Scotland is greyt

This past weekend I did some things which I can do in Kenya (lay around in bed; overheard conversations that at first seemed like a language I don't know and then turned out to be English) some things which I maybe can do in Kenya (saw The King's Speech with Brits that didn't know it was about Elizabeth II's father; went shopping and had to deal with huge crowds of people; watched Scotland vs Wales Rugby at a pub), and some things which I definitely can't do in Kenya (stream TV shows over the internet; take the bus from right in front of my house directly to the Royal Botanic Gardens!)

The view of Edinburgh from the Royal Botanic Gardens.

It was great but I did spend more time than usual by myself and I miss all my friends in Kenya. Being somewhere for only a month when everyone else lives there permanently isn't the best way to meet people, especially when there isn't a community of expats that you automatically join by being obviously foreign. Plus my flatmate Amy was busy because her boyfriend was visiting from some only slightly distant place.

On the other hand, I am really enjoying working here, the people are great and focusing on data and programming is a fun change: I did some productive internet stalking to find a guy who may or may not have developed a mobile phone based diagnostic support tool (he agreed to send me more details but hasn't yet), remembered how much I enjoy applied math, and applied said applied math through some R codes.

On the other other hand, I keep forgetting to put on my coat before going outside...

Wienerconference

Hello again! It's a beautiful day in Edinburgh, and I'm sitting at Roslin, overhearing conversation about research on chicken breeds. I contemplated working from home since none of my people are actually at Roslin today, but I realiSed that having a place to GO to actually makes the day feel more productive. Although maybe it's not, since I'm clearly writing a blog post instead of R code.

Yesterday I gave a presentation for the Epigroup meeting at King's Buildings, which is one of the other University of Edinburgh campuses, and I got to meet a lot of evolutionary biologists at tea time. I tried to convince them that I know something about evolutionary biology since it was half of my major but it's not really true. Oh well. The tea break was held in a room called the "Darwin Dance Hall," so that's amazing. But anyway, continuing to move backwards in time, this past weekend (Friday to Monday) I was in Vienna for the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance, with my buddy Dr. Jo. I presented two posters and she did a talk and we ate a lot of falafel instead of not-delicious traditional Austrian veggie options and it was super fun - story in pictures below. Since the internet works here!!!

1) Vienna is amazing. They have an ice rink which they call Wiener Eistroum which sadly we didn't get to skate on because they were zamboni-ing. It's got cool long narrow pathways and is not just a regular oval rink.

2) I don't know why I'm numbering these because they are very out of order. We had dinner with a friend of a friend of a friend's friends at an AMAZING Pakistani buffet place where you pay as much as you want to!!! Plus the veggie options were amazing and all vegan.

3) We also went out for some famous Viennese cake and late night coffee at an awesome packed coffee house with an awesome atmosphere.

4) Every night we walked back to our budget, non-conference hosting hotel past this ridiculous building with a crazy lit up ceiling. Still don't know what it is.

5) Eventually, I remembered to take out my camera when it was light out. This building is covered in scaffolding that is printed with an image of the building. CLEVER.

6) Flying out of Bratislava I was reminded about ONE HEALTH. Hoorah. Speaking of flying, I am very proud of my success at smuggling a 4 foot long poster tube in addition to my carry-on bag onto both Easyjet AND Ryanair. On the second flight I was aided by the incredibly long coat of an American that I randomly met while waiting for the bus in Bratislava.

7) Bratislava has a cool changing of the guard thing going. This was before I went to the airport. (I took a train from Vienna to Bratislava to get a direct flight back to Edinburgh. Sadly the high-speed catamaran ride up the Danube wasn't running at convenient times.)

8) Bratislava is not as clean as Vienna. It felt fairly depressed. But on the other hand I spend less than 5 Euros on a meal of the most amazing sandwich ever plus a decent sized glass of incredibly delicious fresh squeezed orange juice at a cafe called Tri-sty-ri which had a bookshelf with a door hidden in it. So overall a good experience. Slovakia: CHECK!

Vitamin D

I don't have much to say about life other than that since getting back from my visit to the US I've started missing things like fast internet and being able to drive myself around. Exactly one week from now I will be in the UK, and so the internet problem will be solved. Unfortunately the trip also means giving up sunshine and blue skies for quite a while. But, when you have the internet, you never need to go outside, right?

In terms of the project, I had a frustrating and depressing week last week trying to make things happen before I leave for Scotland next Monday, but Darryn pulled through in a Skype call and gave me just enough mentor encouragement to rekindle my optimism and help me get things done. So, reporting is starting up again this week, yay!

It is also necessary for me to post a picture of one of my favorite new puppies. Unfortunately, the internet just can't handle the picture uploading thing so you'll just have to make an assumption about her cuteness. In the comments, please debate about my puppy-acquiring aspiration. I'm pretty sure it won't be impossible for me to bring her back with me to the US in June.

wow fast internet

Just thinking how even though I'm home in NJ now, and the internet is super fast, I don't really feel like using it. Also been thinking about how lucky I am to live in Kenya. I wanted to find some pictures to convince you of that, but it's hard to express in pictures I guess. Come visit! I'll be back there Jan 8.


Those are impala on the side of the path.


Crater Lake, Naivasha.