Life from the Past (Zoey)

[tigerfire]

Ildar entered the hallowed halls of academia. Greenwolfe University was a local school, but by all accounts, it was a good school. Here, he could find all necessary resources to continue his career. Although perhaps this was the wrong time, but he was officially unemployed. He never fancied himself as such, but the truly brilliant never made much money anyway.

Today, he would meet his new adviser. He had already published papers, but they were a bit too immature, a bit too easy to discredit. He was indeed somewhat experienced, but he knew he needed the aid of a more experienced and more established scientist in his field. A professor in Maine differed him to this one.

He read her name on her business card-Zoey Clark. He hoped that she was expecting him. Ildar, being rather shy, never made great first impressions, but here, with a person who would be his mentor and guide, he needed to make something work. The name was Irish, or at least that much was certain.

He found her office. Her name was neatly printed upon a black card. With some degree of trepidation, he knocked on the door three times.

[zoeyclark]

Working at the University had its ups and downs just like every other job out there in the real world. Lucky for Zoey, the ups outweighed the downs by a long shot so she was happy with her place of work. What could possibly be better than doing what you loved? And Paleontology was definitely a love of hers among other things. Many things! But that was what she chose to stick with and teach at the University. At least for the time being. Maybe in a few years she'd change to something different.

The professor was seated behind her desk typing up a letter to another member of the staff to express her appreciation for teaming up with her and her activist groups over the winter break. They were able to raise quite a bit of money together that would go towards newer, better equipment for the school.

As she typed away, focused on getting the letter done so she could email it through the staff network, she heard a knocking at her door. It snapped her out of her trance and she looked towards it, her blonde hair that was pulled back in a ponytail swinging around playfully.

"It's open, come on in!"

[tigerfire]

Ildar gripped at the doorknob. The metal felt cold upon his hands. The professor inside said that the door was unlocked and so he could enter. He twisted the doorknob and walked inside. He had only been in Greenwolfe for less than a day, but he already liked being here. He did not truly have one specific place that he could identify as his home, so this might just end up serving that purpose.

So Ildar Azatovich entered the room. He looked to his left and saw his adviser for the first time. At first glance, she seemed no older than twenty-six. Professor Clark, or so he assumed, had blonde hair that was folded back into a ponytail and was probably not much taller than he.

"I'm Ildar Fayzulin," he said, "the graduate student who you agreed to take in." Ildar extended his hand in greeting. From all accounts of students on campus, she was a caring professor alongside being established in the field, so Ildar had few worries about how he would be treated.

[zoeyclark]

It took Zoey a second to sift through her mental name database before she recalled the name. It was a different name, so it didn't take her long to recognize it when he'd said it. It wasn't your average Jack or Sally type of name and she liked that about it. "Ildar! Hello, it's great to meet you." Zoey slid her chair back from under her desk and stood up so she could give a proper introduction, taking his hand and shaking it lightly before retracting her arm back to her side. "Please have a seat!" The girl took her own as if she were instructing herself to do so.

"Have you gotten a chance to look around? Get a feel for the campus yet? Or are there any questions you might have?" She figured she'd get the easy part out of the way first. Find out if he enjoyed it yet, and if not she'd have to make sure to find a way to make his time at the University better.

[tigerfire]

Zoey first accepted Ildar's hand and then asked him to sit down. First taking not of where it was, Ildar sat down. "Is your name Celtic, by any chance? Welsh, Breton, or Irish, perhaps?" he felt himself compelled to say. Her office, as Ildar observed, was a rather nice one. It had many fascinating titles that he would generally love reading.

Ildar came to the realization that this university was actually very good. So far, this new professor seemed to be inviting, thus confirming all of what Ildar had heard. He quickly gazed at the poster of an Argentinosaurus fending off an attack by a pack of Giganotosaurus. He himself had not had the chance to go to Latin America to see these fabled creatures.

"Well, is there a Turkish restaurant on campus? Or one that serves similar cuisine to Turkish food?" Ildar asked. "I am half Tatar, so I generally assume that Turkish food is the closest I can get here, if that seemed random," he added.

[zoeyclark]

Zoey's office was full of all sorts of interesting things! She had replicas of artifacts on bookshelves along with books, of course. Posters hung on the walls, some were motivational posters and others were just posters displaying different types of dinosaurs and the latter.

