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!

Really? A long overdue update.

It's been almost a year since I last updated this blog. Whoops. I was convinced there were some updates in between.

So maybe we need a little summary of what happened over the last 10 months...

James came over for 6 weeks in July/August. We spent some nice summery days at the beach, Kits pool, Darby's patio, and various other pubs/restaurants/summery locations. We also did a little hike on Bowen Island, went for some kayaking and paddle boarding at Deep Cove, and did the summit hike at Mount St. Helens with a stint to Seattle for a day. All of the above were fun in many different ways. The volcano hike in particular was awesome, after we managed to get permits at the last minute we enjoyed stunning views from the top into the crater and onto the dome, and onto the surrounding Cascade volcanoes on a cloudless day.

In September Susi and Beni visited for a few weeks. They toured for about a week or so by themselves first. I booked a flight to Kelowna about half way through their trip, and we did some hiking along the Kettle Valley Railway line. We spent two nights in a beautiful B&B: EcoLodge near Hope. They have a few little wood cabins, an outdoor jacuzzi in the woods, a beautiful veggie/flower garden, a nice deck with sofas/chairs and some hammocks right by the river. Great place to hang out for a couple of days, relax, and detach from city life. On the way back to Vancouver we stopped for some miniature golf at Castle Fun Park. I hadn't played in ages, but it was total fun!

After they left I only had a few weeks before the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, which happened to be in Vancouver. It was quite different to have a conference at home. They had some very good workshops on various topics, and I volunteered at the registration desk for a couple of days, so it definitely didn't get boring.

In November James came back for a few days, and we flew to Ecuador for a workshop. The workshop was good, especially the field trips, and we spent some time afterwards exploring the country a bit more. Our trip included a failed attempt at climbing one of the country's highest volcanoes (Cotopaxi, almost 5,900 m; and because it's close to the equator it's one of the furthest points from the centre of the Earth), a trip to zero latitude, and a couple of days in the jungle.

December was dominated by conferencing and Xmas, as usual. San Fran was quite rainy, whereas in Germany we got a winter wonderland on Boxing Day. I did a little Europe hopping while I was there, stayed in Plymouth and Bristol for a few days over NYE, spent an afternoon in London at Sandra's new pad, and then went back to Germany for a week.

The spring term (January-April) has been quite busy. I spent some weeks in Vancouver before relocating to Bristol for all of March and early April. I am currently trying to write up my second publication from my PhD, and preparing for my summer: In two weeks tomorrow I will be starting a 4 month internship in Houston! Going to the US of course requires some prep regarding visa, housing, insurance, etc., so with all this plus the paper at least it never got dull... On the upside, we managed to sneak in a week of vacation in Tunisia, which provided a much-needed rest from everything. We spent the entire week migrating back and forth between the bed, the beach, the pool, the restaurant, and the bar, and I disconnected my phone from my email for the first time in years. What a liberation! I highly recommend it!

I only got back to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. It's been nice to be back home, but I'm already busy packing to leave for the US. My friend Elisa is subletting my room for a while, and it's been nice to have someone around the house.

I'll put some photos from the last few months below, and I will hopefully have updates from sunny and warm (hot??) Houston soon!

We did a 5K colour run in Vancouver. James would say it was a walk, but I was definitely running...

View from our hike to Mt. Gardner on Bowen Island.

Happy face looking down into the summit crater at Mt. St. Helens, with the lava dome that was created between 2004-2008.

Some fun was had in Seattle...

Susi and I at the Totem Poles in Stanley Park, Vancouver.

Susi-Sushi. Yum.

Somebody got a bit tired after hiking up the BCMC to the top of Grouse Mountain.

The weather wasn't epic on this first day, but volcanoes give me a happy face regardless. Cotopaxi, Ecuador.

Much nicer the next morning.

This house got buried by pyroclastic flows of Tungurahua, Ecuador. Wouldn't want to be in the way of that.

Nice dip in the jungle. Mindo, Ecuador.

Ecuador is so colorful!

For some reason we all ended up in colour coordinated outfits for our equator visit.

  

Oh yeah, view of my backyard in Vancouver one Saturday morning. This actually happened.

English impressions of spring. It doesn't always rain, apparently.

Yay, spring.

Of course a touch of summer isn't so bad either. Historic medina, Sousse, Tunisia.

Tunisia can be colourful too!

Spices. Unfortunately it was impossible to shop in peace and quiet, so we didn't spend much time.

The wall of the medina in Sousse, with the historic part on the right and the new part of town behind the wall on the left.

Spending a few days doing absolutely nothing wasn't bad at all.