Working at the Physics Center amidst a charming mix of accents and
languages. There are names around us like Chandra, Chivukula, Cugliandolo,
Dewangan, Dobrosavljevic, Fiorito, Furasaki, Jung, Kamionkowski, Kaus,
Kluzniak, Kurchan, Malzac, Murayama, Oshikawa, Plischke, I'm not making
these up, Popovic, Pottschmidt, Reichman, Reining, Ruckenstein, Shklovdkii,
Szamel, Titarchuk, Tsui, Vafek, Vainshtein, VanderKlis, Wolynes, Wyse, Yu,
and Zhang.
Each person is assigned a desk in a room with two desks. There are lots of
rooms. My roommate this year is Vlad. He told me a story about coming to
this country. He saw a film, Janice Joplin in Woodstock. He saw this movie
and declared his destiny. He had to go to America. He left Yugoslavia in
the eighties and came here. Janice Joplin was gone. Woodstock was gone.
It was the Regan era. It was a huge disappointment.
He got over it and settled in Florida. He is now a citizen and loves it
here. But he missed Woodstock.
