Well, it's time to start a new blog, again. Let's see if I can actually keep this one up better than the last ones.
It's mid June, and in less than two months I'll be moving to Groningen, Netherlands to start my Master's program. I've been accepted (with funding!) into the Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme in Evolution (MEME for short; more details at http://www.evobio.eu). I'll do my first semester in Groningen, from September until late December, then have the option of studying at Montpellier, France or Munich, Germany for the second semester. For the third and fourth semesters I have options to do research projects at any of the previous three; Uppsala, Sweden; or Harvard University in Boston, USA. I'm still getting my head around that one.
So, between now and then, my plans include:
* 5-6 days working for Crisia Tabacaru near Saskatchewan River Crossing, AB, on her MSc. fieldwork on mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine burns
* packing up and moving all the stuff I want to keep, from Calgary AB to my hometown of Dunster BC; and sending the rest to Goodwill
* working through July and August (until Aug 15) in Dunster - gardening, weeding, cleaning, and helping out on the family farms & gardens - to accumulate some funds for The Big Trip
* getting to the coast to visit friends before I leave
* finishing up manuscripts for publication from my research projects at the University of Calgary (Peru and NW BC diving beetles)
* selecting courses, filing for Dutch residency, waiting for housing, sending transcripts and graduation papers, and doing all the other little paperwork details of moving to another country (continent!) for studies
* make a photo album of all things Canadian to take with me and share with my fellow international students
* a thousand things I won't bother to list here... including rebuilding/repairing my 1975 Apollo roadbike, selling my truck (just ask, if you're interested!), and trying not to panic.
Overwhelmed. Excited. Nervous. Adrenalized. Excited. Underslept. Without reaching for my thesaurus I feel like I have so many emotions and thoughts and worries and ideas rolling around in my head it's hard to grasp any one of them at a given time. It's a good time for meditation: as my friend Tom loved to quote, from Napoleon: "Dress me slowly - I'm in a rush."
Indeed.
