A new start for the new year

While I generally focus on the lighter side of things, especially when it comes to the professional, work hasn't been so cheery over the past six months. I encountered a number of pretty serious issues when it came to the company I'd chosen, so Nicolas and I have decided to make a clean break for the new year, in a stronger and more dynamic market where my skillset will be properly remunerated. So, after spending all but a few months abroad since June '08—I can hardly believe I'm writing this—guess who's moving back Stateside? Yes, we've gone home for the holidays, and this time it's to stay.

Bye bye, Brighton!

Moving is hard work for kitties. Our little monsters have been camped out with Nicolas's mom since our highly adventurous overnight trip to France in mid-December—a story in itself. They're both booked to fly with me to the US on Jan. 5.

We rather blindly leapt into this decision to move Stateside only to be horrified by our eye-opening discoveries of the rights of US citizens to bring their foreign spouses into the US (or rather, the lack thereof). You see, Nicolas can't follow me. Since he has no means of obtaining a non-tourist visa to wait out the first 90+ days in the US before initiating his green card application, he has the complete the full procedure from abroad. Read: the full 9-12+ month procedure. And, for the cherry on top, he cannot even enter the US to visit me during this time. This means that I'll be working with an American-style vacation schedule (what, maybe 10 days per year??) and I somehow have to find a way to squeeze in as many trips to France as possible just to see my husband in 2018. (TransAtlantic weekends, anyone?) 2018's not looking so shiny from this side of the new year.

For now we've been trying to make the most of our holidays. First, we powered our way across the Northeast US, where we hit up Boston, NYC, and the suburbs of Philly/NJ in all of a week's time.

Nicolas's first trip to Boston, complete with a wild turkey siting in Harvard Square and a trip down my old dormitory hall, 5W, which is now sporting an awesome new cat Lego mural!

Nicolas not only survived but thrived at his first Repak/Aloia family Christmas. He was even this year's champion of the Cousins' Campout Cards Against Humanity showdown.

NY round two: somehow Nicolas and managed two trips to NYC in just one week, but we didn't really photograph the first.

We're in the midst of a very hectic week or so in Paris before we say our final pre-green-card-application goodbyes, hoping it won't be too long until we can start planning our next visit. (I swear, if we ever get around to going on that honeymoon we'd planned, it will be more than well-deserved!) At least you can't say our life is boring. Although these days, we often wish it would be!

And as for where I'll land, there are a few exciting leads to follow up on during the first week of January, but for now I'll keep that up my sleeve. As we've wrapped up our lives Left of the Rabbit Hole, stay tuned for future adventures at my latest blog: An Expat Homecoming.

Happy New Year!

Science & engineering in the capital of fashion

Install number two came with a bit more glamor, and a lot more independence. And I even got to break out my very rusty Italian skills. This time I jetted off to Milan on my own to build a two-photon microscope as I saw fit, and did I ever.

A beautifully compact two-photon imaging system, built and aligned by yours truly.

In Italy, church and state are never too far apart. This is a peek inside the San Raffaele Hospital and Medical Research Campus, home to this week's install. Honestly, I think the "Cathedral to Science," as I'm calling it, is stunning.

After crushing it on long days Monday and Tuesday, we had a fully functioning microscope by Wednesday morning. With three full days of the install week to image every fluorescent sample we could get our hands on, there was more than enough time to fully train our customers. And with my colleague landing on Thursday morning to answer every intricate question they could have on imaging software functionality, I was able to engineer my escape before sundown on Wednesday to hit up some tourist attractions. Lacking any originality, I beelined for the duomo, the world's second largest Catholic cathedral, which bows only to the Vatican's St. Peter's. 

Il Duomo, a centerpiece of Milan that took only a mere 582 years to build.

Having checked that off the list, I found myself floundering. What else are you exactly supposed to do or see in Milan? With the TripAdvisor app acting up, my mind turned to Italy's number one resource: gelato. But I couldn't even follow the 0.3 mile route to a well-rated gelateria before stumbling across a site my tastebuds wouldn't let me pass up: Cioccolati Italiani. With streams of chocolate flowing down the window front and Russian doll desserts of nutella-stuffed-crepe-stuffed-cones calling to me from colorful banners, my feet made the decision for me. And of course, where better to enjoy a creamy Italian treat in the heart of the capital of fashion than in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, in front of the window displays of Gucci, Prada, Armani, and Louis Vuitton??

Gucci and Prada and Vuitton, oh my!

The cold and rain got the better of me, but not without my enjoying some creative Italian window displays en route back to the hotel. 

Some highlights from the windows of Milan's shopping district.

And the evening wasn't complete without a solid game of find-the-smallest-Italian-"car." 

Top 3 contestants in the competition for dinkiest Italian car.

But while I couldn't devote the week to tourism, I didn't deny myself the luxury of Italian cuisine, with a little help from my handy app The Fork, whose free discounts let me stretch the company dinner budget to include a nightly glass of wine and a dessert.

Snippets from a week of culinary fantasy, made possible much in part thanks to my lovely app TheFork, which let me stretch that company food budget to a week of three-course delights. Top find: Cantine Milano, highly recommended.

While I was eager to get my butt home to my husband and our furry feline monsters, I couldn't help but feel a bit of heartbreak over saying arrivederci once again to one of my absolute favorite countries. Hope to see you (and taste your delicious gelati) again soon!

Why did I ever leave this country??

