Merry, the happy budgie

Merry, my happy little bird

Merry was an amazingly happy little bird, who enriched my life so much. Today, totally out of the blue, something happened (my guess is he choked on something) and I found him on the floor of the cage when I came home. It is amazing how attached you can grow to a little bird... Especially since he should've had so many more years to be happy. I had him 5.5 years, together with Pippin, since the summer day I bought them in Winnipeg, after 2 years of birdlessness (not fun). It was an awesome day, which I remember very well. And every day since then it has been a joy to come home.

During the last year, Merry adopted a few cute habits - such as flying to my head, walking up to the front of my head and bending down saying CHIRP! Then he would slide down the side of my head, hanging onto my hair, and stick his head out in front of my eye (mainly the left side) and start chirping his heart away. Sometimes he was so persistent doing this when I was eating dinner, that I had to put on a hat to be able to get some food into me. He adored playing with my thumb, and if he came with me into the office room, it would be a challenge to type.

During the trip over to New Mexico, I had the birds in a tiny cage inside a bag with star shaped breathing walls. Whenever I opened the side of the bag, two budgies would come and start playing with my fingers, while chirping happily. A most wonderful trip. They did not enjoy being stuck in Albuquerque due to a "snow storm" though. Having to stay in a hotel in that tiny cage made them loudly tell me how annoyed they were... They managed the trip very well though, and were very happy to arrive in their new home in Socorro the next day. A few weeks later, I got to borrow a palace of a cage from my birdsitter friends, which made the sejour even better. The first few weeks, flying was a challenge (due to the thin air), but Merry soon got better at it, and flew as well as ever during his last week. (The photo caption has a link to some Merry photos.)

Speaking of budgie personalities btw, check out this story!

New adventures in New Mexico

It's probably time for an update... Since last time I wrote was in January. Does it take such a long time to get back to normal after a thesis defence? It almost seems so.. Although, there have been webalbum updates. Those do count. Here is a list of some adventures: 

• I can't believe I didn't write about the Florida trip! This was my present to myself for being done: watching a space shuttle launch (STS 133), with my brother Daniel
• Spring in reverse: First Holland, then Sweden
• Summer in Toronto and elsewhere (with a bunch of visitors) - London, Windsor, Bruce Peninsula, Quebec, Palmyra, Girl's camp, Socorro, New York

Whether I'm actually back to normal or not, is another question, but I do have a reason to write! After a spring of trying to rest a bit, I ended up getting a job in the early summer, with a  start date of September 1st. This was good, because when you have a deadline at which you know something good is going to end (spending summer in Toronto with David), you appreciate the time so much more. 

So, the job! It's a postdoc (which is a weird sensation - I'm actually at that point in life? finally?), and the project I'll be working on is pretty awesome! Observing halo radio emission in edge-on galaxies. It's called CHANG-ES (Continuum halos in nearby galaxies - an EVLA survey). My new supervisor is the PI (principal investigator) of the project, and many astronomers from all over the world are part of the CHANG-ES consortium. 

EVLA is the keyword here - it is the newly enhanced VLA observatory (I think E stands for expanded), which is located in New Mexico. 405 hours of observation time was granted to this project, and so, here I am as well. For a year. 

Yikes!

So I'm writing from Socorro, New Mexico, a little town everyone claims to be remote and isolated. Well. I lived 6 years in Winnipeg. Isolation is a matter of perspective. And the nearest big city from here, Albuquerque, is only 1 hr and a bit away. Soon Albuquerque will host the world's biggest hot-air balloon meeting (October 1-9). YEY! (And I just visited one in St Jean sur Richelieu, in Quebec (photos to come)). Anyways, I don't think the isolation will be that much of a problem. David will come often to visit, and I will go to Toronto every now and then as well. And there are mountains. And a HUGE observatory. And loads of astronomers. And, for this size of town, it seems like they are pretty good at coming up with diverse activities. The climate!!! Finally a warm place with short winters. And the FOOD! So far I've only had Sopaipillas with green chile (completely delicious), and some local yummy stuff at a fair with a rodeo, but it's certainly very promising so far. One of my goals of this year will  be to learn the New Mexican cuisine. 

Now for some photos of the surroundings (of course today, when I go out to take pictures, the weather is grey and dull): 

The guesthouse with the courtyard in the middle. A very cute fox often hides under the planks. My room is in the corner straight ahead. The kitchen is on the left (not visible). 

Here's the cute fox! I hope I can catch a less fuzzy version at some point...  

