Return from NC
Random things I learned from my work trip in Chapel Hill, North Carolina last week:
1. The government's budget cuts include a ban on providing food or drinks at meetings for grant researchers - but only for the funding agencies that aren't as cool like those that specialized in applied research. If I had an NIH funded job giving rats heroin they'd probably wouldn't have charged me $1.50 for a cup of coffee. This wouldn't be quite so bad (last year they were putting out so much food that it seemed wasteful) if they had just warned us to go to breakfast on our own. I kinda like practical research with real people though (I don't give them heroin though ;).
2. Grits are really good in NC and apparently they eat them with everything. I mean when you order lunch they ask you if you want fries or grits with your sandwich.
3. Being stranded in an airport during a 5-hour delay with your former boss (and his new employees) that you are now in competition with for grant funding is not nearly as bad as it sounds. Especially if you hop in a cab and to find a random Cuban restaurant.
4. UNC is a really pretty campus with lots of interesting trees and houses and stuff. But Duke and Illinois are considered four letter words (Illinois beat UNC in a big basketball game while I was there).
5. In addition to USA Today, Nascar news comes to your hotel room every morning. Hrm, maybe if I wrote a grant to research giving crack to hamsters I'd get some free coffee?
6. You can't find a Dr. Pepper anywhere. :( I hate you Pepsi.
7. There are ads for GEESE Repellant at the Airport. I really could have used this at my job interview a year or two ago in NJ where a giant goose guarded the door (and wanted to come inside with me).
8. I have a British accent. I always thought I had a typical urban/sub-urban North Texas accent, but apparently I sound British to some? I'm so confused.
1. The government's budget cuts include a ban on providing food or drinks at meetings for grant researchers - but only for the funding agencies that aren't as cool like those that specialized in applied research. If I had an NIH funded job giving rats heroin they'd probably wouldn't have charged me $1.50 for a cup of coffee. This wouldn't be quite so bad (last year they were putting out so much food that it seemed wasteful) if they had just warned us to go to breakfast on our own. I kinda like practical research with real people though (I don't give them heroin though ;).
2. Grits are really good in NC and apparently they eat them with everything. I mean when you order lunch they ask you if you want fries or grits with your sandwich.
3. Being stranded in an airport during a 5-hour delay with your former boss (and his new employees) that you are now in competition with for grant funding is not nearly as bad as it sounds. Especially if you hop in a cab and to find a random Cuban restaurant.
4. UNC is a really pretty campus with lots of interesting trees and houses and stuff. But Duke and Illinois are considered four letter words (Illinois beat UNC in a big basketball game while I was there).
5. In addition to USA Today, Nascar news comes to your hotel room every morning. Hrm, maybe if I wrote a grant to research giving crack to hamsters I'd get some free coffee?
6. You can't find a Dr. Pepper anywhere. :( I hate you Pepsi.
7. There are ads for GEESE Repellant at the Airport. I really could have used this at my job interview a year or two ago in NJ where a giant goose guarded the door (and wanted to come inside with me).
8. I have a British accent. I always thought I had a typical urban/sub-urban North Texas accent, but apparently I sound British to some? I'm so confused.