I left home when I was 18. Not like just went off to University like thousands of others, but actually left left. I lived in Leicester for 5 or so years before moving to the States. I don’t really “do” homesickness because I’ve travelled so much over the last 15+ years.
But right now I’m in Washington, D.C. for the 38th annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. And I’m remembering how much I love this place.
I did my first postdoc at Georgetown University and ended up living in DC for a couple of years, even though I left my lab after a few months (nothing horrible, just not a great fit). DC has a great vibe, it’s a small city-big town and the semi-regular governmental turnover means that the population is constantly shifting and changing. There are the “Cave-Dwellers”, the old blood families usually found downtown near the Capitol and Eastern Market and more so out in Georgetown. But the rest of the city is young, youthful, exciting and vibrant. It also has an excellent public transport system. I was one of the commuting millions who, in DC parlance, had a BMW…bus, metro or walk.
The Society for Neuroscience meeting is massive, last year there were over 35,000 delegates. It’s being held in the new convention center and the building is almost ridiculously huge. I wandered for literally 20 mintes trying to find my poster section when I first arrived. This is testament partly to the ludicrous bigness of the building, but also because I had had 10 hours sleep in the previous 76 hours.
See, before the meeting I was in Las Vegas for 27 hours at another meeting and I had to catch the red-eye to DC on Friday. I managed to get elected to the Board of Directors of the National Postdoctoral Association. Which is nice. It’s a significant time commitment but thankfully my new boss knows and is fine with it. Oh yeah, I leave my lab…possibly lab work forever…in 14 days.
Plenty to blog about in the coming days. I’ll be taking my laptop to the conference from tomorrow so I’ll try and post some interesting Neuroscience snippets along with all the usual nonsense…but for now I’m off to one of my old haunts to watch the Washington Redskins (hopefully) smash the Dallas Cowgirls
I love Washington DC as well, Ian – I started my second postdoc stint in Frederick MD, and all of us loved to drive into DC for a movie or museums and dinner. I grew up in a large, diverse US city (Houston TX), and DC is even more diverse, and much more cultured and sophisticated. I always have to visit the Einstein memorial at the NAS, and the Miro/Royo tapestry and Calder sculptures at the National Gallery; they’re like old friends.
Hey Kristi, I’m excited about hitting up some of the museums tomorrow. I love just walking downtown, around the Mall and that area. I think I’ll be moving back at some point, DC really is home :)