Monday, June 21, 2010

Australia Update

When I took this gig back in February, I had a six month employment contract and a temporary work visa that expired in 2010, but I did have the notion that if things were going well, I would try to extend my stay. Anyone who works in science knows that six months isn't enough time to complete a project, especially if you want to get a publication out of it. The new job has been a great fir for me, both career and personality-wise, and after the long and painful grad school experience, it feels very refreshing to actually enjoy science again. And yeah, aside from the work stuff, I'm quite happy with pretty much everything at the moment. So, a couple of months go my supervisor and I had little discussion about my plans and it became clear that I wanted to stay longer and she wanted me to stay longer. The wheels were set in motion, and I ended up getting some internal funding for my current project plus a new one (both related to bacterial pneumonia, for you nerdlings out there), which led to a contract extension and a new visa application. It was approved last week and is good through the end of 2011, so it looks like I'll be staying down under until next December.
Fret not, Bostonians, I'll be back to visit, most likely next spring or early summer. And just in case you're considering vacationing in Australia, visitors are welcome!

New blog posts 3 days in a row- it may be a 2010 record!

6 comments:

Kris said...

FANTASTIC NEWS, RT! Congrats! :)

eileen said...

thanks!!

beth said...

very happy for you, and so glad that everything is falling into place!!! This does slightly increase my chances of visiting, but only from about 0.5% to 1%. Damn kids

J.R. said...

Congrats Eileen! I also liked that last pitch at the end to get people to visit. You've officially become Australian when you're begging people to visit you in your island paradise stuck in the farthest away corner of the world.

Anonymous said...

I just imagine the psychic german soccer fan octopus predicting the future for you: Australian choral waters over cold cape code? I think is obvious.

I am very glad for you and me because I really want to save for a trip to visit you
Caro

ek said...

I am coming for xmas. The spiral can spin without me this year!