And it is a hassle! Half the city is closed down, in order for a few ministers to be able to drive through... Poor Fedor nearly arrived late to work yesterday after ending up on the wrong side of the road and not being allowed to cross the road for ten minutes! Anyway, they should be leaving today, so I hope thing will get back to normal.
Oh, and guess who else was in town? The Queen!!! But since it was raining a lot this week, most of her programme went down the drain (haha). I am enjoying the Schadenfreude, because Fedor and I had wanted to go the official reception at the Embassy, but there was a lottery and we lost. So I am happy she got rained on! Anyway, that is not going to stop us from going to the Queen's Day Reception of course, because who can say no to free booze and Dutch snacks? Particularly because, for the first time, I actually received an invitation without having to ask for one: they sent it to me without prompting! I am particularly looking forward to the oysters and the fresh stroopwafels.
Anyway, before that is happening (in 2 weeks), we still have two more weekends, full of family! This weekend, Fedor's father is coming and next weekend we are going to have my parents, as well as Fedor's mum (+man). So lots of fun is going to be had!
For the rest, this week has been fairly quiet. Lots of worries about the new management possibly wanting to close the department, which causes some anxieties among my colleagues, but the danger seems to be waning now... I have been sending out a bunch of applications again as well on four different continents, so let's see whether anything comes from it. The problem with many of these applications is that the recruiting periods are incredibly long. I mean, the World Bank's YPP and the EU recruitment both have cycled of about 12-15 months, which is simply crazy, but even many other jobs take months to decide anything! Oh well, like I always say: let's wait and see!!!
Tschüßi,
OJ
Friday, April 15, 2011
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Weeeeeeeekend!
And it's nice and sunny! So: life is good... :-)
The past week was the week of the final policy workshop of my main project, and it was great! We had about 25 people there, including representatives from the German parliament, the World Bank and a bunch of Embassies. It was a good way of getting some policy feedback regarding our results and we were shown lots of appreciation (it was also a big ego boost, which is pretty cool). After that, I took a few hours of on Tuesday morning, because I was absolutely exhausted: the workshop was stressful, we're having some debate on a different policy report, which was also very stressful and Fedor's brothers were visiting last weekend, which wasn't so much stressful, but quite alcohol-infused.
This weekend, on the other hand, is visitor-free. So we took the opportunity to go drinking with friends yesterday, will do so again today and tomorrow. Enjoying the weather, doing groceries, finishing the tax forms and all that boring stuff. But that is fine, because we ARE boring...
Anyway, in other news: I do not have a new job yet! But I am sending out lots of applications, so I have some hope that I will soon have some news to tell you. Oh, at least there has been some other good news: my publication in the Journal of Development Studies came out (it was accepted last year, but there is always a lag before it gets published) and the German journal KYKLOS accepted another paper of mine. So good news all around!
Let's hope the coming week will bring more good news... :-)))
Tschüßi,
OJ
The past week was the week of the final policy workshop of my main project, and it was great! We had about 25 people there, including representatives from the German parliament, the World Bank and a bunch of Embassies. It was a good way of getting some policy feedback regarding our results and we were shown lots of appreciation (it was also a big ego boost, which is pretty cool). After that, I took a few hours of on Tuesday morning, because I was absolutely exhausted: the workshop was stressful, we're having some debate on a different policy report, which was also very stressful and Fedor's brothers were visiting last weekend, which wasn't so much stressful, but quite alcohol-infused.
This weekend, on the other hand, is visitor-free. So we took the opportunity to go drinking with friends yesterday, will do so again today and tomorrow. Enjoying the weather, doing groceries, finishing the tax forms and all that boring stuff. But that is fine, because we ARE boring...
Anyway, in other news: I do not have a new job yet! But I am sending out lots of applications, so I have some hope that I will soon have some news to tell you. Oh, at least there has been some other good news: my publication in the Journal of Development Studies came out (it was accepted last year, but there is always a lag before it gets published) and the German journal KYKLOS accepted another paper of mine. So good news all around!
Let's hope the coming week will bring more good news... :-)))
Tschüßi,
OJ
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