Eat the Cabbage

I used to blog fairly regularly and then I fell out of the habit. So now I have decided that it is time to start again.

'Researcher in Exile' is where I will keep some sort of open field journal relating to my research and my life. (In fact, I have lately found myself wondering if the two are actually different. The jury's still out on that one.) My exile is a strange and multi-faceted thing: self-imposed; a reward; a burden; physical; mental; conceptual; theoretical; practical; hypothetical; emotional; material.

I knew that I would face homesickness and that I would miss my family (and sometimes, being so far away causes me physical pain). What I did not expect to miss the people in my research network so much! At home, I would often go several weeks without physically seeing one of them, but we would be in regular contact by phone, skype or IM. I've still got that regular electronic contact with them. But now, I find myself surrounded by people who understand the world from a very different perspective to mine.

On the surface, there are only superficial differences between here and home. In fact, I quite like it here. On a conceptual level, however, I feel like I am marooned on an island with a village full of vegetarians, and I'm the cabbage! I want the cabbage to grow; they want to eat the cabbage.