Life is sweet

It has been a crazy week with many pleasant surprises

My collaborators left today after a productive and fun week with lots of work but also lots of eating out and lots of talking about work and life. Last night we went out to celebrate that we submitted the final, revised version of our research proposal. We had drinks and strange coffee and christmas-ey food and laughed a lot and I realised that I am lucky to work with such nice people.

My students handed in their research projects today and they look really good. I have yet to read them of course, but I know that most of them have done a lot of good work and put a lot of effort into this and I am actually looking forward to read the reports. When I think about how much they have "grown" and learned since I met them for the first time this summer and realize what they are capable of doing now, I am really proud of them.

I have accepted a temporary position as department head at my home institution starting from January 1st. It feels weird since I am very new and have only been there for a year in total, and to be honest it scares me quite a bit. But I am happy to be asked and I hope I can handle it. It will only be for half a year until the regular department head returns from sabattical, and then I will switch to the assistant department head position.

Today we had the first trial lecture for the open position here at the place where I am right now. It is for the position I am in temporarily at the moment, and the new hire will be responsible for the course I have been developing this semester. For a long time I was so jealous of the person who would get this job since I like it so much, and I didn't really want to go home to the research institute where I am working. But the candidate who was here today did so well, and I like her and think she will do an excellent job, and I can definitely see myself handing this to her without too much regret. A part of me still wish I had applied for the position, but I haven't and I am beginning to look forward to return home.

It looks like it is all coming together in a really good way.