Earlier this year I moved to a new neighborhood and was stunned by how long those first weeks felt. Every grocery run, bus ride, and “where on earth do they hide the trash bags?” errand demanded full attention. The days stretched like taffy. Six weeks later, the same block felt routine and the months started blurring together again. Apparently it is not just the candles on my birthday cake—cognitive science says the culprit is the way my brain compresses sameness and bookmarks surprises12.
Avni-Babad, D., & Ritov, I. (2003). Routine and the perception of time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132(4), 543–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.132.4.543 ↩
Kurby, C.A., & Zacks, J.M. (2008). Segmentation in the perception and memory of events. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(2), 72–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.11.004 ↩
Middle East Technical University’s sailing club has long been a hub for students who love the sea. I joined the club about six years ago, eager to escape Ankara’s dry inland climate, and spent nearly every free weekend on the Aegean. I’m not a member today, but the lessons still stick. Learning to call sail trim and feeling the hull surge after a clean tack gave me my first taste of real teamwork.
Embarking on a PhD in Florida means waking up to salt air, sunscreen reminders, and the low rumble of aircraft testing engines at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. My advisor jokes that our campus smells like jet fuel and ambition; he’s right on both counts. By 7 a.m. I am usually rolling past the flight line with a notebook full of model checkpoints to validate and a thermos of Cuban coffee strong enough to double as rocket propellant.
Living as an expat has given me the chance to compare daily life in the United States and the Netherlands in a way that guidebooks never could. My notebook is full of tiny contrasts: Leiden grocery receipts, NS train schedules for my commute, and lab to-do lists from Daytona Beach.
