Post-thesis life

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! 

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!

Almost ready to leave

Three days to go before I'm leaving Vancouver for 4 months. I'm excited! My bags are maybe 75% packed. In fact, I started making piles of things I want to take with me last weekend. When I then started putting the piles in my suitcases I realized pretty quickly that (of course) there was too much stuff. So then I started to remove things from the piles. In the end, when I weigh my suitcases on Tuesday I will probably realize that I took too much out, and put some things back in... #firstworldproblems

It'll be quite a change pace-wise at work. Getting up to be at work at the same time every morning, not being able to randomly go for coffees with friends during the day, trying to fit in with the business environment. We'll see how it goes! Of course Houston will also be way different than Vancouver, but I'm not too worried about that. After all I've done a few big moves now, and it's not the first time that I'm moving to a place I've never been before. A 5 hour flight away from home (i.e., Vancouver), and only a 4 months stay seem almost not worth mentioning compared when I took off to New Zealand for 2 years. It's all relative! I'm also quite excited about my new apartment. It's not unlikely that this will be the only time in my life that I'll have a pool where I live! If I come back and have turned into a fish you know why.

There are only a few things left to do before I'm on my way. I need to finish a few more things for my work here, I need to figure out how to get electricity and internet in my new place in Houston, I need to prepare the talk I have to give when I get there. Nothing major, really.

The weather was quite variable here last week (truly April-y, with all seasons occurring in one day), so Genevieve and I weren't quite sure whether the pre-birthday/farewell BBQ we were gonna have on Friday could actually take place. But, come May 1, it turned beautifully sunny and it has been nice since. The BBQ was great fun (thanks everyone for coming over!), and I've spent the last two days mainly hanging out in the backyard. It's great weather for an outside workout too, not too hot, sunny, and dry. Last November James showed me an app for my phone that I can use when I don't have time to make it to the gym. It's called Nike Training Club, it's free, and it's really great. I've been using it at times when I'm busy, or when I want to be outside, workout, but not go for a run. It has tons of different workouts, depending on whether you want to get some cardio, build up muscles, or just stretch for a little bit. I tend to do two or three 15-minute ones at a time. There a tons of options, from classic programs like ab workouts and cardio drills, to yoga and pilates. There a videos to explain the exercises if you don't get it from the description, there is a timer that beeps when you're supposed to switch sides or move to the next exercise, and there is usually a voice giving encouraging comments when it gets tiring. Perfect for somebody like me, who usually needs an instructor at the gym to motivate me to really finish an exercise without getting sloppy. I also used it quite a lot when we were in Tunisia, it was great for morning workouts at the beach. If you ever don't wanna pay for a gym but still target specific parts of your body with your workout I highly recommend the app (shameless advertising, you can thank me later, Nike).

Maybe I can combine it with some swimming exercises in Houston... Although, probably it'll be too hot. Hopefully I will get a chance to write an update about Houston soon!