I'm coming to the conclusion that the real challenge with moving departments is not coping with the big changes, but dealing with all the little ones. I had expected, and prepared for, the fact that I'd be working for different people on a different project. As making those changes is often the reason you're moving in the first place, you embrace them.

It's the minutiae that get to me. It's hard for me to feel at home when I get lost every time I venture out onto campus, or when I don't know how the printers and photocopiers work. In my first week here I spent the better part of a day running around to three different offices (on opposite sides of the campus, naturally) trying to get registered. I'd yet to find that one person in the maze of bureaucracy who actually knows what's going on.

It's the same outside work, especially as I have moved to a new country. I'm having fun exploring, but most of the beer is cold and fizzy, I've yet to locate a reliable source of proper English cheddar, and I'm still auditioning for my new coffee haunt.

Knowing all those little things is what makes you feel that you are living in a place, rather than just visiting. I just hope that I get time to discover them all before I have to leave.