The University

 The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 about 20 years before the Michigan territory was acknowledged as a state. I'm not really sure what made people settle in this part of the country, I've heard rumors that the trapping of animals for furs did a fair bit for the economy in the past.

UofM is a large school, much bigger than any other school I've attended, with an undergraduate population of 26,000+ and a graduate population of 15,000+.  In comparison with Westminster College, there are approximately 12 undergraduates at UofM for every 1 at Westminster.  As far as Dartmouth goes, there are approximately 9 graduate students at UofM for every 1 at Dartmouth.  Participating in the activities at UofM for the last week, I am definitely happy with my choices to attend smaller private colleges, I can only imagine I would always feel lost with so many students around.  Each graduating class has over 6,000 students in it, there is no way you would ever know all those people, or get to know everyone in the years above and below you.

Students here definitely have school pride.  I think you can buy any item you desire and it would be labeled with the M and available in either the yellow or blue colors of the university.  The school mascot is a wolverine, (which I didn't know until I looked at the Wikipedia article), however I am aware that one of their rivals is the Ohio State Buckeye (Go BUCKEYES!!! - that's for you Kaitlin).  Football is big here, the stadium, also known as "The Big House" is the largest football stadium in the world! Maybe sometime I'll get to come here while it's still football season.

While here, I will do research in the Chemistry Building which has a large beautiful atrium that lets sunlight into the building, (on the few days that it isn't cloudy and snowing), as well as the BSRB which is newly opened and also has a lot of natural light entering the building.  The bottom floor of the chemistry building is for the undergraduate laboratory sections and the first floor has a variety of different size lecture halls.  I saw a lecture hall that was equivalent or larger than 3 of the largest halls at Thayer or Westminster - crazy to think of learning GenChem in that atmosphere. The second floor and higher are reserved for research labs.

The construction of the BSRB allows for offices to exist on one side of the building and the labs on the other side. The two sides are connected by foot bridges that can be cool to watch when the knowledge and people move from the offices to the labs or vice versa. To the best of my knowledge there aren't lecture halls in the BSRB, rather just professor and researchers offices and the laboratories. The bottom level that can be seen slightly in the photo contains a coffee shop and some seating, as well as meeting rooms. The basement levels are where a lot of the animal components are kept, and the security is quite tight.

Both of the buildings that I work at are located on central campus, which is the closest to my house, but the school has expanded to the point that it has 3 campuses in Ann Arbor, South, North and Central as well as two satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn, MI.

My Apartment

I live about 1 mile from the building where I generally work, which is the chemistry department, but I also will do work at the Biomedical Science Research Building (BSRB) that is being showcased as my background to this blog.
In the summer time the walk would be great, you walk across the river and it's a pretty open scenery with the hospital in front of you until you hit the edge of town, but in the winter it means that you have no protection from the winds that blow the snow around.
I'm told that the winter had been pretty mild before I got here, but in the 6 days that I've been here we've had snow on about half of the days - the post docs joke that I brought the bad weather with me. My hope is that the weather becomes more spring like while I'm here and that I can bring that weather with me back to Hanover!

I already talked a little about the suite that I have for my stay but I thought I would show some pics. The two bedrooms are nice with full beds and sparse decorations. The kitchen is tiny, but fine for one person, there are 4 place settings and a table for 4, a couch and a wide chair (that's nearly a love seat) as well as a TV with cable and a land line telephone.  It's weird to have a TV after living for so long without one, but it's nice to have something to turn on while I'm cooking, working, or writing.

The first day that I got here, when I was looking around I found this cute surprise in the freezer. I sadly had to destroy it as soon as I had some food to put in the freezer.

Home.. for a month or so at least

Overall, it's a nice place to stay though, there is a fitness center and study lounge in close buildings and the public transit is convenient to use, and multiple stops are within walking distance from my apartment.
Let me know if you want my address and I will email it to you. I think that's all I have to say for now about the apartment.

Michigan!

So as some of you know I am currently in Ann Arbor (or A-squared, as the locals say) doing collaborative research with Dr. Michael Morris at the University of Michigan. For those of you who don't remember too much of your US geography I've included a map of Michigan.  Ann Arbor is located in the county that is second row from the bottom and second from the right.

I arrived on Monday to nearly a foot of snow, which isn't really that much compared to what we had in Hanover when I left, but seeing as it was a holiday and the city is suffering from budget deficits they didn't do much to clean it up until Tuesday.

I have a two bedroom executive suite that I'm renting for the time that I will be here, potentially that could be until the last weekend in March. The title of this blog comes from this suite. It was sold as a furnished suite, "with everything that one could possibly need for a pleasant stay" and in general I agree with that - the kitchen has a fridge, a toaster, a coffee maker and an oven BUT NO MICROWAVE!  I love the microwave, and use one probably every day - not necessarily to cook things but for reheating left overs or for a quick cup of tea. 

So far I've been here for 3 days, and I'm surviving without a microwave, but it has definitely led to some interesting alternative approaches.  I'll share some of those stories and some of my other adventures from Michigan through this blog.

I'm off to make some dinner, and will post more about my adventures so far later!