Second Christmas

Wow, only a few days left. Time has gone by pretty fast here. In some ways I wish I had been able to do more but I was active the entire time - quite the busy bee - so perhaps this is the best that could have been done. Tomorrow is my last day in the lab and it will be nice to say good bye to people before I go.

Computer is now fixed. Yesterday it was crashing because one of the RAM chips was loose. It wasn't malfunctioning, it just needed a little jiggle and push. But all the memory is now working and everything is perfect. Life is good.

I went to another Christmas party today. This time it was the official Christmas party with the lab group. It was at the professor's home and I quite liked it. Food was good and cats were cute. Besides, he and his family has nice style when it comes to decorating the house. It was quite different from the unofficial party with some people from the lab a couple of weeks ago and I liked it for different reasons. The atmosphere was so warm in the other one and people were laughing a lot. During this one, there was a lot of odd tension where people tried to feel like it was a party and not just a lab meeting. But it was still nice to see the same people in a completely different scenario.

Today, only a few days before the trip ends, I'll start a new section in my blog called Will Miss vs. Good Riddance. It's to name as many small things as possible that haven't deserved their own little rant yet. It's a way to mention things I overlooked when I had too many other things to talk about.

Will Miss vs. Not Gonna Miss

Will Miss: Sun. You'd think it's the same huge burning globe wherever you look at it but it's not! Here it really is warmer. A cold chilly day turns into warm summer as soon as the sun comes out. In Estonia, people shiver when it's 17 degrees and sunny, here people shiver until the sun comes out. The difference between direct sunlight and shade really can be a difference between warm sunny day with a scorching sun and cold depressing winter day.

Not Gonna Miss: Prices for many objects. $5 for 2 pineapples! Yeah, but how much for one? $2.50? Yep, you guessed correctly. They just give the price of two objects to motivate you to buy more than one.

Not Gonna Miss: Prices without tax included. If you have two dollars and you want a drink that costs $1.99, you probably don't have enough money! I like counting the right amount of money before I actually start paying because then there's no rush. Here it's not advisable because you also need to calculate and add the tax. What's even worse - many things don't have price tags. Seems it's not obligatory here.

Will Miss: Things that are not quite real. I think I've already mentioned there's a product called "Can't Believe It's Not Butter". Also, there are such things as non-dairy milk and non-dairy cheese.

Can't Believe It's Not a Chrismas Tree

Will miss: seeing temperature-resistant people. When it gets cold here, Europeans in San Diego take out their warm sweaters and jackets, push their cold hands deeper into their pockets, sit in a very energy-conserving way with their head between their shoulders and look at crazy locals walk past them with care-free pace wearing shorts, flip-flops and thin little jackets. Locals don't even realize they should be shivering and jumping up and down to produce a little heat not to die of low body temperature. Amazing! This phenomenon should be reported to Discovery channel.

Will Miss: DISHWASHER!!!! Hint! Hint! (husband, take notes!)