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!