6 years ago was 2004, and if I remember correctly that was the last week of my Master’s fieldwork in Greece with a good friend. The last week we mostly spend taking some last samples, laying on the beach, and packing up boxes and boxes of samples to send off to Amsterdam. We spend a day at the Greek institute with which our prof collaborated, they took us out for dinner, and then we had a couple of days to spend in Thessaloniki which I afterwards named the hidden city-trip of Europe. Wonderful cafes with lovely Greek coffee and ice cream, lots of good shops (we both bought some shoes), some nice museums and a fun area at the sea.
2005 I was doing my internship in Canada on Galiano Island. So again sampling and enjoying a beautiful landscape (and a lot of rain). Spending the weekends with my oma who was still going strong although being more crazy than ever. I recall this hike I wanted to do with some people from the university and she woke me up in the middle of the night saying I couldn’t go because this person in the Rockies had just been eaten by a bear and she would not let me go I had to ask my parents’ permission first and then call the police and explain my insane plan to go hiking. Something like that.
2006 first spring in Freiburg and my first blogging year, so I could determine exactly what I did that week, as far as I did something blog-worthy. This was shortly before the soccer world cup started in Germany, and I went to see the Brasilian team practice in Switzerland with Ricardo and Ludmila.
2007 Taking a break from the experiment in France to go hiking with Thomas and his Pentecostal Hiking friends. In the Alps. I called my blog post “Three seasons in four days – Hiking trip through the Swiss Alps”.
2008 I participated in the Photo-competition “Sustainable University” and someone won with a photo of a baby about which I was pretty pissed off for various reasons.
2009 Oh lord … Last year I was dealing with the fabulous four international students and their soil moisture project, and with the Diploma Student who didn’t know any statistics and hardly his own name. And the horrible thing is that I am right now doing these stats all over again for the trillionth time and trying to write up a short communication paper about it.
So I’ve come full circle. 6 years ago I was doing my own Master’s research, and now I am writing up data from the first thesis I supervised. Plus buying lots of furniture and houseware and preparing for yet another sampling trip. It is interesting to note that even though you lead a somewhat adventurous life, the same things keep coming back. Samples, rain and fun times with friends.
