Coming up next in Herdis's life:

Internship with Shell Oil in Houston!!

Yes, for those of you who did not fall of your chairs when reading this (or who have already managed to crawl up into your seats again): I, the tree hugger, the environmentalist, the general protester, I am going to work for Shell.

What happened? Well, I got an offer for a really nice internship (as in, really interesting science, or so it sounds) and after thinking about it for about... 1 minute... I decided to do it. The internship being quite well paid didn't hurt either, but was not the deciding factor. I simply figured it would be great to learn something new, get a glimpse of life as a professional, get to know a multinational company from the inside, meet new people and live in a different city. Can't hurt, can it?

I'm starting work on October 1st and will work for them until Christmas, more or less. I found a really nice place to live, with a really nice housemate, today. I'll have a car for the time that I'm there and maybe I'll get a chance to travel around a bit on the weekends.

After Houston, it's the Philippines again, with a possible stop-over in Hawaii. As I've said before, never a dull moment :)

But first things first. Erna, the recently published author of this article in the PNAS, is coming into Ithaca as we speak. She'll stay with us until Sunday. She's never seen Ithaca in the summer (well, late summer) before and I can't wait to show her around... and have some Ópalsnafs with her :)

Europe, part 4

I also had a few glasses of white with my bosom buddies Hallveig and Stína. Aren't they gorgeous??

Europe, part 3

A nostalgic visit to the library of my old high school and a connection between Íþaka and Ithaca:

Europe, part 2

Stína and her sushi boat:



and Erna's living room after a day or two of visiting Icelanders (and their shopping bags):

Europe, part 1

Yes, I do owe you all some juicy bits from Europe. Actually, Stína has done a fantastic job on her blog telling about the Austria part. *sigh*, I miss the Vienna days and my fantastic friends there...

Let's take a look at the Schloss Schönbrunn. Stína and I went for the imperial tour of the premises while Erna Ýr and Íris went shoe shopping. Not that I would have minded shoe shopping at all...

The front of the castle:



and the back of the castle:



The Habsburgers didn't exactly rough it, did they?

Early dinner in Frankfurt

The original,

at the Sacher Cafe, Vienna.

Cologne cathedral

More soon

An idle day in Cologne

Instead of seeing Laacher See on a geological excursion today, I went to see an exhibition about Christian Dior and Germany at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst. It was excellent. I want that rust-red evening dress that Marlene Dietrich once had!

Irr...rrrr....rrrr....itated

Please remember that I prolonged my stay in Europe by a week due to the American embassy in Reykjavik not having any available interview slots during the week I originally planned to be in Iceland. Now, it is not an altogether horrible thing to spend an extra week in Europe. It does have its undeniable benefits. It is, however, also entirely perceivable that this would not be the case.

You can therefore imagine my surprise when I booked my interview today. They had lots... let me repeat this... LOTS... of openings during the week that I will spend in Europe, waiting for an available interview slot at the embassy.

Now, please join me in sincere irritation. And trust me, I plan to yell at a certain receptionist when I get the chance.

Conference - day II

Well, guess what. I already gave my talk!

It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Everybody in the room heard me. I stayed within time limits. My throat was dry towards the end, but that's manageable. At the end there was time for only one question from the audience, and the question I got was one that I had actually researched and found a pretty cool answer to. An altogether encouraging experience.

Talk talk talk - undubbed

I am in Köln. Or Cologne, as my boyfriend's compatriots like to call it.

Ich bin in Köln. Dass heisst, Cologne, wie es die Landesgenossen meines Freundes nennen möchten.

See! I can still speak German (or something akin to German). Hah!

For your edification, I am inserting a slide from my upcoming talk at the awesome schmawsome conference:



Now don't complain that you have no idea what I'm trying to tell you - just go and find out!

I forgot that all TV is dubbed in Germany. There is something decidedly odd about watching Buffy the vampire slayer in German.

Wondering why I'm watching TV? Well, I'm practicing my talk in the hotel room, and assuming my neighbors aren't interested in hearing the talk ten times, I'm trying to drown out my voice with the TV. Which is why I'm listening to the King of Queens having a fight with his wife in German right now. Sigh.

Crappy

These last three days haven't been good. At all. Wednesday the headache started and since I didn't knock it out right away with some ibuprofen it grew to astronomical proportions, rendering me totally incapable of working until now. In fact, I almost didn't sleep at all for the last two nights. This morning I called up the doctor and was sent home with a bag full of prescription painkillers. Those fortunately allowed me to sleep for 6 hours straight, but now my back hurts instead of the head. And my stomach is a total mess, not having seen a regular meal in three days. The joy. And all this just as I was supposed to be composing my talk for the Goldschmidt conference. Yikes.

The dates

Arriving on the 3rd of September, leaving on the 10th. Homeless in Central Europe for the preceding week.

Something's in the air

Ah, bless the 'Mercan Embassy in Reykjavik. They are apparently so swamped with visa applications these days that one has to wait over a month to get an interview. And nowhere does it say so on their website. (And even if it did, I would still have a problem since it didn't become clear that I would have to change visas until last week). Therefore, after a conversation with a seemingly rather overworked but ultimately very friendly receptionist at the embassy, the verdict is that I have to push back my visit to Iceland by a week or so. That is of course monetarily not very convenient, but the pecuniary inconvenience is probably more than made up for by the fact that luvely people I know who won't be around in late August, such as my friend Stina, will be in town, and I'll be around to give my dad a happy b-day hug. Nicht schlecht.

Which reminds me. The conference is looming large on the horizon. Better get some work done!

Breeze

This morning there was the slightest breeze as I walked to school. A most welcome change from the stifling heat and humidity that has been enveloping us these past weeks.

Moi, The Dreamer

A new blog

No more knitting stuff here on this site. Nay, for that I created an all-new knit blog, knitting hurricanes.

Þór

Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-

... well, I actually LOVE thunderbolts and lightning - which is why I'm happy as pie now :)

Progress

Still knitting the baby cardigan. The progress over a week is recorded in these two pix; old on the left, new on the right.

Here's what the whole thing looks like right now. Cute, innit?