A new set of wheels

Having accepted the fact that I will never be comfortable driving a manual (after several months of trying to convince myself otherwise), and not being willing to commit to a winter full of cold and dark bus stations for public transport that literally runs hours behind schedule, it was high time to bite the bullet, shake every last penny out of the piggy bank, and find myself a more suitable vehicle for the daily commute. And did I ever! After being inspired by a painfully cute Little Tikes themed car parked just aside the Uckfield bus station, I narrowed my car shopping targets.

How adorable is this Little Tikes Smart Car?

Sadly, the Little Tikes Smart Car was not to be. But look what a cutie I've landed! I am back on the left side of the road and terrified for my life going strong.

Now we just have to sort out how to get that silly manual Ford Fiesta off our hands, and hopefully a bit of something back into the bank account...

A new scope and some old friends

Finally, a mere two months after my last eventful business trip, I yet again took to the skies for Scientifica. My destination: the Gateway City.

Nelly the Neuron and I made it to St. Louis!

This week's adventure was just as eventful, if quite different, from the last. Specifically, there was a fair bit of head banging and time on hold with customs. It certainly didn't lend itself to an easy or particularly fruitful install to be missing some key parts until Friday at lunch time.

After five days and many fights with customs, here we have our nearly fully functioning two-photon system...

Thank goodness each install day was punctuated with a friendly face at lunchtime: Sylvia, one of my oldest friends, and her husband have just moved out to Saint Louis a few months ago. And as luck would have it, my install was scheduled just a few buildings over from where she spends her days post-doc'ing. I'm proud to say I got to be one of Sylvia and Peter's very first visitors, albeit a somewhat distracted and busy one.

By the time Nelly the Neuron and I escaped lab after 9pm on Friday evening, these beers at the 4 Hands Brewery with Sylvia and Peter were well earned.

Luckily, my flight didn't leave until Saturday afternoon, which left us a few precious hours to power-tour their new hometown. It's surprisingly empty, but overall a cute little place. Missouri: check. States-visited count now stands at 22. Perhaps I need to look into spending a bit more time venturing back home? All in good time. 😉

Sylvia and me, about 20 years after becoming friends. It's certainly a plus of my itinerant lifestyle to have friends scattered all over the globe, just waiting to catch up when the winds blow us back together.

And so it begins

Wait for it... drum roll... after two months of itching, I finally jetted off for my first business trip as a Scientifica engineer. Woohoo! Of course, it wasn't all fun and games. There was company politics, more than I'd expected, and professional niceties, and the weird pleasure of being in my familiar spaces in a totally different capacity. To be enveloped in the dark, with only the glow of highly magnified neurons seeping off a monitor, chatting science, enjoying the highlights of my old world, all the while knowing that I would be leaving the grunt work of actual research to some other poor soul: what a thrill. I think you can say this is the job for me.

And then came Friday afternoon. Sure, there was the 6pm flight home. But there was also a 9:30pm departure. And who could hold me back from a few hours out in the town, finally getting to see the place where I'd been planted for the past half week? This time it was Frankfurt, which has been described to me as "the Canary Wharf of Germany." It's basically one giant finance center, but since this is Europe, even giant finance centers have the historic old town to be explored. And I wasn't alone: this was Nelly the Neuron's maiden voyage too. Yes, we have a new team mascot. (And yes, I made its hat.)

Painting the town purple with Nelly the Neuron on our first Scientifica trip at Goethe University in Frankfurt

Sight-seeing in Frankfurt in between the storms: the Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew, Paulsplatz, Stern Kaffee, and the historic old town

A happy customer, a freshly functioning microscope, and a touristed Emilienne: I think we can count my first business trip as an overall success.

Day 2

That's right, yesterday was a big one: I finally ended my nearly half-year stretch of being a kept woman. Last week, a certain letter from the Home Office was warmly welcomed into our lives, and work papers were rapidly assembled. Now I've got my 9-5, and I certainly can't complain about the first twenty minutes of my daily commute.

The first twenty minutes of my commute, biking along the sea front and then waiting at the bus stop at Old Steine, just outside the Royal Pavilion

The next three and a half hours of commuting, on the other hand, I could do without. Let's just say that car ownership is very much in the works.

Good news!

After months of searching, traveling, and sending CVs into the abyss, my job hunt has officially come to an end, and not a moment too soon, just before we dive into full-on wedding mode. This week, I didn't get one but two job offers. And while one of them had been a long time coming, more than two months after beginning the interview process, the other, which I've decided to go with, feels like it magically materialized only a couple of weeks ago. I'm proud to say that I have accepted an offer, and I will be joining Scientifica as a Test & Installation Engineer. 

There's a lot to be excited about here. Scientifica is a company that designs microscopy and electrophysiology equipment for neuroscientists, people doing exactly the sort of work that I've done for most of the past decade. But what's more, I was always the neuroscientist in lab tinkering with the optics. (Thank you, MIT Engineering!) As a postdoc back in Denmark, I actually worked on Scientifica equipment, the same sort of stuff I will now be installing worldwide. This position draws absurdly well on all the aspects of my academic training, both the biology and the optics, while still offering a major pro of consulting: constantly meeting new people and learning new things at a fast-pace, only now it'll be learning about new neuroscience research topics and equipment needs, rather than the travails of stocking grocery store shelves.

And did I mention that Scientifca's headquarters are only a 30 minute drive from Brighton? That's right, guess who isn't moving after all?? How amazing is that, this highly specialized company known and respected throughout the international neuro community, nestled right outside my favorite English city without my even realizing! And I won't just be trapped in a suburban office: every other week I'll be traveling internationally, anywhere from Paris to Cali to China (but often with less glamor: think Detroit). Time to invest in some melatonin and a sleep mask. I am in for one exciting professional ride!