September 13th

So yesterday I had my first official soccer match ever - I managed to stand out as usual by not having an id number and being the only one to wear sunglasses (and be called out because of them). But it was fun. I was in the attack (Still don't understand why they put me there). Which meant I could run a lot and make myself available ay the goal. I would say that by now my only real problem is that I can't shoot the ball hard - the goalee had a great time catching the balls that came slowly soaring towards him. At least our team did have some women who can play soccer, compared to the other team. We won (well we did get a 2:0 headstart because the other team did not have enough women and had to delay starting). After that we went to a bar on campus - where they DID NOT SERVE WINE. Terrible.
Workwise I am frustrated at the moment. I ferry between computer room and my room because I don't have net id and can't therefore access the internet (Finally got myself guest id today, but my net id should have been in last week at the latest). When I am not ferrying I am being a nuisance at the secretary's office ("have you called about my net id?"). And the rest of the time I spend waiting for the IRB to give their comments. I want to run my study in 10 days time, but they are taking a long time to process it and this feels like complete stagnation when I have so little time here. If J were here he could perhaps just inquire (don't know, but perhaps he could tell me whether to inquire, opinions differ on that one). I have enough to do but I don't want to do other things, want to be working on my research.I could work on the follow up but it does to a large extent depend on what we find in the present study. And then there was another idea we were thinking about but I was not convinced and have a whole pile of questions so designing a study for that right now does not seem ideal either. J is sending me frequent e-mails, even asking me whether I am settling in and how I am and whether I am managing to keep busy. He seems to have got the (correct) impression that I am not overly busy, now I have been asked what my ideas for a follow up study are. So that's my task for tomorrow (morning).
Oh, and I have got myself more on track again with activities. Today I went to the 'rec center' and signed up for a hike to the ragged mountains. My research assistant supervises these hikes and she told me to come sometime. And they did not sputter about my lack of id number or American insurance card. Amazing! And while I was there I went and nagged the tennis coach again because his assistant had not called me for a try-out. She turned slightly red when she saw me - but still was not keen on trying me out until she heard she only had to hit a ball for about 15 minutes. I don't care as long as something finally happens that is becoming more tennis like (although I am playing a grad student Friday afternoon - but he is not that good I think). So try-out tomorrow at 11 if it does not rain (which is the forecast..). And tomorrow evening I have dinner with T., just the 2 of us. Look forward to that.
That's it from me, gotta read someone else's weblog now.