Dear Friends,

I've been here for two weeks now and I am still organizing some absolutely necessary stuff: bank account, bike (bought one on Friday and it was stolen yesterday so have to get a new one again!), a store where I can get non-GM food (vegetables). But the most important things are sorted out by now: I have got a room in a flat that I share with a very nice Philippinean couple (he's doing a PhD in economics at University of Miami and she is looking for a job). They let me borrow their bike while I don't have one and the guy comes with me when I want to do sports and don't want to go alone. I have applied for a Social Security Number which means that I am no longer illegally working here, which is good to know, I got a phone (which helps a lot) and most importantly of course, I got in touch with the people who do bird banding (ringing that is but they call it banding…) at Key Biscayne and went out 4 times so far and will go regularly once school starts (tomorrow).

I also figured out which classes I will take this term and have got my schedule of which labs I have to teach. They are both General Biology I which is funny because I'm sure I learned all those things like ten years ago but I hardly remember anything so I wonder what will happen when one of the first-year students I get to teach has a question… I just hope they won't! Anyways I guess it will be quite a lot of work, it's 3 hours per week each and I will have to do a lot of grading of exams, papers etc. We'll see how this goes. As for the classes I am taking, I can't say anything now as they will only start tomorrow but I very much hope they will be more interesting than the orientation we had last week!

The bird banding on Key Biscayne is really cool: the people are very nice and very interested in collaboration. They also have this idea that European bird ringers know everything better which is nice in a way and I guess they are right about some things too but it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable at times. But at least they are very open to new ideas which is always good. Birds are only starting to migrate through now, which is good as I get to learn them slowly. We had a pretty good day today with mainly warblers (Prothonotary, Black and White, Worm Eating, Prairie, Redstart, Northern Waterthrush) but also a very beautiful and very red Cardinal (adult male) and a Ground Dove (they are really cute actually, not like European doves). And the birding day ended (at 10.30) with a great thunderstorm. Got soaked in minutes but that's actually quite nice when you've been all sweaty anyways.

Here's the official blog of the bird banding station: http://capefloridabandingstation.wordpress.com/

Which gets us to the big question about the weather: Well, it is warm here - as you would have expected. When the sun is out during the day it can actually get quite hot - especially between 1 and 4 in the afternoon it's quite challenging at time to be outside. But in general, when you walk into any tropical greenhouse you will get an idea of what the weather feels like here. It is very humid and quite warm but it is not terribly hot. It's just warm and humid. Now people living here have quite a different idea about this: I have so far not met anyone who did not complain about the heat (and they complain about the fact that they have to go outside when they have to cross the street to get to the parking garage where they have their car parked). So imagine the Dutch but 100 times worse. And, well, in the Netherlands I can sometimes understand why you would complain about the weather, as it actually changes and when you move there you may not expect 35 degrees or minus 10. But in Miami the weather is the same every day and everybody in the world knows that it is hot so I don't understand how people still complain like they've come to live here hoping that it would be 20 degrees and after living here for five years they are still annoyed with the fact that it is still 30 degrees. Anyways, so if you start getting used to the heat or even like it, then you enter a building (any building really!) and you get cold immediately because the air conditioning is set at something like 21 degrees, which can feel awfully cold when you just come from 30 degrees and you're clothed for that. I sometimes have to go outside to warm up for a few minutes before I can go on sitting in a classroom for another hour freezing my a.. off. Apart from the obvious fact that no one wants to feel cold voluntarily I get quite pissed at the fact that every degree colder consumes just so much energy and if they would just set the airco at only 2 degrees higher they would save so much energy and make my life a lot easier… Alright, I'll stop this now.

