On Monday, 9:00 (stipt!), I was at my new department knocking on the door of my future boss or –as we say in research- principle investigator. He gave me a very warm welcome and we talked about life and science for a while. I started to notice that nobody else was in the lab, but attributed it to the hour of the day: 9 am is way too early for researchers to have their brains working. One hour later I was starting to get worried: where was everyone? Was this some kind of ghost lab?- turns out: no, not a ghost lab, but a holiday. Monday, the 7th is Labor Day so many people take the day off. I figured it shows how motivated I am that I am ‘ready-to-go’ anyway that day, or pessimists might say it indicates my ignorance for American culture. Either way, I was there and my boss showed me around the lab until we arrived at a door where he said: ‘and this will be your office’! Given that everybody else was collectively sitting in one big room, I figured this must be something very special because it had a door. After the door opened I couldn’t quite inhibit my disappointment: it was a very small room with bright neon lights and no windows. On hindsight my disappointment may not have been justified because having your own room was much better than sitting in chitchatty common room all day when you are trying to get work done, but I was spoiled by the luxurious, bright offices in the Maastricht psychology buildings. The second surprise was that it turned out the room didn’t have any furniture. So, when I came there the next day to do paperwork and meet other lab folks, they mentioned to get me furniture from a used office-supply store that was off campus and offered to take me there in the afternoon. Everybody was very friendly and helpfully engaged. We went there with the big truck of one of the graduate students (this is Nashville, people love their big cars!) and bought a desk, bookshelf and file-cabinet for me. The whole lab was waiting for us when we came back with a truck full of furniture and helped carrying it up. Although very unlike the scrutinized organization in Maastricht, a very efficient solution!