When she was asked the origin of her name she smiled at him. "Irish, actually. My ancestors were some of the first to come to America, and I'm very proud of that. They struggled and worked hard for the few scraps they were able to afford. But I own't bore you with my history." She laughed and waved her hand around in the air as if to dismiss the subject entirely.

"I don't think there's a Turkish restaurant here on campus, but a couple blocks south of here there's a small little cluster of ethnic specific restaurants. There's one that has Indian food? It's superb!" She said and smiled at him, the thought of it starting to make her mouth water. "You're half, so what is your other half?" She asked curiously, forgetting about the email that was still up on her computer for now, and giving Ildar her full attention.

[tigerfire]

Clearly, Ildar was actually warming up to a person. So far, his new adviser had been very inviting, but they had only spoken about rather trivial subjects. He knew that he would need to get to work as soon as possible.

Ildar glanced around the room again. Many previously unseen posters lined the walls. Ildar's mind drifted back to reality. "My mother was Abenaki. Rather strange mix, but that was how it worked out," Ildar said in response. "And compounded, I was born in Uzbekistan," he added.

"Well, I'll try to find the place tomorrow. Could we meet there tomorrow to discuss the paper? In fact, I am having a tough time deciding the topic of my new paper. Do you have any ideas?" Ildar asked.

[zoeyclark]

When asked about meeting for lunch and discussing his paper she thought about it for a moment. She was actually big on meeting with her students off campus in a relaxing environment. Usually it was with a group of them and not one on one however. "I'll be here tomorrow in my office if you want to come by. Or if you want to get a study group together off campus then I'll join in." She nodded her head and smiled at him.

Leaning back in her chair she thought about the paper. They had been given the assignment to do a paper on anything within the field of paleontology. As long as they didn't step out and it was three thousand words long then they were good. "How about the Burgess Shale? That could be a very fun topic to do. There's different ways you could lead that one."

[tigerfire]

Ildar glanced around the room and saw more random interesting accessories around the professor's room. His mind was naturally drawn to the aforementioned poster. Paleoartists did some very incredible work. This one managed to portray the life in the eyes of these animals with remarkable accuracy.

Her words finally drew him back to reality. "I don't know too many people here yet, so I'll probably come by this place tomorrow. And also," he continued, "does the Indian place serve any other Indian cuisine besides Punjabi food?" Indeed, Ildar did like Punjabi food, but sometimes, he desired for more from that subcontinent. "Perhaps Tamil or Bengali?" he added.

Finally, he remembered the reason for arriving here. She mentioned the Burgess Shale. Ildar could not help but become excited. "Does that mean that you're actually leading an expedition up to Canada?" he asked, his heart racing.

[zoeyclark]

Ildar seemed to be very interested in food. Zoey herself loved food and it made her smile to see someone else who liked a little variety for their palate. "Tamil.. that's the one they serve on the banana leaf to give it more flavor, right?" She asked and had to think about it for a moment. There were so many different types of Indian food, and most restaurants only served one specific type. "If so, then yeah they have that there." She nodded to confirm what she stated.

When he asked about the trip, Zoey knew that would pique anyone who was interested in paleontology's interest. "I like Canada as a whole and visit there a lot. It seems only fitting to go to the Burgess Shale, am I right?" She offered him her brightest smile, interlocking her fingers together and placing her palms face down on the desk that she was sitting behind.

"I'm thinking about early May? That way it should start warming up a bit." Zoey preferred warm weather over the cold. She was a t-shirt and shorts kind of gal. "You'll be joining me, won't you?"

[tigerfire]

Ildar's face brightened when his new professor said that the restaurant served Tamil food. As far as he could recall, most Indo-Aryan peoples used banana leaves to some extent, but Dravidian peoples like the Tamils were known for it. He now had two restaurants to visit. "Great; I'll check it out," he said.

She then said that she visited Canada often. "So you have relatives in Canada?" he asked. He stared around the room a third and fourth time while mentally nodding in assent and admiration. He looked at her and smiled back.

"May sounds great," he said. "Is this going to be a full-fledged expedition?" he asked, adding, "I will join you either way."