Hello everyone! I think it's time for a well-deserved update. For the last few months I've been burying myself with work at home, and any spare time I had went into my volcano blog, exercise, or sleep. But I finally managed to submit my thesis, and now I'm enjoying my free time more than ever! But let's go step by step:
The fall was fairly busy trying to write my second paper, doing fun things with visitors from Europe, catching up with friends in Vancouver, a weekend trip to see Sara and Art in Calgary, and getting ready to move to another continent again. Most of you probably know this already, but since December 2015 I'm residing in Europe again :) Not just Europe, no, the EU! (Although for how long this country is gonna stick with the mainland is not quite certain - those of you who can vote in the UK: #votestay #pleasedontleave #noBrexit!)
Making the most of my new European residence, I've been able to go on 4 trips over to the mainland since I moved (home for NYE, Berlin in January, skiing in February, EGU conference in April), and even went back to Canada for a month before Easter. While I wasn't busy travelling I spent pretty much all my waking making revisions to paper #2 (that I had managed to submit just before moving in December), and trying to churn out my last paper/thesis chapter. The fact that EGU was happening just before my deadline at the end of April turned out to be quite useful, because it basically forced me to have my thesis done 2 weeks before it was due. Yay! With a few little administrative hiccups I managed to submit a day before I had to, and I was even able to submit the last chapter as my paper #3 to a journal. That means that since April 29 I've been free like a bird! And of course what happens after a fairly stressful time? I get sick. Thankfully I managed to drug myself enough that I could still enjoy my homies visiting from Germany for a few days over my birthday. The only indication that I am actually 30 now is that I got stupidly excited over my birthday present from my parents - a good old (brand new) Bosch kitchen machine. Hello smoothies, desserts, cakes, bread, and other goodies!
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| One of my favourite things to do these days: Try new smoothie recipes! |
Other than that I haven't been up too much, and am taking pleasure in my temporary house wife status instead. I've added a bunch more volunteering to my agenda, so now I'm keeping myself busy translating young versions of English press releases from the European Geosciences Union into German, doing some social media as part of my outreach volunteer position at the Canadian bloggers network Science Borealis, trying to get involved more with the local science centre At-Bristol, the Bristol branch of the British Science Association, and as of pretty much today serving as co-editor for the Environmental and Earth Science subject blogs on Science Borealis. I'm also slowly making my way through a pile of around 15 books (mostly fiction) that have been suffering from horrible neglect on my behalf. Oh yeah, I'm also trying to improve my skills in weird yoga positions like forearm stands, and discovering the joy of desk chair spinning. I'm serious, it's total fun!
I have a few trips coming up in the next couple weeks, but then it'll be time to sit down again and think about work for a bit. If everything goes well I'll be going back to Canada to defend my thesis in early July. And then it'll finally be over! Can. Not. Wait.
In the meantime, I'm sort of trying myself at the art of job searching, without much success at this point. So, if you happen to see an opening for someone who knows their way around science, outreach & communication do let me know!
