It's official - I work at Harvard!

I moved to Boston on June 16. I started temping at Harvard Medical School on July 28, and today, September 17, I received my offer letter. I'm now officially a Harvard employee! I have accepted the position of Project Coordinator for the Center for Biomedical Informatics. This has been so much easier than my previous job searches, and so much more fruitful. I'll be making quite a decent salary, I'll have four weeks vacation a year, I work with terrific people, and we have a great benefits plan. I work closely with the project manager and we oversee/organize a team of computer guys. It's different than what I've done before, but I'm enjoying it and learning a lot.

By the numbers, it's harder to get a job at Harvard than it is to be accepted as a student. Harvard posted 2,500 jobs last year, and received 75,000 applications. This gal feels pretty good!

After job-hunting and living in Boston unemployed for a month, my mom (Nancy) suggested I temp, just to get my foot in the door and get me working at all. I met with the placement agency on a Wednesday, and was placed at Harvard that Monday. On my third day on the job, my boss suggested I apply for the open position of Project Coordinator, and here I am. Thanks, Mom. Of course, I've also got to thank my other three parents, Gary, Jan, and Rick (alphabetical order), my brother Josh, my grandparents, and my friends, many of whom I spoke to many times on the phone when I first arrived, giving me a comfortable lifeline back home. You're all wonderful!

My Walk to Work

Look closely (click on the picture to enlarge it) and you'll be able to see all the people who walk down the street, heading in the same direction as I do every morning. There must be 9am classes at the nearby colleges.

Gordon Hall is the Harvard Medical School building I love so much. I guess this squirrel does, too. See him?
There are geese everywhere. Apparently, they cross roads by slowly inching into the street, giving cars enough time to react, but cleary stating their intention to cross. I see that foot paths don't require the same caution.
This is the Public Latin School. Built in 1635 (!), it was the first public school in the country. It's still open as a school.
Fires are a big deal here. Maybe because the buildings are so close together, and most are around four stories high - it's definitely high-density. So when there's a fire, everyone comes out. It's not uncommon to see hordes of fire engines on scene.
Because of so many tall apartment buildings, many of the fire engines have ladders.
Okay, my wrists are tired from so many posts in one evening. My bubble bath awaits. I hope you're all well and happy. Hugs and kisses, Genoa

The New Apartment

There are several things about the apartment that need to be repaired. The previous tenant, for example, painted some of the molding bright red. I don't hate it, and perhaps white windowsills will look boring, but it's not the statement I want to make. Also, the blinds will be replaced. Here's a picture with obvious unpacking still ahead.

This apartment has wide windowsills, too. I now have a nice shower curtain up, but these are early photos.
There's a fire escape outside, which creates a nice ledge for pigeons. Billy has made friends.
Mike the Bike, I'm sorry to say, may stay in the kitchen for awhile. It's just a 20-minute walk to work, and he's so heavy to carry up three flights of twisty stairs. Here's my building. It's brick, but not red brick.

My apartment is a couple blocks from Fenway Park. I now carry the Red Sox schedule in my wallet. When there's a game on, everything is busier. And I can hear the the roar of the crowd. The other night, I heard, "Sweet Caroline - BAMP BA NA!" I heard the Star Spangled Banner tonight.

Moving Out

My summer sublease was up September 1, and with just two weeks to spare, I found a great studio apartment. It's on the fourth floor, so there won't be noisy college kids pounding on the ceiling above me. It's on a quiet, pretty street, just a mile's walk from work. But first, the move. Thankfully for the sake of moving, I don't have much in the way of furniture.

I took Billy on the train to Cynthia's house. She offered to watch him overnight, since I was going to move out on the 31st and spend the night at a friend's house.
Cynthia and Chris have a cat, too. At first, Billy and Catalina were just curious about each other.
Billy, still under a year old, was more curious than Catalina. She just wanted to be left alone, but feisty Billy wouldn't give up. He roused her as much as he could in those 24 hours. He even slept in HER bed! What a rascal.
September 1 is a very popular moving day, since all of the college kids are coming back. There are 60 colleges in the greater Boston area. At the grocery store Tuesday night, I saw many moms with their students, getting them stocked up.
The move was pretty painless. My new work friend and I loaded my stuff into his friend's van Sunday night, then we met Cynthia (with Billy) and another new work friend at the new place on Monday. It was the work of a couple of hours, and then the unpacking began. Billy was a champ, and has adjusted wonderfully.

Breakfast on the front porch of Halip's house. What a guy. I slept in the spare room and we had bagels in the morning.

Halip lives in Wellesley, which we toured a little bit before I could pick up the keys to the new apartment.

That's not a real bike.

The green line train was right behind us - on the same road!

This and that

During his visit, my dad was amazed by the incredibly high percentage of buildings made of red brick. This building is across the street from my work.

And on a completely different subject:

Unfortunately, in a building mainly occupied by 20-year olds, beer cans and dixie cups aren't an unusual occurance in my hallway. I'm moving in two weeks - yay! More on that soon.
Look Dad: red brick, wrought iron, outer stairs leading up to the front door, but look at that sneaky side door!

My dad comes for a visit

I'm sorry I've been delinquent in blog upkeep. Gosh, it's been two full weeks since I posted anything. What have you been doing with your idle time, if not keeping up with my goings on?!? My apologies.

My dad came to visit last weekend, and we had a terrific time. I whittled two people's photos from the course of four days down to 52, which even then is too many for this medium. So I've put them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/genoa76

I hope you'll take a look.

My First Week at Harvard Medical School

This place is great! My professors are cool and I already got to watch a surgery! Just kidding; I don't really "go" to Harvard Medical School, but I do go there! The job is going well. The people are great and it's less than two miles from my apartment. I readjusted to working life pretty well, I think. I can keep track of the days again, which is nice. There's a cafeteria for when I don't pack a lunch, and a blues band played in the quad one afternoon. It's the intellectual, stimulating environment I've been seeking, so I hope I can make something permanent out of it. There aren't any undergrads, and because of the research, there's much more at this location than classrooms. Harvard Medical School has around 17 affiliated hospitals in Boston. Click on the picture to see an enlargement. I love this building.

I can ride Mike the Bike to work, and lock him up in a cage for safe keeping. Look, he's official!
If you look closely, and if you've ever placed a bike in a rack, you might notice how upright Mike is. These racks somehow are more stable, so Mike doesn't fall over. My Harvard ID card was specially coded to allow me into the cages.
And I just like the blue Hydrangeas.
I didn't bike to work yesterday, because I met a new friend of mine for happy hour right after work. I took the train to meet her. The train/subway system in Boston is broken down (pardon the pun) into five connecting lines, each a different color. The final stop is the name of the train. Therefore, each line has two names, depending on which way you're heading. The orange line, for example, has Oak Grove at its northern end, and Forest Hills at its southern end. If you're heading north on the orange line, you're on the Oak Grove train. To meet my friend yesterday, I took the green line to the blue line. The last stop for the blue line in the direction I was heading is Wonderland. I delighted in hearing the announcer say, "Attention passengers: The next blue line train for Wonderland is now approaching." I envisioned something like Pleasure Island in Pinocchio!