First day at the office

Today I went in for the weekly meeting of the Division of Speech, Music, and Hearing.  My host, Joakim Gustafsson, is the head of the department. I'd say about half of the people were at the meeting in person and half attended via Zoom.  No masks.  After being hermits back home and not going into Pitt except to teach, being back in an office is pretty strange, particularly where no one is masking.  The Covid situation seems similar to the US so I am trusting the new CDC guidelines that masks off indoors is now largely okay.  I am still wearing my mask when I go into a store but Mark has thrown caution to the wind.

I have a very nice office which I am sharing with someone who is currently on parental leave so it is basically private, and they have provided me with a mac desktop and huge monitor.

I also went to meet the Digital Futures people who are paying for my visit, who greeted me with a chocolate cake.  I am the first of the 6 Scholars in Residence who has arrived in person so they were very excited to see me.  Digital Futures is in a very new and pretty spectacular building. I particularly liked the Tree Top Table room. Once I get my ID (and it warms up) I am looking forward to hanging out on the rooftop terrace with some awesome views.

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