office and obtaining the necessary details from them. Half an hour later and we can now connect to t’interweb! I feel whole again!! Well, almost. I still have to get a 360 to be complete.

Mrs G has to attend the first of many Before The Fall Orientation (BTFO) events, leaving me to catch up on emails, upload photos, read forums, browse randomly and get my blog notes into some semblance of order. I also enjoy the remains of my pastrami sandwich for lunch and consume copious cups of coffee.

A brief burst of rain is followed by a brief thunderstorm. This does nothing to affect the heat and the sunny weather we’ve been experiencing since we arrived soon returns.

Mrs G arrives back from BTFO at 5:50 and advises me that an evening meal will be available at 6:00. I immediately stop what I am doing, get ready and head off to the Quadrangle where the food tents have been set up. We are provided with a number of vegetarian Indian dishes, all of which are rather tasty. This goes well with the real lemonade (not fizzy pop) and is followed by desserts made by staff and students.

As part of BTFO, Mrs G was put into a small group. I will now relate one of the true stories to come out of this:

The Dog and The Suitcase

In the not too distant past a couple looked after a largish dog for some relatives who went away on holiday. The dog had seen many years of life and sadly died while the owners were away. The woman informed the relatives of this unhappy news and asked what they would like her to do.

The owners wanted the dog to be either buried or cremated but were so upset that they asked the woman if she would take care of the arrangements so that they wouldn’t have to do it when they returned from their vacation. The woman dutifully agreed.

Not having any transport of her own she had to catch a train to the pet cemetery. Not having any specialised dead-dog carrying equipment she packed the deceased canine into a suitcase.

At the train station she struggled to get the suitcase through the turnstile. A passing gentleman kindly assisted her and enquired as to why the suitcase was so heavy. Too embarrassed to tell the truth the woman said that she was transporting a PC and accessories.

After the train journey the woman again struggled at the turnstile until the same gentleman once again came to her rescue. Once he was through the turnstile he then ran off with the suitcase.

I suspect he was surprised to find out how few USB ports his new PC had.

The rest of the evening is spent chatting with all and sundry at the Quadrangle, including the lovely, bubbly Jenny who we first met at Westcott last year when she was over from Yale on the exchange programme. We wander over to the apartment and spend some time hanging around the stairwell, talking with some of our fellow block-mates.

Back in our rooms I round the evening off with a refreshing peppermint tea.