After a stressful period of packing and finishing up my dissertation work in Maastricht, I finally made it to my new home-town in the US, Nashville! One and a half weeks from now I am supposed to start my new job as a post-doctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University. Whoever has moved to a new country or city will now know the feeling arriving in a new place gives you, just a little weird, a little lost, thinking: Jesus, what have I done? Although it is made easier for me because I already know someone here that I share a house with, I couldn’t help it. Everything is new, different, exciting but scary at the same time. I move into my home, a house about a 30 minute walk from campus in the university area. Nashville (like probably most American cities) can hardly be compared to a European city: it doesn’t have the typical European layout with the city center (usually around the church) and residential neighborhoods surrounding it. All the cool stuff is somehow scattered all over town. Furthermore there is a large amount of streets leading out downtown like sun-beams. Because of many streets, there are many cars (and vice versa). I biked on the street yesterday and immediately decided to buy one of these ridiculously looking helmets. Believe me, I am not a wimp! My first bike in Maastricht didn’t even have real brakes- yet drivers here are not used to bikes or pedestrians at all, and so I don’t have a choice (or maybe I am just getting old :-)). The university campus is great, almost like a park with mostly brick-stone buildings. Today was my fist admin-day at campus where I register with the international office and opened an American bank account (believe it or not, they still work with checks here!). More to come…