This is a corner of the NRAO building and the view. The building is in a Y-shape (like the EVLA array) 

This is my cubicle. It's on the edge of one of the tips of the Y-shape, so I'm sitting diagonally. And I love the view (usually the weather isn't grey, like today...) 

Hard to take good photos of the rodeo in the dusk light. 

And... I just had to add this one... Awesome photo taken by Sandra, after an awesome good bye lunch just before I left. 

A new year with new chances

This is one  of the most new-yearish new years I've experienced. Defending the thesis and having that DONE, is (albeit still unreal) quite the change in my life. So, this is a year I have great hopes for! And here are a few of the things I'd like to do, as soon as I come home to Toronto:

• Visit the library and read LOADS of books. 
• Put up a shelf for the microwave oven :) 
• Paint a painting of Groot genoeg. And of birds. And of anything really. 
• Make a photo album of the past year (uhm, and the years before that, all the way back to 2004... But one step at a time, I guess....)
• Search for jobs
• Make awesome food... 
• Spend lots of time with the Hobbit-birdies Merry & Pippin (I haven't seen them for soon a month...)
• Start crocheting! I have crazy plans of making a bedspread. But again, should probably start with smaller steps. 
• Just exist, with all what that entails - have a little bit of a social life again, and lots of communication with family

And until then, while in Sweden - enjoy life to the fullest! Which is, of course, with my wonderful family members.

~~~~~

A little bit more than a week later (when I actually post this post), I've returned to Toronto. The first day after my return, we went to the library and I got a library card, and happily discovered that the Canadian library system (well, at least the one in Toronto) is exactly as awesome as the one in Sweden. I borrowed a few books and started reading one. And then it hit. Post-thesis stress or something of that kind. The symptoms are as unpleasant as the symptoms of the week before the defence (i.e. major stress). But then I could at least work (and work I did, seemingly neverendingly, and it did pay off, since everything I worked on was covered during the defence questions), and now it's hard to do anything at all. Apparently this is fairly normal, and so I hope a bit of vacation will cure it. But it is annoying - finally this time has arrived, which I've longed for for so many years, and I can't even appreciate it.

Today was however another special day - my thesis was officially approved by the university, and can be found here. I wonder if that is going to make me believe it's real? I think I'm going to celebrate by watching a bunch of Stargate episodes.

Done?!?

Link to my supervisor's entry about my defense.
I have a bunch to report. But that'll have to do for now! :)

Submitted!

I submitted my thesis Monday morning. !!!!  It's been 3 days, and the realisation is just slowly sinking in. I'm enjoying being off and not worrying about the thesis - a very unfamiliar feeling. There is a growing worry about the defense of course, which I probably should start doing something about fairly soon (prep talk, study my large document in which I've collected potential defines questions).

But YEY!!! A strong worry about what to do about the future turned into calm yesterday as well. If the thought of following the path you're supposed to follow after a phd scares me half to death, and the thought of doing things that I would want to do fills me with calm and happy/excited anticipation of the future, there's got to be some kind of hint there telling you which would be the better way to go, right?

Since I moved to Toronto in the beginning of August, I've been working like crazy on the thesis, except for a week when my brother was visiting, and I got some sightseeing in then. On Tuesday, the day after my submission, I went downtown as a reward to myself, visited the Eaton centre, and walked around in the city, while David was doing simulator training (I got to see the simulators - very cool machines!!). Toronto is really great. A downtown where you can walk, enjoy, see the shadow side of nice "old" buildings being lit up by the reflection of the beautiful sunset in the neighbouring high glass buildings, follow the stream of people going home from work to the union station, take the GO train home in just 20 minutes. I love the GO train. It's rather Dutch except for the diesel engine, which is massive and crazy loud (but rather cool). I saw the most beautiful sunset from its second floor as I went home. The sun sets really quickly this far south! Just a matter of seconds! 

Today is remembrance day, and my mother's birthday, and I don't think I've ever experienced such a beautiful 11th of November before. David was off and we took a bike ride up along the little river, through the forest, discovered a new path, and then back again. The last trees are getting coloured leaves now (they seem to take turns here - starting in September - I don't know if it's the norm, but the autumn really was amazing).  The sun still burns my face. In November!!! 

We also changed our number plates on the car today. Funny how such a seemingly insignificant thing makes such a difference in the feeling of where you belong. We need a new Holland sticker though, the old one is fading. The Sweden sticker is fine :) 

Having fun with my wonderful camera. This is one of my favourites!

David's parents visited for a week - during some of the best autumn colours

The birds are preparing to go south

I'm so relieved!!!