The morning was spent mostly getting organized. I collected my office key, learned how to connect to the Internet and printer and found the ladies room. I also spent a fair amount of time enjoying the view from my office window.
In the afternoon, Mark and I walked up to upper campus for a meeting with the Director of the Institute that is sponsoring my visit -- the African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management (AIFMRM). It was a great opportunity to learn more about what I'll be doing and everyone's expectations of me. Based on our conversation, I think this is the big picture:
Week one: get acclimated to Cape Town (check!)
Week two: get acclimated to UCT and lower campus (in progress!)
Week three: meet with graduate students and provide input on dissertations
Week four: sit in on faculty candidate interviews
Week five: statistical modeling for research project
Week six: meetings with CFOs in Cape Town and Johannesburg for research project
I'm sure that other things will creep in, but I'm happy with this loose schedule. It gives me plenty of time to be productive and try to make a contribution without feeling pressured to work long hours. The atmosphere here is far more laid back than what I'm used to in the US. All of the folks with whom I'm working are very well published and highly respected, but this is certainly not the pressure cooker that I expected.
Best of all, I drove today! I was terrified to drive while the hubs was here, but this morning I put my 'big girl pants' on and did it. I drove on the left hand side of the road and didn't hit one thing! I hit the wipers instead of the blinker only once and kept looking for those big blue arrows to remind me to stay left of center. I'm proud of myself!
Whew! I still miss the hubs terribly, but I'm starting to think that I might be able to handle this on my own. It's kinda like my baby boy said when I picked him up from his first overnight camp a few weeks ago, "it's fun during the day, but the (lonely) nights are ROUGH!"
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