So Miami - well apart from the heat: Let's say, it is much less bad than expected. It is huge obviously and I haven't seen half of it yet. Also it is very car-based. Biking is quite alright - strangely the most dangerous part of every un-motorized journey is crossing streets at a cross-walk at a green light. In general the green for pedestrians is really just an indication that now is possibly safer to cross than other times but often times you just ignore the traffic lights and walk/bike when you think it's safe. That's much safer than waiting for the lights to change and also much faster. Biking is often on sidewalks, sometimes there are bike lanes (which are not necessarily safe either) and on the roads with little traffic you can just bike on the road. If you are on the road (as opposed to crossing a road) cars are actually very nice and pass you leaving a lot of space (much more than I'm used to), but the small roads usually do not cross waters, so if you want to go to one of the islands, cross a channel or something like that you will have to bike on the road. I went to Miami Beach yesterday. Quite apart from the fact that it was horrible to get there as you actually had to bike on the Highway (first time for me and very scary) it's not worth going there anyways. It's almost like any place of that sort you might know (Dutch people think of Zandvoort or Noordwijk, Austrians I don't know I guess Rimini or something), only bigger, louder and more crowded. The beach is pretty nice but it is much too crowded really. The beach on Key Biscayne is smaller but apart from that looks mainly the same (only there's dune vegetation where the hotels and bars are at Miami Beach) and there are very few people really! As for swimming: I guess you can swim on these beaches but the water is awfully warm and the beach is very flat so you really have to go out far to be able to swim and I think (although I have not tried it) the lifeguards would think you might be drowning and would go and get you.

When I go to the coast that's closest to where I live I actually have to pass through a long stretch of at least 500 m of mangrove forest which is pretty amazing. Almost everywhere (except for downtown, but there is no reason to go to downtown anyways) is very green, there are all kinds of trees, palm trees and others. There are a lot of parks, there is quite a bit of water (mainly bad looking artificial lakes but some with nice shores for birds (especially herons). In general birds are everywhere, and so are lizards. You almost step on them when you walk anywhere. Squirrels are quite common, there are many turtles and I saw a dead raccoon on the road one day (other than that I have seen raccoons only next to our nets at the banding station where they wait for free food and are really difficult to scare off). I've not seen any alligators yet nor any other animals. I guess in the city you will mainly have birds and lizards (and stray cats).

The campus is really nice actually: there is a small nature preserve (wooded area) and there are several ponds, one of them actually has mangrove trees in it. I saw quite a few birds on campus already. It's a nice campus which is important seeing that I will probably spend a lot of time there. Also all the people I met so far are really nice and willing to help with anything even if it is not their job they will try and help you. This has made my first few days so much easier! And by now I have got to know several of my fellow graduate students. Many of them are from Latin America, most of them are Americans though, which I did not expect. I know most of the undergraduate students are from Latin America. I am quite excited to get to know my students, I hope they are not as bad as everyone says they are.

I can't really say much about sports so far as most things only start next week. The soccer club I hope to train with only starts trainings in two weeks. They are actually from the other university since ours doesn't have one but they said I can train with them, which is very nice. I also hear people play soccer on campus all the time and you can just go and join but I have to find that out. I found a nice Ultimate Frisbee group and I hope to play with them more in the future but it seems difficult to find a day where everyone can come. I am still very far from trying and learn surfing so I don't think that will happen in the next months. Currently I don't have time for anything at all, whenever I get home I just try to get to bed as fast as possible so I can sleep at least a few hours before I have to get up again. This is mainly because I try to go bird banding every day that I don't have to go to classes, which means that the days where I am free I have to get up much earlier than other days…

And lastly just a short word on Americans because I can't help it: shopping for food is horrible here (which I have known before but I am still annoyed). So I know that everything here is bought in higher quantities than what I am used to, which doesn't make it easy when you have to carry your shopping further than to the parking lot. Also I know that a lot of vegetables are genetically modified and they don't have to label that so if something is not organic it's likely GM which is scary. There is a surprising amount of organic food in the supermarket but few fresh vegetables. So I currently only buy salad which I am not aware of any GM-varieties (and if you are don't tell me!). But obviously in all the processed food you will just never know what's in there. And if you find something that's labeled GM-free (I am really glad when I do) it apparently has to say that there is no difference to GM-food, so as not to scare people and stop them from buying GM food. Also, I know that in America whenever you don't explicitly say that you don't want a bag you will always get a plastic bag for everything you buy. So I always take my cotton shopping bag and tell them to put my shopping in there. Well the other day they did put half of my shopping in my bag and the other half in a plastic bag. I didn't say anything just took it, put the stuff from the plastic bag in my bag and threw the plastic bag away. I just don't understand them… I never will. Not even want to.

Best wishes

Martina