Week 20: WHAT A MONTH!

Our pilot, taking us to England! :D 

WHAT A MONTH! Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog and once again my schedule has been so full I have had no time to sit down and write my blog. Finally I have the afternoon free and really wanted to catch you all up on what has been going on in my life and work.

When I last left you I was preparing for my trip to the UK. Before I left I had to prepare an overview of my project for Roger Butlin and a presentation for his research team, as I would be visiting him on the 20^th of December. The trip to the UK went great and just two days after arriving, I was traveling from London to Sheffield to meet Roger to discuss my project. After discussing the project with him and his research team for almost an entire day, I had many great ideas for my project, but my brain felt as if it was going to explode! Once my brain had returned to normal size, I took the time to summarise all the new ideas and information into a “short” 1000 word document for my supervisors and then took a break for Christmas.

Christmas Dinner!

Although I went home on for the Christmas “break” it was far from a relaxing one, with so many friends to see and so much to do! However I had a really great time with friends and family during my visit. My partner and I also had one big announcement and that was that we are expecting our second son in May! After a relaxing New years party and a few days more in England trying to finish my ethics report, we headed back home to Bodø. When we got home, I was there for a grand total of one day before I jetted off to Prague. This was my first ever trip to the Czech Republic and I was so happy to meet a good old friend who lives in Prague. Although my bag was lost in Oslo, I still had a great time with him and was so grateful to have him there for support! After two nights in Prague I was on the three-hour bus to Cesky Krumlov where I would stay for an entire month.

Charles Bridge, Prague.

For now, all I will say about my two weeks in Cesky Krumlov is that I am having an amazing time and I have never learnt more in two weeks than on the Genomics workshop. I have met lots of really fun and clever people from all over the world! Some have directly affected the way I will go about my PhD and the knowledge I have gained will really put me on the right track during my PhD. When I return home in just over two weeks I will go into a lot more detail about the two workshops and my visit to Cesky Krumlov.

For the next two weeks I will be participating in the Phylogenomics workshop which will probably be just as intense as the genomics workshop, so I predict that you won’t get another blog post until I am settled back home. Once I am home, I am back for just under two weeks and then I am jetting off once again to Italy! This time I will be taking part in the Gordon seminar and conference, which has now been organised. I hope you have enjoyed reading the short little update and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!

A snowy Cesky Krumlov.