Last month, PVL MSc Student Giang left Toronto on the first International Cross-Disciplinary Internship (X-I2) of the TEPS program. In this week's installment he checks in from Oxford University, in the UK. You can find his two "postcard" images above and further down, below the cut.
by Tue Giang Nguyen
The new
term has started and as I finish up my work on Mars’ northern polar cap, I head
out to start something new in the UK. As a trainee of the Technology for
Exo-Planetary Science (TEPS), I have been accepted to an international
internship at the university of Oxford. After going through various potential
projects such as looking at the ancient Martian atmosphere, it was decided that
I will work on thin condensable atmospheres useful for understanding
interesting exoplanets like 55 Cancri e or CoRoT-7b. I’ll be working with established Oxford Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert on the project as well as furthering my
studies on the Martian polar cap.
This is the
first time I’m going to Great Britain, in fact, it’s the first time I’m
stepping on European soil (though British people aren’t keen on associating
themselves with the rest of Europe these days). Packing for the trip wasn’t
problematic as I don’t really have a lot of stuff; I don’t even have an
umbrella which I’ve been told is quite necessary for survival in the UK. I was
somehow smart enough to remember to buy outlet converters at the airport just
before the flight as I can see how it would be quite problematic arriving in
England without being able to charge my phone or laptop.
I flew from
Pearson airport in Toronto at night arriving at Gatwick airport in
London the following morning. I will be staying at several AirBnB locations
throughout my internship. Upon arrival, the first thing I did was get a new SIM
for my phone where I was surprised that Data plans in the UK are fantastic,
compared to Canada at least. It was also really neat how I’m the one with the
weird accent now except for the fact that people will mistake me for being
American. After fumbling my way via the bus to Oxford, I had two days to adjust
myself to the new time zones.
Aside from
being rainy one morning, the past two weeks in Oxford have been quite nice to
my surprise. I have yet to purchase an umbrella but I’m sure the time will come
where my laziness will be triumphed by my need to stay dry. I was very aware
that British people drive on the left but I still find myself looking the wrong
way when crossing the street. A thing to note that the streets in Oxford are
fairly narrow, making the crossing quick and easy. A subtler difference is that
there are a lot more bikers and the bikers will signal with their right hand as
opposed the left in Canada. Coins and bills are also much more different here,
especially the sizes of bills vary a lot between different denominations. There
are no quarters but there is a twenty pence coin which will sometime mess me up
when I want exact change when buying certain things. The weirdest thing I find
is that the ten pence coin is huge; it’s even bigger than the one-pound coin
where as in Canada and the US, the dime is the smallest coin. The buses here
are also more advanced, I would say. Gone are the days of tokens and exact
change, you can actually buy bus tickets on the bus with a credit or debit card
provided they have the tap feature.
The
University of Oxford is not as centralized an institution as I had thought. The
school is a combination of various colleges and departments which I did not
know about when I arrived here. People would ask me what college I was a part
of to which my reply would be a blank stare followed by a “uhm…Oxford College?”.
It was a bit later that I found out I am in the Department of Physics, in the
sub-department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics. When I got to
work, Oxford gave me an office space where I would work every day. And once a
week, there would be a group meeting where we would discuss the research we had
done as well as interesting events that had happened. It’s almost funny how I
managed to travel all this way to pretty much do the things I’ve always done at
York University.
I’ve
managed to make a few friends at the start. The people here are pretty nice but
I think that people are generally pretty nice anywhere you go. I even ran into
people I had met from the LPSC conference in Texas. I’ve somewhat stabilized my
life here, no longer living off microwavable premade meals from the
supermarket. Although I may be a bit busy, I would hope to explore the city of
Oxford, perhaps travel around the British Isles and maybe, just maybe, venture
into the continent.
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