Future endeavours

Before my flight on the very last day I had a few hours to spare. I chose to spend those hours at Pearl Harbour, which was a very interesting and humbling experience and I'm happy I went. So many details about the horrible WWII happenings at Pearl Harbour that I didn't know about.

After a terrible few flights (including a 17 hours involuntary stop in Salt Lake City due to an engine malfunction) I finally arrived back home with my family. Almost a full day late.
My plan was to be back at the lab in Stockholm before my supervisor leaves on summer vacation, which for obvious reasons didn't happen.
In this case it's great that my work is so flexible and I could show up later to get acquainted with the new lab and my new (empty) office. The new building which the department is moving into (kind of a physical merge) should have been mostly done by now, but no. This place is still a barren and somewhat messy construction site, and I have to step over construction workers on my way to the lab on the fourth floor. At least the lab is neatly set up already thanks to the rest of my group.

Officially I now have my first ever paid vacation. I never realised that I had all these perks doing my PhD in Sweden, but now I'm very grateful for it. Still I have tasks with deadlines approaching, but at least I can now spend some well earned time with my family after being gone for three months already this year. There is always more work to do, but for now it can wait.

So Sweden treated me with the best week of the summer so far when I got home, and now it's raining again. It was a nice feeling to be back, enjoying a beer in the sun, going for a swim, having a family barbecue and taking the kids outside. Hopefully July will be good (my vacation).

In August it is back to the lab again with lots of practical lab work (DNA-extraction and qPCR) to accumulate much needed data, analyse that data and put together an "award-winning" poster for the SAME conference in Uppsala, 23rd of August. So if you're going to that conference I'll see you there, specially during the poster presentations.
In addition to the conference I have plenty of future endeavours during the coming autumn. I will finally attend the introductory course on research studies in biology, which also is the first course in pedagogics which will make me eligible to teach on undergraduate courses. That is also exactly what I will do right after. One or two weeks (depending on the number of applicants) of assisting on a basic course at the Stockholm University field station Tovetorp.
Finally I also have another deadline on a writing assignment, but for now I'm fully committed to my vacation.
Thanks, have a nice summer and stay tuned in late summer!