Social step 1: I was amazed and amused by how incomprehensible the same English language could be, spoken by the Scots. Since I started about a month before the term began, I had not met many students and so socialised mostly with people in the astronomy group. I joined them in everything, playing football and squash, going out to eat, going to the pubs, ... I said ‘yes’ to every invitation because everything was new to me.

Social step 2: When the term began, all the freshers-week activities made me think that the students came to the university to party, not to study. For the experience and to meet new people, I participated in all the enjoyable events, joining all kinds of clubs and meeting so many faces. My calendar was completely filled every single day. I learned how central a role the pubs play in the British social environment. It was interesting to me that even meetings for athletic and academic clubs are held in pubs.

Social step 3: After a few months I began to be able to understand the speech better (I learned that what I had originally dismissed as some foreign language was in fact the Glaswesian accent). I began to say "cheers" (for "thanks") because my Scottish friends told me that people will like that better. I learned to choose alternatives to alcohol at pubs to keep up my astronaut-qualified health. I still have a difficult time keeping up when Scots begin to talk about very local topics (like football matches), so I try to say something to expand the horizon of our conversation. I try to be myself and not pretend to be a Brit in an attempt to get along better.

Academic Step 1: Although I was stunned by the contrast in the working atmosphere between here and at Caltech, I initially did as the Glaswesian astronomers do: every day went to the departmental coffee 10-11am, went to lunch 1-2:30pm (sometimes playing pool til ~3pm), went to the astronomy group coffee 4-5pm. When do they do their research?

Academic Step 2: After several weeks, I wanted to make faster progress on my project, so I learned to carefully choose when to take these breaks. Four of us in the group set up a weekly cosmology discussion group as an aside to our main research. I really enjoy this because all of us are doing it purely out of our own motivation and curiosity about cosmology.

Academic Step 3: When the term began, all the extra activities made it difficult to concentrate on my research. Plus, other students did not seem to be studying hard, so the pressure was very low. Meanwhile, I began as a laboratory demonstrator for the 3^rd- and 4^th- year Honors Astronomy Lab course – again, the contrast in intensity with the lab sessions at Caltech was impressive (at Caltech, we don’t have coffee and biscuit break every hour during the lab).

Academic Step 4: About a month after the term began, I set higher priority on my project because I really want to achieve something significant this year. I’m getting to know the students in my lab course, learning from them what the undergraduate academic life in the UK is like. Lately, I may be working too hard… I figure Brits have to be very efficient when they do work, so I’m trying to learn the secret behind that efficiency. (The secret is probably not just the British beer consumption.)

During my Europe trip: Met 2 Scottish people in Holland from Glasgow. Kept in touch and I now hang out with them and their friends "the Scottish way".

8/25 Edinburgh: Met an English guy at a yoga seminar; he invited me to another yoga gathering the next day a little outside of Glasgow where I met his family and even more people; went to Edinburgh together that day. There met more people and joined their yoga sessions several times back in Glasgow.

9/14 Edinburgh: Saw the castle.

10/14 Mugdock: Hiking in the Mugdock Country Park with the locals; was invited to a Scottish home afterwards.

10/28 Loch Long: SCUBA to cross over into the British Sub-Aqua Club.

11/3-4 Trossachs: Hillwalking; spent the night with a Scottish family.

11/8 Loch Long: SCUBA.

11/10-12 Newcastle: Annual Conference for UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS) as the representative of the almost-founded Glasgow chapter. Met a bunch of British people from all over the UK. Also participated in the UK Space Generation Forum to generate a set of recommendations to the British National Space Council.

11/15 Loch Long: SCUBA.

11/16-18 Garvallachs (near the Isle of Mull): SCUBA. Got to know many British divers during that weekend.

11/22 Edinburgh: Went to the Royal Museum of Scotland for Edinburgh Lecture by astronaut John Young. Then met up with two British friends in Edinburgh that I had made earlier.

12/1-2 Leicester: UKSEDS Committee Meeting and Strategy Meeting, as the representative from Glasgow.

12/11 London, Cambridge: SpacePub Xmas Curry in Lodon (met SpacePub people); visited a friend in Cambridge.

1/11 Cambridge: Stephen Hawking Symposium; visited a friend in Anglia Polytechnic University.

January: Try to get maximum interests and support for my project at the New Views of the Moon meeting. Submit excellent abstracts for the Lunar exploration symposium (4/26) and for the International Astronautical Congress (10/10-19). Expand my very limited knowledge on the political aspect of the UK at the Fulbright Forum. Investigate PhD possibilities at institutes in the UK.

February: Produce valuable results from my simulations and write a paper to be included in the Lunar Far Side Radio Lab study of the International Academy of Astronautics. Submit an outstanding application for the International Space University Master of Space Studies program for next year.

March: Begin working with team members to propose a precursor mission to the Moon. Learn a lot from the Berlin Seminar. Give my sister (also a US citizen) the best introduction to life in the UK.

April: Learn a lot about the potential in the Russian space program at the International Space Workshop. Present an excellent poster paper at the Lunar exploration symposium (4/26).

May: Write a summary of my thesis. Submit an excellent abstract for the "Moon Beyond 2002" meeting (9/12-14).

June: Make significant progress on my thesis. Invite my American friends to come visit me.

July: Finish writing my thesis.