So, here I am in the Boston office of Nature Publishing Group….

My relocation, long foretold on our ‘About the editors page’, has finally happened. I’ve been looking forward to the move, but with some trepidation due to an anticipated large amount of form filling – complicated by the fact that I have to think carefully before writing a six-digit date!

As it turns out, the most difficult part was getting, not the visa, but the appointment for the visa application – ask me at a conference and I’ll explain the details. My passage through US customs was also less time consuming than expected – taking no more than 20 min from landing at Logan airport to getting in a taxi to the office.

So down to the nitty-gritty of moving to a new country – in the last few days I’ve completed forms I-9 and W-4, signed up for 401(k) and several other things that also presumably have an alphanumeric code. In the spare time around the form filling, I managed to find a place to live – thanks to the wonder that is Craigslist.

Having got through what I believe to be the lion’s share of the bureaucratic necessities, I can now work on the essentials. This morning, I looked up the values of nickels and dimes on Wikipedia – despite the many references to them in films, I was not sure of their actual value until today. The next thing on my list is to find somewhere to watch the soccer – I don’t understand football yet, so any pointers will be welcome. Baseball is a little easier to follow, and as for hockey: “you mean ice hockey don’t you?”

It’s Thanksgiving soon, so I need to find a good recipe for pumpkin pie, or be nice enough to my new office mates to get an invite!

Steve

Stephen Davey (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)